[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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[Wicht]

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.

So you're admitting you do know who Morgan Ironwolf is then.

And I suspect that Ms. Ironwolf has had far more fans over the years than some four eyed yeti wannabe, even if he did have his own action figure. She certainly has been mentioned more often on these boards.

 

[pukunui]

The cover for Out of the Abyss has just been posted on Twitter:

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

So you're admitting you do know who Morgan Ironwolf is then. And I suspect that Ms. Ironwolf has had far more fans over the years than some four eyed yeti wannabe, even if he did have his own action figure. She certainly has been mentioned more often on these boards.

I didn't know the name, but the google image search brought back memories of her other notable.. ahem.. assets.

 

[Rygar]

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?

Does it really say that? Gateway was wiped out completely during the War of the Lance and there's never been any mention of it being rebuilt, nor does it appear on the later maps.

http://noryl.tripod.com/west_south_central_ansalon.jpg

In Autumn Twilight the companions meet up with Eben who reports that Gateway was destroyed. They met Eben between Solace and Qualinesti, which means that it would have to have been located near Solace, but later maps don't show it.

 

[HobbitFan]

Does it bother anyone else that their hardback adventures so far are all retreads of old modules?

Where's the creativity and originality?

 

[the Jester]

Sorry, but no. Drizzt-hate is simply one of the many examples of fan-negativity rampant on these boards and elsewhere on the intertubes. It's tiring for those of us who don't feel the need to bring "hate" into our hobby lives.

Now, I'm not saying everybody has to "love" Drizzt or that your dislike of a fictional character isn't legit. But Drizzt-hate goes way beyond, "I don't care for that character and how he is used in D&D fiction."

And, like most irrational hate, the "crimes" attributed to our poor dark elf go beyond truth and rationality. And is equally tiring.

Thanks for clarifying how other people feel.

 

[Staffan]

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 can't really blame them for not putting full setting descriptions in the adventure which is already full of, well, adventure. It's fairly clear that the "here's how to use PotA in setting X" tips are aimed at DMs who are already fans of setting X. If you're not, why would you want to go to the work of transplanting the adventure?

 

[Trickster Spirit]

I don't have any evidence to back this up so this is just my opinion.

I believe using Drizzt as a marketing tool isn't really going to pay off because I think most people who read and like the Drizzt novels don't currently play D&D or any TTRPG for that matter.

Right, but "Out of the Abyss" got a single line's mention in the press release. They're not trying to get the Drizzt novel fans to play the tabletop game - they're trying to get them to read "The Archmage", and also maybe buy Sword Coast Legends and play the Neverwinter MMO if they want to get the rest of the story. I do think people who read and like the Drizzt novels are likely to also be the demographic for a AAA video game featuring Drizzt.

Sure, they won't complain if some Drizzt fans do end up buying the AP, but that's hardly a lynchpin of their cross-branding strategy.

 

[Jester David]

Finally, at long last, WotC is producing an adventure focused around an extradimensional threat where the PCs have to face the minions and cultists of a powerful evil trying to enter the Forgotten Realms, before repelling the might evil being and closing the portal through which it was trying to enter the world.

Oh wait...

 

[Jester David]

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:

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.

If you want to run the adventure in those settings, you're likely already a fan and have all the books you will ever need.
In the unlikely event you want to run a pre-published adventure in the non-default setting AND in a world you know almost nothing about, well... that is harder.

But WotC can't drop everything to publishing a dozen campaign settings. Especially since sales of each successive setting would be smaller and smaller until they were losing money.

In in the meantime, you can get PDFs of all the worlds on DnDclassics.com. They have some great 3e Dragonlance books starting to be replaced that are full of fluff. You can get an entire library of great setting resources for the same price you'd pay for a single hardcover setting book.