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'.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Yeah but you don’t have to use lore if you don’t want it. So how would it harm you if there was more. Just ignore it. That’s the thing. I would like more lore. Not because I use it all, or even most of it, but it helps me develope ideas. I can build and customize lore.

I mean, sure, I'm always glad to get more lore. But every release they've had has included more lore? Plus, though people hate hearing it, there is also still all the OLD lore.

And then, if you are really desperate, there are other publishers. I have three books of lore and ideas for Eberron, and sure two came from Keith Baker, but I prefer it that way. And there are galleons worth of lore for Dungeons and Dragons everywhere, multiple channels on youtube devoted to going over that lore minutia.

I do not blame WoTC for not speeding up their release schedule just to give us more lore when we are already sitting on an ocean of the stuff. Heck, we got three(?) entirely new settings with Theros, Ravnica and Strixhaven, and the Radiant Citadel, plus Exandria, Humblewood, Drakkenheim and Grim Hollow are all being brought in as partner works.

We could have even more lore, but that's looking like official support for eight new settings right there? That's a ton of lore.

 

[Distracted DM]

I have a feeling that it's just a simple "Printing prices have suddenly skyrocketed, so the page count has to come down, so slash what we can. Unfortunately, we paid for that art, so the ship illustrations have to stay."

Because what's in there is fine - it's just that things are missing. Give the set 32 - 64 more pages, and it would have been a pretty complete product. You have to wonder if the free 1- 5 adventure on D&D Beyond was supposed to be originally in the product, as it would have made the adventure book more complete and have given us info on Realmspace as a sample system. Same for the free monsters on D&DB.

It's all speculation unfortunately, but there was some commissioned art that was never used and only showed up on artist socials. I found that out because as I said, the SJ throne room set-piece box had a third named royal astral elf never mentioned in the adventure; this suggests that there was more to the adventure than we got.
And SJ could've used a lot more... everything :')

 

[pukunui]

It's all speculation unfortunately, but there was some commissioned art that was never used and only showed up on artist socials. I found that out because as I said, the SJ throne room set-piece box had a third named royal astral elf never mentioned in the adventure; this suggests that there was more to the adventure than we got.
And SJ could've used a lot more... everything :')

Oh, I didn't realize they'd cut the third sibling. I haven't read the finished version all the way through.

It's certainly not the only thing they cut/changed. For instance, we know that Doomspace was originally going to be Athaspace (because of the map that was temporarily and erroneously posted on DBB). I imagine there was a great hue and cry among the playtesters which convinced WotC not to introduce Dark Sun to 5e in that manner.

 

[Clint_L]

5E misses out on practically everything and always will.

The Golden Age of D&D is, and always will be, the first two editions where we had MASSIVE amounts of lore and settings and setting lore and game mechanics. Practically everything and even things small groups would ever use, which is fine, cause I'd rather have a ton of stuff I might use than to have extremely small handful of stuff and desiring something else.

And also, kids these days don't know what REAL music is!

1e and 2e were great. So's 5e. We don't have to choose between them.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Any particular reason time travel was necessary for this plot to work?

Yes, to avoid the fact that current Tasha is an Archfey, so they pulled out past Tasha. So there is both Current and Past Tasha and Vecna running around.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Tasha only makes sense if she then stabs everyone in the back to put her son in the center.

No that's Iggwilv. Like this Tasha is pre Iggwilv

 

[Henadic Theologian]

5E misses out on practically everything and always will.

The Golden Age of D&D is, and always will be, the first two editions where we had MASSIVE amounts of lore and settings and setting lore and game mechanics. Practically everything and even things small groups would ever use, which is fine, cause I'd rather have a ton of stuff I might use than to have extremely small handful of stuff and desiring something else.

Yes AD&D/Basic D&D was the golden era, for lore (although 3e Eberron and 5e Radiant Citadel are exceptions).

But not mechanics, just say no to Thaco.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think LoX was fine, really, what they missed out on were more system descriptions (like Realmspace, Greyspace, etc.), more on the Rock of Bral, and system exploration and adventure generation tables.

I would have liked some deep look at Astral Dominions too as it seems a big oart if the Astral Sea part of the setting.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

With Lolth and Miska the Wolf Spider being here, and these demonic images, I wonder if this book will feature a foray into the Abyss?View attachment 348677View attachment 348678

I think the Planescape part will be primarily Hell. So maybe Zariel will be the Planescape big bad.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I think the Planescape part will be primarily Hell. So maybe Zariel will be the Planescape big bad.

Pretty sure it will be Sigil as that is where we are starting. Also there is the whole Miska the Wolf Spider and Lolth stuff.