[UPDATED] RAGE OF DEMONS! New D&D Storyline Features Drizzt, Underdark, & Demon Lords!

Following Elemental Evil this fall, Rage of Demons will launch a new storyline featuring Drizzt Do'Urden, the Underdark, and various demon lords from the Abyss including old favourites like Demogorgon, Orcus and Graz’zt. This will feature on tabletop, console, and PC. "The demon lords have been summoned from the Abyss and players must descend into the Underdark with the iconic hero Drizzt Do’Urden to stop the chaos before it threatens the surface." It begins with the adventure Out of the Abyss, which releases on September 15th for $49.95, and is being designed for WotC by Green Ronin Publishing. (Thanks to Charles Akins for that last scoop!)

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Drizzt? WotC's Chris Perkins says: "Drizzt's role in the RoD story varies depending on the platform. In the TRPG adventure, the PCs are the stars."

Inspiration: "My inspirations for RAGE OF DEMONS were Lewis Carroll's Wonderland stories and EXILE, by R.A. Salvatore." [Perkins] So this is the Alice in Wonderland inspired story that's been previously alluded to.

Here's the full announcement.

"Today, Wizards of the Coast announced Rage of Demons, the new storyline for Dungeons & Dragons fans coming in Fall 2015. The demon lords have been summoned from the Abyss and players must descend into the Underdark with the iconic hero Drizzt Do’Urden to stop the chaos before it threatens the surface. Rage of Demons is the story all D&D gamers will be excited to play this fall, whether they prefer consoles, PCs or rolling dice with friends.

Following on the critically-acclaimed Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil stories, Rage of Demons will transport characters to the deadly and insane underworld. Rumors of powerful demon lords such as Demogorgon, Orcus and Graz’zt terrorizing the denizens of the Underdark have begun to filter up to the cities of the Sword Coast. The already dangerous caverns below the surface are thrown into ultimate chaos, madness and discord. The renegade drow Drizzt Do’Urden is sent to investigate but it will be up to you to aid in his fight against the demons before he succumbs to his darker temptations.

Dungeons & Dragons fans will have more options than ever to enjoy the Rage of Demons storyline. The themes of treachery and discord in the Underdark are in Sword Coast Legends, the new CRPG (computer role-playing game) coming this fall on PC from n-Space and Digital Extremes. The epic campaign that drives Sword Coast Legends' story forces players deep into the Underdark and continues well after launch with legendary adventurer Drizzt Do'Urden.

For fans of Neverwinter, the popular Dungeons & Dragons-based MMORPG will bring a new expansion – tentatively titled Neverwinter: Underdark – in 2015. The update will see adventurers travel with Drizzt to the drow city of Menzoberranzan during its demonic assault as well as experience a unique set of quests written by the creator of Drizzt, R.A. Salvatore. The expansion will initially be released on PC and will come out on the Xbox One at a later date.

Players of the tabletop roleplaying game can descend into the Underdark in Out of the Abyss, a new adventure which provides details on the demon lords rampaging through the Underdark. Partners such as WizKids, GaleForce 9 and Smiteworks will all support Rage of Demons with new products to help bring your tabletop game to life. To really get in the mind of Drizzt, fans will have to check out Archmage, the new novel by R.A. Salvatore, scheduled for release in early September.

“Rage of Demons is a huge storyline involving all expressions of Dungeons & Dragons, and we’re excited to bring players this story in concert with all of our partners,” said Nathan Stewart, Brand Director at Wizards of the Coast. “I can’t wait to see everyone interact with one of the world’s most recognizable fantasy characters: Drizzt Do’Urden. Descending into the depths won’t exactly be easy for him, and D&D fans will get their mettle tested just like Drizzt when they come face-to-face with all the demon lords.”

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[Celtavian]

InstaBuy!
The Underdark storyline is my fav!

I'm with you. It's been a while since I've played a fun Underdark story.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Or they did, especially the bits where it says:

The renegade drow Drizzt Do’Urden is sent to investigate but it will be up to you to aid in his fight against the demons before he succumbs to his darker temptations.

“Rage of Demons is a huge storyline involving all expressions of Dungeons & Dragons, and we’re excited to bring players this story in concert with all of our partners,” said Nathan Stewart, Brand Director at Wizards of the Coast. “I can’t wait to see everyone interact with one of the world’s most recognizable fantasy characters: Drizzt Do’Urden. Descending into the depths won’t exactly be easy for him, and D&D fans will get their mettle tested just like Drizzt when they come face-to-face with all the demon lords.”

That is Nathan "D&D stopped being a tabletop game decades ago" Stewart talking. When he says everyone, I think he's talking about the triple AAA video game audience, not the tabletop audience.

This is the "Rage of Demons" storyline announcement. "Out of the Abyss" gets a single line mentioning it - two, if you're going to generously count "whether they prefer consoles, PCs or rolling dice with friends" as a mention.

The actual description the AP has no mentions of Drizzt whatsoever. You'll be delving into FR's Underdark so of course his name will come up in the book, but I'm skeptical he'll even appear in the AP as an NPC.

Whether the adventure turns out to be any good of course depends on who's writing it.

 

[delericho]

Kuo-toa, traditionally, should fall in the upcoming underdark one...but the sahuagin and other aquatic MM stuff (and if Nautical UA is a preview/hint) could EASILY be a Saltmarsh trilogy AP. Would need to be teased out a LOT to get into higher letter/involve something else...maybe the Saltmarsh modules seguing into the Slavers plot...I could see that pretty easily.

