WotC Vecna Eve of Ruin: Everything You Need To Know

Shardstone · May 9, 2024

Parmandur said:
The point seems to be to act as a follow-up to Shadow of the Dragon Queen, same as the Ravenloft chapter calling back to Curse of Strahd, for any players who played through those campaigns.

Give me a dragonlance.

MonsterEnvy · May 9, 2024

Retreater said:
Based on the review I posted, it does seem monumentally nonsensical. An evil supervillain handing over the macguffin for no reason. Another NPC handing it over at the expense of her own life with a DC 15 Charisma check. Entire epic level adventures reduced to 8 page outlines.
High adventure, or a convenient path of least resistance to check all the boxes in a "D&D Greatest Hits" album that seems more like a re-recorded Kidz Bop collection?

Could you explain this in spoilers.

Paul Farquhar · May 9, 2024

Shardstone said:
Give me a dragonlance.

Okay.

As you pass through the doorway your lance becomes jammed. Suddenly a swarm of flesh eating scarabs emerges from the ground and rushes towards you. You cannot move without breaking the lance.

Shardstone · May 9, 2024

Paul Farquhar said:
Okay.

As you pass through the doorway your lance becomes jammed. Suddenly a swarm of flesh eating scarabs emerges from the ground and rushes towards you. You cannot move without breaking the lance.

I die for the lance.

Reynard · May 9, 2024

Paul Farquhar said:
If the world is threatened the god is threatened. To be fair, high level adventures don’t have to threaten the world/galaxy/universe/multiverse, but I have never met one that didn’t.

And the usual explanation applies:

Gods: “the right heroes happen to be in the right place at the right time to avert this catastrophe. What do you mean “we don’t intervene”!?”

I think high level.adventures are better without threatening the world. There are lots of options for lower stakes despite high power. Comic books are a good source for inspiration. Sure, there are plenty of stories about the JLA saving the world, but there are also lots of stories where that isn't what's at stake.

Retreater · May 9, 2024

MonsterEnvy said:
Could you explain this in spoilers.

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.

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.

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.

MonsterEnvy · May 9, 2024

Retreater said:
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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

FitzTheRuke · May 9, 2024

Retreater said:
Based on the review I posted, it does seem monumentally nonsensical. An evil supervillain handing over the macguffin for no reason. Another NPC handing it over at the expense of her own life with a DC 15 Charisma check. Entire epic level adventures reduced to 8 page outlines.
High adventure, or a convenient path of least resistance to check all the boxes in a "D&D Greatest Hits" album that seems more like a re-recorded Kidz Bop collection?

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.

FitzTheRuke · May 9, 2024

Shardstone said:
I don't understand why they have a Dragonlance part to this adventure with NO dragonlances. What???? Werewolves?? What??? Give me the LANCE

Then we'd be hearing the complaint, "Oh, now EVERYONE gets a Lance in a Dragonlance game! Those things are meant to be RARE!"

Shardstone · May 9, 2024

FitzTheRuke said:
Then we'd be hearing the complaint, "Oh, now EVERYONE gets a Lance in a Dragonlance game! Those things are meant to be RARE!"

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

WotC Vecna Eve of Ruin: Everything You Need To Know

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