It is back!!! What we do know about VR Guide to Ravenloft?

[Joël of the FoS]

(will be updated when new info is released)
(from various sources, facts only, speculations at the bottom)

Released on May 18th, 2021
256 pages
Main writer : Wes Schneider, plus Amanda Hamon, Cassandra Khaw, Molly Ostertag and K. Tempest Bradford

Will have two choice of covers (one reserved for game stores)

Will include 30 domains, each with different horror theme, including :

- Lamordia – populated by flesh golems created by Dr. Viktra Mordenheim ("Lamordia is home to Dr. Viktra Mordenheim, who chases her escaped flesh golem, Elise, across the land.")
- Dementlieu ("creepy dark fairytale realm to set a ghoulish masquerade", and "ruled by the cruel Saidra díHonaire, is a twisted take on the fairy tale genre")
- Falkovnia (zombie apocalypse horror genre) – new darklord : cruel Vladesca Drakov ("the new Darklord is a terrible character, but also sort of the domain’s last hope to survive against this even more overwhelming supernatural disaster", "Vladeska Drakov, a notorious military commander who’s struggling to defend its last surviving city against a domain-wide zombie apocalypse.")
- Valachan - horror like The Most Dangerous Game or Hunger Games, where the populace is hunted for sport ("where the darklord Chakuna relentlessly hunts down player characters for sport")
- the Sea of Sorrows
- an Egyption-inspired setting
- « several » new domains, of which : Kalakeri (endless war between two factions inspired by Indian folklore, "political machinations as dark powers vie for control of the land in a never-ending war " and "where darklords Ramya, Arijani, and Reeva each vie for control. ")
- Other horror themes included : mummy lords, cosmic terrors, urban legends, ghost horror stories, dark fantasy, psychological horror, folk-horror.

No Core anymore, only island in the mists : “This incarnation of Ravenloft reimagines a great deal of what came before. Past explorations of the setting directly linked many of the domains of Ravenloft into a pseudo-continent called the ‘Core’. We’ve taken the Core, the heart of the Ravenloft setting, and shattered it. In this new interpretation, every domain is a lonely island drifting through the mists."

NPC included : Ezmeralda d’Avenir (vampire hunter), the Vistani*, Weathermay-Foxgrove twins ("pair of twins who studied under Van Richten now out on their own—sort of a vampire-hunter/werewolf hunter pair"), Alanik Ray (has a detective agency), Tatyana

(* Wizards: During a press call about the book, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that sensitivity consultants were hired to look at the Vistani, an itinerant culture that have appeared in many Ravenloft stories. Dungeons & Dragons has previously received criticism for portraying the Vistani using negative stereotypes associated with the real-world Romani people, and a recent errata of Curse of Strahd removed some of the more egregious negative depictions.)

New subclasses :

- the College of Spirits Bard (powerful storytellers who control and manipulate the power and spirits of stories and folklore that shape the past),
- the Undead Pact Warlock (for magic-users that want to make a deal with something truly horrific... at the cost of their soul.)

New monster as PCs options : dhampir, hexblood, Returned : caracter with vampire (dhampir - "“The dhampir lineage has traits inspired by vampires, with a bite attack and the ability to feed off the living"), hag (hexblood - "the hexblood is tied up with fey magic and might be at risk of transforming into a hag down the road"), and undead lineages (returned - "the reborn has died at some point and might take the form of a pseudo-undead creature or a Frankenstein’s monster-style construct.") (These lineages use the alternative rulesets for races found in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which removes Ability Score Increases and focuses only on physical and magical abilities rather than those learned due to culture).

New mechanics : Dark Gifts-benefits bestowed with a cost. ("“[Dark Gifts] are ways to connect your character to the specific realms that you’re playing, and they have mechanical benefits—but they’re also very, very flavorful and describe a bit about where your character is coming from and how your character is haunted,” Hamon explained. “The book is concerned with the idea that any horror story across any media is, at its core, about a haunting. What scares the character? What has happened to them? What are their hang-ups and the bad things that happen to them in the narrative? The Dark Gifts really reinforce that, and use mechanical elements to play the game and [facilitate] that sort of roleplaying.", “For example, one Dark Gift provides you with memories from your past life, whispers of information you really shouldn’t know. Sometimes these can be great—maybe you’ve never played the piano before but somehow when you sit down at the keyboard you can now play. By the same token, under certain circumstances, you might start having visions from past lives that distract you from what you’re doing.)

New monsters (40 pages) "including RL classics", of which carrionette and the gremishka ("While gremishka are creepy gremlin-things that are allergic to magic. If you cast a spell on them, they might have an adverse reaction that includes potentially exploding into a swarm."), a variety of new zombies and vampiric mind flayers.

New items ("trinkets")

A new adventure (20 pages) : « The House of Lament » (“The characters have reasons to come together at this house, and they meet up with some of the other heroes that we mentioned before and in the course of that, they start exploring this haunted house—and even conducting seances to reach out to the spirits of the house. Like so many classic haunted house stories, things go terribly wrong and players who spent all this time exploring the house, now all they want to do is escape.”)

