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The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8601349" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>So, remember what I said in my overview of the <em>Book of Artifacts</em> about it having left the smallest footprint (compared to the other books in the "Expanded Core") in the history of the game? Well, here comes <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17108/The-Rod-of-Seven-Parts-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>The Rod of Seven Parts</em></a>, the first of the Tomes adventures, to prove me wrong.</p><p></p><p>This product, which could very well be called a campaign-in-a-box, is far from the first to feature the eponymous Rod of Seven Parts; that distinction goes to OD&D's <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17176/ODD-Supplement-III-Eldritch-Wizardry-0e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry</em></a>, then the AD&D 1E DMG, followed by the AD&D 2E DMG, then the BoA, and now this. It was only in 2nd Edition that the Rod became an artifact of Law, and while this boxed set adds little to the overarching lore, it put it all front and center in a massive quest...ironically, exactly the sort that the <em>Book of Artifacts</em> said artifacts should cause when introduced into your campaign setting.</p><p></p><p>The lore on display here also had some not-inconsiderable future history. While the specific events in this campaign weren't referenced (owing largely to this adventure's generic nature) much that I can recall, 3E would (in products such as <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/51643/Fiendish-Codex-I-Hordes-of-the-Abyss-35?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss</em></a>) integrate the Queen of Chaos and Miska the Wolf-Spider with material from Planescape, creating an overarching history of the Great Wheel cosmology.</p><p></p><p>In a nutshell, that history is that the yugoloths were the original scions of Evil (with a capital "E"), and who subsequently purged themselves of law and chaos, the latter of which formed the obyriths, of whom Obox-ob became the first Prince of Demons, after which the Queen of Chaos took the title from him and bestowed it on her consort, Miska. After being defeated with the Rod of Seven Parts, Demogorgon took the title, at least up until the events of the Savage Tide, after which WotC decided to reboot everything in 4E before deciding that lore and canon weren't really important at all in 5E, which is a shame because I liked how things were starting to develop into a coherent whole, but <em>c'est la vie</em>.</p><p></p><p>As for this boxed set unto itself, it was one that I circled a long time before I actually got the thing. Which is to say, I read all of the supplementary materials about this product before finally picking it up a year or two ago. I read Skip Williams' articles in Dragon #224 (where he talked about the artifact's history) and #233 (where he talked about integrating the boxed set into several of TSR's campaign worlds); I picked up a copy of Douglas Niles' <em>Rod of Seven Parts</em> novel; I even got to see the new monsters presented here when they were reprinted in the <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16935/Monstrous-Compendium-Annual--Volume-4-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Monstrous Compendium Annual Vol. 4</em></a>. All long before I actually sat down with the boxed set unto itself.</p><p></p><p>But having said all of that, what's the actual adventure/campaign like?</p><p></p><p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's something of an extended fetch-quest, as the party stumbles onto the first piece of the Rod and then begins tracking down the subsequent six, drawing the attention ofthe Queen of Chaos and Miska, both of whom the characters encounter over the course of the adventure, as well as their minions. In this regard, it's really a series of adventures, which collectively make for some classic D&D-style dungeon-crawling, even if they're not all dungeons. From raiding a fire giant's lair to venturing into the Underdark to fight an aboleth to going into a hidden demiplane replete with undead, the adventure has quite a few scenarios that aren't just "fight demonic servitors who want the Rod," though there are still plenty of those; the first two books make up the main series of adventures, but the third has several scenarios which can be dropped in anywhere.</p><p></p><p>That's not all the third book does; it also covers the Rod itself, expanding quite a bit on how previous books have presented it. For instance, not only does each piece of the Rod have its own power, as well as greater powers when its pieces are joined, but it also has resonant powers that are only unlocked if you join the pieces <em>in the proper order.</em> How's THAT for lawful? It reminded me a lot of how, in <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17424/WGA4-Vecna-Lives-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>WGA4 Vecna Lives!</em></a>, the powers of the Hand of Vecna were all associated with particular gestures; little things like that go a long way to fleshing an artifact out.</p><p></p><p>This book also expands on the process of combining the Rod's parts (i.e. drawing the proper sigils necessary to join or remove pieces) and the consequences for messing that process up. Said consequences (that a piece teleports away to a random location) seems like something the PCs will have to deal with a lot here; not only does it happen if you screw up joining a piece, but it also has a chance of happening if you use the Rod's powers too much. It's no surprise that the main book advises you not to use that too much, lest the PCs feel discouraged.</p><p></p><p>Of course, if the PCs do manage to put the entire Rod together and confront Miska, they have the opportunity to slay a major antagonist from D&D history. It's a pretty epic win if they can pull it off, and certainly worthy of a boxed set this big. Really, my only complaint here is that something this epic in scope runs into the old "where's Elminster?" problem, since being the focus of something of this magnitude (e.g. waves of chaos that warp the campaign world as the Queen sends her minions after the PCs) should normally result in major NPCs of all stripes getting involved. Skip Williams acknowledges this himself in that <em>Dragon</em> #233 article, but doesn't really offer much advice except "be cognizant of that."</p><p></p><p>Still, that's a relatively minor complaint about an adventure of such an impressive breadth. <em>The Rod of Seven Parts</em> sets a very high bar for the beginning of the Tomes series of products, though personally, I think the next one represents the high-water mark for the series...