While at first I wasn’t so excited about Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, I have to say that after picking it up I have quickly grown to love this newest addition to Fifth Edition. An instant favorite for me and a soon-to-be nightmare for my players, this is a book that I can easily see becoming the standout publication of 2021.
The Good
There’s a lot to love about this book for any Dungeon Master playing in 5e. With a wide variety of different tools, resources, and advice, Van Richten’s has something for everyone, no matter what flavor of horror they’re looking for. Focused on the Domains of Dread, an evil dimension of nightmarish realms that serve as both personal kingdom and prison to their evil overlords (entities known as Darklords), Van Richten’s provides a wide variety of potential settings and tools for a horror-themed campaign.
The stand-out section of the book is its chapter on the domains themselves. Seventeen of these nightmarish worlds are detailed, complete with gorgeous maps and spine-tingling potential plotlines, as well as detailed descriptions of the domain’s Darklord and the deeds they committed to find themselves trapped within their own personal hell. Some of my favorites include Falkovina, a domain forever on the verge of being overrun by a zombie horde, Hazlan, a land ruled by sorcerers and slowly disintegrating under the weight of their unchecked experimentation, and Lamordia, a domain dominated by mad science and even madder scientists. Beyond these seventeen well-fleshed out domains, another twenty-two domains are given brief but compelling snippets that practically beg to be expanded upon.
The monsters added in this book are also fantastic. Drawing heavily from horror classics, the book adds some new spins to familiar monsters. The Loup-Garou, for instance, is a werewolf with some interesting twists and the horrific Nosferatu is a fresh take on the vampire for those DMs who like the creatures of the night to be blood-starved abominations as opposed to elegant murderers. For those with a fondness for cinema classics, Bodytaker Plants provide a callback to the classic Night of the Body Snatchers while those looking to recreate the Legend of Sleepy Hollow will appreciate the Dullahan. All in all though, the carrionettes, soul-stealing children’s toys, have to be my favorite for the sheer potential for mayhem they provide.
Beyond those two sections, the book has a lot to offer in terms of tools for developing the campaign. From guides on how to run a horror campaign to rules for creating curses and magical traps, Van Richten’s has a lot packed into its pages. It even has a great set of player options that I’m looking forward to making use of myself, including three new lineages, two sub-class, and whole host of powerful dark gifts. And, as always, the art is incredible. From the monsters to the settings, there are so many eye-catching illustrations in this book drawing on all sorts of horror styles and genres. This is one of my favorite D&D books in terms of the artwork, second only to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, and quite possibly my favorite source book in Fifth Edition so far.
The Bad
All things considered, there’s not a lot of bad I can say about this book, but I do have a few nitpicks. First of all, the book came off as a bit awkward at times when it came to elements of diversity and inclusion. Wizard’s of the Coast has done its very best to make sure that it’s stance on equality and respect is apparent in Van Richten’s, but there were moments where it felt like that was all they were doing when it came to the topic. Their attempts to discourage stereotypes, while certainly a worthy endeavor, sometimes came off feeling like they’d taken the route of least resistance to handling the issue, choosing smug admonishments over actual practical advice. These brief little insertions often felt like afterthoughts that had been added for optics as opposed to a serious effort on Wizard’s of the Coast’s part to address these issues, and while well-intentioned I can’t help but think they could’ve done better.
This tendency to take the path of least resistance also led to some slight weaknesses in the world building, or at the very least a fairly obvious bias in how the settings were imagined. Dark domains that were based on European settings were described as having populations arguably much more diverse then their inspiration, while settings based on cultures outside the west had populations whose physical descriptions were more or less mono-ethnic. The book notes that Dark Domains operate on their own logic and regularly kidnap people from all over the various worlds of D&D, but the obvious discrepancy between western and non-western inspired domains was very obvious and had no in-universe explanation. Keep in mind I don’t hate this decision. I understand why it was made and I do very much agree with the intentions, but it did come off feeling like lazy writing at times, with the standout exception being how this was handled for the domain of Barovia.
A gothic horror setting that borrows quite a bit from the Dracula mythos, Barovia is noted for having a very visually diverse population whose ancestors came from the nations that its Darklord, Strad Von Zarovich, had conquered before his fall into madness and undeath. This information appears only briefly as a single small line of text, but I found it made for a massive improvement. Suddenly the diversity of the region was an interesting part of its history rather than just being handwaved away as ‘because it’s fantasy.’ And all it took was one sentence, which for me at least raised the question why the writers couldn’t have done similar things for some of the other domains. It’s not a major issue (like I said I get the reasoning behind it) but it felt like a real wasted opportunity.
Finally I dislike the removal of alignment from NPCs and monster stat blocks. While not essential, alignments were useful for gauging the basic impulse or habits of a creature or character, especially in cases where the descriptions and lore felt lacking. Once again, I understand the motivations behind removing alignments, but I feel that there are places where having that information can be useful so I would personally like to see them return. Beyond this, the only complaint I have is that the book wasn’t longer.
Conclusion
While there’s an odd edge or two that could have used some smoothing out, all in all, I can say the Van Richten’s is a great book that will no doubt see plenty of use in my games for years to come. With a bit of everything and a lot of solid writing, this is an easy five out of five.
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