Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft
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''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' is a sourcebook that details the Domains of Dread from the ''
Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a '' pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land piece ...
''
campaign setting A campaign setting is a setting for a tabletop role-playing game or wargame campaign. Most campaign settings are fictional worlds; however, some are historical or contemporary real-world locations. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adve ...
for the 5th edition of the ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
''
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...
.


Summary

''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' is a 256-page campaign and adventure guide for using the ''
Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a '' pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land piece ...
'' setting in the 5th edition. The book includes an overview of 39 Domains of Dread and a 20-page adventure called ''The House of Lament''. The book's
marginalia Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margin (typography), margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, gloss (annotation), glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminated manuscript, ...
is presented as correspondence between the vampire hunter Rudolph Van Richten, "D&D's
Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the P ...
equivalent", and "other heroes in Ravenloft like Ezmerelda d'Avenir and the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins". The Dungeon Master section includes an overview of safety tools for running a horror themed game such as "things like the X-Card,
trigger warnings A trauma trigger is a Stimulus (psychology), psychological stimulus that prompts involuntary recall of a previous psychological trauma, traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or su ...
, boundaries, and establishing clear lines of communication". It also includes detailed advice on running a horror themed campaign and a breakdown of the various types of horror in the genre. The book expands on game elements for the 5th edition, such as: * Two new subclasses; the College of Spirits for
bards In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's an ...
and the Undead pact for
warlocks A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives ''warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver". The term came to apply speciall ...
* New character lineages (the
dhampir In Balkan folklore, a dhampir () is a mythical creature that is the result of a union between a vampire and a human. This union was usually between male vampires and female humans, with stories of female vampires mating with male humans being rar ...
, the hexblood, and the reborn) and new character backgrounds "themed specifically for a horror setting" * The Dark Gift mechanic; a mechanic that provides a role-playing tie "to the Domains of Dread by bestowing benefits that may have a deadly cost" * A horror themed monster bestiary


Publication history

''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' was published on May 18, 2021 and features cover art by Anna Podedworna. An alternate cover is available only in local game stores with art by Scott M. Fischer. It is the second 5th edition book that focuses on Ravenloft setting; the first was the
adventure module An adventure is a playable scenario in a tabletop role-playing game. These can be constructed by gamemasters for their players, and are also released by game publishers as pre-made adventure modules. Different types of designs exist, including ...
'' Curse of Strahd'' (2016). ''
Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...
'' reported that the book has multiple authors, similar to '' Candlekeep Mysteries'', and that "among them is Wizards' new senior designer Amanda Hamon (formerly of Kobold Press),
Cassandra Khaw Cassandra Khaw (born 31 August 1984) is a Malaysian writer of horror and science fiction. They also create video games and tabletop games, and formerly wrote about them as a games and tech journalist. Biography Cassandra Khaw was born in Malay ...
(''Nothing But Blackened Teeth''), Molly Ostertag (''The Witch Boy''), and K. Tempest Bradford (''The Copper Scarab'')". "Lead designer Wes Schneider told Polygon that the goal was to move beyond the derivative tropes that have plagued the Ravenloft setting in the past, while also allowing players to engage with the material from a number of different perspectives". When asked if the book could be used for a
family-friendly A family-friendly product or service is one that is considered to be suitable for all members of an average family. Family-friendly restaurants are ones that provide service to families that have young children. Frequently, family-friendly produc ...
game, Schneider said, "We understand that many folks these days play with their kids, play with younger players. Horror doesn't need to mean an R-rated movie. It doesn't mean for adults only. ..Horror can be cartoons like '' Scooby Doo'' or like the old ''Ghostbusters'' cartoon. Those sort of things have horror elements to them while also being action stories, adventure stories, mystery stories, suspenseful stories. It doesn't need to be all gory and visceral". It was also released as a digital product through the following Wizards of the Coast licensees:
D&D Beyond D&D Beyond (DDB) is the official digital toolset and game companion for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fifth edition. DDB hosts online versions of the official ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fifth edition books, including rulebooks, adventures, and other supple ...
,
Fantasy Grounds Fantasy Grounds is a virtual tabletop application, which contains a set of tools to assist players of tabletop role-playing games playing either in person or remotely. History Fantasy Grounds was first released in 2004 by SmiteWorks, original ...
, and
Roll20 Roll20 is a website consisting of a set of tools for playing tabletop role-playing games, also referred to as a virtual tabletop, which can be used as an aid to playing in-person or remotely online. The site was launched in 2012 after a success ...
. In July 2021, Beadle & Grimm (another Wizards of the Coast licensee) will release a limited run
boxset A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...
called ''Shadowy Silver Edition of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft''.


