Since the 2024 launch of Dungeons & Dragons 5.5e, Wizards of the Coast has been a little slow releasing books supporting this new edition. However, with 2026, it seems that they’re picking up speed. Earlier this Spring, they released Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, an updated version of their earlier Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
Recently, Beadle & Grimm’s published Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition. 5 years ago I had reviewed their Shadowy Silver Edition of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, which was crammed full of content for the DM and players to enjoy. Now it’s time to take a look and see how their new Ravenloft release compares.
As with my other coverage of the boxed editions from Beadle & Grimm’s, this is not a review of the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book from Wizards of the Coast. Instead, this will be a review of the copious amounts of content you get in the Beadle & Grimm’s Ravenloft: The Horrors. To warn you, there will inevitably be spoilers for the adventure in this review. While that won’t be an issue for any Dungeon Masters looking into running the adventure, prospective players of the campaign may want to not look too closely at all of the photos to follow.
What Is Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition?
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition is toolbox for Dungeon Masters looking to run campaigns in the Domains of Dread. For those not familiar with the Wizards of the Coast book, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is a campaign sourcebook, not an adventure, though it does also come with 17 one-shot adventures.
The boxed set retails for $225, and is available on the Beadle & Grimm’s webstore.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition – What’s in the Box?
The set contains the following:
- The complete Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book, broken down into smaller booklets, to help you organize your adventures
- Tarroka Deck – our Edition includes D&D’s fortune-telling card deck
- Level 5 Bonus Adventure set in Barovia, only found in Strahd’s Silver Edition – answer Van Richten’s call to put a powerful undead force to rest by bringing a murderer to justice
- 17 Oversized Encounter Cards – epic cards for all of the Darklords of the Dread Domains
- 37 Standard Encounter Cards – for new monsters found in the Appendix
- 16 Battle Maps of key adventure locations – gridded for minis, use these to play out battles with the domains’ most memorable foes
- 22 Domain and Area Maps (8.5×11”) – the ultimate exploration aids
- Cthulhu Mist Talisman – wear this heavy metal skull & tentacle amulet around your neck… or share with your foolhardy mist travelers
- 11 In-world handouts – use these gorgeous handouts to summon your players to one of the many adventures presented in The Horrors Within, including one for the Bonus Adventure
- 11 Dark Gift and Magic Item Cards – there’s nothing like handing a physical card to a player when they discover a never-before-seen magic item… or make an insidious deal with a Darklord or some other malevolent force
- Haunted Bastion Player Aid – this fully-mapped haunted church Bastion was created exclusively for Strahd’s Silver Edition and allows your players to track elements and upgrades
As I usually like to do with sets from Beadle & Grimm’s, I peel back the layers of what you find inside the box and share it with you, our readers.
Right when you open the box, you get a pamphlet with a letter from the founders of Beadle & Grimm’s, and a detailed breakdown of the contents of the box.
Next up is the Haunted Bastion player aid. For those that don’t know, players in D&D 5.5 can now have bastions, and this one was created exclusively for the Strahd’s Silver Edition.
There is a Tarokka deck, with all-new artwork and an instruction booklet. The Tarokka deck has made appearances in D&D before, notably in Curse of Strahd. Unfortunately, there is not deck box to hold the cards, though they are packed securely within the Ravenloft box.
There are 11 Dark Gift and Magic Item cards, which can be handed out to players when they obtain any of them.
Next up are the encounter cards. As with all of the B&G encounter cards, they fold so they can be hung over the DM’s screen, with an image of the encounter on the front:
And the full stat blocks on the other side, for ease of use for the DM running the encounter.
There is a single artifact included with the Strahd’s Silver Edition. As Ravenloft: The Horrors Within reintroduces Cthulhu into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, the Cthulhu Mist Talisman is a wearable necklace that allows characters to enter Cthulhu’s Domain of Innsmouth.
Beadle & Grimm’s has once again broken the sourcebook into booklets, for ease of access for the DM.
One of the included booklets is the Dread Tales From the Warehouse, an original level 5 adventure set in the Dread Domain of Barovia. It’s quite a good adventure, and makes use of the Haunted Bastion.
Next up are the battle maps, one of the most consistently useful features of the Beadle & Grimm’s boxed sets. There are 16 in total, and it should be mentioned that these are separate and different from a battle map pack offered by Wizards of the Coast.
Another staple of Beadle & Grimm’s sets are the gorgeous player handouts. Using multiple paper types and printing techniques, these handouts feel authentic to the world and are ready to be used in-game. There are 11 in all, and unique to this set.
There are 17 oversized encounter cards, each one representing one of the Darklords of the 17 different Domains of Dread from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. Like the standard encounter cards, these are double-sided.
Dungeon Masters can certainly benefit from the oversized format. Not only are they more impressive to the players, reminding them of the threat those NPC’s represent, but you really need the extra room for all that information in their stat blocks.
Finally, at the bottom of the box you’ll find the 22 Domain and Area maps. These are standard 8 1/2 x 11 size, and each have a place to take notes on the back. These are useful for both players and DMs.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition – Final Thoughts
I know that the Wizards of the Coast book release of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within has been a bit divisive in the TTRPG community. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is widely lauded, so The Horrors Within had a lot to live up to. But like I said before, this is a review of the Beadle & Grimm’s Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition. While it contains the same book as you can get individially from WotC, it’s all about what content is in the box to support running campaigns set in the Dread Domains. And as alway, Beadle & Grimm’s delivers.
I can only imagine how difficult it must be to curate material for a sourcebook that allows for 17 different settings. But there’s a plethora of content inside the box, and you’re sure to find things to help your adventure no matter which Domain of Dread you choose to play in.
Just as Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is not simply Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft tuned to D&D 5.5, so too does Strahd’s Silver Edition have a different variety of content than Beadle & Grimm’s Silver Edition of Van Richten’s Guide. A notable change is that there is only 1 artifact, instead of the three that are found in Van Richten’s Guide. However, two of those previously released artifacts can be purchased from Beadle & Grimm’s. Sadly, you won’t be able to get the planchette and spirit board anymore, but those are functionally replaced by the Tarokka deck.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition ditches the art cards from so many previous editions, but adds in the domain and area maps, which are arguably more useful. Beadle & Grimm’s also created only one original adventure for this release as opposed to the four encounters they created for Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. However, the Wizards of the Coast book for Ravenloft: The Horrors Within already contains 17 one-shot adventures, while the Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft contained…well, none.
I sometimes feel like a broken record when reviewing editions from Beadle & Grimm’s, as I always talk about how great the content is. And I’m not exaggerating. Beadle & Grimm’s put in a ton of work so that you as the DM don’t have to. Sure, I would have loved to have seen more artifacts in the box. And I really would have loved to have seen the Tarokka cards come in its own deck box. But considering how much does come packed in its box, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within – Strahd’s Silver Edition is still a phenomenal toolkit for the DM to run a D&D 5.5e campaign in any of the Domains of Dread.
For more information or to make a purchase, visit Beadle & Grimm’s website.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
Paul Benson
Paul is a comic book writer, screenwriter, an avid board and tabletop gamer, reader of comics and collector of statues and figures. He is the creator of the webcomic "Heroines for Hire" and co-writer of "Disaster!: The Movie." He currently writes "E.I.: Earth Invasion" for Wunderman Comics.
