Dungeons & Dragons Van Richten’s Guide To Ravenloft Review

We review the new Dungeons & Dragons Van Richten’s Guide To Ravenloft book released on May 18, 2021. This is part 2 of 2 for this release and it gets a little spicy in this review for all the various changes made in this edition.

[@spedwyrm7427]

The material was presented for an audience drawn from the newer generations of professional victims in training. The movements and industries pushing the changing of definitions and boundaries have outright stated on occasion that known franchises and recognizable names are only the vehicle for their message, nothing more (show runner and producer of Batwoman comes to mind). The earlier editions will be far more sought after in the coming years because of this.
The current state of 5th edition is the social and safety padded evolution of the pen & paper World of Warcraft knock off that was 4th edition. Look for the homogenized races and classes to follow with a focus on rewarding perpetual victimization and failure as a new progression model to join the Individual XP gain, Milestone leveling, and now...failing upward to 20th...

[@TwistedTentacleInn]

I agree with all of your sentiments regarding the gender swapping, "safety tools", and lack of detail for the domains.
All that said, though , I thought this book had a ton of material that has inspired me for my games. Overall it was one of my favorite books for 5e so far, despite it's shortcomings and annoying social justice stuff.
- The Innkeeper

[@spedwyrm7427]

Maybe they couldn't find a lycanthrope representation without just transplanting the shifters from Eberron.