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.

 

[MGibster]

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.

You could purchase AD&D books through the Sears catalog un the early 1980s. But for a lot of us, we had to go to a specality shop to purchase D&D books though sometimes booksellers like B. Dalton or Waldenbooks at the mall carried a few books. I am pretty sure more people read D&D novels than purchased or played the game.

The only D&D books I read were the Ravenloft books published in the 1990s. I re-read I, Strahd a few years back before running Curse of Strahd. I, Strahd was decent and I enjoyed it even as an adult. I don't read a lot of fantasy books these days, but I'll probably check out a Ravenloft novel.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ravenloft had some pretty strong entries in D&D fiction, from what I recall. In a lot of ways they were so very different from the rest of the D&D fiction line. I remember the downbeat ending of Vampire of the Mist hitting me pretty hard.

From her Wikipedia "Some of her fantasy has been written under the name Lila Bowen. She has also written erotica as Ava Lovelace"

I'm suddenly a lot more interested.....

P.N. Elrod's I, Strahd could've been titled "Strahd Gets Laid," so that tracks.

 

[sevenbastard]

I, Strahd could've been titled "Strahd Gets Laid," so that tracks.

I mean 50 Shades of Grey started as Twilight Fan Fiction so the most popular modern erotica is basically Vampire based.

 

[MGibster]

The original I-6 Ravenloft module was all about Strahd trying to get some of that sweet, sweet lovin' from Tatyana (pictured right). Sexiness is just built right into the core of Ravenloft.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In the years when Twilight and supernatural romance was popular I wonder how could be one set in Ravenloft. I believe this still can be possible, but now it would be with some touchs of "action". Maybe the female MC is an aasimar with a crush toward a male shifter.

Now if aasimars are oficially a core PC specie.... how would be the life of aasimars in the demiplane of dread? Maybe they have to hide to be not hunted like in New Capenna to gather "halo".

* Could sapromneme or "ghost fungus" (Dragon #267) by hunted by carnivore predators or infected by undeads or theriantropes?

* A supernatural romance with a happy end in Ravenloft sounds very strange. Maybe the couple is together, but they feel sad for the friends and loved beings who were lost in the way, with a little touch of survivor fault.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I picked up the new PHB and for the examples of play, the first couple of them are explicitly taking place in Ravenloft. Between the book and that, I would assume that there's going to be more Ravenloft D&D material coming in the next few years.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I picked up the new PHB and for the examples of play, the first couple of them are explicitly taking place in Ravenloft. Between the book and that, I would assume that there's going to be more Ravenloft D&D material coming in the next few years.

In many ways, Ravenloft is the IP that most works for use in various media.

Even though it's another vampire-filled landscape, like Castlevania, Strahd is a distinct enough character that mentioning his name, even in passing, makes it clear that this a D&D world. I'd say that even Elminster and Drizzt today are less-known among the general public (and to be fair, Strahd is almost certainly less well known than Castlevania's Belmont family) than Strahd is.

And it's got more of a hook than the Forgotten Realms does which, by design, is a kitchen sink setting, which -- to a non-gamer -- makes it just like every other fantasy setting.

But it's not as weird and as hard to explain to non-gamers as Sigil.

If I were pushing a D&D setting as one to base future movies and TV shows on, Ravenloft is a really strong choice. You can do standard fantasy stuff but instead of fighting owlbears and mimics, it's vampires and werewolves, which everyone gets.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

The original I-6 Ravenloft module was all about Strahd trying to get some of that sweet, sweet lovin' from Tatyana (pictured right). Sexiness is just built right into the core of Ravenloft.

Yeah but the key fact is Strahd is never going to get her. He's the ultimate incel.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In many ways, Ravenloft is the IP that most works for use in various media.

Even though it's another vampire-filled landscape, like Castlevania, Strahd is a distinct enough character that mentioning his name, even in passing, makes it clear that this a D&D world. I'd say that even Elminster and Drizzt today are less-known among the general public (and to be fair, Strahd is almost certainly less well known than Castlevania's Belmont family) than Strahd is.

And it's got more of a hook than the Forgotten Realms does which, by design, is a kitchen sink setting, which -- to a non-gamer -- makes it just like every other fantasy setting.

But it's not as weird and as hard to explain to non-gamers as Sigil.

If I were pushing a D&D setting as one to base future movies and TV shows on, Ravenloft is a really strong choice. You can do standard fantasy stuff but instead of fighting owlbears and mimics, it's vampires and werewolves, which everyone gets.

All strong points there. I might point out that Ravenloft is also a bit of a kitchen sink setting, albeit one with a much tighter focus. And as you said, people can understand it easily. Everyone knows Dracula, and a lot of people know the aforementioned Castlevania.

 

[JLowder]

The market will probably bear it (with D&D being as popular as it is (relatively) so long as there's not the glut of books that helped kill TSR.

The novels did not "kill" TSR. The narrative that talks about all the book trade returns in the TSR warehouse at the time WotC bought the company fails to mention that the returns were caused not by lack of sales, but by TSR ending the distribution deal with Random House, one of a series of bad moves by upper management. RH returned everything they had in their distribution warehouses because they no longer had a deal with TSR to sell the product and they got money back for any unsold product they returned.

Yes, TSR released too many novels after 1994 or 1995, but they released too many of everything after that point, in part because they were desperate for big hits, in part because they were exploiting their distribution contract with Random House, which paid the company on ship, not sale. (And, again, when the ended the distribution deal with Random House, RH could return anything unsold for credit, expanding TSR's debt at the worst possible time.)

Overall, the novels were selling fine even to the end, not as strong as they had been back in 90 or 92, but steadily for many of the books. A lot of the novels that were returned would have sold eventually, unlike many of the game products, which tended to have a more limited sales window. The fiction tended to have a much longer sales "tail." I have a good sense of how the novels were selling in 96 and 97 because TSR still owed me and many of the other authors a lot of royalties in those last years--royalties WotC paid when they took over the company. (In fact, I still get royalties from Hasbro regularly for sales of my Realms and Ravenloft fiction, even 30+ years later.)