Much like the game itself, Dungeons and Dragon’s gothic horror setting Ravenloft has gone through a lot of changes over the years. It started life as a single adventure module for the first edition of the game and has various make-overs as the game has been improved and expanded. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft introduces this spooky fantasy to 5th Edition and functions as a primary source for running your own horror themed games.
The core idea is that they are these things called ‘The Demiplanes of Dread’, isolated pocket dimensions that are serve as both prison and amusement centre for evil beings. For example, the Hammer Horror Dracula themed domain of Barovia features vampire lord Strahd (last seen in the adventure, Curse of Strahd) as its Dark Lord. Everything within this realm is gothic horror; an undead despot rules from a haunted castle, villagers are superstitious and treacherous and so on. Meanwhile, a nearby realm, Bluetspur, leans toward Lovecraftian horror, with tentacled monsters known as Mindflayers torturing and consuming the curious.
All of these realms are separated by a thing called The Mists, a sort of semi-sentient fog that saps those looking to leave these domains of their strength and will. In short, Ravenloft is a setting that let’s a Dungeon Master pick and choose the type of horror story they want to tell. The book goes into seventeen of these realms in detail, and they’ve all been updated and reworked from previous editions. For example The Carnival domain has been reworked so it’s closer to body horror and dark fantasy themes, updating the setting for modern horror tastes. It’s also got a wicked new twist that we won’t spoil.
We also get a load of ‘seed’ ideas for new domains; everything from a haunted train to a film noir style detective agency. Many of these workare angled in a way that you can lure characters from an exisiting campaign into a Ravenloft story. For example a band of heroes from Wildemont may end up in the Nightmare Lands after one long rest too many or your Ravnica party fall into the realm known as Risibilos, a music hall made of nightmares.
Obviously, this book has crunchy rules for players to grab and bother their Dungeon Masters about; they are new subclasses for bards and warlocks, Dark bargains for character who really want more power and even new lineages in case you want to play a half-vampire, hag-cursed or semi-undead sort of hero. They’re neat options and it’s nice to see character creation options that aren’t dependant on race. New backgrounds are here as well, and we suspect the ‘investigator’ option will be popular in many games as it’s always fun to play detective.
This isn’t a Monster Manual, or a book crammed with variations of existing stats. Specifically the various Dark Lords aren’t given special rules; they’re all existing horrors from the core rulebooks. It’s up to the Dungeon Master to scale the big bad as suits their campaign. The same goes for same goes for potential allies and NPCs; no stats just a good idea of what the character should be and how that would fit; this is a roleplaying resource rather than a collection of numbers and rules. We do get some new monsters in the back of the book and these things are more creepy ideas than a block of stats, though of course full rules are given.
We also get a lot of information on how to run a horror game and different genres and approaches. It’s straight forward stuff but also very useful. Wizards of The Coast have gotten very good at producing these sort of source books, balancing general games master advice with unique setting information to create a resource that suits both experienced and new gamers. It is pretty (the illustrations are very atmospheric) and robust. The one thing this book isn’t is a copy of previous editions; they’ve kept the spirit of the original whilst moving forward with the game; mistakes from the past have been corrected and lessons learned; this is a fun horror game designed for everyone to enjoy.
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. It’s very solidly written and fun to read. A treat for games masters and players alike.
