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'.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The first time I ever learned of Tasha/Iggwilv when I started playing D&D was in the end of the Savage Tide adventure path, where she was capable of creating a portal powerful enough to let an entire eladrin army pour into Demogorgon's layer of the Abyss. Time travel comparatively isn't that much crazier.

I disagree that time travel isn't a different level, but it is subjective

 

[Eyes of Nine]

After the pandemic, what is time?

 

[Reynard]

After the pandemic, what is time?

It's that thing you used to have too much of, and now you never have enough of.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

It's that thing you used to have too much of, and now you never have enough of.

true sad

 

[Voadam]

I thought everybody had heard of Tasha and her uncontrollable hideous laughter after 1e Unearthed Arcana.

Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter (Evocation)
Level: 2
Range: 5“
Duration: 1 round
Area of Effect: One creature
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 2 segments
Saving Throw: Special
Explanation/Description: This spell enables the caster to cause the subject to perceive everything as hilariously funny. The effect is not immediate, and the subject creature will feel only a slight tingling on the round the dweomer is placed, but on the round immediately following, it will begin smiling, then giggling, chuckling, tittering, snickering, guffawing, and finally collapsing into gales of uncontrollable hideous laughter. Although this magic mirth lasts only a single round, the affected creature must spend the next round regaining its feet, and it will be at -2 from its strength (or -2 “to hit” and damage) on the 3rd and 4th rounds following the spell casting. A successful save versus spell negates the effect. The saving throw depends on the intelligence of the creature. Creatures with intelligence of 3 or less are totally unaffected. Those with intelligence of 4-8 save at -6; those with intelligence of 9-12 save at -4; those with intelligence of 13-15 save at -2; and those with intelligence of 16 or greater have normal saving throw probability. The material components of the spell are a small feather, a tiny wooden paddle, and a minute tort. The tort is hurled at the subject, while the feather is waved in one hand and the paddle is tapped against the posterior of the spell caster.

 

[dead]

Going back in time creates an alternate timeline / reality. The two things are linked.

Normally for me, when I read or watch fiction with alternate realities it feels assumed that it’s on the same timeline, ie. stuff is happening in one reality and stuff is happening in the other reality side-by-side and you can hop between the two without making a temporal jump. There can be realms where time passes differently - like Faerie - but it still doesn’t feel like time travel.

But it’s all fiction, so can be anything the writer wants. For example, time travel creating alternate timelines is just one view of how time travel works.

I think for me, it’s about consistency in how all this stuff works in the fictional world. When it starts to look like it’s just “anything goes” in order to achieve a desired effect in the story, then that can feel like lazy writing.

 

[dead]

I think this is the first time.

I don’t mind time travel - I’ve used it in my Dragonlance game (albeit time travel has always been a thing in that setting) - it’s just that if you’re only using it to explain the appearance of NPCs you want in the adventure and of Settings you want at a certain point in their history (ie. classic Greyhawk, classic Planescape, etc.) then it seems a bit contrived. It makes you feel like there’s no solid base to any of these game worlds anymore. They can change on a dime depending on what the current trend is. Anyway, sorry for the cynicism. I hope when I read Eve of Ruin I don’t come across with this feeling.

 

[dead]

Here is the verbatim text from the "What's Next?" Section after finishing the Shattered Obelisk...

Thanks! Helps prep me for the "timey-whimey" shenanigans.

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks! Helps prep me for the "timey-whimey" shenanigans.

No problem! The prior two Advebtures that hinted at Vecna's plans and this video are dancing around some hidden secrets to the plot, no doubt, but it seems that he is pulling a Groundhog Day on the cosmos to "get it right," which provides a handy tool for the DM to use or handwave away "canon" at discretion (which obviously we can always do, it's just smart to canonize the wobbliness of canon for an RPG universe).

 

[Quickleaf]