Jester's Review of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

[Jester of the FoS]

Posted the full review on my blog HERE.

Final Thoughts
(Aka TL;DFR)

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is a Ravenloft campaign setting for people who liked the idea of Ravenloft but disliked the past execution. It’s a Ravenloft book for people who hated Ravenloft.

It’s certainly possible to reconcile the old and the new. I’ve seen several threads and discussions in various Ravenloft communities where they try to pretend the next book is an update and force the old lore into it. Or suggest taking the best ideas and incorporating them into the old setting. I’m less a fan of this approach because it requires you to heavily rewrite the entire setting; which is a lot of work, and defeats the purpose of purchasing a pre-written world (i.e. saving time and energy). If I had wanted to write my own custom version of Ravenloft, I would have done so a decade ago. (Heck, when I wrote Heroes of the Mists, I purposely chose NOT to rewrite the world and make as few changes as necessary.)

Reading the book, I was reminded of the 4th Edition update of the Forgotten Realms; Wizards of the Coast also radically reworked that setting to arbitrarily fix the authors’ pet peeves. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft feels very similar in terms of being a revision rather than an update. Only moreso, because instead of having the changes be the result of a Realm Shaking Event they just rolled back the timeline and declared that the world was always that way; instead of having Chessenta in the Realms replaced by Akanûl, Chessenta was always a land of earthmotes populated by genasi. It’s the year 1357 DR again, but Drizzt and the original Companions of the Hall are running around alongside Havilar and Farideh of Brimstone Angels, as well as Minsc & Boo.

All the old continuity, novels, and adventures? No longer canon. That time you spent learning the lore? Wasted. (Well… it was always arguably not time well spent. But now it’s extra useless.)

For established Ravenloft fans, this book offers little. There are no darklord stat blocks. No new races. Only a handful of monsters, with a full third of the 23 new types being brand new. It offers very little to convert the content you already own, instead providing replacement lore altering the content you already own. Skip the book and just buy individual options on dndbeyond.

If you’re a classic Ravenloft fan who loves Victor Mordenheim and were looking forward to updating Adam’s Wrath to 5e, well your taste in darklords is bad and you should feel bad.

For readers who never owned or consumed any of the old setting material then NONE of the above matters. Not remotely. For you, this book is the only Ravenloft. If you want a horror themed version of Dungeons & Dragons, then this is fine. Adequate. It provides plenty of tools for horror one-shots where your party is snatched up by the Mists, confronts a darklord (although not necessarily in combat), and then escapes. You could even try a campaign in the Mists, bouncing from domain to domain, confronting the major menaces of each before fleeing into the Mists. There’s ample tools and advice for creating horror campaigns as well as giving your characters a touch of corruption. It has cool additions like the survivor rules, fear seeds, curses, and haunted traps. However, it is really dragged down by the lack of stat blocks for darklords who should be unique monsters with lairs and legendary actions but instead might just be a CR 5 wraith who can cast a single mid-level spell.

[Baron Von Stanton]

I haven't seen such a scathing sendup since Baator held that weenie roast in Astaroth's honor.

[Hell_Born]

Yeah, just... yeah. I've not had the courage to put my own thoughts on this book down, but largely they interlock with Jester's. I concede there are some domains here I do like - Kalakeri is actually a pretty interesting domain, and both Har'Akir and I'Cath are much improved - but largely what ideas here are good are undermined by the fact that they needlessly retconned pre-existing domains when they could have worked just fine as brand new domains - the rewritten Dementlieu and Falkovnia are particularly strong examples here. Even the inclusion of a dhampir PC race, a first in Ravenloft history, is undermined by just how badly it's executed.

I am not exactly the most conventional D&D fan, or especially the most conventional Ravenloft fan. I liked 4th edition, and frankly I prefer Grim Hollow for my D&D Dark Fantasy Setting needs to Ravenloft exactly as written. And even I think that this book is an absolute mess of pointless retcons and badly done rewrites, too many of which feel like they were motivated more for Twitter brownie points than anything related to actually improving the setting.

This book could have been great. It's not. And it grinds my gears that on sites like RPG dot net, we have people showering it in praise for making an utter hashjob of it, just because it ticks the politically correct checkboxes.

I've personally called this book "Curse of Strahd 2.0: The Setting Version". That's not a compliment, and it's never been one. Frankly, I think 4th edition's "Fair Barovia" and its Kalidnay update showed more respect to Ravenloft than this book has done.

