There was something about putting Horrified and Dungeons & Dragons together that seemed like common sense. Ravensburger’s cooperative monster-hunting series has always been about assembling a party, gathering the right tools, solving increasingly strange problems, and surviving long enough to put a monster down. Last year’s Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons proved how naturally the two properties fit together, transplanting the familiar Horrified formula into a D&D setting and adding a d20 mechanic to give the experience an extra dose of adventure-game flavor. Each monster offered its own puzzle, while the heroes functioned much like a miniature adventuring party. Ravenloft takes that foundation and moves it somewhere even more fitting: Barovia.
Ravensburger sent over a review copy of Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons – Ravenloft, and I was particularly excited to dig in since I’m a fan of the Horrified series as well. D&D has been doing essentially the same thing for decades—just with more dice and significantly more dragons. The result is a darker, more cohesive Horrified experience that feels perfectly suited to the Demiplane of Dread.
If you’re familiar with Horrified, the basic structure remains wonderfully accessible: Players take turns spending actions to move around the board, collect items, rescue villagers, and complete the objectives associated with the monsters in play. Then the monsters get their turn, with the Monster deck determining how the situation develops. It’s a simple system that creates the constant feeling that you’re one bad turn away from everything falling apart.
That familiar structure provides a great foundation for Ravenloft, while several new mechanics give this edition its own identity. The biggest new addition is the Dark Gift mechanic. When your hero needs a little extra help — or when circumstances become particularly desperate — you can accept a gift from the mysterious Dark Powers. The immediate benefit can be enormous, potentially giving you the burst of power needed to escape a terrible situation or complete an important objective. However, Barovia always expects something in return.
Accepting a Dark Gift introduces a drawback that can linger for the rest of the game, and some consequences affect the entire party. This creates a wonderful risk-and-reward decision. You might have the perfect opportunity to turn a disastrous situation around while knowing that your newfound power could make the rest of the game more difficult for your friends. It’s an especially effective fit for Ravenloft because it captures the central horror of the setting: the temptation to accept power when you know there’s a price attached.
The heroes also feel more distinct than in many previous Horrified games. The Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Druid each occupy different tactical roles, giving the party plenty to consider when deciding who should tackle each problem.
The Paladin provides protection and support, the Ranger excels at moving around the board, the Sorcerer can manipulate the game state, the Warlock offers powerful abilities with dangerous consequences, and the Druid brings useful environmental control and support. Their abilities encourage players to think about positioning and timing rather than simply collecting the strongest items.
The d20 is another major part of the experience. Activating a special ability requires a roll, turning those powers into calculated gambles. A successful roll can completely change a turn, while a poor result can leave you wishing you had spent that action elsewhere. Perk cards, items, and other abilities give players opportunities to modify those rolls, adding another layer of decision-making.
And then there are the monsters, which is where Ravenloft really shines. The Carrionette, the game's lowest-complexity monster, requires players to feed items into its Spare Parts board and roll the d20 to determine what happens to them. Matching colors and numbers can provide bonuses as players gradually work through the encounter. It’s a wonderfully creepy concept that also serves as an approachable introduction to the game’s monster-specific puzzles, and is recommended for first-time players.
Baba Lysaga provides a more involved challenge. Players have to work through her strange hut and deal with her minions before exposing the gem at the heart of the encounter. The result feels appropriately chaotic for one of Barovia’s most infamous witches.
The Gulthias Tree offers another interesting variation. The tree remains rooted in place while its twig blights spread across the board and attack the heroes. Players need to gather the appropriate tools, work through the tree's defenses, and destroy its corrupting core before the situation gets out of control.
Then there’s the infamous vampire lord and the dark ruler of the dread domain of Barovia: Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd first appeared in the classic 1983 adventure module of Ravenloft and later returned as the main villain in Curse of Strahd.
Strahd is easily the highlight of the four monsters. His encounter draws directly from Curse of Strahd, requiring players to uncover the locations of three important relics, travel across Barovia to collect them, and eventually make their way to Castle Ravenloft. Once there, the party must destroy the Heart before confronting the vampire lord himself.
It’s a fantastic use of the license because Strahd’s encounter feels like an adventure unfolding across the entire board. You’re exploring, collecting important relics, dealing with threats, and gradually building toward a final confrontation at Castle Ravenloft. The encounter has an epic quality without becoming excessively fiddly.
Barovia is a gorgeous setting for Horrified, and the game makes excellent use of it. Castle Ravenloft looms over the landscape, while locations such as Sanka Pass and several town squares give the board a real sense of place. The components reinforce that atmosphere, too, with item tokens shaped like tiny coffins, character boards resembling gothic stained glass, and Perk cards that look like sinister paintings.
The presentation feels exceptionally cohesive. Every element contributes to the Gothic Horror aesthetic, and that makes exploring the board feel like part of the experience rather than simply moving pieces between spaces.
There are still elements of the Horrified formula that will feel familiar to longtime players. The action economy remains straightforward, and collecting the right colored and valued items continues to form the backbone of the monster puzzles. After several games in the series, you’ll recognize the rhythm immediately.
That familiarity works particularly well here as the system remains accessible enough for newcomers while providing plenty of tactical decisions for experienced players. The game is especially enjoyable with two or three players, where every action matters and the party has fewer opportunities to recover from mistakes. Open information also makes it easy for everyone to discuss the best course of action, which has always been one of the series' strengths. In the playthrough we did, we used a Paladin and Ranger, but the Carrionette and Gulthias Tree combined with just rotten luck of Monster Card draws proved to be too much and we actually lost the game — it happens.
More importantly, Ravenloft understands its source material. It uses the setting’s themes — temptation, corruption, curses, relics, vampires — to shape the mechanics rather than simply placing D&D characters and monsters on a Horrified board.
That makes Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons — Ravenloft feel like a natural evolution of the series. The first D&D Horrified showed how well the two properties could work together. Ravenloft takes that idea into a setting where the mechanics, artwork, characters, and monsters all reinforce the same dark atmosphere. The Horrified system has been around long enough to have developed a familiar rhythm, and Ravenloft feels like the perfect place for that rhythm to continue.
Barovia is a dangerous place. Fortunately, you’ve brought a party.