Related products


Unearthed Arcana

The
Unearthed Arcana ''Unearthed Arcana'' (abbreviated UA) is the title shared by two hardback books published for different Editions of Dungeons & Dragons, editions of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Both were designed as supplements to the co ...
series is the 5th edition public
playtest A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...
where the content released is "a near-final draft of the rules"; parts of ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' was developed through this playtest. The two new subclasses premiered in ''2020: Subclasses, Part 4'' (August 2020) and allowed "for both classes to lean into dark necromancy more than ever before". The new character lineages premiered in ''Gothic Lineages'' (January 2021) and presented the "Dhampir (half-vampire, half-human), Hexblood (descended from a hag), and Reborn (a person brought back from the dead) as playable options". Charlie Hall, for ''Polygon'', wrote that lineages "represent a more foundational change for the original role-playing game, and an iteration on how the game was originally conceived in the 1970s. In 2020, Wizards was criticized by its community for how it deals with issues of cultural sensitivity, especially with the concept of race. Lineages build on the rules published in ''
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' is a sourcebook for the Editions of Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, published in 2020. The book is a supplement to the 5th edition ''Dungeon Master's Gui ...
'', which also had a section dealing with race. According to ''Gothic Lineages'', ''Tasha's Cauldron'' and ''Van Richten's Guide'' will help to inform a new path forward for D&D, one where race is no longer tied to concepts like ability scores, known languages, alignment, 'or any other trait that is purely cultural'."


''The Black Dice Society''

''The Black Dice Society'' (2021) is an official
actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gam ...
streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...
series broadcast on the ''Dungeons & Dragons''
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...
and
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
channels which premiered on April 1, 2021 and is set across multiple Domains of Dread in Ravenloft. The campaign showcases the ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' sourcebook. B. Dave Walters is the show's Dungeon Master with a cast of six players:
Tanya DePass Tanya DePass (born 1973), also known by her username Cypheroftyr, is an American journalist, activist and streamer. She is the founder of the non-profit organization I Need Diverse Games, which she established in 2016. Early life DePass grew ...
, Noura Ibrahim, Deejay Knight,
Mark Meer Mark Meer is a Canadian actor, writer and improvisor, based in Edmonton, Alberta. He is known for his role in the ''Mass Effect'' trilogy, in which he stars as the voice of the player character, Commander Shepard. His voice is featured in a numbe ...
, Saige Ryan and Becca Scott.


D&D Adventurers League

The ''Ravenloft: Mist Hunters'' storyline was announced in April 2021 as a "horror-themed campaign" for the D&D Adventurers League with each adventure in the series focusing "on one or more subgenres of horror as a thematic anchor". The series will start on July 9, 2021 and it corresponds with the ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' sourcebook. The storyline will consist of "14 adventures, including two Epics, and will take players from Level 1 to Level 8". The two Epic adventures will bookend the series and will include "multi-group play and interaction" while the other 12 adventures can be run sequentially by a single group. In contrast to previous Adventurers League storylines, ''Ravenloft: Mist Hunters'' will shift away from a tactical combat focus and instead "will focus on story, social interaction, and investigation".