I really don't recommend this book if you're a Ravenloft fan, unless you want to steal I'Cath and graft it into a new "oriental adventures" cluster with Rokushima Taiyoo, which would be much closer to the spirit of old Ravenloft. Just stick with old lore, homebrew, and Quoth the Raven.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

The responses to this book have been muted. When Tasha’s came out during the “orcs are racist” debacle, you couldn’t move for discussions on Facebook or forums. With this, Facebook is dead, only Polygon, one of the worst websites out there, has had an article.

It feels like people who would normally push something for being “progressive” are avoiding commenting because the book is demonstrably not good compared to other Ravenloft books. They know they can’t crow about Vladeska, Viktra or Sadira because they are inferior to Vlad, Victor and Dominic. It’s sort of proof that genderflipping isn’t enough, and that there needs to be substance to what you’re writing.

Maybe the lesson is hire writers and not your friends?

[Igor the Henchman]

I think the responses have been muted because WotC's regular D&D audience genuinely doesn't know what to make of this weird book.

People who were expecting new material to enhance their upcoming/ongoing Curse of Strahd games are discovering that it has none of that. People who got excited about new horror character options, rules, and magic items got maybe ten pages of stuff, most of it previously seen on Unearthed Arcana. People who expected fully statted horror villains got "Strahd has statistics similar to those of a vampire" and little else. Instead, most of the page count is taken up by those weird new "domain" things that look like mini-campaign settings but not quite? Who's this Azalin bloke? What's this about "genres"?

This is a new, mostly unfamiliar type of D&D book for 5E fans, so many are probably still taking it in, undecided if they like it or not. At least that's my theory.

[Mistmaster]

Posted the full review on my blog HERE.

Final Thoughts
(Aka TL;DFR)

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is a Ravenloft campaign setting for people who liked the idea of Ravenloft but disliked the past execution. It’s a Ravenloft book for people who hated Ravenloft.

It’s certainly possible to reconcile the old and the new. I’ve seen several threads and discussions in various Ravenloft communities where they try to pretend the next book is an update and force the old lore into it. Or suggest taking the best ideas and incorporating them into the old setting. I’m less a fan of this approach because it requires you to heavily rewrite the entire setting; which is a lot of work, and defeats the purpose of purchasing a pre-written world (i.e. saving time and energy). If I had wanted to write my own custom version of Ravenloft, I would have done so a decade ago. (Heck, when I wrote Heroes of the Mists, I purposely chose NOT to rewrite the world and make as few changes as necessary.)

Reading the book, I was reminded of the 4th Edition update of the Forgotten Realms; Wizards of the Coast also radically reworked that setting to arbitrarily fix the authors’ pet peeves. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft feels very similar in terms of being a revision rather than an update. Only moreso, because instead of having the changes be the result of a Realm Shaking Event they just rolled back the timeline and declared that the world was always that way; instead of having Chessenta in the Realms replaced by Akanûl, Chessenta was always a land of earthmotes populated by genasi. It’s the year 1357 DR again, but Drizzt and the original Companions of the Hall are running around alongside Havilar and Farideh of Brimstone Angels, as well as Minsc & Boo.

All the old continuity, novels, and adventures? No longer canon. That time you spent learning the lore? Wasted. (Well… it was always arguably not time well spent. But now it’s extra useless.)

For established Ravenloft fans, this book offers little. There are no darklord stat blocks. No new races. Only a handful of monsters, with a full third of the 23 new types being brand new. It offers very little to convert the content you already own, instead providing replacement lore altering the content you already own. Skip the book and just buy individual options on dndbeyond.

If you’re a classic Ravenloft fan who loves Victor Mordenheim and were looking forward to updating Adam’s Wrath to 5e, well your taste in darklords is bad and you should feel bad.

For readers who never owned or consumed any of the old setting material then NONE of the above matters. Not remotely. For you, this book is the only Ravenloft. If you want a horror themed version of Dungeons & Dragons, then this is fine. Adequate. It provides plenty of tools for horror one-shots where your party is snatched up by the Mists, confronts a darklord (although not necessarily in combat), and then escapes. You could even try a campaign in the Mists, bouncing from domain to domain, confronting the major menaces of each before fleeing into the Mists. There’s ample tools and advice for creating horror campaigns as well as giving your characters a touch of corruption. It has cool additions like the survivor rules, fear seeds, curses, and haunted traps. However, it is really dragged down by the lack of stat blocks for darklords who should be unique monsters with lairs and legendary actions but instead might just be a CR 5 wraith who can cast a single mid-level spell.

