D&D 5E Verdict on Book of Many Things?

[MonsterEnvy]

I read Madness at Gardmore and Ruin is a sequel.

Spoiler

It assumes that the entire adventure happened, with the Adventurers collecting all the cards and defeating the big monsters like the Beholder and Oni. But when they got to Mekkaleth the Young Red Dragon the final boss in the catacombs, they were defeated and driven away with the Dragon claiming their cards and gaining a complete Deck of Many for his hoard. Mekkaleth then outgrew the Catacombs as he became an adult, so he moved to the ruins above with his hoard including the deck.

 

[Parmandur]

I read Madness at Gardmore and Ruin is a sequel.

Spoiler

It assumes that the entire adventure happened, with the Adventurers collecting all the cards and defeating the big monsters like the Beholder and Oni. But when they got to Mekkaleth the Young Red Dragon the final boss in the catacombs, they were defeated and driven away with the Dragon claiming their cards and gaining a complete Deck of Many for his hoard. Mekkaleth then outgrew the Catacombs as he became an adult, so he moved to the ruins above with his hoard including the deck.

Interesting choice: given how well loved it is, but probably not familiar to most players, would think thst they could have done a straight adaptation at some point.

How is the quality of the dungeon maps overall?

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, I'm getting the vibe thst not huge numbers did the digital option at the moment. Though I think regular Beyond customers don't access until Tuesday: only people who did the ohyaical digital bundle qould have it right now.

Understandable, since the deck is kind of the centerpiece of the boxed set. Evidently the material in the book is still useful without the deck, but I imagine most people who are interested in the book would also want a deck to use with it. Especially since this deck contains a whole bunch of new cards, so even if you already have a deck you like, you’re likely to want this deck too.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It'll be interesting to see if the third party vendors start offering the additional cards. I'm not sure if WotC can stop people from producing a tarot-sized card with a dragon on it, for instance, even if the Dragon card isn't in the Creative Commons version of the deck.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Chirp.

I wouldn't be surprised if some people cancelled their Physical-Digital Bundle for a wait-and-see approach when the quality of the cards and/or the recall (late shipping) thing came out.

I'll answer questions after Tuesday when the regular digital release comes, if you want.

 

[darjr]

Did anyone port Madness of Gardmore Abbey over to 5e? Like on DMSGuild?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Interesting choice: given how well loved it is, but probably not familiar to most players, would think thst they could have done a straight adaptation at some point.

How is the quality of the dungeon maps overall?

The Dungeon Maps are by Francesca Baerald, and Mike Schley so they are quite good.

Here are two maps. The Solar Bastion, and the Moonstalker Guildhall

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Parmandur]

Did anyone port Madness of Gardmore Abbey over to 5e? Like on DMSGuild?

The answer appears to be no.

 

[dave2008]

You question was answered right above your post, here you go:

Took a bit longer than I planned.

Anyway I like the book. While there are some player options it's for sure more a DM Book and I recommend it for DMs.

It's a bit of a themed goodie box. Here are some cool new magic items, optional systems, puzzles and traps, NPC groups, adventure locations and dungeons, antagonists and monsters.

It's themed around the Deck of Many Things and while it shows some cool ideas to bring the Deck into your game and also make it less of a game destroying device, the Deck is not needed for a lot of the ideas in the book to be used.

For example Chapter 20 Flames is focused on three unique fiends that can serve as villains in games. While it mentions that one way of bringing one of them in is by drawing the Flames card and having one of them being the Fiend that now hates the character, they could also just be used as general npcs and antagonists in a game.

Chapter 16 Ruin is a short fun adventure itself that also is a good way to get a Deck of Many Things into the Players hands.

 

[dave2008]

Did anyone port Madness of Gardmore Abbey over to 5e? Like on DMSGuild?