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| Watch out Ez, Strahd's watching you! |
I have to start by gushing about the alternative cover for Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, my latest purchase for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. It is absolutely gorgeous, vying with the cover on Tasha's Cauldron of Everything for style and attractiveness. But do the contents deliver?
TL;DR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is an excellent toolkit for horror-based adventures. It refreshes the Mists with a degree of sensitivity but doesn't fail to retain the terror. There is sound advice on playing a safe but horrifying game. The sections of character options and developing a Darklord and their Domain provoke much thought and are very useful. The example Domains of Dread are flavoursome and I could easily imagine using them. The creatures and characters presented for the players to encounter all add something of interest. The artwork is evocative and excellent. Altogether, this is a great setting book, a toolkit for the imagination.
I've gushed before about my love of the Ravenloft setting for D&D, and with the release of this book, Wizards of the Coast are mirroring history. In the beginning - okay, back when Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition was a thing - there was a fantastic gothic horror module (I6 Ravenloft) which told the tale of brave heroes who found themselves in a mist-shrouded valley dominated by a castle where an ancient vampire Count dwelled and preyed upon travellers and his own subjects. If they were lucky, they would defeat the evil, but the GM was encouraged to play to the strengths of the vampire.
Second edition AD&D was all about settings, and the land of Barovia rose again as one of many Domains of Dread, mist-shrouded realms ruled by Darklords. Where there once was only Strahd, the darkness has swelled to encapsulate different genres of horror, with other terrifying villains.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft does the same to Curse of Strahd that the release of the second edition supplement did to the original module; it expands the setting to include an updated version of the Domains of Dread, each with a unique Darklord, influenced and entrapped by the Dark Powers. There is some mild adjustment to the Barovia setting presented in Curse of Strahd, but you could easily ignore the adjustments if you wanted. Much like last year's release of the Curse of Strahd Revamped box set, the material from the second edition has been amended to address issues with stereotyping and acceptability that is no longer acceptable in a more tolerant society. It is far more inclusive and better for it. It's one of the larger D&D hardbacks, at 256 pages.
One thing you must put aside is any assumption that this is a campaign book; it isn't. That's Curse of Strahd. And probably a billionty-one releases on the DM's Guild as time progresses. This is a toolkit for playing in the Domains of Dread. It starts by defining what the Domains are and what the typical traits of the Dark Lords are. The text speculates as to what the Dark Powers that entrap the Darklords and their victims in the mists are, but no canon answer is given, just a set of suggestions. The choice is yours as a GM and to be frank, it doesn't really have any impact on play.
The first chapter is a toolkit for creating characters for use in horror settings; it introduces new lineages, overwriting character's races if they are chosen. You can be a Dhampir (a living offspring of a vampire), a Hexblood (a character transformed by the power of a hag) or a Reborn (someone who has died and returned with vague memories of their previous life). There's a list of Dark Gifts that can be chosen; these are ways that the Dark Powers have touched your character, giving benefits and potential complications. There are also additional backgrounds and suggested personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws suitable for horror settings. You could be an investigator or someone with a haunted past. The chapter rounds out with a d100 table of horror trinkets that characters could have or find. Overall a useful chapter; I'm tempted to offer one of my player's the option for their character to come back as a Reborn should they die in Curse of Strahd.
The second chapter is a toolkit for creating your own Domains of Dread. It starts with guidance on creating a Darklord, with questions designed to tease out what makes them unique. There's guidance on developing their personality and exploring why they slipped down a path of corruption to darkness. Once you have your Darklord, you develop out the shape and feel of the Domain in which they're entrapped. And there's the nub of it; it's not just the characters and the populace in the domain who are trapped, the Darklord is as well. Only the most powerful have managed to escape (like Azalin Rex). Again, there are questions and sections designed to help the GM think through what the domain will be like; how it reflects its Darklord, the way that they are forced to face their past actions again and again and what the place will look and feel like. The culture of the location, the types of monsters present, and the way that the Mists of Ravenloft manifest are all considered. The section rounds out by considering how the Darklord could fall, and what the consequences of that action would be.
