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Wizards Goes Big with Vecna: Eve of Ruin

For its first book of D&D's 50th anniversary year, Wizards is going big with a multiverse-spanning, multiverse-threatening adventure where players will face off against one of the game’s most legendary villains.

For its first book of D&D's 50th anniversary year, Wizards is going big with a multiverse-spanning, multiverse-threatening adventure where players will face off against one of the game’s most legendary villains. Designed for characters level 10-20, Vecna: Eve of Ruin is a 256-page book that takes players from the Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer's Astral Sea, Eberron, Ravenloft, Krynn, Greyhawk, Avernus, Pandemonium, and Sigil for a grand adventure.

Vecna Alt Cover Front Back Hydro74 cropped.png

Very High Stakes​

While the Vecna from Stranger Things is firmly a villain in the horror mold, V:EoR is more a high stakes – very high stakes – adventure with horror elements. It's also a ticking time-clock adventure, so while players will visit many D&D realms, they won't have time for the scenic tour.

V:EoR is a little different than many 5E adventures, though. First, it doesn't have any new options for players. Because the adventure is so big and player characters can be from any setting, including homebrew, there already is a wealth of options.

Second, the entire book is under a spoiler warning, with this admonishment right at the beginning: “The information in this book is intended for the Dungeon Master only. If you’re planning to play through the adventure with someone else as your DM, stop reading now!”

As a result, I'm going to go lighter on describing the story than I usually would because putting this entire review under a spoiler mask seems a little excessive. But I will discuss things about the initial premise and a few major points that have already been revealed in the Wizards' own promotional videos.

Aside from the story, V:EoR has 43 monster stat blocks, some quite creepy like the mirror shade and the spiderdragon. It also has nine stat blocks for the 11 famous NPCs in the Character Dossier. Why only nine? D&D 5E does not stat out gods, though it makes an exception for Vecna, since he's the big bad.

Tasha gets a new stat block from the one she has in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight because she sends a younger version of herself from her timeline to help – more on that in a minute. So V:EoR features Tasha the Witch, with early versions of the spells she is so famous for with a lower CR stat block. Strahd also gets a new stat block.

The Character Dossier ensures that even newcomers to D&D or returning DMs, will have the information they need about iconic characters at their fingertips. It includes Miska the Wolf-Spider's first 5E stat block. I'm purposely not naming all of the characters in the dossier to avoid spoilers.

Mirrorshade from Pandamonium cropped.png

A Vecna Refresher​

If you think Vecna is just the psychic bad guy from Stranger Things, you're missing out. The “real” Vecna is one of the most infamous villains in D&D.

Vecna began in the earliest days of the game as a brief comment about magical artifacts called the “Hand and Eye of Vecna” in 1976's Eldritch Wizardry by Brian Blume. Vecna was likely inspired by Michael Moorcock's first trilogy of short novels about the eternal hero Corum: The Knight of the Swords, The Queen of the Swords, and The King of the Swords. Corum is the last survivor of his race, a vaguely elf-like people hunted by humans. Corum himself is captured but escapes, but not before the humans torture him by gouging out his left eye and chopping off his left hand. As for Vecna's name, it's an anagram for Jack Vance, who was hugely influential on D&D's magic system.

Vecna started out in Greyhawk as a wizard so evil, Orcus, the demon prince of undeath, taught him the spell to become a lich. Later, however, Vecna gave Kas, the warrior at his right hand, an evil intelligent sword that helped to turn Kas against Vecna, or just accelerated his betrayal.

In an epic battle, depicted in art within V:EoR, Kas cut off Vecna's hand and eye, which became the infamous artifacts. But despite being gone for centuries, Vecna was not dead but gathering strength to re-emerge. The devotion of his cultists led to his ascension as god of secrets.

Wizards Three by Irina Nordsol.jpg

Starting a High-Level Adventure​

If your party is already at or near 10th level, your group can switch over to V:EoR fairly easily or with a precursor adventure to fill the gap between their current level and 10th. The current setting for your group doesn't matter due to how the adventure begins, and they'll be traveling between realms anyway.

