Ravenloft Novel Coming in 2025

Penguin Random House will publish a new novel set in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting of Ravenloft in 2025. A listing for an untitled Ravenloft novel has recently appeared on various book retailer websites, along with Penguin Random House's official website. No author was named in the listing, but a description for the book states that it will feature the infamous Count Strahd and potentially other Domains of Dread as well. The book will have a recommended retail price of $30 and will be released in April 2025.

Penguin Random House has upped their Dungeons & Dragons novel releases in recent years, with books set in the Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Forgotten Realms settings. While some books (such as the recently completed Dragonlance Destinies trilogy) have featured classic writers, other books have used contemporary fantasy authors and are geared more toward a mix of existing, new, and casual D&D fans. Some characters from the Fallback novels have also appeared in art slated for the 2024 Core Rulebook release. Given that we're getting more D&D novels, it seems this new line of licensed novels is a success for Penguin Random House.

You can check out the description of the new Ravenloft book below:

Journey to the Domains of Dread and face the fearsome Count Strahd von Zarovich in this upcoming official Dungeons & Dragons novel!

A group of adventurers must fight their way through a dark and twisted realm known as the Domains of Dread, where powerful darklords rule over worlds filled with supernatural horrors.

 

[TiQuinn]

Some of us made the leap from Dragonlance to Ravenloft because of that choice. For my money, even though I know the original writers disliked the choice, I think Soth thrived in Ravenloft and made Ravenloft a more complete setting

The thing with Soth in the Dragonlance books is while he clearly had Vader energy, he was never front and center as the primary villain. That was always Kitiara, Takhisis, Raistlin, etc. So when they moved him over to Ravenloft after carrying off Kitiara, that seemed a chance to make him the central focus of the story and his domain.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can't say an opinion about the market in USA but D&D arrived to Spain in the begining of 90, but then World of Darkness started to be published. In the second half of the 90 here in Spain WoD was the star in the TTRPG industry, until this was replaced with the new WoD or CoD. Then D&D was popular in the 3.5 age.

I can't tell about current Spanish market because only I buy D&D books in the comic shop where I live.

* This is not like in the 90, not only because Harry Potter, Twilight saga and "Song of Ice and Fire" (Games of Thrones) have changed radically the industry of fantasy literature, but also because there is a strong influence by the manganime subgenre of isekai.

* Lord Soth had got a lot of Darth Vader vibes, about the fallen knight.

One of the things that makes the dark lords even more monstrous is that they have their own chances for redemption, but they miserably reject them.

* Sam Raini's Army of Darkness is a good example of how epic fantasy, horror and comedy can work together.

* How would be the Phyrexians invading Duskmourn?

 

[M.L. Martin]

If only they hadn't ruined Lord Soth by putting him in Ravenloft! You don't put Darth Vader in the corner!

Moving Soth to Ravenloft was getting him out of the corner: Post-Legends Dragonlance was pretty much forbidden territory awaiting the hoped-for return of Weis & Hickman to the setting, and AIUI, the "Dargaard Keep" adventure in DL16 more or less wrote Soth out of the setting anyway. He got to do more in Ravenloft than he had in Krynn for years prior, or even would after his much-ballyhooed return. (Soth was supposed to have a much bigger role in the pre-Weis & Hickman and apparently the original-W&H versions of the War of Souls, but the story as it finally unfolded wound up relegating him to a single chapter in Dragons of a Vanished Moon.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I can't say an opinion about the market in USA but D&D arrived to Spain in the begining of 90, but then World of Darkness started to be published. In the second half of the 90 here in Spain WoD was the star in the TTRPG industry, until this was replaced with the new WoD or CoD. Then D&D was popular in the 3.5 age

Were these in Spanish or English?

 

[jayoungr]

Is the new novel by Christie Golden? She's written for Ravenloft in the past and recently left Blizzard.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Were these in Spanish or English?

Spanish languange. Even if I wanted the original editions because these aren't going to be translated, the distribution arrives only in capitals of provinces, not in smaller towns. I remember in the last year of 3.5, in 2008, I awaited Devir translated Dungeonscape, and then I lost my opportunity to buy the original when I was in a bigger city for a course.

But novels could arrive to no so-big cities, for example I bought my loved book of art about Dragonlance saga.

Novels can be sold in smaller cities where there aren't comic shops.

* If the writer feels happy and confotable with the franchise, although she didn't own the characterd created by her, and the sales are right, maybe she dares to writes a second novel, maybe creating her own dark domain.

* Why not any manga set in Ravenloft?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Spanish languange. Even if I wanted the original editions because these aren't going to be translated, the distribution arrives only in capitals of provinces, not in smaller towns. I remember in the last year of 3.5, in 2008, I awaited Devir translated Dungeonscape, and then I lost my opportunity to buy the original when I was in a bigger city for a course.

But novels could arrive to no so-big cities, for example I bought my loved book of art about Dragonlance saga.

Novels can be sold in smaller cities where there aren't comic shops.

* If the writer feels happy and confotable with the franchise, although she didn't own the characterd created by her, and the sales are right, maybe she dares to writes a second novel, maybe creating her own dark domain.

* Why not any manga set in Ravenloft?

True, novels are distributed much more widely than D&D rule books, which were only available through specialist retailers in major cities (at least here in the UK). I think one overlooked reason for the success of 5e was the game now being sold through high-street book sellers.

 

[Bedrockgames]

True, novels are distributed much more widely than D&D rule books, which were only available through specialist retailers in major cities (at least here in the UK). I think one overlooked reason for the success of 5e was the game now being sold through high-street book sellers.

Back in the 80s and 90s in the US, both the novels and the rulebooks were all in Walden Books quite regularly (there was a whole section devoted to TSR stuff, and the novels were often on a rack right at the front of the store). You also would get the rulebooks at hobby shops, comic shops, etc.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Back in the 80s and 90s in the US, both the novels and the rulebooks were all in Walden Books quite regularly (there was a whole section devoted to TSR stuff, and the novels were often on a rack right at the front of the store). You also would get the rulebooks at hobby shops, comic shops, etc.

Those were the days...I'd spend hours in the local Wardens perusing novels and gazebos alike.

 

[Alzrius]

Those were the days...I'd spend hours in the local Wardens perusing novels and gazebos alike.

I think it was back when I was a poor (as in, broke) college student that I read one of Dragonlance's "War of Souls" books from cover to cover right there in the bookstore where they were selling it, since I couldn't afford to buy it.