Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Announced, Release Date Scheduled for June 2026

[Parmandur]

The goal isn’t to be perfect. It’s to be good enough.

Right and it works because D&D is a pretty forgiving system that can take a lot.

 

[GarrettKP]

Last off topic post I’ll make, but there’s little to no chance the Champions book is Dragonlance or a Martial Champions book.

They held the announcement back for a later reveal. Likely at something like GaryCon or maybe even GenCon. That means they think it’s a big announcement that would generate buzz, and was worth giving its own platform. Dragonlance is cool, but it isn’t one of their biggest settings.

Their big 5 settings have, for the past two decades, been Faerun, Ravenloft, Eberron, Planescape, and Dark Sun. Only one of those hasn’t seen a release in the 5e era.

I fully expect the December book announcement to be Dark Sun. We’ve seen it tested in UA multiple times, they refreshed their trademarks on the product, and it fits the more setting forward approach that both late 5e and early 5.5e have taken.

 

[Kurotowa]

As has been mentioned, Public playtesting is made for (mostly) free market research and to get the general “yes or no” vibe to big ideas. The more nuanced feedback comes from private playtesters, because it’s easier to process the notes of 20 people on the 100+ spells they are testing than it would be for them to comb through the hundreds of UA responses.

Indeed. With private, official playtesting they have a clear idea of what conditions it was playtested under, and know the data is reliable. With public submissions, they have no idea what scenario you put it through. They have no idea if you misread or misunderstood the material. They have no idea if you're fibbing about having playtested it and are just going off a cold read and vibes.

Nothing about anonymous public feedback is hard data. That's why it's only good for general trends and a vibe check.

 

[Remathilis]

Last off topic post I’ll make, but there’s little to no chance the Champions book is Dragonlance or a Martial Champions book.

They held the announcement back for a later reveal. Likely at something like GaryCon or maybe even GenCon. That means they think it’s a big announcement that would generate buzz, and was worth giving its own platform. Dragonlance is cool, but it isn’t one of their biggest settings.

Their big 5 settings have, for the past two decades, been Faerun, Ravenloft, Eberron, Planescape, and Dark Sun. Only one of those hasn’t seen a release in the 5e era.

I fully expect the December book announcement to be Dark Sun. We’ve seen it tested in UA multiple times, they refreshed their trademarks on the product, and it fits the more setting forward approach that both late 5e and early 5.5e have taken.

Piggybacking off this, the reason they are holding off on announcing DS currently is that they are going to make it a BIG DEAL kind of announcement. It's introducing the 15th official class into the game. They are bringing back the last major Classic setting. And I think they a.) want this to be a huge event on it's own and b.) didn't want it overshadowing Ravenloft and Arcana Unleashed. They are going to make a huge marketing push out of this in the end of the year.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sure they will make a big deal announcement of DS. Which is yet another reason it’s not a season of champions.

 

[GarrettKP]

Piggybacking off this, the reason they are holding off on announcing DS currently is that they are going to make it a BIG DEAL kind of announcement. It's introducing the 15th official class into the game. They are bringing back the last major Classic setting. And I think they a.) want this to be a huge event on it's own and b.) didn't want it overshadowing Ravenloft and Arcana Unleashed. They are going to make a huge marketing push out of this in the end of the year.

Exactly! If it isn’t Dark Sun, then this is a major Marketing blunder to me. The only possible book that would warrant the same treatment is a fully revised Tasha’s and Xanathar’s book but I don’t think that’s happening anymore.

 

[GarrettKP]

Sure they will make a big deal announcement of DS. Which is yet another reason it’s not a season of champions.

Care to explain this thought process? I see no reason a “Champions of Athas” book wouldn’t fit the season concept.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Care to explain this thought process? I see no reason a “Champions of Athas” book wouldn’t fit the season concept.

Dark Sun isn’t about champions and heroes, the whole point is it is not heroic fantasy.

Besides that, they are not going to prefigure a big deal announcement with a lame-ass pseudonym when they have already leaked that it’s on its way. They will announce it when they are ready to make a big deal of it.

 

[GarrettKP]

Dark Sun isn’t about champions and heroes, the whole point is it is not heroic fantasy.

Besides that, they are not going to prefigure a big deal announcement with a lame-ass pseudonym when they have already leaked that it’s on its way. They will announce it when they are ready to make a big deal of it.

The seasons are pseudonyms, they are overarching banners for a quarter. That includes the main book, and all the other products that release in that space.

And while Dark Sun isn’t a heroic fantasy setting, that doesn’t preclude them from using the phrase “Champions” in relation to the setting. Often times gladiators are referred to as “champions” when their oppressors want to glorify their captivity or to disconnect the horrors of their position with their games in the eyes of the public.

Of course, there are ways to use the Champion term for Dark Sun that don’t even focus on the PCs, such as with the Champions of Rajaat. In fact, a book titled “Champions of Athas” could refer to multiple different things, including PCs as gladiatorial champions, the Sorcerer-Kings as with the Champions of Rajaat, and so on.

Nothing about the word Champion is antithetical of the setting.

 

[mamba]

Last off topic post I’ll make, but there’s little to no chance the Champions book is Dragonlance or a Martial Champions book.

I doubt it is DL, but not for your reasons

They held the announcement back for a later reveal. Likely at something like GaryCon or maybe even GenCon. That means they think it’s a big announcement that would generate buzz

they held it back so the buzz is closer to the release date rather than now and by the time it actually arrives no one is talking about it

Their big 5 settings have, for the past two decades, been Faerun, Ravenloft, Eberron, Planescape, and Dark Sun. Only one of those hasn’t seen a release in the 5e era.

pretty arbitrary timeline, I grant you FR and Eberron for those years.

Planescape had one release, just like DL, and I am not sure it did any better. Dark Sun was a blip under 4e that everyone forgot about by now. Ravenloft had two releases, its saving grace is that the adventure is pretty popular.

I still think Dark Sun is much more likely than DL, due to the UAs we had, and because timing wise DL makes more sense in 2027/28 from a tie-in perspective (assuming that the DL announcement this year is about the TV series)