D&D's Obelisk Plotline Was Supposed to Be Resolved in Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Chris Perkins has revealed that the obelisks scattered throughout various 5E adventures published by Wizards of the Coast was originally supposed to play a central role in the Vecna: Eve of Ruin adventure capping off Fifth Edition. Many Dungeons & Dragons adventures published for Fifth Edition featured mysterious black obelisks. These obelisks were revealed to be capable of time-travel and were tied to a mysterious group called the Weavers as well as the Netherese Empire. In Rime of the Frostmaiden, it was revealed that Vecna had obtained one of these obelisks and it was hinted that Vecna would use the obelisks in his plot to rewrite all of reality.

Vecna's possession of an obelisk was never followed up on, but it was apparently supposed to be a plot point in Vecna: Eve of Ruin. In a recent interview with Polygon, Perkins provided his vision for Vecna: Eve of Ruin. "The original plan, in my mind, was that we would actually culminate the story by going back in time to fight the Netherese Empire,” Perkins said. “It was always on our radar to bring Netheril back in some way. And this was the way I envisioned it happening, because the only way you could really fight Netheril again is to travel back in time."

“I was excited about the idea of a time travel adventure,” Perkins said later in the interview, “simply because it would feel very different from the other campaigns we had done up to that point. And I thought given time and attention, we could do some really fun things with Netheril and explore a style of magic that felt different from contemporary magic. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks would be sort of like the vibe I'd go for, where the magic is so weird it almost feels technological.”

Unfortunately, plans changed when Perkins' role at Wizards of the Coast shifted in his latter years with the company. “The reason it was dropped was that different people were in charge of the adventure design,” Perkins said. “I had rolled off a lot of my hands-on product work to help out with other parts of the business. And so, when I creatively walked away from the day-to-day adventure creation, we sort of lost the plot.”

Polygon has been periodically publishing interviews with Perkins, including an introspective on Rime of the Frostmaiden, and some insight on 5E's adventure design.

 

[Artamo]

And the other here where people from wotc describe a review process that ensures bad people and bad places where bad things happen won't show up in print where dogooding adventures could... do good. nearly everything about Netheril is all three of those things

Correct, it’s a tangential gripe about Wizards inclusivity policy. Thanks for posting it a third time.

 

[Desdichado]

quick, tell me who with WotC was interviewed by Polygon in the linked article

Try not to be pedantic. Chris Perkins was with WotC and that's his quote.

 

[WinningerR]

How do you do something like this?

This isn't "someone didn't like that direction and chose to go elsewhere". This is "yeah we just sort of dropped the ball because I got moved somewhere else".

No, that’s exactly what this is. To answer your Q, both Chris and I left the project.

 

[kenmarable]

Anyways, regarding the article, it really sounds like they could’ve benefited from some internal story bibles if that was truly the intent. Also consider that possibly Perkins wasn’t as communicative as necessary to drive that point about the obelisks versus it being a mistake on the part of the designers who followed after him. Regardless, Eve of Ruin is one of those modules that I looked at and saw stuff in maps and encounters that I might have scavenged for other uses, but I’d probably never actually run the adventure itself. Ultimately I passed on it.

Come to think of it, I’ve never been particularly wowed by any the old TSR Vecna adventures.

Yes, between Ray & Chris & the end product, there does seem to be very much a feel of "person in charge had an idea, but when someone else took over, they just ran with their own idea instead." Whether that was lack of documentation, deliberate choice, or simply "I was thinking of going in this direction, but it's your project now, so put your stamp on it" or whatever, we won't know.

And, yeah, that's pretty accurate about the TSR Vecna adventures. I think he gets cool points mostly for being a very early Greyhawk BBEG, but even by 2e they were using him as a "cool throwback" that just wasn't well executed at all. Die, Vecna, Die especially, is a similar attempt to lean on Vecna as this world-spanning villain where you need to visit multiple settings to stop him, but the end product was an adventure that treated most every setting it touched poorly and just stunk.

They might have done better now, but it's definitely risky taking a bad idea horribly executed as inspiration for a major product like that. Die, Vecna, Die is better left forgotten than emulated, in my opinion. (Although, to be fair, I'm a huge Planescape fan, and Die, Vecna, Die really treated that setting poorly. )