</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8601349, member: 8461"] So, remember what I said in my overview of the [I]Book of Artifacts[/I] about it having left the smallest footprint (compared to the other books in the "Expanded Core") in the history of the game? Well, here comes [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17108/The-Rod-of-Seven-Parts-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]The Rod of Seven Parts[/I][/URL], the first of the Tomes adventures, to prove me wrong. This product, which could very well be called a campaign-in-a-box, is far from the first to feature the eponymous Rod of Seven Parts; that distinction goes to OD&D's [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17176/ODD-Supplement-III-Eldritch-Wizardry-0e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry[/I][/URL], then the AD&D 1E DMG, followed by the AD&D 2E DMG, then the BoA, and now this. It was only in 2nd Edition that the Rod became an artifact of Law, and while this boxed set adds little to the overarching lore, it put it all front and center in a massive quest...ironically, exactly the sort that the [I]Book of Artifacts[/I] said artifacts should cause when introduced into your campaign setting. The lore on display here also had some not-inconsiderable future history. While the specific events in this campaign weren't referenced (owing largely to this adventure's generic nature) much that I can recall, 3E would (in products such as [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/51643/Fiendish-Codex-I-Hordes-of-the-Abyss-35?affiliate_id=820'][I]Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss[/I][/URL]) integrate the Queen of Chaos and Miska the Wolf-Spider with material from Planescape, creating an overarching history of the Great Wheel cosmology. In a nutshell, that history is that the yugoloths were the original scions of Evil (with a capital "E"), and who subsequently purged themselves of law and chaos, the latter of which formed the obyriths, of whom Obox-ob became the first Prince of Demons, after which the Queen of Chaos took the title from him and bestowed it on her consort, Miska. After being defeated with the Rod of Seven Parts, Demogorgon took the title, at least up until the events of the Savage Tide, after which WotC decided to reboot everything in 4E before deciding that lore and canon weren't really important at all in 5E, which is a shame because I liked how things were starting to develop into a coherent whole, but [I]c'est la vie[/I]. As for this boxed set unto itself, it was one that I circled a long time before I actually got the thing. Which is to say, I read all of the supplementary materials about this product before finally picking it up a year or two ago. I read Skip Williams' articles in Dragon #224 (where he talked about the artifact's history) and #233 (where he talked about integrating the boxed set into several of TSR's campaign worlds); I picked up a copy of Douglas Niles' [I]Rod of Seven Parts[/I] novel; I even got to see the new monsters presented here when they were reprinted in the [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16935/Monstrous-Compendium-Annual--Volume-4-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Monstrous Compendium Annual Vol. 4[/I][/URL]. All long before I actually sat down with the boxed set unto itself. But having said all of that, what's the actual adventure/campaign like? Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's something of an extended fetch-quest, as the party stumbles onto the first piece of the Rod and then begins tracking down the subsequent six, drawing the attention ofthe Queen of Chaos and Miska, both of whom the characters encounter over the course of the adventure, as well as their minions. In this regard, it's really a series of adventures, which collectively make for some classic D&D-style dungeon-crawling, even if they're not all dungeons. From raiding a fire giant's lair to venturing into the Underdark to fight an aboleth to going into a hidden demiplane replete with undead, the adventure has quite a few scenarios that aren't just "fight demonic servitors who want the Rod," though there are still plenty of those; the first two books make up the main series of adventures, but the third has several scenarios which can be dropped in anywhere. That's not all the third book does; it also covers the Rod itself, expanding quite a bit on how previous books have presented it. For instance, not only does each piece of the Rod have its own power, as well as greater powers when its pieces are joined, but it also has resonant powers that are only unlocked if you join the pieces [I]in the proper order.[/I] How's THAT for lawful? It reminded me a lot of how, in [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17424/WGA4-Vecna-Lives-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]WGA4 Vecna Lives![/I][/URL], the powers of the Hand of Vecna were all associated with particular gestures; little things like that go a long way to fleshing an artifact out. This book also expands on the process of combining the Rod's parts (i.e. drawing the proper sigils necessary to join or remove pieces) and the consequences for messing that process up. Said consequences (that a piece teleports away to a random location) seems like something the PCs will have to deal with a lot here; not only does it happen if you screw up joining a piece, but it also has a chance of happening if you use the Rod's powers too much. It's no surprise that the main book advises you not to use that too much, lest the PCs feel discouraged. Of course, if the PCs do manage to put the entire Rod together and confront Miska, they have the opportunity to slay a major antagonist from D&D history. It's a pretty epic win if they can pull it off, and certainly worthy of a boxed set this big. Really, my only complaint here is that something this epic in scope runs into the old "where's Elminster?" problem, since being the focus of something of this magnitude (e.g. waves of chaos that warp the campaign world as the Queen sends her minions after the PCs) should normally result in major NPCs of all stripes getting involved. Skip Williams acknowledges this himself in that [I]Dragon[/I] #233 article, but doesn't really offer much advice except "be cognizant of that." Still, that's a relatively minor complaint about an adventure of such an impressive breadth. [I]The Rod of Seven Parts[/I] sets a very high bar for the beginning of the Tomes series of products, though personally, I think the next one represents the high-water mark for the series... [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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