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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Early access is a subscription benefit and not linked to bundles. I only bought the digital book, not a bundle.

How are you trying to access it? What do you see if you click this link?

The book doesn't show up in my library at all. I can access it through that link, but I can't get to that link on my own without you sharing it.

 

[Echohawk]

The book doesn't show up in my library at all. I can access it through that link, but I can't get to that link on my own without you sharing it.

I thought that might be the case. I have had problems with the Library not updating when something has been released a few times before. Right now, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is visible in my library, but not flagged as owned.

Fortunately, the URLs for books are usually very guessable. Speaking of, Shadows of Sithicus appears to also be available now. That wasn't in my library when The Horrors Within released.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Thanks to @Echohawk's help, reading the book now. Presumably it'll show up in my library listing at some point in the next 24 hours.

Looking at the lupin, it shares a name with the Mystara species, but the flavor is very different. But if it eventually shows up in a book like Monsters of the Multiverse, I expect the werewolf stuff to be sanded down and just listed as a possible origin for the species. I think this will eventually be a popular tertiary D&D species.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Each domain includes a suggested campaign outline that eventually puts the player characters up against the Darklord, along with a sample adventure somewhere along the arc. The detail level is between the very minimal DMG stuff and something like the most lightly sketched adventure anthology stuff. (Each domain looks like it has comparable content to each adventure in Radiant Citadel.)

The overall campaigns seem fine, except in some cases, DMs are going have to do a lot of work to fill in the rest of the campaign between PCs initially finding out what's going on and taking the fight to the Darklord. In Tepest, for instance, PCs find out pretty quickly what's going on (hope everyone made a back-up character!), but there are a lot of levels before the finale and it's not clear to me how the PCs will be leveling up enough for that finale. A Ravenloft anthology book with standalone adventures in each domain would be helpful, as would DMs Guild adventures for each domains.

That said, I really do like this format, even if I think a lot of DMs will find many of the domains challenging to turn into a full campaign.

And the domain maps are hard to read on DDB, although presumably they'll be a lot easier to read in the book. And I like that each domain has a lot of locations listed, even if they mostly get a single bullet point of what's at each. Still, that's a pretty good start for most DMs, especially considering how strong the archetypes for these domains mostly are.

 

[Remathilis]

Thanks to @Echohawk's help, reading the book now. Presumably it'll show up in my library listing at some point in the next 24 hours.

Looking at the lupin, it shares a name with the Mystara species, but the flavor is very different. But if it eventually shows up in a book like Monsters of the Multiverse, I expect the werewolf stuff to be sanded down and just listed as a possible origin for the species. I think this will eventually be a popular tertiary D&D species.

In fairness, there is almost none of the Mystara flavor in the 5e tabaxi/rakasta and the 5e tortle. The same thing happened in 3e with aranea or brain collector. Mystara is viewed less as a unique setting and more of a collection of generic D&D stuff to be updated as needed.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In fairness, there is almost none of the Mystara flavor in the 5e tabaxi/rakasta and the 5e tortle. The same thing happened in 3e with aranea or brain collector. Mystara is viewed less as a unique setting and more of a collection of generic D&D stuff to be updated as needed.

I don't think the species should have any setting-specific flavor. Tying the lupins to werewolves so closely for the moment, including the names of some of their abilities, is making them very Ravenloft-coded. But like I said, I think that'll get watered down next time they appear.

 

[Imaro]

The book doesn't show up in my library at all. I can access it through that link, but I can't get to that link on my own without you sharing it.

Try resyncing your purchases....I just had to do that and now the book is showing up.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't think the species should have any setting-specific flavor. Tying the lupins to werewolves so closely for the moment, including the names of some of their abilities, is making them very Ravenloft-coded. But like I said, I think that'll get watered down next time they appear.

Eeeehhhh...

I don't think I would want warforged or kalashtar or kenders "watered down" to fit anywhere. They fit specific niches in their settings. But since lupins are new to Ravenloft, I can see your point. They wanted a lycanthropy species and shifter didn't work (or is too Eberron coated) so they borrowed the idea from Mystara.

 

[BruceWright]

And the domain maps are hard to read on DDB, although presumably they'll be a lot easier to read in the book.

I wouldn't count on it. I have the book in my hands. Hopefully you have much younger eyes than I do.

 

[TravDoc42]

Any word on what the shoggoths look like? I'm excited to see them!