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'.

 

[Retreater]

Princes of the Apocalypse

Temple of Elemental Evil

Storm King's Thunder

Against the Giants

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?

Three of those weren't created for D&D. Additionally, all of them are just one-shot books that don't have any impact on any other books.

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.

Because it existed for decades before D&D, wasn't created for the purpose of gaming adventure, is now used by Goodman Games.
It's like saying Arkham is a D&D setting because there was once a d20 Call of Cthulhu game.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Temple of Elemental Evil


Against the Giants

.

I'll give you the first, but Storm King's Thunder and Against the Giants have nothing in common besides they both have giants in them.

And you said "nearly every adventure". You managed to just come up with two, one of which isn't even correct.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

Indeed, quite the contrary, the past decade is basically the Golden Age of official D&D Adventures: the Peaks are as high as they ever were, and the dips are actually all still quite usable looks askance at 80s TSR products nobody talks about anymore

 

[Parmandur]

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.

And Infinite Staircase is coming out in a minute, too

 

[Parmandur]

While you are quite right:

Princes of the Apocalypse

An explicit homage to Temple of Elemental Evil

Storm King's Thunder

Also an explicit homage to the G series.

However, in both cases, they are actually pretty original in execution and most material.

 

[Parmandur]

I'll give you the first, but Storm King's Thunder and Against the Giants have nothing in common besides they both have giants in them.

And you said "nearly every adventure". You managed to just come up with two, one of which isn't even correct.

One gets the impression that some folks criticize the campaign book line without being overly familiar?

 

[Retreater]

I'll give you the first, but Storm King's Thunder and Against the Giants have nothing in common besides they both have giants in them.

Giants are attacking unprovoked because the Ordening has been disrupted by an outside force, so the parties must go to a Hill Giant Steading, a Frost Giant Jarl's glacial Palace, and a Fire Giants volcanic fortress, using different devices to teleport between them?
Sounds kinda like Against the Giants. At least that's how I read it.

 

[Distracted DM]

I'll give you the first, but Storm King's Thunder and Against the Giants have nothing in common besides they both have giants in them.

And you said "nearly every adventure". You managed to just come up with two, one of which isn't even correct.

I thought SKT was directly inspired by AtG. It certainly follows a similar pattern of battling your way up the ranks through each giant type.

A lot of 5e adventures were "love letters" to older adventures. Those old adventures were definitely the starting premise for a lot of 5e adventures- "ok what old adventure will we use as source inspiration to built atop?"

 

[Echohawk]

Giants are attacking unprovoked because the Ordening has been disrupted by an outside force, so the parties must go to a Hill Giant Steading, a Frost Giant Jarl's glacial Palace, and a Fire Giants volcanic fortress, using different devices to teleport between them?
Sounds kinda like Against the Giants. At least that's how I read it.

Your understanding of "retread of a previous adventure" is clearly slightly broader than mine, which is fine. That still leaves at least Lost Mine of Phandelver, Out of the Abyss, 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.

So how is that "nearly every adventure produced" being a retread?

 

[Quickleaf]

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

I thought it was a roast of Vecna?