WotC Vecna Eve of Ruin: Everything You Need To Know

WotC has posted a 19-minute video telling you 'everything you need to know' about Vecna: Eve Of Ruin.

• Starts at 10th level, goes to 20th.
• Classic villains and setting, famous characters, D&D's legacy.
• Vecna wants to become the supreme being of the multiverse.
• Vecna is a god of secrets and secrets and the power of secrets are a theme throughout the book.
• A mechanical subsystem for using the power of secrets during combat.
• Going back to Ravenloft, the Nine Hells, places where 5th Edition has been in the last 10 years.
• It would be a fun 'meta experience' for players to visit locations they remember lore about.
• Finding pieces of the Rod of Seven Parts, pieces throughout the multiverse.
• Each piece in one of seven distinct planes or settings.
• Allustriel Silverhand has noticed something is wrong, puts call out to Tasha and Mordenkainen, who come to her sanctum in Sigil.
• The (10th level) PCs are fated to confront Vecna.
• Lord Soth and Strahd show up. Tiamat is mentioned but doesn't appear 'on screen'.
• Twists, turns, spoilers.
• It's a 'love letter to D&D'.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I don't have the adventure yet, but I am a bit surprised that a design group that said the Dragonlance adventure drew inspiration from the old Gold Box CRPG Death Knights of Krynn didn't draw inspiration from Dark Queen of Krynn and use the high level enchanted draconoans from that game. They were a pain to deal with after dozens of combats, but a few here and there in a short adventure would work fine. The odd thing is that I don't see any 5e conversions of them anywhere, even on the DMs Guild. I might have to homebrew some at level-appropriate CRs...

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't think so, and even if we did, idgaf about that complaint. I want lances.

Fair enough.

I think that there would be a great divide between people like you, who want Lances (and I think you all would have a great point, it being Dragonlance) and people who want to remain "true to cannon" with the Lance being both rare and in the hands of very specific people.

I'm not saying you're wrong and they're right, but I do think that we'd see complaints either way. But then, so what else is new?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Here are the enchanted draconian stats from the Dark Queen of Krynn journal

They would have to be updated to 5e rules and match with the updated base draconians, some of which have different powers now, but they would definitely be interesting as foes for a higher-level Dragonlance story...

 

[Parmandur]

My biggest complaint about 5e adventures, which I think are generally good either "at their core" or "on the surface" depending on how you look at it, is that they try to cram WAY too much into their page count, and wind up cutting out really important "breathing room".

If they tried to do LESS, well then, I believe that they could do MORE.

Well, their greatest strengths is that the overall structure is half-baked so it is easy to remove pieces for other purposes. But then their greatest weakness is that the structure is half-baked and not always easy to juat play out or the hate without some work.

 

[Retreater]

So this info is incorrect. First off the adventure has near 200 pages devoted to the adventure.

Thanks for the clarification. Again, I was going off another person's video overview.
It doesn't sound like my teacup, but I'm glad if you enjoy it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sure. Just keep in mind I haven't read the adventure myself, and this is just what I remember from the 2+ hour first look video posted by Roll for Combat.

Spoiler: Supervillain

The party ends up in the Death House from Curse of Strahd (using the recycled maps from that adventure). After completing the quest, it's basically a repeat of what happened in the Death House during the CoS. Strahd then appears. If the party is traveling with a certain NPC, Strahd just hands over his piece of the Rod of 7 Parts and asks them to leave his domain.

Spoiler: Charisma check NPC

The party ends up in the Astral Sea and come across a Spelljammer vessel. The ship's captain has been injured defending her piece of the Rod - which is what is powering her Spelljammer. The party can make a DC 15 Charisma Persuade check to convince her to give up the piece - which leaves the ship derelict in the Astral Sea. She gives the party all the information to take the piece to get past traps and other encounters.

There are other examples of why this adventure sounds like it misses the mark - most of it due to having 150 pages dedicated to actual adventure content that should span 10 high levels of play.

These can both be summarised as "role-play the conversation and see what transpires". Not something that is easy to write in an adventure. If I was writing the adventure for myself I wouldn't actually write down anything at all. I would just play it by ear when the PCs reached that point. I think it's very likely they would want to rescue the stranded NPCs, so I will just go with that. It's impossible for the the author to write down every eventuality, especially at high level when the players may have access to who-knows-what spell.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It doesn't sound like my teacup, but I'm glad if you enjoy it.

This kind of over-the-top nonsense is certainly not going to be to everyone's taste.

 

[Retreater]

These can both be summarised as "role-play the conversation and see what transpires". Not something that is easy to write in an adventure. If I was writing the adventure for myself I wouldn't actually write down anything at all. I would just play it by ear when the PCs reached that point. I think it's very likely they would want to rescue the stranded NPCs, so I will just go with that. It's impossible for the the author to write down every eventuality, especially at high level when the players may have access to who-knows-what spell.

That is certainly something that is difficult to convey in a published adventure, especially one in which page count is a very limited resource (according to the review I linked). It's easier to put in "DC 15 Charisma check" or link to a stat block in another book and add "fights to the death"- and then be done with it.

This kind of over-the-top nonsense is certainly not going to be to everyone's taste.

Finally, after 10 years of wanting a 10th level or higher official adventure, this is the adventure we get? This is the capstone of a decade of 5th edition?
I suppose it's appropriate. 5e was designed to the milquetoast edition of D&D, standing for nothing, adding nothing to the lore or cosmology, focusing on nostalgia. So we got the last campaign adventure of the edition as something that is a pandering, nostalgia tour - the "Ready Player One" campaign sourcebook.

 

[Quickleaf]

So this info is incorrect. First off the adventure has near 200 pages devoted to the adventure.

Spoiler: Supervillain

Map is actually remade by a different artist. Strahd doesn’t actually have the Rod Piece he is just interested in it, the party will have retrieved it at this point. If the NPC is with the party out of respect for her and her organization he offers to let her go, but just her. If one of the party is a good enough liar to claim they are part of the same group he will let the party go too, but if they fail or don’t lie he fights them.

Spoiler: Charisma check npc

The Rod Piece is not the power source for the ship, the Helm is, the Rod was used to enhance the ship and make it faster. The Ship is toast anyway as it’s been split into three pieces when it crashed. The crew are already stranded. She is willing to give up the piece if she thinks it’s for a good cause, and losing it doesn’t hurt them anymore than they already are.

Wow, that charisma check NPC paragraph is just awful awful awful Adventure writing. More words should’ve been dedicated, those 50 or so words should have been better utilized, or the whole concept should have been executed differently.

If I received that paragraph as an editor, I would phone up the author and say you owe me a drink and I’m charging $400 an hour.

 

[MockingBird]

I don't think this is the "capstone" adventure to end an edition everyone seems to think it is. I feel it's just another adventure in the 5e ecosystem as the others have been.