You may be familiar with Ravenloft from the classic video games "The Possession of Strad," "The Stone Oracle," or more recently "The Curse of Strad" (one of the most popular adventures in the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons). This setting is about to be transformed by the tabletop RPG supplement "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft," which will be released this month.

Thanks to Lysa Penrose on Twitter, I was able to see what's inside this 256-page book. In it, there are new options for players, with playable strains of half-vampire Dhampirs, haggard-turned-Hexbloods, and just plain undead called Reborn. (Reborn are "Planescape: Torment"). Several new subclasses, backgrounds, and new rules for the Dark Gift are also included.

The bulk of the text is taken up with descriptions of the Dread Domain, describing the lands ruled by the cursed Darklords, such as Barovia and Carnival in Strad. a new realm named "Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail" is mentioned, and the "Mourning Rail" is a new name for a new realm in the Dread Domain. and since Cyre is a kingdom in the steampunk-ish D&D setting of Eberron, I would wager that this realm is a ghost train.

Then there is a section on running horror adventures, with tools for "fear and stress" and a sample adventure called "The House of Sorrows." Finally, the Bestiary is loaded with a wide variety of creepy classics like Nosferatu, Loop Garou, and Jancey, as well as camp creature feature stars like Brains in a Bottle or a simple "zombie limb swarm."

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft will be available on May 18.