I do not advise you buy this book . it claims to be a complete encylopedia . but provides very little . it is heavily plagerized amd just poorly done .

It's got Vlad Drakov. Worth it for that alone. Wanna fight a rebellion against a fascist dictator? Drakov is that guy.

These two volumes are not the official 5e Van Richten's Guide to Wokenloft, but detail the real Ravenloft. That reason alone is already more than sufficient to purchase both volumes. Plus you will get a complete encyclopedia of every darklord and domain in Ravenloft. Fantastic!

This book and Volume 2 are both amazing and I have used it so much my group has started complaining I run Ravenloft to much. (its also an objectivly better product then Van Richntens) 10/10

Having ordered and read both Volume 1 and 2 of Van Richten's Encyclopedia of Darklords and Domains, I'd like to tell you about what the authors did well, what could be improved, and who might enjoy these books.

TL;DR: Van Richten's Encyclopedia of Darklords and Domains is a rich compendium of content concerning Ravenloft, but a multitude of editing errors and below-average print quality mar what would otherwise be a stellar supplement.

The Good: Both of the books are stuffed with great content and information. As a DM who pulls inspiration from wherever I can, these books have given me some great ideas for future Ravenloft campaigns--and there are even things I can add into a normal campaign as well. Every Domain has its own demographics, flora, fauna, monsters, information on the notable locales within the domain, and a biography of the Darklord that ends with their statblock. In addition, there are magic items and monster statblocks one can use to spice up a game both within Ravenloft and outside of it.

The Bad: These books are in desperate need of an editor. There are spelling and grammatical errors on more pages than not, sentences and paragraphs are missing or weirdly transposed, and the formatting varies wildly between sections. I found the lack of proofreading to be incredibly distracting; I recall being pulled out of many an intriguing story with a careless typo or missing phrase. Also, the print quality leaves much to be desired. The books arrived with bent corners, and several pages were stuck together in both volumes that ended up ripping--despite my careful efforts to seperate them. Having paid over $150 for the bundle, the hardcopies feel very cheap.

The Audience: If you're interested in getting a birds-eye view of the various domains within Ravenloft, and want to include its denizens in your games, Van Richten's Encyclopedia of Darklords and Domains is definitely for you. While not a module by any stretch of the imagination, these books will provide enough information to get you started in your adventures within the Domains of Dread. I wouldn't recommend getting these books if you're looking for specific details about a particular domain, want a prebuilt campaign to run, or expect a paragon of grammatical perfection.

Now that I had some time to really digest these books, I thought I would post a more critical review. For the most part, my earlier impression holds up. For content, volume 1 and 2 are 5 star books. No more praising, lets get critical.

As many have noted, there are type errors, especially on the less known, and niche domains. The most grievious errors I have seen are whole paragraphs cut short. These seem to occur only on the domains where both the history and the domain lord are the same. It appears to be a very bad cut and paste. Regardless, the full text is still available, its just broken in one part.

The next bad part is chronology. Ravenloft in general, doesn't have a rich history, but it does have one. There are two catestrophic events that dramatically changed the domain make-ups. These events are often referenced, expecially in volume 1, but because there is no introductory chapter, certain domain entries can be very confusing, if not contridictory for people not familar with these events.

This is also not all lore, as advertised. The writers did take some liberities. In most cases, its to fill out some lesser domains, or pocket domains. (Some of these weren't even pocket domains, just quest areas from modules.) The most grievious was Blutspur which they relocated to the moon. I suspect this was fan-fiction from the Raptor wiki page, but its not supported in any official lore that I am aware of. From what I can tell, they didn't alter anything that was established lore.

My last comment is more nit-picking, than critical. For some reason, the included the Gothic Earth stuff. They chose to make Gothic Earth a seperate domain, which is not supported in any lore that i know if. Regardless, Gothic Earth was a totally seperate tabletop rpg system, that used some of the basic mechanics from 2e. It was a very different game, using completely different character creation, and combat/magic rules. It was an effort by TSR to compete with Call of Cathulu with a Poe themed setting. It is completely incompatible with 5E rules. I get why they included it for completion, but other than being under the Ravenloft banner, it wasn't DnD anymore than TSR Marvel Heroes was. I personally wish they had just saved these last pages to add entries on important NPCs and monsters that are not domain lords, such as the Weathermays, Richten, Gondegal and the Forlorn Monster. Maybe even add the lore section that made some of the domains so confusing.

Due to some the errors, and missed oppertunity in the final chapter for Gothic Earth, i am reducing my score to a 4/5. Yes, the errors are bad, but not to a point that it ruins any one entry, and the shear amount of info is absolutely staggering. A definite treasure for any Ravenloft DM. This will be a book I use over the official book. Great job!