If you're starting entirely fresh, pick an adventure to run first (assuming you don't want to just jump to 10th level), that will take the characters from 1st to 10th. Curse of Strahd is one option, since the players will end up at Death House and face off against Strahd. Having some history between them could be interesting, especially since Strahd doesn't necessarily have to be defeated for the V:EoR to succeed in their objective.

And, of course, another option would be a sort of mashup approach. Pick a combination of shorter adventures from anthologies like Candlekeep Mysteries, Keys from the Golden Vault, and Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel; any of these adventures can set the stage for V:EoR.

V:EoR
also provides instructions on how to run the first chapter for characters that are 7th, 8th, or 9th level, which is a bit of a preamble for the characters before they know Vecna's involvement. This way if you have established characters short of 10th level but want to dive straight into V:EoR, you can.

Eberron by Claudio Pozas.PNG

Vecna's Scheme​

Alustriel Silverhand, one of the Seven Sisters and daughter of Mystra, goddess of magic, makes her first appearance in 5E in V:EoR. Closely connected to the weave of magic, she has noticed something is very wrong and that Vecna is involved. She summons her allies Tasha and Mordenkainen to her sanctum in Sigil, the City of Doors.

Together, the three wizards discover that Vecna is trying to rewrite the entire multiverse to his will, so they cast a wish spell in the hopes of reversing his progress and revealing the location where he is performing the ritual. The trio is surprised when the player characters appear before them.

While the wizards have been working to uncover Vecna's plan, the player characters have been pursuing the culprit behind the kidnappings of notable people in town. This segment is set in Neverwinter, with some juicy political secrets, but it wouldn't take much effort to relocate to an equivalent city in another D&D realm or your own homebrew campaign. It's also fairly easy to keep the action in Neverwinter yet work out why characters from Eberron, Spelljammer, etc. are there, if you wish.

A “Purpose in Neverwinter” table provides ideas for why the characters are in the city. A “10th Level Backstory” table also provides inspiration if needed.

What the players discover is that Vecna's cultists are behind the kidnappings, magically pulling the secrets from their victim and transferring that power to their lich god. Vecna, in turn, plans to use the power of those secrets for his Ritual of Remaking to recreate the multiverse.

rod of 7 parts.PNG

Thwarting a God​

It is during their rescue attempt that the wizards' wish spell takes effect while the players are disrupting a ritual to send Eldon Keyward's secrets to Vecna. This creates a psychic link between Vecna and the player characters, which makes them the perfect heroes to thwart Vecna's plans.

Because of this Link, the party are literally the only people in the multiverse who can stop Vecna and save the multiverse. Even better, Vecna is unaware of the link. Since Vecna is the god of secrets, the players gain the Vecna's Link benefit. It allows them to collect and “spend” secrets to gain a boon. Any unspent secret at finale of the adventure can be used in the fight against Vecna.

Meanwhile, Mordenkainen has figured out where the first piece of a very powerful artifact is, one he says has defeated Vecna in the past. The Rod of 7 Parts is a legendary magic item, first appearing in a 2nd Edition module called The Rod of 7 Parts. The back of the alternate V:EoR cover by Hydro74 depicts symbols for each of the seven parts.

The rod was created by the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, a.k.a. the Vaati, beings of ultimate law, to fight a demon lord called Miska the Wolfspider. The Rod, then known as the Rod of Law, was used by the Wind Dukes used it to imprison Miska in a demiplane. But the Rod shattered into seven pieces and scattered throughout the multiverse.

Most of the adventure consists of traveling from realm to realm to collect the seven pieces, through combat or other means. The D&D team didn't skimp on imagination for these excursions. For example, the Eberron portion mostly takes place inside a gigantic, ancient, bipedal warmachine.

Recreation of Dragon Magazine 402 cropped.png

Art & Maps​

Wizards gave V:EoR a larger art budget than usual, and it shows. From magic item illustrations by Couple of Kooks that almost look like you could pick them up, to epic artwork of Kas and Vecna's legendary fight by Chris Rahn (or a perversely cheery piece of art of the then-living Vecna and Kas plotting to take over Oerth by Lily Abullina), and everything in between, the book looks great.

