As a collector of 2nd and 3rd Ed Ravenloft, I find the 5th Ed book a mixed bag, though mostly positive overall. It's just the things I don't like really stick out to me. I hate how the Core no longer/never existed, so all domains are their on private prisons that thus have no interaction/trade/politics- I get that isolation can be a big horror theme, but if the players are stuck in one domain the whole time it eventually turns every single adventure into 'kill the Darklord and escape'. I liked how 3rd especially emphasized that it was still possible for the commoners to live a good normal safe life in most domains despite the dangers; now all domains have their hellishness ramped up so everything is a miserable slog for everyone, always. Except Mordent. Mordent is still fairly nice. I mean, I actually think it's kind cool that Lamordia is much more steampunkish and more about using technology to stay alive against nature's harshness, but they made it a little TOO harsh for my tastes- winter lasting half a year I could tolerate, but like 9-10 months out of the year? God I hate all the retcons (well, ALMOST all). Rewriting so much history just because you didn't write it yourself is an understandable use, but it so rarely succeeds. I'm liberal but all of the race/gender swapping feels lazy. More diversity isn't bad, but just create new domains? Gothic Horror IS based on European literature and culture, is it so surprising that works based on it have predominantly European facades? I'd definitely keep Mordenhiem a man, but I DO like that they made the doctor the Darklord rather than the monster- it was after all him that committed the evil act. I'd also give the 'new' Elise Adam's evil personality, to help torment Victor that 'his' Elise really is dead and the one he created isn't really her. Likewise, I like the Reniers of Richemulot being a long line of wererats in stead of Jackie being a human who got cursed. I guess a lot of this rant is just 'I like the old versions better and would almost always use them instead'. I do like how they did chapter on different kinds of Horror, and other chapters on the new versions of Curses and Dark Powers Checks work. I like the Lineages, Bckgrounds, Monsters, and Subclasses. I like how the three non-European domains (Har'Akir, I'Cath, and Sri Raji/Kalakeri) are VASTLY improved. On the flip side I think new Falkovnia RUINS the whole point of the old one. It's SUPPOSED to be about purely human evil, a zombie apocalypse doesn't belong there, of all domains DARKON arguably shouldn't been the one suffering from zombies. I guess the writers were big fans of The Walking Dead, which actually does combine both themes fairly well from what I hear. I actually never liked the Carnival, I would have preferred a full write-up of the New Orleans domain of Souragne instead. But there's still hope they'll do a second book that flesh out the domains they skipped this time. Um... this turned into a long rant. I guess I just wanted to really express myself. And I end us basically re-writing my amazon review. If you're a never player/DM who has no pre-conceived ideas of what Ravenloft should be, you'll probably get more out of it than I did- though mechanically I did still like almost everything; it's just the rewriting of the previous canon and really REALLY bugs me.
I wish they have used the same page-count of other books like Icewind Dale to flesh out the realms more. I don't like that they changed established domains for PC reasons.... why not make up some new realms? I was disappointed they left out the stats for the dread-lords They could have had additive-stats... If you are level 5, heres what Strahd is like... if you are at level 10 add this.... and so on. So, at level 5 you can drive Strahd off, but not really kill him - he's just toying with you. I thought this really could have used some RULES. I think that WOTC is having a hard time with the lockdowns, and COVID restrictions. It must be hard to coordinate playtesting and balancing across the distances. And, prose is cheap.
