[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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[steeldragons]

No, I was born, but the '80s consisted of the period ranging from "learning to potty" to "the onset of puberty". Unless Warduke was on Transformers or He-Man, I missed him.

Right. Basically the same as me...I was marginally ahead of you. [puberty was "onsetting" in '85 ]

Warduke did have a single episode cameo on the Saturday morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon...as did Kelek (evil wizard who also had an action figure) and Warduke's nemesis/counterpart, the paladin Strongheart.

But no. Not on He-man or Transformers.

My first RPG product was the 2e PHB, which I purchased in 1990.

Right. So there's the one. Then you have the generation of folks who were in that window in the 90's...and then, oh gods...another/anyone born <shudder> 2000-2005 would be ripe "getting into and/or already playing for 5 years" D&D age.

Yeah. So there's 3 generations, 10+ years old, arguably, from people who were already playing in the early-mid-80s.

I'm just gonna go get my afghan and find a rocker, now...need a cane to shake at passerbys.

Git offa my lawn!

 

[Jan van Leyden]

No, because Smiteworks actually released the products.

Being quite nitpicky here, but...

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.

Smiteworks is three to four products behind (DMG, Tyranny of Dragons, Princes of Apocalypse), so WotC seems to trust them (and their own approval process) a lot. Which is good. Let's hope that this deal lasts longer than the Trapdoor one.

 

[HonorBoundSamurai632]

I hope they follow the same model as PotA with the light conversion suggestions. I did have a cool flash of "inspiration" (as in, nothing new at all but still a cool idea) with Eberron and an expedition to Khyber through the Demon Wastes and battling the daelkyr and/or the Overlords.

I have a small issue with the light conversion in the back PotA. I ran home to grab my copy so that, hopefully, I can explain without being ripped apart by everyone (lol.) My issue is this:

For Dark Sun:
It suggests to set the adventure in The Great Alluvial Sand Wastes. Instead of Red Larch, they suggest Kled. AWESOME!! I've always been curious about Dark Sun, but never bought anything about it .... so what are those places and were are they located?

For Dragonlance:
They suggest thinking about which era of The Lance you want to play in, then suggest the best place would be Abanasinia a couple years after The War of the Lance. A good replacement for Red Larch would be Gateway. Sweet!! Dragonlance has always looked great with all that insanely, lovely dragon artwork and that guy with the red cloak and golden-looking skin on the cover of everything. I've always been curious about Dragonlance, but never bought anything about it .... so what are those place and were are they located?

For Greyhawk:
They suggest using the original Temple of Elemental Evil locations. So the Kron Hills and Hommlet. You know, that sounds just as interesting! I've always been curious about Greyhawk, but never bought anything about it .... so what are those places and were are they located?

For Eberron:
They suggest all kinds of different stuff for Eberron!! YES YES YES!!! I've always wanted to check out Eberron, but never bought anything about it .... so what are all those places about and were are they located?

And that is my main issue with these conversions to other settings. They do not have ANY 5th Edition material to help us with this. They just assume that we have material from older editions to use if we want to run it in Greyhawk or Dark Sun, or Birthright, etc. If you don't ... well .... too bad. I've, (unfortunately,) just accepted the fact that they will probably never give these brilliant settings the updates we all feel they deserve. The one thing that bothers me, is everyone keeps saying how The Forgotten Realms is the only setting that makes them any money, and that is why it's the main setting. Well, (and I'm speaking from experience,) since the release of the original FR grey box set in '87, this is the ONLY setting to get this much attention. They pretty much ignored everything else. The only other setting to get anywhere near this much attention was Ravenloft during 2nd Edition. Of course The Realms are so profitable .... it's the only one available!

It's frustrating that when the core books state that the default setting for 5th Edition is the D&D Multiverse, yet they give us 0 options for Planescape, Spelljammer, etc. What does this have to do with this new adventure?

ToD clearly borrowed from Dragonlance. The foreword from Mike Mearls in PotA says that PotA is the successor to The Temple of Elemental Evil. And as others have stated, I wouldn't be surprised if Out of the Abyss borrows heavily from Queen of Spiders. I think it's kind of rotten to take these iconic stories that help build this hobby, and throw them into The Forgotten Realms because well .... it's The Forgotten Realms.

One of the things I'd like to see, (since WoTC has borrowed so much from Paizo lately,) is for them to release Map Packs like you see for Pathfinder. Release a map pack of Greyhawk. In it, you would get two 24x36 sized maps of eastern and western Oerth. A nice sized 18x24 map of The Free City of Greyhawk, and then maybe some smaller maps of places like Hommlet, Dorakaa, Greyhawk ruins, etc. The sad thing is .... I'd be more than willing to pay $25 for something like this. I'm not even asking for a setting book. I just want to know where everything is and where it sits in it's respected world. They could do this for all those settings that are mentioned in the core books. Then when the adventures are done, and they move onto the next setting ... we have big poster maps of everything, and all the adventures have the region info.

