About a year ago I asked on the official Ravenloft subreddit (or the closest thing to it), if anyone knew if Wizards of the Coast would ever bring Ravenloft fully back to Dungeons and Dragons. Curse of Strahd in my view was a great release, but in my view it was just an amped up version of i6 Ravenloft. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in the early 1990’s, and one of the first sets to really catch me, and the one I ran most of my campaigns in was 2^nd edition Ravenloft. Needless to say I wanted to have access to the setting, without having to jump through the difficult conversion process from 2^nd or 3^rd edition to 5^th.

I guess I’m not the only one who demanded a full Ravenloft, because a few months back Wizards of the Coast announced Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. I’d like to say to much fanfare, but also apparently to much controversy. The new book does seem to ret-con certain events like the death of Rudolph van Richten (who dies in the Bleak House module), and places him in the timeline of this book. Also, rather than a full continent as Ravenloft was before the editors appear to have made each Darklord’s domain an island in the mist, but one that can be left. These are little things to me, and can be adjusted in play.

The book itself is rather interesting. The 2^nd edition Ravenloft, much like what we have here is a “low-fantasy” setting for much of the book, so there is a character creation section spelling out how to adjust your character for play in Ravenloft, or create a new horror based character such as a Dhampir, Hexblood, or Reborn. There are also 2 subclass options here the College of Spirits for Bards and the Undead for Warlocks. Another rather interesting section here goes into creation of your own customized Domains of Dread, including darkload, and based on horror genre.

Having been deep into the mythology of Ravenloft and read many (but not all) of the books as a teenager, the section on the Domains of Dread themselves was the most interesting and the one I keep going back to. Each existing domain in Ravenloft gets a section on the nature of the domain, its main attractions such as cities, its populous, and of course its darklord. There are also seeds for adventures that can take place in each.

The 4^th chapter of the book discusses how to run a horror adventure in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, the tools at your disposal including the Tarokka deck and spirit board, haunted traps, curses, and more. In this section is also a short adventure called the House of Lament that looks to be a fun, chilling adventure that should be easy to set up and run. Chapter 5 of the book is a section on the monsters on Ravenloft, some of them are used in the House of Lament, but others can be used in your own home brew Ravenloft adventures. The final page includes a spirit board that can be photocopied and used as part of your game.

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is an excellent book, as a Ravenloft devotee going back decades I can say it’s not quite enough, but I am happy it’s hear, and I can say it will get me started running games in the Demiplane of Dread again. Hopefully in the near future. I can’t help, but say this comes highly recommended.