Monster art ranges from the appropriately creepy Miska the Wolf-Spider by David Auden Nash to the unnerving Mirror Shade by Zuzanna Wuzek. The portrait artwork of the NPCs, like one image of Tasha, Mordenkainen, and Alustriel by Irina Nordsol, presumably after they realize the scope of Vecna's plans, is just lovely.

Both versions of the cover are very effective for setting the mood. The regular/mass market cover by Kieran Yanner is Vecna in “rage-enta” tones, furious, vile, and intimidating. The metallic gold and silver inks on matte black of the limited release cover for game stores by Hydro74 is striking.

The maps by Francesca Baerald and Dyson Logos are detailed and complex without sacrificing clarity. Baerald made full-color maps that are eye catching, including one for a magical sailing ship from the Spelljammer section. Logos' work is just as impressive, though in different ways. For example, his map of the damaged Eberron warmachine features fluid dripping down through the structure, an imaginative and almost whimsical choice that adds flavor to the map. His redo of the CoS Death House maps are faithful yet fresh.

Greyhawk NPC by Nikki Dawes.PNG

Is It Worth It?​

Overall, I like V:EoR. It has a grand sweep appropriate for the 50th anniversary of the game and the 10th anniversary of 5E. As a high-level adventure for an edition that rarely went above 10th level, it works well, with some epic fights at the end. Yet the book doesn't rely only on combat. It has a nice mix of moral dilemmas and juicy role-playing opportunities. And while the initial setup seems straightforward, there's enough mystery and betrayal to keep players guessing.

I really like that lead designer Amanda Hamon and the team thought about little details that make the adventure more playable. The Character Dossier provides much-needed background material instead of having to root through D&D wikis or older books. A Secret Tracker helps manage that mechanic. The tables to help explain why the characters are in Neverwinter and possible backstories are also helpful.

But I hate the ticking clock aspect of the adventure. I understand the game design purpose for it, and I think it works much better here than it did in Tomb of Annihilation, but I still find "progress clock" scenarios annoying. I'm also not fond of Vecna as a villain or a plot device.

And yet Vecna: Eve of Ruin is a really well-crafted adventure. I rate Vecna: Eve of Ruin as an A-. If you're a fan of Vecna and don't mind progress clock mechanics, it might be an A.
 

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Beth Rimmels

Beth Rimmels

Dire Bare

Legend
And there are people who think any criticism of WotC or its products is unfounded hate mongering. Both sorts are of equal "value" when trying to have a fruitful discussion.
I'm sure those folks exist, but again . . . don't really see a lot of that here on ENWorld.

WotC has done plenty worthy of criticism over the past few years, both with various corporate decisions (OGL, layoffs, Pinkertons) . . . and it's fine to give reasonable criticism of their artistic choices that show up in their products. We all like different stuff, find different things important, and can discuss all of that . . .

Personally, I find D&D Beyond frustratingly underdeveloped, for one.

But folks not being constantly negative about everything WotC does and getting frustrated and pushing back against all the negativity is not the same thing you are complaining about here.

To try to wrangle this back on topic . . . if Vecna: Eve of Ruin doesn't sound like your type of product based on previews and discussions with those who have purchased it . . . that's fine. I think @SlyFlourish's dislike of the adventure's "twist" is a reasonable dislike of the product, even if I don't agree with him on it.

But I'm rolling my eyes hard on stuff like, "What? WotC has no respect for fans of older settings! I mean, really, werewolves in Krynn!?!?!"
 

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heptat

Explorer
In case anyone cares, here's a draft article I was working on that offers an alternative take on the Vecna adventure. I'd paste it here but it's big.

This is great and very much appreciated.

However, I for one do not have the time to be building adventures. It's a struggle to even prepare one. So when I fork out the $ to wizards for a published adventure, my expectations are that it will be runnable and half decent. This Vecna adventure fails on both of those measures.
 

pukunui

Legend
However, I for one do not have the time to be building adventures. It's a struggle to even prepare one. So when I fork out the $ to wizards for a published adventure, my expectations are that it will be runnable and half decent. This Vecna adventure fails on both of those measures.
I am in the same position re: time and expectations for published adventures. I have only skimmed through the adventure so far, so I haven't come to the same conclusion you have ... however, my only real quibble at this time is the multiversal element of it. I've always preferred to keep name brand campaign settings separate, so the idea that the PCs will bounce between FR, Eberron, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape is the most irksome element for me at this time.

