D&D 5E (2024) Ravenloft: The Horrors Within preorder page lists the book's contents

You can now pre-order preorder Ravenloft: The Horrors Within over on D&D Beyond--the ultimate bundle costs $149.99, while the book alone comes in at $59.00. There are pages for the new DM screen, map pack, and Tarokka cards as well. The pre-order page lists the book's contents.

• 16 Domains of Dread, including the new cosmic horror domain Innsmouth.
• 17 Darklords for your party to face or flee from, equipped with challenging stat blocks.
• 7 subclasses (including the new Reanimator and Hollow Warden), 4 species, 4 backgrounds, 2 Origin feats, and 9 Dark Gifts for building tortured protagonists.
• 10 genres of horror from gothic to dark fantasy.
• A bestiary of 41 monstrosities and 10 domain denizens for your party to encounter.
• 47 maps and 28 digital quickplay maps for Maps VTT.
• Digital Pre-order Bonus: the Mists of Ravenloft Digital Dice Set, Ravenloft Play-Along Pack, and D&D Encounters: Shadows of Sithicus mini-adventure.

Tonight, your party’s greatest nightmare... is the one you create.

Bring fear to the table with the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Ultimate Bundle, the complete horror toolkit with everything you need to create a personalized horror campaign – and strike fear into the hearts of your players.

The Ultimate Bundle includes:

• Physical and digital versions of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, containing 16 Domains of Dread, 17 Darklords, 7 subclasses, 4 species, 4 backgrounds, 11 feats, 68 monsters and 47 maps including 28 digital quickplay maps for Maps VTT.
• Physical Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Tarokka Deck for weaving terrifying twists into your campaign with 54 fully illustrated cards.
• Physical Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Dungeon Master’s Screen for keeping your plans enshrouded in mystery.
• Physical and digital versions of the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Map Pack for plotting out eerie encounters for your party.
• Digital Pre-order Bonus: the Mists of Ravenloft Digital Dice Set, Ravenloft Play-Along Pack, and D&D Encounters: Shadows of Sithicus mini-adventure.

 

[TravDoc42]

My bet is on leaving out Carnival, and maybe I'Cath and Bleutspur. Guessing Blutspur as it will be "replaced" with Innsmouth.

I sort of wish this would do the "Other" domains rather than rehash the ones we already got.

I have a feeling I'Cath would be one left out, and both the Carnival and Bluetspur also feel likely.

 

[TravDoc42]

Carnival is toast. It was basically just a teaser for Wild Beyond the Witchlight and, IMO, wasn't really a domain, more like an encounter that can appear in any domain -- and is may end up staying in the new book, just recategorized.

Yeah, that would make sense! 2e had the Carnival as an organization, so they could put it like that. The whole "sapient holy avenger sword is actually the Darklord" bit felt slightly half baked, too.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have a feeling I'Cath would be one left out, and both the Carnival and Bluetspur also feel likely.

If they were feeling really saucy, they could have Innsmouth grow on top of Bluetspur and the old domain could be a secret area below town for PCs to discover and old time Ravenloft fans to geek out about when they found it.

 

[TravDoc42]

The Foundry preview mentions this for the Bestiary aspect, unsure if this has been shared here!


A bestiary of 60+ Ravenloft creatures, including boneless, carrionettes, dullahans, mist horrors, necrichors, nightgaunts, and more.
Legendary Ravenloft figures and allies, including Ez d’Avenir, Madam Eva, Rudolph van Richten, and the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins.

Nightgaunts would fit Innsmouth well, and it's interesting to hear that Madam Eva gets an update!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I wonder which Domains from Van Richten's Guide won't make the cut to this book? I know that they said there'll be 16 Domains of Dread fleshed out in detail here, and there were 17 in VRGtR, meaning that at least one won't receive the full treatment this time round. As well, with Innsmouth and Sithicus showing up, that pushes out 2 more Domains.

Any thoughts on which ones they're going to sideline (to an extent)? Which ones would you leave out?

Personally, I would rather see as little overlap as possible.

I feel that there isn’t really a need to go into detail on settings with a single story and no strong theme. We were discussing Dementleu the other day. Aside from Evil Cinderella and her ball most of the setting could just as well be Borca. I think it could go two ways, ether leave it out or double down on it being the Dark Disney setting, perhaps replacing the current dark lord with an evil fairy godmother. Blutspur looks like an obvious candidate for downgrade, since the whole domain can be described in one paragraph and it no longer has to carry the “cosmic” load.

For additions, Verbrek/Akindale, since those lupin need a home. I would like to see a Scottish domain, which would be Forlorn - or wasn’t there a Macbeth domain at one time? Left field, the Island of Dr Moreau domain (Markovia).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Foundry preview mentions this for the Bestiary aspect, unsure if this has been shared here!


A bestiary of 60+ Ravenloft creatures, including boneless, carrionettes, dullahans, mist horrors, necrichors, nightgaunts, and more.
Legendary Ravenloft figures and allies, including Ez d’Avenir, Madam Eva, Rudolph van Richten, and the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins.

Nightgaunts would fit Innsmouth well, and it's interesting to hear that Madam Eva gets an update!

I believe this book is intended to double up as a 5.5 patch for CoS, so I expect all the stat blocks from there will be in this.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, that would make sense! 2e had the Carnival as an organization, so they could put it like that. The whole "sapient holy avenger sword is actually the Darklord" bit felt slightly half baked, too.

If you match up the number of domains to the number of dark lords there is a stat block for each (allowing two for Borca). Magic swords don't have stat blocks!

I had a good adventure using the Carnival domain, but the magic sword wasn't involved (apart from a brief cameo). The only way I can see using it in a narrative would be for one of the PCs to acquire it and become temporary acting dark lord.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If they were feeling really saucy, they could have Innsmouth grow on top of Bluetspur and the old domain could be a secret area below town for PCs to discover and old time Ravenloft fans to geek out about when they found it.

I suspect "Innsmouth" includes R'lyeh in the under water part, so it would probably be a bit redundant.

 

[Davy Greenwind]

From Beadle and Grimm's we know Barovia, Borca, Darkon, Dementlieu, Har'akir, Kalakeri, and Mordent are back. (Odaire and
Shadowborn Manor are also shown). Sithicus may end up being "DLC."

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah, that would make sense! 2e had the Carnival as an organization, so they could put it like that. The whole "sapient holy avenger sword is actually the Darklord" bit felt slightly half baked, too.

Carnival was a domain in 2e and Isode was it's Lord. The difference was she was mysterious and never seen, whereas with Nepenthe she is allowed to be a tortured hero rather than a fallen angel.