WotC Vecna: Nest of the Evil Eye--Deets On The Prequel Adventure

[pukunui]

But as has long been the case in RPGs, authors are often given an assignment and must work within it and the company can hack it up or make them change it after they submit it.

Have those two self published anything? That's probably a better " pure " view of there vision.

That's true. That's actually why I'm not a fan of Introcaso or Haeck's design work. I have not been impressed with their solo work from the DMs Guild and elsewhere. They were also the leads, along with Perkins, on Dragon Heist, which I regard as the worst 5e adventure.

P&B is by no means the worst. I'd probably rate it higher than Descent into Avernus even, which suffers from being a dreary slog that was clearly written by too many people. All these adventures, even Dragon Heist, are playable ... but they require the DM to do a lot of work to make them shine. I just wish WotC's designers would do more of that work for us so these big multi-level adventures were easier to run.

Funny, that's what I was trying to say!

Well, you've certainly got a funny way of going about it then! To me, it seemed like I had triggered you into righteously defending the honor of game designers everywhere.

Bit of a misunderstanding here: this module is being offered as an option to explain why the PCs are connected to Vecna and chosen by the Wish Spell at the start of the big campaign. Nit as part of the end.

Not according to D&D Beyond! (See the bit I quoted above.)

 

[Parmandur]

Not according to D&D Beyond! (See the bit I quoted above.)

You might want to read that again, because it says quite the opposite: the "final confrontation of Vecna: Eve of Ruin" means the whole book is the final confrontation. This one-shot is a seed a DM can use to prep for running Eve of Ruin as the kicker of a longer campaign. Throw this into Dragon Heist, say, and then when players get to Level 10 doing shenanigans...bam, transported to Sigil via Wish, and call all to their interactions at low Level with the Cult og Vecna in this module.

So, nit integral to thw book, but a tool to help tie it to an ongoing campaign early on.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Not according to D&D Beyond! (See the bit I quoted above.)

Your quoted text states that it "prepares" you for the final confrontation. Well, you can prepare for things months or even years in advance, so it's still, technically, correct.

 

[pukunui]

You might want to read that again, because it says quite the opposite: the "final confrontation of Vecna: Eve of Ruin" means the whole book is the final confrontation.

I disagree. To me, that sentence reads as meaning the free promo adventure sets you up for the climactic encounter of the hardcover.

Your quoted text states that it "prepares" you for the final confrontation. Well, you can prepare for things months or even years in advance, so it's still, technically, correct.

Yes, you can. I'm just saying that, in my experience, foreshadowing things that far in advance, especially without anything to reinforce that foreshadowing in between, is futile because players have short memories.

 

[Parmandur]

I disagree. To me, that sentence reads as meaning the free promo adventure sets you up for the climactic encounter of the hardcover.

I will say that the sentence could be phrased better, but combined with the content in the video the referent of "the final confrontation" means the whole campaign book.

Yes, you can. I'm just saying that, in my experience, foreshadowing things that far in advance, especially without anything to reinforce that foreshadowing in between, is futile because players have short memories.

Another reason this being locked ad a pre-order bonus doesn't bother me much.

 

[JEB]

Where did they say it was going to be a PDF? The announcement makes it pretty clearly sound like you have to be on Beyond to use it (like everything they've released since the first MC, save the Minecraft tie-in).

 

[Reaper Steve]

I don’t like being set up to choose between rewards. I like to buy the alt covers from my FLGS. But now it’s an either-or: either I get the alt cover, or I get the bonus pdf adventure. Why should one incentive be the opportunity cost of another in this instance?

 

[pukunui]

I will say that the sentence could be phrased better, but combined with the content in the video the referent of "the final confrontation" means the whole campaign book.

Another reason this being locked ad a pre-order bonus doesn't bother me much.

One last thing: Makenzie says in the video that one of the reasons they went with levels 3-4 was to make it more accessible to DMs who just want to pop in a Vecna-themed one-shot. If that's the case, why the heck is WotC making it an exclusive pre-order only thing? If they want to make it more widely accessible, they should be making it buyable on DDB. Ugh.

I don’t like being set up to choose between rewards. I like to buy the alt covers from my FLGS. But now it’s an either-or: either I get the alt cover, or I get the bonus pdf adventure. Why should one incentive be the opportunity cost of another in this instance?

Why is it one or the other? I usually get both. If I want the regular cover, I'll get the digital plus physical bundle (now that they seem to have sorted out the int'l shipping issues). If I want the alt cover, I'll get the digital only version - so preordering to get a bit of extra content seemed a no brainer for me.

But I had been hoping the extra content would either be set right before the hardcover or playable during it. Since it's set many levels before, I'm now going to have to either find another adventure to run before Vecna, into which I insert this bonus content, or run the bonus content and then advance the PCs to 10th level straight away. I'm just a bit annoyed about that. I'll get over it eventually.

 

[Queer Venger]

actually like its an intro solo for level 3-4, good call

 

[Queer Venger]

I don’t like being set up to choose between rewards. I like to buy the alt covers from my FLGS. But now it’s an either-or: either I get the alt cover, or I get the bonus pdf adventure. Why should one incentive be the opportunity cost of another in this instance?

agree, tbh the way things have been going this should be free, like the intro adventure for Spelljammer.