The chapter then goes on to discuss different genres of horror, the kinds of monsters that could be there, the kinds of villains that could exist as the Darklord, and the way that they are tormented. There are suggestions for the settings, adventure sites and horror plots. They're given as random tables, but I suspect I'd just pick or use them for inspiration. Genres discussed in depth are body horror, cosmic horror, folk horror, ghost stories, gothic horror. There are shorter pieces on disaster horror, occult detective stories, psychological horror and slasher horror. There's definitely useful inspiration here if you want to roll your own Domain. I guess as the ideas are presented as random tables, you could do exactly that.
The third chapter presents example Domains of Ravenloft. It begins by discussing the nature of Ravenloft, starting the Mists. The dangers of travelling through them and becoming lost are covered, and the use of Mist Talismans to effect a safe passage is described. The impact on magic, connections to other planes and the fact that a character's soul is trapped in Ravenloft if they die are all covered. There's a general discussion on currency, language, calendars, travel and communications. The latter is one of the changes made to Curse of Strahd; in this book, the Keepers of the Feather become members of a network that uses ravens to communicate between different domains and potentially resist the local Darklords. This does make some of Van Richten and the Martikov family motivations implicitly different from that presented in the earlier scenario. However, it's easy enough to make this adjustment.
Each domain is presented, starting with an overview, noteworthy features, settlements and sites, the Darklord, adventures and the focus of the domain to give guidance about what it is all about. There's also a sidebar giving guidance on creating a character from the domain being discussed. It's a long while since I read the original domains of dread, so I won't comment on changes; others have done this in far more detail than I ever could.
Naturally, it all begins with Barovia. The main change in the setting is the introduction of the priests of Osybus as a faction, a new organisation presented later in the book. It's top-level enough that the campaign won't be spoiled if you read the information here. There are interesting options to explore alternative takes on Tatyana, Strahd's unrequited and lost love. Barovia was the first of the Domains of Dread, and Strahd remains pre-eminent amongst the Darklords. This is the gothic horror setting.
The second domain is Bluetspur. Mindflayers struggle to keep their God-Brain alive; vampiric mindflayers prey on victims to try and sustain their master. The outside world is hostile, and all the adventures will likely take place in the confines of the Citadel Subterrane. The theme is cosmic horror, and I could imagine using this setting for games other than D&D. One of the other domains, Valachan, instantly had me thinking of using it with Temples & Tombs, as it felt so pulp. That's a good thing, because it says that the domains are original and unique.
Borca explores gothic and psychological horror and is unusual in having two antagonistic Darklords. This has a very Borgia feel. You could lean into the politics and noble schemes here.
The Carnival explores body horror and dark fantasy; this is an unusual domain as it can visit other Domains of Dread and lands beyond the Mists. It's a potential way to escape from one domain to another.
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| A message for readers of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft from Azalin. |
Darkon explores disaster horror and dark fantasy. Its Darklord, Azalin Rex appears to have escaped, shattering the domain with magical energies as he left. Darkon is doomed to collapse and fail into the mists unless another Darklord emerges. Two candidates are presented.
Dementlieu is a small domain, encompassing a single city, Port-a-Lucine. This explores dark fantasy and psychological horror. It's a city where everyone is trying to appear better than they are, leaning into Masquerades and Fairy tales, even the Darklord Duchess Saidra d'Honaire. The surrounding lands of the Chateaufaux have been lost to the mists but everyone pretends that they're still there, including the nobles who rely on them for status and income. Each week, the Duchess holds a Grand Masquerade, invites to which are both sought after and feared. Commit a social faux-pas such as dancing badly, offend the Duchess and she will expose and unmask you, mock you and then utterly destroy you, using a form of disintegration that crumbles you into dust. Meanwhile, the Red Death stalks the land, preying on victims, especially those who have fallen from grace.
Falkovnia is disaster horror, with its Darklord fighting to protect the domain from hordes of the dead. A former General, Vladeska Drakov, defends the realm and every day has to take hard decisions with people's lives to try and protect the people that remain. Unusually, most of the time, the domain's borders are sealed as the dead rise, with them only open for a week during the new moon when the zombie hordes recede. This is a military dictatorship, with Drakov placed in a Kobyashi Maru scenario because she was previously willing to take any measures necessary to win. Brutal.