If the publishers read this, i would strongly recommend the next entry include general lore, a monster manual and NPC backgrounds.

This and the other volume are absolutely amazing. I was following the development of these books closely, but the final product far exceeded expectations. I personally thought i was a super guru when it came to Ravenloft, but was shocked by some of the darklords I have never seen nor heard of before. I am glad they went with these covers though. I didn't like the originals they had picked out. These remind me of the opening scene from the 1980s TV show Tales From the Darkside. The opening to that show scared me more than the show.

I also greatly appreciate the rough semi-black and white paper. This is the exact same style used in the original Ravenloft Box set from the early 90s. Its an unexpected bit of nostalgia. Another nice bit is the appendixes with the extra creatures and magic items. Its not the full Ravenloft Monster Manual, but what's included is more than expected.

Not only does these volumes include all classic Ravenloft Domains, even the niche ones from magazines, but also contains the Ravenloft spin-off Gothic Earth. Another unnessassary surprise.

I ordered both of these books and 1e Dragonlance book and got them all in only 2 days, despite using standard shipping. (Also got a Vampire the Masquerade book I didn't order, but it wasn't charged.)

Volume 1 focuses on the Core domains and the Pocket Domains. Volume 2 focuses on the Domain Clusters, Islands of Terror and Gothic Earth.

If your looking for a completionist set for Ravenloft, this is it. These two volumes cover almost the entire 2e and 3e setting product line.

These books are the complete deal and worth every penny.

While I appreciate the effort and size of this project the book is very hard to read. The font and size changes almost every other page. It looks awful and is very distracting. Having a sans serif font for text is just wrong. Never use a sans serif font in a book, ever. It looks like they didn't want to edit or make layout changes so they just adusted the font and size to make it fit on the page. I get the idea of having a dark feel to the books but the dark watermarked pages are distracting. The art is a mixed bag with some nice feature pages but a lot of filler art used to break up the large volume of text on pages is terrible. Much of the clip art has been over stretched and looks grainy and pictulated. The head shots of each villian are drawn by a high school student in pencil over their lunch break. For book lovers - don't get a hard copy, you will be disappointed! The pdf is fine as you will use this as a reference and will never want to read it from cover to cover as the layout will break your brain.

Great resource. Very old school in design, but for me that's a plus. The volume gathers Darklords and Domains that go back to the glorious years of AD&D, together with detailed descriptions of the domains and stat blocks for the Darklords, even if you would not use them as the big baddies in your games. Old meets new in this fantastic resource that can easily be used in conjunction with all the official Ravenloft resources released for 5E. If you want to rule a truly terrifying campaign with full details of every corner of the Demiplane of Dread, this book is a must. I am planning to get the second volume soon, what are you waiting for to get both? Do it, you will not be disappointed.

Amazing books! So much content for 5e! I am looking forward to all of the one shots and mini campaigns that can be created from this. Great job Mistfactor Press!

I had no clue about these two volumes until they were finally released and I saw a YouTube video review. I understand I'm kind of late to the party here, but I'll simply add that this is a labor of love and something any Ravenloft fan needs to add to their collection. The attention to detail and the love and respect shown for all versions of the setting through each edition phase is simply mind-blowing. To have not only EVERY darklord stated out for 5e, but to include also information about their domains, (as well as filling in some details that may have not been so fleshed out in the past), I truly can't say enough about how useful these two volumes are. I got both the PDF and print-on-demand bundle and I'm so happy with my purchase. The books look great, just as professional as any other well-known publisher out there, and the content is worth the price. I'm currently running a Ravenloft 5e campaign, which spans the various edition meta-plots. We are just starting the Grand Conjunction series and these books have already proven their worth. If your hesitant, I say you have nothing to worry about. If you're looking for updated content for Ravenloft for Fifth Edtion, these are the books to buy.

