Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons): 1

As a complete novice to Ravenloft and the dark domains, I found this sourcebook accessible, highly imaginative and brimming with good ideas for scaring the bejeesus out of my party.I particularly enjoyed the second chapter: on establishing horror settings, the varieties of horror, how to avoid overdone tropes. The guidance on setting expectations with players, so as to avoid wandering into personal phobias and areas of distress or trauma was also great. A good scare means different things to different people after all!The monster options were also very useful! I've already incorporated a carrionette into a plotline involving a body swap with a beloved NPC. Excited to play with the rest.A couple of new subclasses appear too, but only 1 each for bards and warlocks. And I smiled when I recognised one from the current Critical Role campaign.I highly recommend this book for those trying to explore horror in their games or settings for the first time, or who want some intriguing or original setting ideas for contained mini-arcs in their campaign. Or who want to run a one-shot that leaves very few survivors!Also, full disclosure, I saw a lot of adorably angry reviews about how bad and woke this book was that honestly made me want it even more. Upsetting the sort of people that can be seen yelling below is usually a sign of high quality, in my experience.

Love it, as a big fan of ravenloft and Straud I enjoy adding a little scary stuff into campaigns and this is good as a guide for that.It's definitely useful for DM's who are newer to horror style games and has good pointers for picking a genre of horror, it's also good for more experienced DM's as it can be thought provoking within how you use horror elements in your normal games.It does highlight at several points to check with your players that they are comfortable with that kind of content since it's easy to add something they might have issues with, which I think is really cool as it might not occur to some people until you're playing.

What is not to like. Along with the book of monsters it gave me everything I needed to complete a gothic adventure for my group.

I bought this on a whim, partly because I had most of the other 5e books, but not so much the campaign guides (so haven't read the Ravincia, Ebberon, or Exandria ones, but have Spelljammer and Planescape), and partly because I enjoy using the monsters and other aspects.As a resource I think it's great. There's lots of good material on running horror campaigns of all flavours, about solid session zeroes, how to create atmosphere etc. The horror themed backgrounds, races, subclasses etc were useful especially if combined with the Dark Domains. They occupy a fair chunk of the book, along with supporting NPCs, and would be useful for both one shots and campaigns where some overall arc encourages migration from one to another (like the liveplay Black Dice Society did). The score or so of settings are very broad in their horror contexts (gothic especially, some body and cosmic, some survival horror) and each 6-8 page setting has a map (some better than others), and adventure hook ideas. The NPC mist walkers help flesh out the links between them, which I liked as an addition, as do the organisations that spread across the Domains.The section on curses and cursed traps was entertaining, and threw a novel twist suitable for horror settings. The Bestiary is always my favourite and there's a good selection of CR, and some excellent entries here (jumping vampires, Uber tough Werewolves, star spawn emissaries, vampiric mindflayers). I always want more monsters though!Would I use it? perhaps not as a L1-20 campaign as horror as a sole style gets unrelenting. I'd use it perhaps as part of a Planescape campaign where they get perhaps level 5- 8 here, as I think that's the power level where you could create exciting threat without risk of likely death. The level 1-3 adventure is very enjoyable if reminiscent of The Murder House in Curse of Strahd.Perhaps for those very invested in Ravenloft as a 2e setting (I ran the original module in the 80s but had stopped playing by the time 2nd hit) it may be a miss, but for a modern DM I think it provides enough to easily build upon.

Want to add depth to your villain or do you want to create a horror theme adventure? This book is perfect for taking away the over the top action with most adventures in D&D and cut it back to the basics and being afraid. So much history and so much advice on how to make your own dark lords and horror themed areas.

This book is absolutely amazing for my horror campaigns and includes some awesome monsters and more stuff about domains of dread overall a 10/10 from me

New book to add to the other half's collection - and a worthy addition at that, got it at a good price, only downside is it was a misprinted copy! The cover is slightly ruined but he loves that it is unique and enjoys a miss print so weirdly that is a plus! Ha

Brilliant for any Gameplayer/master to gain an understanding of the worlds or mists of the shadow lands