Don't forget, for the end-game: RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

 

[Kramodlog]

The actual description the AP has no mentions of Drizzt whatsoever. You'll be delving into FR's Underdark so of course his name will come up in the book, but I'm skeptical he'll even appear in the AP as an NPC.

They mention Menzo and Gromph. Hard to imagine those without Drizzt somehow. Plus Drizzt is mentioned a lot. It would be a suprised if he isn't in the AP.

Whether the adventure turns out to be any good of course depends on who's writing it.

Green Ronin it would seem.

 

[Onslaught]

Also... i don't know Grayhawk, but Underdark spawning demons could be a nice Eberron campaign (like in Khyber spawning demons, plus that demon-wasteland somewhere northwest of Khorvaire)

 

[steeldragons]

Don't forget, for the end-game: RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

Perfect! And in keeping with the "pulling all of the most powerful possible stuff out of the MM" theme they are following.

I can totally see this....But still think Giants will come first (for those who want to go back, like, 10 pages at this point to that original conversation. hahaha)

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Is it just me who thinks Drizzt Do'urden sounds like the noises you make when straining on a particularly difficult motion? Is that how he got his name?

 

[vandaexpress]

Here is where a well-implemented digital aide (Char-Gen, Combat Tracker, Maps, Campaign Tracker, etc) could really bridge the gap between dice, console and pc-gaming. I really hope WoTC and Hasbro gets it together one of these days (editions).

Cool idea. Play through a CRPG and have a button to print off the character sheet of your protagonist/party members.

Or a really unlikely and implausible idea would be allowing you to import your AL character into a CRPG, plug in your #, WotC pulls a record for the character and their magic items, etc and imports it into the game. That'd be awesome. Totally impossible with the way things are set up and probably not worth the time it would take to implement, but still an awesome idea.

So, on a side note, PCs defeating summoned cosmic beings again? Add cultists and I see a pattern of laziness.

Seriously though. As much as I love how PotA has been written and its overall quality, when my group wraps up Tyranny in December or so, we'll probably move on to Rage of Demons instead of PotA, just so I can give them a break from cultists. Seriously.

That's not a bad call. I've been reading through the MM over the past few days, and there's a lot of aquatic stuff in there.

Not to mention the UA for seafaring campaigns that went up a little while ago. I think you might be on to something.

I think people are still thinking in terms of the RPG being prominent. Is only one facet of the RoD story. Drizzt will do battle, but his part of the story will mostly be in the novel. I don't think he will appear accept as a small cameo in the module. The PCs will handle one part of the quest, Neverwinter players another, Drizzt (via the novel) a third and SCL played the fourth. All separate parts of an interconnected story.

When the ad text says "fight next to Drizzt" they probably don't mean it literally. Drizzt handles his part of the war, the PCs handle theirs. You're still on the same team, just different battlefields.

We'll see soon enough I suppose

Agreed with this. I guarantee you that the digital properties and licensing dollars are far more profitable than the pen and paper stuff. Traditional publishing has razor thin profit margins as is, combine that with the small audience and you have a very compelling reason to try and grow the brand through other channels, then getting those people to pick up tabletop D&D as icing on the cake. Or the other way around. They're pushing really hard for the tabletop crowd to check out their other stuff. To be honest, though, I spend so much of my free time prepping the tabletop game as a DM that I don't have tons of time to invest into their computer games. I do read FR occasionally (just so I can better understand the setting, the books aren't particularly well written from what I've experienced), so I might pick up the Drizzt Book.

Either way, I like the idea of a battle with multiple fronts taking place in different properties. I think they did something similar with Tyranny of Dragons when they showed the cult/red wizards up north looking for something in one of the comic books. Sort of channeling the feel of Dead in Thay Style megadungeons with multiple parties working together. We'll see.

Perfect! And in keeping with the "pulling all of the most powerful possible stuff out of the MM" theme they are following.

I can totally see this....But still think Giants will come first (for those who want to go back, like, 10 pages at this point to that original conversation. hahaha)

I'm a big fan of them pulling out these big epic enemies. I think D&D is in a state of rebirth and there's a lot of new players coming to the table (at least mine) who haven't played before, and have never experienced a battle with Tiamat or Demon Lords or Elemental Princes. These are bad ass enemies that are memorable and epic, perfect for captivating new audiences.

Wondering when they'll put the Tarrasque into play.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

They mention Menzo and Gromph. Hard to imagine those without Drizzt somehow. Plus Drizzt is mentioned a lot. It would be a suprised if he isn't in the AP.

Right, Gromph opens up portals to the Abyss throughout the Underdark. Drizzt tackling that is obviously going to be the plot of The Archmage, so I'm doubtful the AP will actually have to do with the players travelling to Menzoberranzan or facing Gromph at all. The blurb states that "what steps through surprises even him..." so that's what I'm betting the PCs will be getting up to. Entirely possible they never cross paths with Drizzt at all, or if they do it's a cameo appearance.

Basically, I'm thinking it'll be Drizzt vs. Gromph, and the PCs vs. whatever terrible Abbysal thing is co-opting Gromph's plot for it's own nefarious purposes. Possibly even a high-level excursion into the Abyss itself towards the very end for a climactic final boss battle with the one responsible. From the cover art, I'm thinking... Demogorgon? That could be misdirection, though.

 

[Wrathamon]

My thinking is that the D&D MMO Game is FR ... but, that doesnt mean Cryptic isn't making a massive update to make it Less FR and more D&D to allow them to open up the flood gates on other campaign settings. Since the Multiverse is back ... I can see them exploring Darksun, planescape and eberron easily enough via portals... even Grayhawk.