Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Review Round-Up – What the Critics Say

Now that you've had time to read my review of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and the book officially arrived in game stores on May 18, it's time to take a look at what other RPG reviewers thought of this guide to horror.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft: An In-Depth Review

The last few D&D books had a lot for DMs. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft tops them all. Players will get a lot out of it, too, but VRGtR is a feast of useful, imagination-sparking material—and that's not entirely limited to those who like horror. The Demiplane of Dread known as Ravenloft is...

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Terrifyingly Awesome...​

Games Radar not only ranked VRGtR one of the best D&D books ever, they also praise it for taking a fresh approach to the decades-old RPG. GR notes that the chapter on domains could have become repetitive quickly, but instead it's packed with creativity.

VRGtR transformed the reviewer at The Gamer from someone uninterested in horror into someone planning a horror masquerade adventure. While they praise VRGtR for its player options, they like the information for DMs even more. That ranges from the new mechanics that replace the old madness rules to advice for DMs on how to create compelling villains.

Bell of Lost Souls praises VRGtR for how it makes players think about their character's stories, not just in terms of backgrounds but also through the Gothic lineages, how they came about, and impacted the character. They also like all the tools DMs get plus an abundance of inspiration for games. They actually like the fact that Darklords don't have stats because if they do, players will always find a way to kill them. Overall, they deem VRGtR “indispensable” for DMs and as having great information for everyone, which makes it “a hearty recommendation.”

Polygon was more effusive calling it “the biggest, best D&D book of this generation” and that “it has the potential to supercharge the role-playing hobby like never before.” As you can tell from those two phrases, Polygon gushes over VRGtR praising everything from the new character options to safety tools to its overflowing creativity, and more. They compliment the book for being packed with useful information for players and DMs.

...And Scary Good​

Tribality broke down VRGtR chapter by chapter listing the content, and then summed up the book as being both an outstanding setting book and horror toolkit. They especially like that the various player options, such as Dark Gifts and lineages mean that death isn't necessarily the end of a character, but rather the start of a new plot.

Gaming Trend also praised VRGtR, especially the parts that discourage stigmatizing marginalized groups to create horror. They also considered the information on how to create your own Domain of Dream and Darklord inspiring. For example, it got them thinking about the role of space in creating horror, and how the mists allow a DM to drop players into a Domain for a one-shot if they don't want to run a full campaign. GT deemed VRGtR “excellent” and then pondered what other genres D&D could tackle next, like comedy adventures.

Strange Assembly loves the fact that VRGtR revives a classic D&D setting, and especially focuses on the Domains of Dread. They like the flavor of the Gothic lineages but not that some abilities are only once a day, preferring always-on abilities. Still, that's a small complaint when SA praises everything else, especially the short adventure, The House of Lament. VRGtR is considered an excellent value and worth checking out if you like scary D&D.

Geeks of Doom doesn't buck the trend of round-up. They really enjoyed the adventure inspiration and DM advice but especially appreciate the player options. agrees They really like the flexibility that's encouraged – and the new version of the loup-garou.

The Final Grade​

While none of these publications give out a letter grade, the superlatives VRGtR has earned makes it pretty easy to associate ratings to each review. Games Radar, The Gamer, Polygon, and Bell of Lost Souls are so effusive in their praise that they would obviously be A+. Gaming Trend, Tribality, Strange Assembly, and Geeks of Doom also praise VRGtR, though their language isn't quite as strong or they have a very minor critique. That would make their reviews at least an A. Adding in the A+ from my own review, and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft grades this product by which all others will likely be judged in the future:

A+​

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They don't seem to have any problem selling Ravenloft 3E books (affiliate link). Admittedly, not all of them are there, but given how they're still releasing more products for every edition of D&D, I suspect we'll see them in time.

Gold pieces are gold pieces, man, whether or not you intend to use any of the material from those licensed works.

 

[Prakriti]

But if that person who doesn't move on feels like they are in the right... they should be so comfortable with their choices that even WotC saying "Your fun is wrong!" shouldn't bother them in the least. Because who is WotC? Just some business that makes stuff. Nothing that need impact anyone's life in any way, shape, or form.