Reception

In ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
's'' "Best-selling Books Week Ending May 22, 2021", ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' was #4 in "Hardcover Nonfiction" and sold 25,624 units. In ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
s "Best-Selling Books List for May 23, 2021", ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' was #8. Charlie Hall, for ''Polygon'', highlighted various Domains of Dread where each is a "seed of a dark and magnificent adventure" and that both the new lineages and the Dark Gifts mechanic expand player options. Hall commented that "alongside these kinds of damning in-game consequences comes plenty of talk about consent. ''Van Richten’s Guide'' includes an entire chapter on the concept, and fully brings concepts like the X-Card into modern D&D, even including creator John Stavropoulos among its authors". Hall also highlighted that the book does not include statblocks for the "marquee villains listed" – "it’s explained away early in the book, whose authors say that a Domain’s villain doesn’t always have to be the big bad itching for a fight. Having run a battle against Strahd and other monsters of his ilk in many game systems many times, I agree with Wizard’s bold design decision. There’s more to D&D than combat, and this omission will help to steer players toward more elaborate role-play and world building, and relieve the tension of having to maximize their own stats and magical powers to win the day". Hall wrote, "ultimately, it’s the little touches that really make ''Van Richten’s Guide'' special. ..The creators have shown an attention to detail and a devotion to craft that has been building throughout this run of D&D’s 5th edition". Ed Fortune, for
Starburst Magazine ''Starburst'' is a British science fiction magazine published by Starburst Magazine Limited. ''Starburst'' contains news, interviews, features, and reviews of genre material in various media, including TV, film, soundtracks, multimedia, books, ...
, gave the book five stars and commented that "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is the peak of where Dungeons and Dragons is right now; a fun and accessible game with more to offer than just straight forward power fantasy. It is designed to be deep and engaging and yet they've also made sure that no-one is excluded by the content". Christian Hoffer, for ''ComicBook.com'', highlighted that ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' outlines 17 Domains of Dread in depth and provides short descriptions of another 22 Domains along with the "biographies of about a dozen NPCs" and "32 new monster statblocks". Hoffer also highlighted the new "Fear and Stress" ruleset as an alternate to the previous "dated" Madness ruleset. He commented that "this book is going to be divisive" and that "the most visible change in ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' is how the book approaches the lore of Ravenloft itself. Some Domains and their respective Darklords are given wholesale revisions. ..Initially, the patchwork nature of how ''Dungeons & Dragons'' approached their updates to Ravenloft feels odd, but it's obvious that most of these changes are designed to streamline the nature of the Domains of Ravenloft". Hoffer's "biggest criticism" is that "none of the book's Darklords are given updated statblocks .. Although the book does provide a walkthrough on how to better customize a statblock to meet a campaign's needs, a lot of DMs (especially those with limited time) aren't going to be satisfied with how the book approaches monsters and combat in general. ..I feel that ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' will be one of the most-discussed books published by Wizards of the Coast in recent years. There are a lot of interesting design choices and decisions in this book and they mark a potential shift in how the D&D design team (now led by
Ray Winninger Ray Winninger is a game designer who has worked on a number of roleplaying games, including the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. He is the former Executive Producer for the Wizards of the Coast ''Dungeons & Dragons'' studio. Care ...
) approaches Fifth Edition design". Liam Nolan, for ''CBR'', highlighted that ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' breakdowns what horror is including two pages on each of the following types of horror: "
body horror Body horror, or biological horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body or of another creature. These violations may manifest through aberrant sex, mutat ...
,
cosmic horror Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is nam ...
,
dark fantasy Dark fantasy, also called fantasy horror, is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporates disturbing and frightening themes. The term is ambiguously used to describe stories that combine horror fiction, horror ...
,
folk horror Folk horror is a subgenre of horror film and horror fiction that uses elements of folklore to invoke fear and foreboding. Typical elements include a rural setting, isolation, and themes of superstition, folk religion, paganism, Human sacrifice, sa ...
, ghost stories and
gothic horror Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean m ...
" and "half-page sections for disaster horror, occult detective stories,
psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...
and slasher horror". Nolan wrote that the book "offers a lot of advice on how to successfully run a horror campaign, and the advice is excellent. Initially, there's a lot of attention paid to consent and communication, which is really important for any campaign, but especially horror, as people are dealing with things that are fundamentally unsettling. ..The most important section of Chapter 4, though, deals with pacing. Horror, as a genre, really relies heavily on pacing and figuring out just how much to reveal and when. ..There's an important note throughout Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft that asks DMs to see how they can subvert some of the tropes mentioned throughout. One of the big difficulties with horror can be that, those well-verse in the genre, can start to feel its effects less and less because they're able to anticipate what should genuinely be a scary or horrifying turn of events too early into the story. By undermining or playing with the various suggestions in the genres sections, a good DM can create a really compelling — and terrifying— story". Rob Wieland, for
Forbes.com ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...
, said "Ravenloft's popularity can't be stopped as Fifth Edition returns to the Domains of Dread with a setting book that delves into the domains beyond Count Strahd's Barovia. ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'' offers more than write-ups of dozens of classic horror domains."


References


External links


''In the works: Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft''
('' Dragon+'' Issue 36) *Unearthed Arcana: **
2020: Subclasses, Part 4
' **
Gothic Lineages
' *
D&D Beyond D&D Beyond (DDB) is the official digital toolset and game companion for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fifth edition. DDB hosts online versions of the official ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fifth edition books, including rulebooks, adventures, and other supple ...
's ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'
video series
(via YouTube) * ''Dungeons & Dragons ''Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft'
video series
(via YouTube) *''The Black Dice Society'' actual pla
series
(via YouTube) {{D&D topics Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks Horror role-playing games Ravenloft Role-playing game supplements introduced in 2021