It is back!!! What we do know about VR Guide to Ravenloft?
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 2:34 pm
(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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speculations:
Safe to assume it will surely include Darkon (Azalin was in Tasha's Cauldron)
One source hints at Sithicus, but without Soth
(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
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speculations:
Safe to assume it will surely include Darkon (Azalin was in Tasha's Cauldron)
One source hints at Sithicus, but without Soth