Har'Akir is a dark fantasy domain, an Egyptian-style desert ruled by the mummy Ankhtepot, the speaker for the gods and immortal pharaoh from the golden pyramid in the City of Dead. The sands are covered in ruins and tombs, back from a time that few recall. The living exist to serve their deathless god-king who searches for something lost in the ruins. Reading this, I could easily imagine lifting this to run with something over than D&D, a pulp game of some sort.
Hazlan shows what happens when you let wizards and arcanists have their head to do whatever they want. A dark fantasy and disaster horror setting, it explores what happens when mages can do whatever they want to, shattering the world with magic. Magic is might and might is right. The domain is ruled over by Hazlik, an amoral, paranoid and heartbroken wizard who watches everything while magical disasters consume his land.
I'Cath presents a mixture of body horror and cosmic horror, a city where the inhabitants are trapped in a collective dream created by the Darklord Tsien Chang. The physical city is run down, but the dream city is glorious but unfinished. The citizens are forced to work in their dreams to make the city perfect. Those who are awake face the threat of starvation and the jiangshi, undead ancestors, who reshape the streets every night to try and match Chang's dreams of perfection.
Kalakeri is a combination of gothic horror and dark fantasy; a domain set in rainforest which should be rich and prosperous but is instead caught in a civil war between its Darklord Ramya, who returned after her assassination by her younger siblings with a corpse legion. She swiftly defeated and killed her treacherous family, only to have them return in their own turn transformed into monstrous creatures. The civil war continues, and the common people try to survive.
Kartakass takes me back; this was the setting for A Feast of Goblyns. A dark fantasy mixed with gothic horror, this is a domain of independent communities, each ruled by a meistersinger. Art and performance are at the heart of everything. Everyone strives for glory, in a land where lycanthropes roam in the light of the full moon. The Darklord Harkon Lukas rules, a legendary performer and loup garou. He seeks adulation for his performances, yet his people cannot remember them well and are constantly distracted by new art. This makes him strive to reinvent himself time after time, often working with young protégés that he encourages until he destroys in his jealously when they get the bulk of the attention.
And there are more described in depth; Lamordia (body and gothic horror, riffing on Frankenstein), Mordent (Ghost stories, home of van Richten and the Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters, linked back to I10 Ravenloft 2), Richemulot (disaster horror and gothic horror as the gnawing plague consumes the people of the domain), Tepest (folk horror with the fey locked into a low key conflict with Mother Lorinda, a hag worshipped by the locals as she protects them in return for the Tithe), and finally Valachan (gothic and slasher horror, with plenty of potential to be lifted for another pulp game, as the Darklord huntress Chakuna hunts sentient prey to preserve her power and protect her people).
There's then a list of nutshell descriptions of another twenty-two domains, all dripping with enough ideas to build upon. I especially like Cyre 1313, the Mourning Rail. This was the last lightning rail out of Metrol, the capital of Cyre, before the country was destroyed. Delayed to allow a mysterious passenger to board, the Mourning overtook the lightning rail and - for some reason - it was drawn into the Mists. The passengers don't know what has happened, only that they are on an endless, desperate escape.
Chapter 3 then moves on to discuss travellers in the Mists. This includes a development of the Keepers of the Feather, first seen in Curse of Strahd. It also has an updated take on the Vistani, which strips out the stereotyping seen before, and presents them as a very viable route for information or even travel between domains. There are a variety of other groups presented as nutshell descriptions including the Church of Ezra (the aloof god of the Mists), the Circle (knights who quest from the Shadowlands domain to slay evil), the Kargat and Kargatane (Darkovian Secret Police and Dhampirs), the Order of Guardians (seekers of dangerous and evil artefacts who imprison their finds in vaults), the Ulmist Inquisition (zealots from the same world as Barovia who seek to destroy evil) and the Priests of Osybus. These last two groups are presented in detail in Chapter 5.
A collection of Mist Wanderers are presented, good and evil, individuals who the characters could meet who may help or hinder them, and perhaps lead them through the Mists. If you've played in the Ravenloft setting before then some of these will be familiar, albeit refreshed. These focus on the backstory, personalities and a few adventure hooks. Rather than providing stat blocks, an existing block is suggested to be reskinned. For example, Ez D'Avenir is an assassin, Erasmus van Richten a ghost, and Rudolph van Richten is priest. All the characters presented are interesting and should prove useful to the DM.
