Earlier this year, the Dungeons & Dragons team announced that they would release their future products in “Seasons”, which is a period of time centered around a specific theme. Kicking off this new strategy is the Season Of Horror, which will launch in the Spring and is expected to go through the middle of the summer. The main book release for the Season Of Horror is Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, which will include Strahd as well as the Domains Of Dread.

Within the last few weeks, we’ve received some updates about products and programs that will be released in the Season of Horror as well as a new playtest centered around Villainous archetypes (it should be noted that this will not be part of the Season of Horror).

You can watch a deep dive video on this subject below.

Pre-Orders Now Available For Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

Although the Dungeons & Dragons team have not shared specifics for what each Season product line would entail, they did share a few specifics for the Season Of Horror, such as a Ravenloft DM Screen. In mid-April, pre-orders for the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within were made available, giving us a look at products that would be made available for purchase.

Starting with the book itself, there will be a physical and digital (D&D Beyond) version made available to purchase. The book will include 7 Subclasses (none of which are Barbarian, but who’s tracking that?), 11 Feats, 17 Darklords, 4 Backgrounds, 4 Species, 17 One-Shots, 68 Monsters, 47 Maps, and 2 Magic Items. The One-Shots, I would suspect, will be in the similar fashion that we’ve seen in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Forgotten Realms: Adventures In Faerun where these are more akin to adventure outlines than a formally written one-shot adventure. Additionally, some of the material, such as Subclasses and Monsters, will be refreshed to match 5.5 play while introducing new monsters.

Additionally, here are other products that will be available for purchase:

• Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Dungeon Master’s Screen (Physical)
• Tarokka Deck (Physical)
• Map Pack (Physical & Digital)
• The Ultimate Bundle, which includes everything above (include the physical and digital books) as well as digital bonus materials such as the Mists of Ravenloft Digital Dice, Ravenloft Play-Along Pack, and what appears to be an adventure that will be used in the new D&D Encounters program.

Early access on D&D Beyond will be June 2nd, with world release set for June 16th.

An All-New Actual Play Series, Dungeon Masters

Announced just yesterday, Wizards of the Coast will release a weekly Actual Play series on their YouTube channel, called Dungeon Masters. The first campaign will be centered in the world of Ravenloft with a star-studded cast: Jasmine Bhullar (DesiQuest, Dimension 20) as Dungeon Master, joined by Mayanna Berrin (Dispatch, The Dungeon Run), Christian Navarro (13 Reasons Why, Forgotten Realms), Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate III), and Devora Wilde (Baldur’s Gate III). The actors will be using materials and adventures from the new Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book and this campaign will also coincide with digital releases of encounters related to the series, the first one being Zombie Clout Encounter. Each Encounter will include an adventure hook, a digital map for D&D Beyond’s Maps VTT, and an Early Access Monster.

Although it seems to infer that this will be a continuing series that will coincide with each Season, this has not been confirmed. My guess is that if this is successful, they will definitely continue this model. It is a lofty and tight strategy with many moving pieces, but if they can pull it off, it may prove to be very exciting and successful for the D&D Community. Personally, I was hoping for a better title than Dungeon Masters for the Actual Play series, but I am still excited to see this Actual Play, especially since it features voice actors from Baldur’s Gate III.

The first two episodes of Dungeon Masters will drop on April 22nd at 6:30 PM PST on the Dungeons & Dragons’ YouTube channel.

Villainous Options Released In Unearthed Arcana

At the beginning of April, we received the latest playtest materials on Unearthed Arcana, which will be centered around villainous options that players can choose in the form of new subclasses and Feat Paths, a new venture of selecting specific Feats during leveling up to obtain unique villainous abilities. Although these materials will not appear in the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book, this definitely fits the tone for the Season (it has not been announced what book these options may appear in).

The playtest materials for Villainous Options will include 4 new subclasses: Pestilence Domain for Clerics, Circle of the Titan for Druid, Hell Knight for Fighter, and Demonic Sorcerery for Sorcerer (no new subclass for Barbarian, but who’s tracking that anyways?). Additionally, the two feat paths of Villainy are Path of the Death Knight and Path of the Lich.

The Dungeons & Dragons team will have a Feedback Survey open for this material until April 23rd.