I wonder if you would feel the same way, and still buy their products, if Wizards consistently put out the message that you and your beliefs weren't welcome in the D&D community.

 

[dytrrnikl]

There were already a ton of conversion documents and updates to 5E for older Ravenloft material on DMs Guild before this book was even announced. If that's the product you want, there's a ton of options.

I'm aware, but admittedly bypassed them. I guess for me, a clearer turn of phrasing would be, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." 2E source material...specifically lore and the like, is fantastic as is. Doesn't need updating, morphing, changes, or any kind of alteration. Don't mess with perfection.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wonder if you would feel the same way, and still buy their products, if Wizards consistently put out the message that you and your beliefs weren't welcome in the D&D community.

Which views are they consistently putting down? They don't seem to have much of an overall message other than "racism and sexism are bad and please preorder all our stuff."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm aware, but admittedly bypassed them. I guess for me, a clearer turn of phrasing would be, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." 2E source material...specifically lore and the like, is fantastic as is. Doesn't need updating, morphing, changes, or any kind of alteration. Don't mess with perfection.

Why do you need or care about a 5E version, then? If you've reached perfection, you're all set.

 

[dytrrnikl]

Why do you need or care about a 5E version, then? If you've reached perfection, you're all set.

I was responding to why some people would care about changes made to something they love and gave my reasonings for why I prefer the older material. For instance, for me, it doesn’t matter whether or not DC is setting up Clark and Lois’ son to take over the mantle of Superman or that it appears we will getting another Superman reboot with some form of Calvin Ellis, for me, Clark Kent will always be Superman, with everything else being a sad imitation at best. But that’s me. I don’t agree with many of today’s perspectives regarding previous versions of D&D, but also recognize that no matter what I think, the world moves on. All in all, I’m good with things changing, but not if it’s solely for the sake of change. Change for the sake of change is pointless. As I said, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is a decent supplement. New doesn’t mean better, just means new. 10 or 20 years from now, fans will be decrying whatever gets presented for Ravenloft compared to “their” version of it in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. The more things change the more they stay the same.

 

[Thunder Brother]

Canon matters. Pretending that it doesn't is disingenuous.

Your Ravenloft May Vary?

 

[Faolyn]

Overall I like the book. One thing that really jumped out at me as very off-putting was the Subvert Cliches section on pg. 189.

Badwrongfun from WotC... Yikes.

Pretty sure what they mean, going by the rest of that section is, don't use bigoted tropes, even if you really like them.

 

[Faolyn]

WotC updated the Realms and Ebberon to 5th ed without making major, incompatible changes with older material. They could have done the same with Ravenloft if they wanted to. If this had come out a couple years ago, I think they would have.

To be fair, Toril and Ebberon are both legitimate worlds. As in, planets. Ravenloft not only isn't an actual world--it's a demiplane, or collection of demiplanes--it has always been totally mutable. Half of the domains were brought from other worlds, and half were created whole-cloth. Even in the black box, IIRC, they talked about Conjunctions that added and removed domains and changed the face of the world.

Over the years, they caused two domains (Borca, Dorvinia) to join together and caused another two domains (Gundarak and Arkandale) to get absorbed into its surrounding lands. They ripped multiple domains out of the Core, flung two of them (G'Henna, Bleutspur) into the Mists, turned one (Markovia) into a literal island at sea (and kept it as a tropical jungle island, right by Switzerland-style Lamordia), and turned the resulting space into the Shadow Rift, which is a legitimate world-wound--and if you enter the Rift in one way, you wind up in Faerieland, but if you enter it another way, you vanish completely. Valachan was positioned on a completely different part of the map, to the point that "S" noted how that change altered the architecture of the country. New domains and even oceans magically appeared at points, and the Nightmare Lands completely disappeared in 3x, as far as I can tell.

Ravenloft is all about making major changes.

 

[Faolyn]

Best of all, the shadow rift is gone!

I always felt it should be a Shadow Forest. Which is what it will continue to be in my world, as it's own little floaty domain. I like me some creepy fae (to the point that one of my players has asked me to maybe have some non-creepy fae at times).