Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.
Ravenloft. The domains of Dread. Count Strahd von Zarovich. These names are known well in the arena of Dungeons and Dragons. The Curse of Strahd, in my opinion, is one of the best campaign settings out there. It has the right amount of tension built into the story, where the player/characters are never far from a visit from the ruler of Barovia. Wizards made the decision to expand upon the lore of the domains of Dread, to enrich the knowledge of the many DM's and players out there that love horror in all its varied forms. Ravenloft has a rich history with the original Vampire Strahd as he appeared in the Ravenloft novels, novels that included the likes of Lord Soth from the Dragonlance books. Wizards have taken this premise and run with it, creating a new Realm for DM's and players to explore.
Within these pages, you will find new options for new lineages, new takes on supernatural beginnings that allow the creation of the Dhampir, the Hexblood, and the Reborn. For the uninitiated, that means creating a half-vampire, a witch of sorts, and your own version of the Frankenstein monster. There have been changes here from the initial UA versions that D&D put out but they remain, at their core, much as they were. Beyond these, there are the new sub-classes, the Undead Warlock, and the Bard's College of Spirits. Here we come to one of the most interesting parts of this section, The Dark Gifts. The Dark powers that linger in the mists between each domain can bestow gifts upon those that roam the lands but they do not come without potential 'consequences'. These 'gifts' can add a new and interesting element to your games but they can easily complicate your player's lives, something that often occurs in Ravenloft. Again there are slight variations from the UA but they remain interesting new sub-classes to try out. There is one new background, the Investigator, and some new options to the backgrounds that may prove interesting to players looking for a change. All of this is merely the prologue to, what I feel, are the best parts of this tome.
Creating the Domains of Dread. Here there are the details needed to create your own domain of dread for your players and it all begins with your Darklord. Provided within are a number of options to customize them to your liking, the level of detail interesting given what you may have in mind for your games. Beyond this you begin the creation of the domain itself, again there are options provided to make this easy for you. As a continuation, we enter the particular genres of horror within the tome. This will give you ideas on what kind of horror you want in your games, tailoring it again to your own tastes. My personal choice has to run to Fantasy horror or cosmic horror but there are some great options beyond these traditional choices that I would recommend considering. Beyond this lays the section on the existing domains of Dread, many described in great detail and giving you insight into many particular genres of horror. It is clear by how much detail has been put into these that their creators clearly love the respective genres. As well as the domains there is a section here on characters that can be found roaming the mists, some good, some bad, but all of them of interest. It is a good section to learn more about the titular Van Richten and the newly named Ez D'Avenir, along with a few others that have popped up in other books.
The next section delves into running your horror game, advice given on how to let your games unfold, and approaching those that may have specific triggers when involved in such games. This section includes an inbuilt adventure called the House of Lament that you can run through as a test run or even a prologue to your own adventures. After this, we move onto the monsters and one of the most interesting ideas I've heard of. The bagman. Talk about the creep factor, would not want to wake up to that in-game or out of it.
This is easily one of my favourite new books for 5E. It has some great new options and opens up Ravenloft in interesting ways. If you want to discover more you can easily check out the videos on youtube by D&D beyond or Todd Kendrick. They both cover the book wonderfully. I personally recommend Kendrick's interviews with Amanda Hamon, her love of the book and the genres comes shining through wonderfully.
Hope you gamers and horror buffs give this tome a look.
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