D&D‘s Guide to Ravenloft: Magical Disaster Horrors Await Players

It ’s almost meter to settle onto the apprehensiveness demi - planer of Ravenloft and its many realms when Dungeons & Dragons release its latest sourcebook , Van Richten ’s Guide to Ravenloft . There ’s so much more to the horror of Ravenloft than what ourdear friend Strahdis up to though . io9 has a stool pigeon peek inside just one of those new spooky land and spoke to senior D&D game designer Wes Schneider to bump out more .

The fresh sourcebook let players adventure beyond Strahd Von Zarovich ’s lands in the iconic realm of Barovia — already well - mined in Fifth Edition’sCurse of Strahd — and into over 30 other domain of dread in the sheet of Ravenloft . Each offers gamers a different turn of events on horror themes and musical style , from the masquerade costume of Dementlieu to Viktra Mordheim ’s ice automaton horror in Lamordia — but if you ’re appear for something a little more spellbinding , io9 is aroused to give you a first look at Hazlan , a land of disaster and unflinching wizardry might . hold in out Guide to Ravenloft ’s determine up for Hazlan below , as well as some unbelievable , giant - sized art for the realm by Robin Olausson !

Domain Doomed by Magic

Look, they just want to ask you a question.

Look, they just want to ask you a question.Image: Robin Olausson/Wizards of the Coast

Darklord : Hazlik

genre : dour illusion and disaster horror

Hallmarks : Amoral spellcasters , magic - ravaged surroundings , magical experiements , wild magic

Image: Robin Olausson/Wizards of the Coast

Image: Robin Olausson/Wizards of the Coast

Mist Talismans : Eye of Hazlik amulet , gremishka fundament , fleck from a red robe

In Hazlan , conjuration is authority , justification for any excess , and — for those without it — the ghost of inevitable day of reckoning . This domain is less a body politic than a Brobdingnagian witching laboratory , whose wizard overlord Hazlik views every being as either an apprentice or a test matter . He conscript those he acknowledges as lesser thaumaturgist into performing elaborate magical experiments , twisting the cloth of trick and reality until it disturbance . These experiments interminably scar a domain enfeeble of vitality , torment by magical disasters , and overrun with abomination . The heavy wounds affect the invisible flows of magic underpinning the ground , turning it erratic and life-threatening .

Wizards , sorcerers , and spellcasters of all sorts beware , if your company venture away into Hazlan ! To hear more about the inspirations behind Hazlik ’s dread domain and Guide to Ravenloft ’s approach to revulsion roleplay , io9 demand senior D&D game fashion designer Wes Schneider a few questions over email . turn back out the full audience below !

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James Whitbrook , io9 : What can you state us about the ideation process for Hazlan ?

Wes Schneider : Hazlan ’s a great example of a Ravenloft domain where the “ technology ” behind its repugnance conception has improved since its origin . At its root word , Hazlan is a creepy magocracy ruled by Hazlik , a petty champion overlord . But since the ‘ 90s , our corporate mental imagery have expanded on what an vicious magic dystopia might take care like . If nothing else , the number of dystopian future and post - apocalyptic repugnance films have exploded since then . D&D also has the wonderful secret plan trope of “ a champion did it . ” Who made this keep ? Why are fiends invade ? Where did owlbears come from ? A star did it . At its philia , Hazlan is a confluence of these concepts . Hosts of unrivaled , amoral wizard - tyrants did it . Did what ? Everything .

Hazlan is a area where anything wizards could do they ’ve done to the extreme point , and they ’re still doing it , all in the name of sorcerous discovery and with the effects scarring the realm ’s masses and land . This make it the domain for all style of uncanny monsters , amoral experimentation , sorcerous transmission , affected weather , give reality , meteor showers , mutations , disasters , and so much more . Writer Jessica Ross act upon with the team on this domain and bring some delightfully demoralise idea about vicious wizardly schemes and world - wide calamity to the table . This variety all came together with Jared Blando ’s incredibly flakey map to make Hazlan one of the most vibrant and varied of the Domains of Dread .

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io9 : There ’s dozens and dozens of dread realm in Ravenloft . What was the pitching physical process like to sort out the item beyond the realms already previously overcompensate in preceding D&D source ?

Schneider : Fear changes over time . Thehorror front of judgment in the ‘ 80sand ‘ 90s is not the same fair we ’re find out in frighteningfilms and fabrication today . Rather than focalize on the same panic of decades by , we wanted to make room for a broader sweep of horror . The Domains of Dread have dateless room , specially for all that ’s come before , but we also wanted to explore what D&D horror looks like when it pits characters against endless zombie hordes , environmental disasters , folk horror threats , and other terror popularized in late years . In some case , exist domains made natural configurations for these concepts , but other concepts solicit for their own completely new domains .

io9 : When you ’re coming up with the short - and - sharp apparatus for realms like this , what other tools will Ravenloft give to players and dungeon masters to flesh out preferences that get this bite - sized treatment ?

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Schneider : Van Richten ’s Guide to Ravenloft has a whole chapter on create your own domains and Darklords . With some of the shorter domains in the book , we ship reader off on a certain path , but where it leads is theirs to discover . With the wide-ranging discourse on create revulsion adventures theme around specific genre and hundreds of refer ideas for story elements , DMs will chance a wealth of detail to help them flesh out survive domains or their own creations .

io9 : You ’ve antecedently speak about Ravenloft including shaft for players to moderate and run consensually agreed upon material at the tabular array . Can you tell us a little more about how those rules align with Ravenloft ’s repugnance storytelling , and WOTC ’s attack to expanding on “ sitting zero ” guides like this in succeeding cloth ?

Schneider : In large part , it ’s as simple as not pee-pee someone sit through a picture show they do n’t want to see . If there ’s a case of repugnance motion-picture show I do n’t care , I wo n’t go see it . Or , if I missed the poke and a film takes a turn I ’m not interested in , I can walk out . I ’m whole in control of most of my horror spiritualist experiences . ( exponent buttons are a heck of a index stumble . ) Things get a picayune crafty when your repugnance experience is a group of collaborate players , when there is no trailer , and when the story has the potential to unfold in any potential elbow room . So players do n’t feel run aground in unexpected or uncomfortable situations , we supply a framework for groups to discuss horror and be upfront about what they do and do n’t need to see in a game . Moreover , we talk about how to adjust those expectations once a campaign ’s begin started — even midgame if need be . In the best scenarios , groups wo n’t need these alternative , but if an adventure does take an unexpected turn , we want to make trusted players can quickly adjust and get right back to the biz .

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