It's amazing how much work has been put in these two volumes. The definitive Ravenloft encyclopedia

This tome, like its sibling volume, is an enormous collection of both fact and fiction within the Demiplane of Dread. Explore the past and present of various domains, including those lost to the mists. As others might have mentioned, this book is a great way of introducing newer fans to the full Ravenloft Campaign Setting instead of the Reboot book released in the prior year. It gives essential information for newcomers looking to dive deeper into the setting, albeit not as extensively as the Gazetteer line from White Wolf. Likewise, it includes new ideas that might be more 5th Edition friendly, such as the inclusion of Curse of Strahd ideas or newer cosmological concepts. Those points might be harder to swallow for veteran fans. Even for older fans, it's still a useful collection of useful information related to the Core cluster, with some information related to relevant domains. In addition, older fans looking to incorporate domaisn and their darklords into 5th Edition rules will overall be pleased with what they've received. For older fans curious about incorporating newer or "lost" content in the setting, Volume 2 might be of greater interest. However, it is worth noting that the layout, designs and aesthetic choices are tastefully chosen and properly harken back to the campaign setting. Likewise, the lore tweaks/additions/alterations alterations are not as distracting as the VRGtR versions by a long shot. For the most part, this is a faithful guide on the lands and antagonists of the setting. But, is it perfect? No. Somewhat curious errors, like Inza's name being mispelled in big and bold letters, can be glaring. Likewise, a few spelling and grammar issues popped up. I understand that editing such a beast of a project is a challenge, but this book should get another look over. Beyond spelling and grammar, some of the formatting could have done with some more graphic design (like the sidenote boxes). And while the use of the artwork is tasteful and fitting, its formatting within the book is sometimes repetitive as the image hugs a corner with a fading border effect. Likewise, while the various artstyles within the book are mostly eerie and atmospheric, they are far from uniform and vary in quality as well. While more contrarian reviews have used this as a reason to give a low rating, alongside claims of being allegedly hard to read, it doesn't fully detract from the Ravenloft experience to me. However, these problems drag it away from being perfect, as editing and design are still important. Beyond those problems and a heavily subjective personal dislike of newer lore injected into older setting, reading through this has been nothing less than an enjoyable experience. While I have read another's copy while I wait for my physical copies to arrive (as of this post), it was a pleasure to sit down and comb through familiar enemies and domains. For those looking into getting a physical copy, I would suggest waiting until issues are tackled first, as print books are expensive. At least digital releases can be updated.

Overall, this gets a 3/5 for formatting, a 5/5 for gaming content and purchase value a 4.5/5; rounding out to 4 stars. When more technical issues (like spelling and grammar) are fixed, I'll happily increase my rating to 5 though.

Beyond some issues, this is what Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft should have been. This is giving fans what they want and updating it for the 5th Edition mold in a respectful manner. Overall, I hold Mistfactor Press in higher regards than WotC itself.

I fear that I don't have the proper words to explain how amazing this is. Between both volumes you are looking at roughly 200,000 to 300,000 words about everything you didn't know you didn't know about Ravenloft. Most of us have heard of Strahd, Soth, and a few others but there are dozens of dark lords, domains, domain areas of interest, NPCs, spells, items and on and on. The amount of detail and thought that went into this project is beyond my comprehension.

This is an amazing, indispensible reference! Although I do not do much DMing these days, I do enjoy publishing content on the Guild. For anyone who is planning on publishing a Ravenloft adventure I cannot begin to recommend this Encyclopedia enough! There is enough content here to easily fuel a hundred adventures spanning dozens and dozens of domains. As such, for any creators out there, I would encourage you to think of this as a business expense (that may, or may not, be tax deductible :) ).

Thanks to the Mist Factor team! Your hard work is appreciated.

This encyclopedia is a labor of love, and it clearly shows. It shines brightly in a world of half-assed money grabs by corporations who hire writers who know nothing about the setting and contrarily change things rather than build upon the efforts of those who came before them. This team clearly did their homework and has a deep respect for the setting and its rich history. This is the product that we fans of Ravenloft wanted to have in our hands as we marched into 5e and Mistfactor Press has kindly given us that opportunity.

Having played the 'Loft since its first boxed set, I have collected the books that have pushed the boundaries of the Core and reveled in each new Darklord that the mist summoned. Here in these volumes, you get a thorough history of this progression - all conveniently in one place rather than having to pull it from one or three sources. I am happy to report that I learned more about domains I thought I knew everything about. That in itself is worth the rather low cost of this book.

Another thing I wanted to note was that much like the books from previous eras, the artwork, font, and overall feel greatly reflects the setting. It is macabre, moody, and true to the world it is writing about. I noticed a variety of artistic styles throughout both books and feel that all of it attempted to honor the subjects they portrayed. Some just happened to be a bit more detailed than others but all of it added to the flavor of the experience. Oh, and let us not forget the maps. They are wonderful and a must if your team is ever going to live more than a few days there in the mists.

Should you buy this book? I had no hesitation in doing so myself and afterwards, I had no regrets. It provided me with the materials and information I need to give my players the best experiences they could have in the vein of what I experienced in the setting many years ago. It also provided me with hours of reading material that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would be very hard pressed to say that about any of my other recent DnD purchases in the past few years.