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'.

 

[marimbaguy715]

You can believe that, but you can't just say that's what "people" believe, not unchallenged.

You know, if you doubt their claim you could also do a bit of research. I'm sure they didn't feel the need to provide evidence because it just seemed obviously true to them.

But if you want some evidence, here are a few poll results from reddit and the D&D Beyond forums. They are by no means rigorous, comprehensive polls, but they skew so far in milestone's direction that it suggests milestone is the more popular choice. All other polls and discussions I found also seem to indicate milestone is more popular.

https://www.reddit.com/poll/q765tq?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=DnD&utm_content=t3_q765tq

XP or Milestone? - General Discussion - D&D Beyond General - D&D Beyond Forums - D&D Beyond

I've been using Xp in my current game that has been lasting for close to 3 years now. I've done a pretty good job at giving out Xp to reward them in line wit...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I thought it was fairly obvious that by “people” I did not mean “everyone in the entire universe”. It’s pretty obvious that some people still use xp, and it’s pretty much essential in a game that has no narrative.

Even BG3 uses XP, although in that case it is used to break progression into smaller chunks, with most of the xp coming from story awards rather than killing monsters (as did BG1 and 2, and the Owlcat pathfinder games).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've used "milestone" leveling for 20+ years. I just don't care about small "rewards" that are mostly math. Gold Pieces do that enough as it is.

The math tracking is a pretty major reason the players didn’t want xp, but there was also the incident when the paladin challenged the storm giant to single combat, and ended up four levels higher than the rest of the party.

They aren’t keen on tracking gold either.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I thought it was fairly obvious that by “people” I did not mean “everyone in the entire universe”. It’s pretty obvious that some people still use xp, and it’s pretty much essential in a game that has no narrative.

Even BG3 uses XP, although in that case it is used to break progression into smaller chunks, with most of the xp coming from story awards rather than killing monsters (as did BG1 and 2, and the Owlcat pathfinder games).

I suppose I felt called out, since my games lack narrative (I run sandbox) and therefore xp is a better choice. I understand where you're coming from.

 

[Distracted DM]

I thought it was fairly obvious that by “people” I did not mean “everyone in the entire universe”. It’s pretty obvious that some people still use xp, and it’s pretty much essential in a game that has no narrative.

Even BG3 uses XP, although in that case it is used to break progression into smaller chunks, with most of the xp coming from story awards rather than killing monsters (as did BG1 and 2, and the Owlcat pathfinder games).

With BG1+2 I don't think it's fair to say that most of the XP comes from quests. It's a fair bit yes, but I wouldn't say it outshines monster XP.
I can't speak to the Owlcat games though.

 

[Reynard]

I like XP for player driven games. I try to be clear about the method -- Xp = gold, exploration gives the majority of XP, or whatever -- so the players have a clear idea of what to risk for what reward.

 

[Echohawk]

I suppose I felt called out, since my games lack narrative (I run sandbox) and therefore xp is a better choice. I understand where you're coming from.

I tend to favor narrative games, but I still use XP. I can't break the habit of awarding points for monsters and quests!

@Micah Sweet knowing that you run sandbox games, rather than narrative ones, makes me understand a bunch of your opinions much more clearly! The 2nd Era's wealth of (mostly) internally consistent campaign lore seems like a better fit for sandbox games than later edition products which emphasize story over consistent world lore.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I tend to favor narrative games, but I still use XP. I can't break the habit of awarding points for monsters and quests!

@Micah Sweet knowing that you run sandbox games, rather than narrative ones, makes me understand a bunch of your opinions much more clearly! The 2nd Era's wealth of (mostly) internally consistent campaign lore seems like a better fit for sandbox games than later edition products which emphasize story over consistent world lore.

Very much so. I am not interested in adventure paths or anything like them. I don't think I've ever run a published adventure straight through, in 35-ish years of DMing. I've only ever used them as inspiration, and to pull pieces from for my own games.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Looks like Miska is getting a cool mini

 

[Pentallion]

I run narrative games and use xp. I am old school and when temple of elemental evil said 1-8 it meant it would take the PVs from first to eight. When Fate of Istus said it had adventures for first to eighth it meant you had to fill in the gaps between adventures. Alternately, you could milestone FoI.
Shadow of the Dragon Queen does not have narrative space to fill the gaps, nor does it have enough xp to take you to 10th as advertised. It only works if you milestone. This is a ripoff and false advertising. They know darn well it is because we all knew the difference back in the day and so did TSR.