Rage of Demons: "D&D On Hard Mode"

Out of the Abyss will be available in preferred stores in just two days (and elsewhere 11 days later). In the meantime, the promotion is still coming thick and fast, this time with a Chris Perkins interview over at Polygon. The interview covers a range of general D&D topics which you've probably seen dozens of times before, but there is some new material on Out of the Abyss. "The idea with Rage of Demons was to paint the Underdark as D&D on hard mode".

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The whimsical Alice in Wonderland style is divisive; Perkins describes it as "the Underdark becomes the Wonderland of D&D; this crazy weird place that you have to fall down a hole to enter, and it’s full of crazy deranged characters. The more you hang around them, the more you begin to understand them, and the more you realize you’re going crazy yourself."

The interview also describes some details of the adventure. The PCs start off as prisoners of the drow.

The article also describes the sentient gelatinous cube, Glabbaagool. The demon lord Juiblex's presence causes lots of oozes to gain sentience. Other NPCs include Yuk Yuk and Spiderbait, a goblin tag team. "These guys are your bungee-jumpers, hang-gliders, stuff like that. We encounter them in Out of the Abyss where they help you navigate this gigantic cavern complex full of spiderwebs."

And then there's Xazak, the beholder with ten disintegration eyestalks and an Igor-like servant called Mr. Peebles. And Zelix, a mindflayer who runs an insane asylum because insane brains are more tasty than sane ones.

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Read the whole thing here.

 

[Zaran]

It bothers me that they have to put in a beholder with 10 disintegration eye stalks to be hard. That sounds like a chump GM maneuver to me.

 

[MerricB]

It bothers me that they have to put in a beholder with 10 disintegration eye stalks to be hard. That sounds like a chump GM maneuver to me.

Where does it say there's a beholder with 10 disintegration eye stalks?

 

[MerricB]

Just had a closer look - seems like the "Escape" will cover levels 1-6, so you'll be a couple of levels short from just the Starter. (Although I don't think there's a huge difference in capabilities between 5th and 7th level...) More when I can actually read the adventure... although other people will be there before me.

Cheers!

 

[delericho]

Where does it say there's a beholder with 10 disintegration eye stalks?

From the OP: "And then there's Xazak, the beholder with ten disintegration eyestalks and an Igor-like servant called Mr. Peebles."

 

[M.L. Martin]

The 2E PHB sold 300,000+ units in its first year, according to the 1990 TSR catalog. Given the various changes of the past 25 years, I'm not surprised 5E is doing even more sales.

 

[MerricB]

From the OP: "And then there's Xazak, the beholder with ten disintegration eyestalks and an Igor-like servant called Mr. Peebles."

Ah - I think the OP is wrong then. The article doesn't say that. We don't know how many disintegration eyestalks he has.

Xazax is a very angry customer," Perkins said. "This is another idea that was born out of one of my personal D&D campaigns. In that campaign, I had a beholder who hunted other beholders for their disintegration eyestalks. He was cutting off his own eyestalks and replacing them with disintegration eyestalks, so that when you finally face him at the end of the adventure, he’s got ten disintegration eyestalks. That’s a very mean DM thing to do.

"Xazax was born out of that concept. Here’s a beholder who, with the aid of his Igor-like servant, Mr. Peebles, is finding other beholders, trapping them, tracking them down, murdering them to steal their eyestalks, and then grafting those eyestalks onto his body"

The original monster in Chris's campaign replaced his eyestalks with disintegration ones. Xazax, in Out of the Abyss, has extra eyestalks of unknown types.

Cheers!

 

[delericho]

The original monster in Chris's campaign replaced his eyestalks with disintegration ones. Xazax, in Out of the Abyss, has extra eyestalks of unknown types.

Good spot.

 

[delericho]

The 2E PHB sold 300,000+ units in its first year, according to the 1990 TSR catalog. Given the various changes of the past 25 years, I'm not surprised 5E is doing even more sales.

Somewhere or other (and, of course, I now can't find it again), Ryan Dancey gave sales numbers for the various pre-4e PHBs. 2nd Ed was the worst selling edition - in particular, the 3e PHB did 300k sales in its first month.

WotC have indicated that 5e has just had the biggest launch of any edition to date. I don't see any reason to doubt that.

Edit: here's the relevant post.

 

[mflayermonk]

and an Igor-like servant called Mr. Peebles.[/url].

Is he a highlander?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Ah - I think the OP is wrong then. The article doesn't say that. We don't know how many disintegration eyestalks he has.



The original monster in Chris's campaign replaced his eyestalks with disintegration ones. Xazax, in Out of the Abyss, has extra eyestalks of unknown types.

Cheers!

I counted 16 eye stalks