D&D 5E More Golden Vault Info!

From a recent press release sent out by WotC.

• “A secret organization called the Golden Vault sends mission briefings to its operatives—the adventurers!—in the form of magical, golden keys that are inserted into what looks like a mundane music box. Instead of a pretty tune, though, the music box then provides a recording with all the information needed for the adventurers to hunt a particular item of interest,” said Amanda Hamon, senior game designer on the D&D Team and co-lead designer of Keys from the Golden Vault. “It’s up to the adventurers to do the reconnaissance necessary to circumvent any defenses and pull off a legendary heist. Teamwork is paramount, because as so often happens in these capers, something will go wrong, and creative thinking could save the day!”
• The Golden Vaiult is linked to metallic dragons, and is good-aligned. It has a motto: "“Do good, no matter the cost.”
• The 13 adventures each have two full-page maps (one player map and one for the DM). The player map is often unreliable or incomplete.

Channel Your Inner Rogue with 13 Heist Adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault

Get the Mission, Plan the Caper, and Make Sure Everyone Gets Out Alive with the Prize

Renton, Wash., D&D players are not strangers to impossible missions. A perilous heist requires careful strategizing followed by daredevil antics when something unexpected happens and the players’ plan goes sideways. Dungeons & Dragons invites players to experience the thrill, drama, strategy, and intrigue of the heist genre in Keys from the Golden Vault, the latest Dungeons & Dragons book of adventures. Keys from the Golden Vault will be released in North America on February 21, 2023 and on March 24, 2023 in the UK/EMEA.

“A secret organization called the Golden Vault sends mission briefings to its operatives—the adventurers!—in the form of magical, golden keys that are inserted into what looks like a mundane music box. Instead of a pretty tune, though, the music box then provides a recording with all the information needed for the adventurers to hunt a particular item of interest,” said Amanda Hamon, senior game designer on the D&D Team and co-lead designer of Keys from the Golden Vault. “It’s up to the adventurers to do the reconnaissance necessary to circumvent any defenses and pull off a legendary heist. Teamwork is paramount, because as so often happens in these capers, something will go wrong, and creative thinking could save the day!”

The Golden Vault is rumored to be associated with metallic dragons and based on one of the good-aligned Outer Planes. Its operatives help the downtrodden and innocent when the law can’t. The organization’s motto is: “Do good, no matter the cost.”

D&D players can live out their fantasies of running a caper like one they might have seen on the silver screen in movies such as Mission: Impossible; Ocean’s 11; or even The Great Muppet Caper. The thirteen adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault range from levels 1 to 11. They can be played as one-offs dropped into ongoing campaigns, or run as a campaign of heists perpetrated by the same crew.
“Each adventure includes two full-page maps: one that players can use to plan their heist, and another the Dungeon Master uses to run the adventure,” said Chris Perkins, Story Architect of the D&D Team and co-lead of Keys from the Golden Vault. “The players’ map, however, is often unreliable or incomplete.”

Keys from the Golden Vault has an alternate cover by Simen Meyer, available only through game stores, and an evergreen cover by Anna Podedworna, available in North America on February 21, 2023. Fans who pre-order the digital/physical bundle at dndstore.wizards.com will be able to access the digital release on February 7, 2023.

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm hoping they playtested these.

Heist in a magic world are hard. The writer forgets about speak with animals or something and the players turn a three session arc into thirty minutes.

Second I don't want is a game where half of it is spent with a familiar, polymorphed character, or wizard eye scouting the location. While the other 4 party members sits on there phones

 

[SteveC]

I don't think this gets said often enough: thanks Morrus for the info! I passed it on to the guy who's running Dragon Heist for us at the moment, and he was interested, so that's a good sign.

 

[Reynard]

Second I don't want is a game where half of it is spent with a familiar, polymorphed character, or wizard eye scouting the location. While the other 4 party members sits on there phones

Or they could stay engaged with the game, make suggestions and help formulate the plan as informed players once the scouting is done.

 

[Stormonu]

I used to want as many levels as I could get for the game, but when Epic came out for 3E, I realized I'd never play to those levels. I think it'd be really beneficial if the PHB only covered up to, say level 15 and the DMG had info on levels 16-20 for NPCs and enemies.

Or just sell a seperate book (that's actually been playtested, not just theorycrafted) that covers higher than 15th or so for those that want to take their games to those levels.

I have a feeling (from personal experience and old poll data) a lot of people talk about wanting to play high level games, but few people actually stick with a campaign long enough to actually get to high-level play. I know my own mind rebels against trying to stuff after about 12th level play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Remember that 5e was the edition where they were trying really hard to be all things to all people just to keep the game in print.

It doesn't surprise me at all that they might have decided that 20 levels was important to have because that's what 3e had, even if the designer part of their brains was saying something different. That's kind of 5e's core design in a nutshell - try to find the cleanest design that preserves as many sacred cows as you possibly can to make the most people as close to content as possible.

I'm sure you're right. Still, at every inflection point (and 1D&D is probably too minor of a one to make a big change like this), they should be considering whether it's worth spending 25% or so of their resources supporting what 10% of the players use (all numbers here are made up), or roll those resources into what 100% of the players will use instead.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm sure you're right. Still, at every inflection point (and 1D&D is probably too minor of a one to make a big change like this), they should be considering whether it's worth spending 25% or so of their resources supporting what 10% of the players use (all numbers here are made up), or roll those resources into what 100% of the players will use instead.

Well, pas the PHB...that's precisely what they're doing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I used to want as many levels as I could get for the game, but when Epic came out for 3E, I realized I'd never play to those levels. I think it'd be really beneficial if the PHB only covered up to, say level 15 and the DMG had info on levels 16-20 for NPCs and enemies.

Or just sell a seperate book (that's actually been playtested, not just theorycrafted) that covers higher than 15th or so for those that want to take their games to those levels.

I have a feeling (from personal experience and old poll data) a lot of people talk about wanting to play high level games, but few people actually stick with a campaign long enough to actually get to high-level play. I know my own mind rebels against trying to stuff after about 12th level play.

I found the ELH could probably have been boiled into a really cool 20-page addition to the Manual of the Planes and I would have gotten nearly all of the same value out of it.

There were some cool ideas that came from trying to design for those levels (never-born god fetuses are creepy and scary and showed up again in later books and editions, for instance), but yeah, "how to design a level 30 spell" is almost certainly pointless other than a one-off experiment, better suited for a Dragon article back in the day.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, pas the PHB...that's precisely what they're doing.

Your Monster Manual may be missing a bunch of pages, in that case.

 

[Parmandur]

Your Monster Manual may be missing a bunch of pages, in that case.

OK, paat the Core 3 books (plus some Moanter stat blocks for Big Bads scattered here and there).

 

[Stormonu]

Your Monster Manual may be missing a bunch of pages, in that case.

If you cut out CR 16-30, that's 35 monsters, if you did CR 21-30, it'd be 14.

Which could be used for probably twice that many other monsters, considering the smaller stat blocks that replace them. Including slightly lower level replacements of some of the above (like a CR 15 or 19 lich, instead of CR 21).