Other rules :

- Tarokka decks and spirit boards mechanics
- how to create your own domains
- advice for running a game

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Speculations:

Safe to assume it will surely include Darkon (Azalin was in Tasha's Cauldron)

One source hints at Sithicus, but without Soth

[Mistmaster]

The gender flipping sounds far-fetched to me. But I'm interested in the product.

[Gabriel Jansen]

Happy for the new content, but cautious about the drastic changes. Let's wait and see.

[Scipio]

Cautious about the changes to NPCs, some of which seem utterly un-needed. Interested, but cautiously so, and may be ripping out a lot of it to put back in the domans and darklords my group and I have been familiar with since 2E.

[onmyoji]

Pre-ordered it, but not expecting much. If nothing else, 5E technically doesn't happen until the 1480s DR, so whatever they write in can technically canonically be added AFTER the 2E/3E/3.5E/4E lore we all know and love.

The one thing I find myself looking forward to is the possibility of an updated, high-definition Mike Schley map of the Core.

— onmyoji

[BigBadQDaddy]

Planning on pre ordering this as well. If anything there will be something I can slice away from it and stitch into my current 5e game.
I really am curious to see the new takes on old domains, especially those that seem to be making drastic changes to known Darklords. I already know that I wont be able to use the DL for Valachan as Von Kharkov is heavily featured in my current game, but if the new DL is interesting enough that translation is an interesting opportunity to tell a story.
All in all I am excited to check this out.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

The gender flipping sounds far-fetched to me. But I'm interested in the product.

Gender flipping is the creatively bankrupt's answer to diversity.

[Five]

The gender flipping sounds far-fetched to me. But I'm interested in the product.

Gender flipping is the creatively bankrupt's answer to diversity.

I think it's a reflection of a portion of today's roleplayers as well (and publisher's fear of the bad publicity that can come of pissing them off). The sheer ego to open a fantasy roleplaying book and expect (and demand) to see your personal (idealised) reflection in it astounds me sometimes. I think it's a lack of imagination, as well as an inability to project personal imagination, as the very foundation of the game is for it to be whatever you imagine it to be. Nowhere does it say you can't be, do, or change X, Y, or Z, yet it is taken that way. It baffles me. Boundaries are limited only by the reader's imagination, so what's the true basis of the anger? Why are they hitting themselves?

I had backed a Kickstarter project a couple of years ago and the creators posted some artwork just to hype the game, but then several backers threatened to pull out unless more female art was included (it was something like 6 classes, 4 of which were depicted as male and two female). I mean, they were behind the concept of the game but not when the art wasn't proportioned to include their personal tastes? Why are they so superficial about something so superficial?

It's a new(ish) trend, and I see it leading to a new age non-positive label for roleplayers. It's sad, when I think of the ground rpgs gained, and the obstacles it's overcome.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

guys... stay on target please... Getting tired of repeating myself. Enough about the identity politics. Start a new thread for that if you must. Let this one be about the book and what we know about it so far.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

All I'm saying is, if they did this to the Realms there'd be outcry.

[BigBadQDaddy]

I'm curious if the Falkovnian zombie outbreak might be tied to the Dead Mans Campains as well. If not it's a cool opportunity to make a link there. Also as far as that is concerned, I wonder if we will see a core map or if the domains will all be treated as Islands of Terror.

[Jack the Reaper]

Following for updates.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Following for updates!

[nothri]

So I AM looking forward to this. It really does baffle though. You have this well established lore about the setting that has inspired whole generations of fans, and yet there seems to be this overt desire to throw out the whole thing and begin again. That makes sense in places, especially updating for a modern audience. Others it seems completely arbitrary and serves no purpose except to alienate older fans. I recognize that returning to a well established setting can be daunting for a new author since there is so much abundant lore to become familiar with.

I'm more concerned that this book will avoid talking about a Core or Clusters of linked domains. Think about Falkovnia for instance. If one wanted to strip away the interaction with other domains, particularly the many wars waged with Darkon that ended in death by the undead hordes and a full retreat...then a zombie horde in the domain that needs to be combated makes good sense. Shoving the Ravenloft setting into the Shadowfell like sweeping dust under a carpet has never been a welcome change for my part, and the obsessive need to adhere to this stupid notion that every realm must be isolated....well, I'm afraid they plan to keep doing it and it continues to suck.

All of this said, I am looking forward to the book.

[Joël of the FoS]

Others it seems completely arbitrary and serves no purpose except to alienate older fans.

Isn't this a bit farfetched? If you follow the interviews, they 1) decided to remove the domain flavour they thought as too similar to other domains, 2) wanted unique type of horror for each of the 30 covered domains.

All the editorial choices can be discussed, some liked, some not, but no, I do not think they are arbitrary, or have a purpose other than renew the setting.

All of this said, I am looking forward to the book.

Same here!