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'.

 

[pukunui]

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.

It's also part of the 50th anniversary celebration, which could explain the "greatest hits" feel.

 

[JEB]

It's also part of the 50th anniversary celebration, which could explain the "greatest hits" feel.

Impression I get is more of a 10th anniversary celebration of 5e, rather than a 50th anniversary celebration of the game's entire history. But maybe there are more deep cuts that haven't been conveyed by reviews and previews?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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.

I am not a good writer. I didn't copy that from the book or anything.

 

[Echohawk]

5e was designed to the milquetoast edition of D&D, standing for nothing, adding nothing to the lore or cosmology, focusing on nostalgia.

I get that you aren't a 5e fan, but saying that 5e has added nothing to lore or cosmology is hyperbole; 5e has contributed plenty to the collective body of D&D lore. Like 4e, 5e isn't shy about adding new lore that contradicts past lore, but it is less egregious than 4e in that regard, and often surprisingly respectful of the past (when it wants to be). Also, it's worth remembering that no edition of D&D has been great at producing good high-level adventures. That's not a uniquely 5e phenomenon at all.

 

[Shardstone]

I am not a good writer. I didn't copy that from the book or anything.

Yo why did @Quickleaf cook you so hard lmfaoooo

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I get that you aren't a 5e fan, but saying that 5e has added nothing to lore or cosmology is hyperbole; 5e has contributed plenty to the collective body of D&D lore. Like 4e, 5e isn't shy about adding new lore that contradicts past lore, but it is less egregious than 4e in that regard, and often surprisingly respectful of the past (when it wants to be). Also, it's worth remembering that no edition of D&D has been great at producing good high-level adventures. That's not a uniquely 5e phenomenon at all.

The lore-heavy stuff of earlier editions was written to be read, not played. The last thing you want in the middle of an action movie toned adventure is a massive lore dump.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Impression I get is more of a 10th anniversary celebration of 5e, rather than a 50th anniversary celebration of the game's entire history. But maybe there are more deep cuts that haven't been conveyed by reviews and previews?

It’s both. But since the vast majority of D&D players weren’t playing 50 years ago it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bog things down with a lot of obscure older references that will go over the heads of the players. Even Allustriel is a bit of a deep cut for most current players.

 

[Retreater]

I get that you aren't a 5e fan, but saying that 5e has added nothing to lore or cosmology is hyperbole; 5e has contributed plenty to the collective body of D&D lore. Like 4e, 5e isn't shy about adding new lore that contradicts past lore, but it is less egregious than 4e in that regard, and often surprisingly respectful of the past (when it wants to be). Also, it's worth remembering that no edition of D&D has been great at producing good high-level adventures. That's not a uniquely 5e phenomenon at all.

Nearly every adventure produced has been a retread of a previous adventure. Whether a reboot (Curse of Strahd) to just an update of classic adventures (Tales of the Yawning Portal). We've seen resurrections of villains from previous editions (Acerack, Tiamat, Soth, Vecna), but really no new memorable antagonists.
WotC has created no new campaign setting books for D&D: we have repeats of Spelljammer, Eberron, Planescape, Ravenloft, etc. Sure, there's MtG crossovers - but that's hardly a lasting contribution to the lore of the D&D cosmology. Other than that, I guess there's the Critical Role setting - which I also wouldn't say counts as part of the D&D tradition any more than when they put in Leiber's Newhon in 1st edition.

 

[Echohawk]

Nearly every adventure produced has been a retread of a previous adventure.

Please remind me which previous adventures Lost Mine of Phandelver, Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Storm King's Thunder, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, Candlekeep Mysteries, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Call of the Netherdeep, Journeys through the Radiant Citadel and Keys From the Golden Vault were retreads of?

WotC has created no new campaign setting books for D&D: we have repeats of Spelljammer, Eberron, Planescape, Ravenloft, etc. Sure, there's MtG crossovers - but that's hardly a lasting contribution to the lore of the D&D cosmology. Other than that, I guess there's the Critical Role setting - which I also wouldn't say counts as part of the D&D tradition any more than when they put in Leiber's Newhon in 1st edition.

So your point is that other than the four new campaign setting books for Exandria, Ravnica, Theros and Strixhaven, Wizards hasn't released any new campaign setting books?

I mean, apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

 

[Voadam]

any more than when they put in Leiber's Newhon in 1st edition.

Why wouldn't you count Nehwon as part of the D&D tradition? 1e Deities and Demigods pantheon, City setting book, two adventure anthologies, and then the same for 2e with about a dozen adventures.

Nehwon deities are even part of the Forgotten Realms. Ilmater is literally a renamed Issek of the Jug, Azuth is the Nehwon archmage deity renamed, and Greenwood used animal deities from Nehwon, Stormbringer, and Narnia as part of his animal cults.

D&D has had a bunch of shorter things, Conan, Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Jakandor, Council of Wyrms, Diablo, Warcraft, Kalamar all of which were official D&D even if Hasbro does not have current rights for a lot of it now.

I'd say the MtG settings, Critical Role, even Acquisitions Inc, Rick & Morty, and Stranger Things are part of the D&D tradition now. Smaller parts than Dark Sun which has not been part of 5e, but still part of the D&D tradition.