Sadly, as much as I am frustrated with the lack of support for ALL of the D&D Multiverse .... I'll still get this because it will have updated information on The Underdark and The Demon Princes and such.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

If you are correct, then that paragraph is poorly put together, as one must wonder what the last sentence is doing to support the theme of the paragraph.

As someone who's put together press releases for my company, I can take a guess at why that might be - whoever wrote it was given a list of key points to get across. From the looks of it, the tabletop AP probably got only a single one to itself, as did licensed accessory products from partners, as did the new Salvatore novel. The writer either had more information available about, or was instructed to place emphasis on, the broader storyline about Drizzt and Sword Coast Legends / Neverwinter. Also probably given a draft of the quote by Nathan Stewart to clean up.

The point to take away is that tabletop gamers aren't the target audience for this press release. The actual product description for Out of the Abyss is much more geared towards us, but the broader "Rage of Demons" press release is all about getting the sizeable audience of Drizzt fans out there excited about maybe playing a video game featuring their favorite dark elf ranger.

 

[Will Doyle]

When I think of Orcus, Grazz't, Demogorgon, et al., I don't connect them to Lewis Carroll's Alice.

Where is the connection for Chris Perkins? Is this going to be "Orcus Through the Looking Glass (into the Underdark)"? Is he confused and bewildered by the strange beings he encounters there?

Perhaps a Jabberwocky or two to snicker-snack with our vorpal swords?

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Likely not born yet, Wicht. There are at least two generations of gamers behind those of us playing (and playing, as children) in the 80s.

Gods...I just made myself feel older typing this out than I already did conceiving this post. ugh.

Sorry guys, most of those are deep cuts of limited release B-sides as far as D&D name recognition goes. I was around in the 80's, so lets please not pretend that any random schlub mentioned once or twice in a book 30+ years ago is being robbed of their rightful spotlight by Drizzt or that only clueless whippersnappers don't know who this legendary D&D powerhouse is.

She's the D&D equivalent of Muftak. You know, Muftak, the massively popular iconic character of Star Wars! If you're scratching your head trying to remember who he is, he's the Talz who got a nanosecond of screen time in the Star Wars cantina. Actually, I'd rank him above Morgan Ironwolf, as he has an action figure, trading card, bust, etc and more importantly had stories published about him.

Now Duke Dunderhead... THAT's D&D guy name you can base a billion dollar multimedia franchise around. I'm talking movie quadrilogy, TV spin-off, video-games, maybe a themed family style restaurant.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

To those people complaining about Drizzt being a mary sue. He was nearly killed effortlessly by Old White Death the first dragon you fight in the Rise of Tiamat Adventure. Lots of people did think he was dead and he only just survived due to having had a Cold Resist spell cast on him and he still nearly died. He did not get a single hit on the Dragon. He would not be able to take on a Demon Lord by himself.

 

[EditorBFG]

I was concerned about Drizzt being mentioned, until I saw that Steve Kenson led the team at Green Ronin that wrote the book. Kenson knows his way around keeping established iconic characters from being annoying (DC Adventures, among other games), and is one of the best designers out there. I am much more excited for this book now that I know who was in charge.

 

[Larac]

Staff limitations I would guess. They can pay Green Ronin to write it, and publish it themselves. They aren't necessarily stuck with employees they need to manage, provide healthcare for, etc.

GR folks can get out of jury duty.

 

[steeldragons]

Sorry guys, most of those are deep cuts of limited release B-sides as far as D&D name recognition goes. I was around in the 80's, so lets please not pretend that any random schlub mentioned once or twice in a book 30+ years ago is being robbed of their rightful spotlight by Drizzt or that only clueless whippersnappers don't know who this legendary D&D powerhouse is.

She's the D&D equivalent of Muftak. You know, Muftak, the massively popular iconic character of Star Wars! If you're scratching your head trying to remember who he is, he's the Talz who got a nanosecond of screen time in the Star Wars cantina. Actually, I'd rank him above Morgan Ironwolf, as he has an action figure, trading card, bust, etc and more importantly had stories published about him.

Now Duke Dunderhead... THAT's D&D guy name you can base a billion dollar multimedia franchise around. I'm talking movie quadrilogy, TV spin-off, video-games, maybe a themed family style restaurant.

Per usual, noone's saying anything like that.

Simply that people of a certain age who began with a certain book/box/edition will recognize/remember them. Pretty much anyone else (most likely those that came after) are not going to recognize them.

I was poking fun at myself for being old. Not putting anyone down for when they were born or suggesting that any of those other name/characters should be more popular than Drizz't (though, since you bring it up, certainly could have been had the decades of churning out books been about them instead).

That said, I have always thought that the D&D cartoon, toyline, and wider brand would have been significantly helped had the cartoon been based on the characters (good and bad) that were the action figures (several can be found in the Quest for the Heartstone module, XL1) and the other characters in the merchandise of the day (coloring books, colorforms, etc...) actually going on adventures, instead of those 6 whiny fish-out-of-water kids from a different world...But wutchagunnado? It was the '80s.