Chapter 4 focuses on guidance on running horror games and suggests establishing what content and themes are acceptable, the style of the game and how to use a Session Zero to draw this all together. There's good advice on the kind of tools that the GM can use to shift pace and make the most out of their game, such as leaving spaces for the players to fill in gaps by deliberately leaving details out. I like the way that it suggests checking back in with players at the end of the session to see how they're feeling, understanding what they feel and how to use that to make the next session better. There's discussion on how to rise the Tarokka Deck and a Spirit Board in adventures to drive a more immersive experience.
The Horror Toolkit section gives advice on using curses, covering their pronouncement, burden and potential resolution, plus giving examples. There are further options for using fear, including giving characters a 'seed of fear' that can potentially drive inspiration, and also the potential to force a save against fear to avoid becoming frightened. There's also a stress mechanic with a score that acts as a negative modifier. Losing stress requires proper rest and relaxation or restoration spells. Haunted traps are covered.
There's an interesting section on Survivors. There are characters of 1st to 3rd level designed for use in a horror scenario that runs for a small number of sessions. Very much like sidekicks, they are weaker than standard characters - these are everyday people drawn into something horrific. There are four base types; apprentices, disciples, sneaks and squires. They have a limited number of extra talents to chose from (desperate scream, anyone?) which may help the survivor last a little longer. They're designed to be expendable and allow players to embrace the drama and threat of the genre without needing to worry about losing a character they're fond of. Imagine being able to play out a session that's effectively a cut scene from the main campaign, such as the bloody wedding when Strahd falls and becomes a Darklord? Rather than find out about it in a lore-dump of exposition, they can experience it!
The chapter rounds out with a haunted house scenario, "The House of Lament". This is designed as an introduction to the domains of dread. The house is a small domain and designed to take a group of first level characters to third level, ending with hooks to draw them further into the Mists. The characters will have a pair of characters from those described in the Mist Wanderers to assist them, should they chose to engage with them. The scenario progression is linked to a set of seances to reveal more of the plot. Overall, I like the scenario and I think that it would make a much better start to a campaign than Death House in Curse of Strahd.
The final chapter covers the Monsters of Ravenloft. It begins by talking about how to make the monsters memorable and how to use tactics and traits to make them more terrifying and dangerous. There's good advice on reskinning monsters from the Monster Manual. And then there's the monster list.
Highlights include the Bodytaker Plant with its Podlings; The Boneless (what did you think had happened to the flesh from that skeleton?); the Dullahan (headless warrior); Loup-garou and Jiangshi; terrifying Necrichors, lich-like beings of ichor; base and brutal Nosferatu; Star Spawn Emissaries, terrifying hostile creatures from alien realms, and Unspeakable Horrors.
The Priests of Osybus get an extended description, nasty necromancers using souls to power their magic. Osybus was a lich destroyed by Strahd (before he went bad and was still a mortal) who may or may not have become a Dark Power. He only fell thanks to the treachery of his priests who allied with Strahd, and he cursed them as he fell. The priests seek to free Strahd from his bounds as they hope that this will allow them to free themselves from the curse placed upon them.
The Ulmist Inquisition are similarly detailed; they originate from the same world as Strahd, and seek out evil and corruption. They are unique as they wield psionic powers in their relentless quest. Often, folk fear them as much as the monsters, as they can be very black and white in their definition of evil.
The book concludes with a full-page graphic of a spirit board.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is an excellent toolkit for horror-based adventures. It refreshes the Mists with a degree of sensitivity but doesn't fail to retain the terror. There is sound advice on playing a safe but horrifying game. The sections of character options and developing a Darklord and their Domain provoke much thought and are very useful. The example Domains of Dread are flavoursome and I could easily imagine using them. The creatures and characters presented for the players to encounter all add something of interest. The artwork is evocative and excellent. Altogether, this is a great setting book, a toolkit for the imagination.
That said, I probably won't draw upon this for my Curse of Strahd campaign, except in small doses. The reason is that it potentially removes some of the trapped claustrophobia of the Barovian setting if used too much, something I've worked hard to build. It's less scary to be trapped in the house with the monster when you know there are potentially multiple ways out and the possibility of powerful allies.
However, that doesn't detract from this being one of the most evocative and flavoursome D&D fifth edition books I've read so far!
6 June 2021
