D&D General New Ravenloft Novel Heir of Strahd Coming Soon

Let's remember this is "action horror" and this should mean the heroic monster-hunters have to survive to appear in the next stories but the rest of characters can be terminated.

How have the recent D&D novels fared (quality wise)? I haven't touched a D&D novel in years.

Cergorach said:

How have the recent D&D novels fared (quality wise)? I haven't touched a D&D novel in years.

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I’ve only read the HAT prequel novel, but that was quite good.

Cergorach said:

How have the recent D&D novels fared (quality wise)? I haven't touched a D&D novel in years.

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I enjoyed The Fallbacks - had a nice blend of recognizable, likable D&D party characters and tropes with a few unique hooks. I particularly liked the Cleric who prayed to whichever God he felt was likely to answer him for a given situation and negotiate with them.

Paul Farquhar said:

He traded his pipe organ for a drum kit, and now he wants to get down with the cool kids, so he has invited them round for a jam session.

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A Flock of Seagulls was busy so he got who he could

From the description this seems very much like it will focus on the multiple members of the D&D party as opposed to the gothic horror villain, which seems a departure for Ravenloft novels which have generally focused on either the tragic villain or one protagonist who interacts with the villain.

As if Dracula were titled The Men Who Love Mina Harker. The English Lord, The Rugged Outsider American, The Protective Fatherly Doctor, Her Husband.

Voadam said:

From the description this seems very much like it will focus on the multiple members of the D&D party as opposed to the gothic horror villain, which seems a departure for Ravenloft novels which have generally focused on either the tragic villain or one protagonist who interacts with the villain.

As if Dracula were titled The Men Who Love Mina Harker. The English Lord, The Rugged Outsider American, The Protective Fatherly Doctor, Her Husband.

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The "Great Man" theory is dead, Jim.

As I said in the previous thread about this: LOOOOOOLLLLLL Gothic Horror.

Voadam said:

From the description this seems very much like it will focus on the multiple members of the D&D party as opposed to the gothic horror villain, which seems a departure for Ravenloft novels which have generally focused on either the tragic villain or one protagonist who interacts with the villain.

As if Dracula were titled The Men Who Love Mina Harker. The English Lord, The Rugged Outsider American, The Protective Fatherly Doctor, Her Husband.

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I mean, have to READ Dracula? It's a all written as journal entries and news snippets from the protagonists. Dracula barely is in the second half of the novel.

Remathilis said:

I mean, have to READ Dracula? It's a all written as journal entries and news snippets from the protagonists. Dracula barely is in the second half of the novel.

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To be fair, Ravenloft novels have often heavily featured Strahd. And while he isn't the protagonist of Dracula, he gets plenty of moments of dialogue and action (the whole opening is Harker being his guest at Dracula's Castle). So you get a lot of Dracula at the start. But that is a fair point. I don't think the issue is how much screen time Strahd gets or not (some Gothic Horror the villains looms, some the villain is the focus). It is more about the attitude. To me it looks more like an urban fantasy cover or something like Buffy. To me someone mentioned YA, and I think that is spot on. Most of us old Ravenloft fans came of age before Harry Potter, and all the YA style works that followed. I get that YA is huge now. And so maybe it does make fiscal sense to go after that market. But this isn't a tone I would want from a Ravenloft book. I think most of the older Ravenloft fans, even ones who would otherwise be arguing with each other over DoD versus Red or Black Box), are having a very similar reaction to this cover art. Some are having an easier or harder time looking past that cover. The cover does seem to be prompting a pretty similar response