D&D 5E Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Art Preview

SageAdvice.eu has compiled a bunch of art shots from the upcoming Ravenloft setting book. I've featured a handful below, but click through to the link for the full set of nearly 30 pieces.

ART Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft26

Visit the post for more.

www.sageadvice.eu

 

[TheSword]

I totally agree.

I believe there were some instance of it to be fair in some of the art (the art really varied a lot depending on the book and the artist), but generally Ravenloft was about not showing lots of blood and gore. There are of course exceptions, but I think those exceptions, when they were introduced, were done because the person viewing them felt they fit for the purposes of the Horror side of fear and horror. I am thinking of stuff like how Gobylyns ate your face, the living wall (which I suppose is potentially gory but not in a slasher way). I think overall the setting works best when the art is suggestive of things and evocative rather than done for shock value

I totally agree. I don’t think they every had art of these more gory situations. Goblyn face eating was very much theatre of the mind.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I totally agree.

I totally agree. I don’t think they every had art of these more gory situations. Goblyn face eating was very much theatre of the mind.

Yes, I agree. I would have to comb through Castles Forlorn to be sure, but I don't think they got too deep into that on the art front (I could be wrong though, I seem to have a memory of an image of a goblyn feasting on a character's face, but it might just be me remembering the description.

 

[overgeeked]

Granted, but they're are some who don't and WotC wants to hit the largest demographic. You surely get that they can't determine what is a reader's line or threshold when publishing a mass market book and must aim for the lowest common denominator?

But surely a target audience for a "horror" D&D book is not the entire D&D fanbase. Not everyone likes horror. So by making the "horror" book less of a "horror" thing than a trip to Spirit Halloween you're going to explicitly not appeal to the very subset of the fanbase you're trying to appeal to. The people who don't like horror are not going to jump on this book anyway. The people who do like horror are going to see this as the kid-friendly Disney summer camp version of horror...and not jump on this book.

And most have parents who decide what is and is not suitable for them, your know that, right?

Yes, I know that most parents are overly puritanical with their domineering of their children's choices.

Anyone who tries to use blood and viscera to evoke horror has failed at the first hurdle. We are well beyond that.

LOL. So you don't watch modern horror movie like at all then. Got it.

 

[TheSword]

But surely a target audience for a "horror" D&D book is not the entire D&D fanbase. Not everyone likes horror. So by making the "horror" book less of a "horror" thing than a trip to Spirit Halloween you're going to explicitly not appeal to the very subset of the fanbase you're trying to appeal to. The people who don't like horror are not going to jump on this book anyway. The people who do like horror are going to see this as the kid-friendly Disney summer camp version of horror...and not jump on this book.

Yes, I know that most parents are overly puritanical with their domineering of their children's choices.

LOL. So you don't watch modern horror movie like at all then. Got it.

TTRPG isn’t a horror movie. What works on screen doesn’t necessarily work in a book at the table.

Gore can turn off as many people as it attracts. It’s optional, but once added can’t be erased. So keep it away from me and you can add all the gore you like in your own living room.

I personally reject a great deal the Saw genre, gore-porn films.

I enjoyed the spookier Conjuring Type films. Was also very impressed with Them.

I tolerate the gore in Walking Dead because it’s so unrealistic, and in some cases flat out funny.

 

[Scribe]

However I personally reject a great deal the Saw genre, gore-porn films

Indeed, if this is what represents Modern Horror, that's a pass.

 

[Remathilis]

But surely a target audience for a "horror" D&D book is not the entire D&D fanbase. Not everyone likes horror. So by making the "horror" book less of a "horror" thing than a trip to Spirit Halloween you're going to explicitly not appeal to the very subset of the fanbase you're trying to appeal to. The people who don't like horror are not going to jump on this book anyway. The people who do like horror are going to see this as the kid-friendly Disney summer camp version of horror...and not jump on this book.

Yes, I know that most parents are overly puritanical with their domineering of their children's choices.

LOL. So you don't watch modern horror movie like at all then. Got it.

Different strokes Mate. I like the classic gothic horror of Universal Monster movies, but get squicky with the "bloody horror" of a Fulci movie. I absolutely detest Saw torture porn and it's ilk. A book covered in blood splatter and gouged eyes trade dress is a large turnoff.

YMMV, but I think if you are aiming for a large swath of horror, you are better off going minimal than oot.

 

[overgeeked]

TTRPG isn’t a horror movie. What works on screen doesn’t necessarily work in a book at the table.

Gore can turn off as many people as it attracts. It’s optional, but once added can’t be erased. So keep it away from me and you can add all the gore you like in your own living room.

I personally reject a great deal the Saw genre, gore-porn films.

I enjoyed the spookier Conjuring Type films. Was also very impressed with Them.

I tolerate the gore in Walking Dead because it’s so unrealistic, and in some cases flat out funny.

So at your table players don't describe the blood and guts of combat or describe killing blows in graphic detail?

 

[TheSword]

So at your table players don't describe the blood and guts of combat or describe killing blows in graphic detail?

I describe attacks. I don’t revel in the description of the stink guts sliding from open bellies to pool on the floor. PG13 mate PG13.

Think Jurassic Park and you have my style. No problem with people being dismembered and eaten alive, I just don’t want to see it.

You’re also materially misunderstanding the difference between something being described in game and then drawn in vivid technicolor on the front page of a book.

This is one of those occasions when tell-don’t-show is actually more appropriate.

 

[overgeeked]

Different strokes Mate. I like the classic gothic horror of Universal Monster movies, but get squicky with the "bloody horror" of a Fulci movie. I absolutely detest Saw torture porn and it's ilk. A book covered in blood splatter and gouged eyes trade dress is a large turnoff.

YMMV, but I think if you are aiming for a large swath of horror, you are better off going minimal than oot.

Sure. Absolutely. Saw can screw. That's the extreme edge of the mainstream version of the genre. I'm not after that. But there's only what...2-3 of the pictures that evoke horror or fear in any way. Some tired defenders on a wall. One person being pulled at by hands. The rest could easily be from any other 5E book published to date. They don't stand out. There's nothing that screams horror. Some of them barely whisper Ravenloft.

 

[TheSword]

Sure. Absolutely. Saw can screw. That's the extreme edge of the mainstream version of the genre. I'm not after that. But there's only what...2-3 of the pictures that evoke horror or fear in any way. Some tired defenders on a wall. One person being pulled at by hands. The rest could easily be from any other 5E book published to date. They don't stand out. There's nothing that screams horror. Some of them barely whisper Ravenloft.

Perhaps you have a different standard to other people. I think they fit very well and are evocative.

Don’t forget a lot of those images are heavily cropped though. The dancing sprite and the sleeping figure are from the same picture for instance.