I AM writing my own custom version of Ravenloft, and I always thought prewitten settings purpose is working as a basis to built something different. I will loot it for interesting fluff.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Thank you! a very useful review to know if to buy it or not. But I am missing some words about Hazlan, about the new(?) rules on magic/wild magic. Are they good, interesting or indifferent?

[Thrackazoggg]

From the review...

But this book goes a step farther referring to Ez “replacing her leg with a splendid prosthetic after a werewolf attack.” Emphasis added. Wizards of the Coast really, really want readers to know they’re sorry for even accidentally implying people should be ashamed for having an artificial limb. You can almost picture the author proudly gesturing to the page like a child eager for praise and a pat on the head.

I’m sorry WotC. The people attacking you on Twitter for ableism aren’t going to stop. They’ll just find some other reason to be mad at you. Online critics who have found an audience from being anti-D&D aren’t going to change their position.

Can't begin to explain how ***** a take this is.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

MOD NOTE: Thrackazoggg please be mindful of your language and your tone. We have rules here to encourage civil discussion. Disagree with Jester's take, that's fine. Don't hurl insults at it, or by extension, Jester himself.

[Jester of the FoS]

From the review...

But this book goes a step farther referring to Ez “replacing her leg with a splendid prosthetic after a werewolf attack.” Emphasis added. Wizards of the Coast really, really want readers to know they’re sorry for even accidentally implying people should be ashamed for having an artificial limb. You can almost picture the author proudly gesturing to the page like a child eager for praise and a pat on the head.

I’m sorry WotC. The people attacking you on Twitter for ableism aren’t going to stop. They’ll just find some other reason to be mad at you. Online critics who have found an audience from being anti-D&D aren’t going to change their position.

Can't begin to explain how ***** a take this is.

Removing the line about Ez hiding her prosthetic leg was fine. I support that heartily.
But that like really jumped out. Has anyone ever described a prosthetic leg as "splendid"? It's such a weird choice of adjective.
It's very much a purposeful line meant draw attention to the treatment of Ez.

Most of WotC's critics are reasonable and will acknowledge their efforts. Even without "splendid prosthetics."
But having spent time on Twitter in the past there's quite a few who won't care. They hate WotC and nothing the company does to try and make things right. They'll only see the flaws and failures.
WotC can bend over backwards to rewrite problematic passages, increase diversity, and present positive examples. And Tweeters will still call out #FireMikeMearls, invoke Orion Black, or claim WotC is ableist, racist, homophobic and more.

With VRGtR WotC is trying really, really hard to garner positive publicity and silence their critics. But that won't work. The critics have their audience of people following them because they hate WotC; taking back their criticisms or even praising WotC will cost them followers and clout. It risks their audience. So they'll just double down on the hate.

Which really upsets me because they spent far more time trying to win over their detractors and silence their critics than focusing on the fans. On us. Seeking the praise was a more important goal.

[Igor the Henchman]

I think WotC understands that it's pointless to pander to one's detractors, or to try to silence one's critics. The best way to fight a bad narrative about your company is to create a counter-narrative. That's what they're trying to do.

And it's working. You can easily find dozens of questionable decisions to criticize in this book, yet its "wokeness" is all the Internet is talking about right now.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I've only read the reviews of VRGtR here, but I haven't caught much buzz about WotC being especially enlightened at my other venues.

[Igor the Henchman]

You may be right. My observations are based on the online articles, reddit, this board, and some twitter. Mostly it's the topic of Ezmeralda and changes to her character that keeps popping up again and again. I guess many Curse of Strahd veterans really like her.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The veteran monster hunter's apprentice often strikes a chord with audiences. Especially if overcoming a less than stellar past.

[Matthew L. Martin]

You may be right. My observations are based on the online articles, reddit, this board, and some twitter. Mostly it's the topic of Ezmeralda and changes to her character that keeps popping up again and again. I guess many Curse of Strahd veterans really like her.

I get the feeling that VRGtRL is going to be to CoS what the Black Box was to I6 and I10. Since I found CoS unimpressive on a readthrough, it's no surprise that I'm cold to most of what I've seen and heard about VRGtRL as well.