Once I've had a proper read through, I will first determine whether I want to run this adventure, and then, if yes, whether I can put up with the multiversal element or would rather put in the work to strip out most of the name brand elements.
 
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Dire Bare

Legend
This is great and very much appreciated.

However, I for one do not have the time to be building adventures. It's a struggle to even prepare one. So when I fork out the $ to wizards for a published adventure, my expectations are that it will be runnable and half decent. This Vecna adventure fails on both of those measures.
@SlyFlourish's draft article is very cool and much appreciated.

Personally, I'm about halfway through reading Eve of Ruin. It seems very runnable and decent to me so far. I'm getting excited about the adventure and I'm thinking about running it later this year with my local group.

Will I make changes? Probably. I want to dig up a copy of the Rod of Seven Parts boxed set from the 2E days and maybe blend them together. But the adventure as written is fine, IMO. At least so far, maybe I'll change my mind when finished reading it.
 

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
This is great and very much appreciated.

However, I for one do not have the time to be building adventures. It's a struggle to even prepare one. So when I fork out the $ to wizards for a published adventure, my expectations are that it will be runnable and half decent. This Vecna adventure fails on both of those measures.
I feel that way about pretty much every published adventure in nearly every D&D-like game I've run. At the same time, I've never really had much trouble running any of them.

Other than some sandbox adventures and dungeons that are light on flavor text, which have been out of favor for a long time.

But I can't think of an adventure that I could just pick up and run without quite a bit of prep time. And most don't do much to help with the prep time. At least new digital formats like VTTs and D&D Beyond help a lot with cross referencing, search, etc.

It is one of those instances where I'm constantly thinking that after 50 years, you would think there would have been much better advancement in how adventures are laid out and more thought into adding tools and structure to make the DM's job much easier. But it is still easier to put in the prep time and create notes and aids for running a published game than writing one from scratch.

When I was homebrewing my own adventure, the best tool bar none for me was RealmWorks. It took a lot of work to get to a level of system mastery and then to create the content, but boy did it make running games a breeze. But it never really had much success and Lone Wolf Development ended their support before there was much purchasable content for it that took full advantage of the platform's features.

VTTs, esp. Foundry offer a lot, but I find it difficult to get a good over-view. It feels like you are always in the weeds. I almost always want the physical book or PDF of an adventure in addition to the content in the VTT.
 

So, just to be clear, you haven't seen much rushing to.defend WotC on this site, but you are going to rush to defend WotC on this site?

Snark aside, I find it interesting that praise is accepted unconditionally, but criticism must come with direct engagement and experience.

Are there actual criticisms of the product?
Just to pick a couple of examples from this very thread, starting with your own...

I know there will always be people that instantly apologize for WotC and the D&D team, no matter what they do, but honestly if this is supposed to be the 50th anniversary celebration adventure, it should be the best adventure they have ever written.

This isn't a criticism based on anything said in the review, it's just an attempt to set unrealistic expectations while at the same time preemptively dismissing people as apologists. As though calling something not the best thing ever made couldn't be applied to 99.9% of things.

Hasbro is doing the same thing Disney/Marvel is doing.

Step 1. Dig up part of their IP catalog for "member berries".
Step 2. Update it for modern audiences.
Step 3. Hire a few social media bots to troll fans who voice criticisms of the product.
Step 4. Pay for a few good critic reviews.
Step 5. Blame fans when product flops.

This is just conspiracy theorist ravings.
I mean: 'Hire social media bots' ???

To some up, here's my boy Joffers...

Mod Edit:

Image removed.

If you think you can’t say it here, using an image, meme, film clip or other workaround probably won’t fly either.
 
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MerricB

Eternal Optimist
Supporter
I feel that way about pretty much every published adventure in nearly every D&D-like game I've run. At the same time, I've never really had much trouble running any of them.

It is one of those instances where I'm constantly thinking that after 50 years, you would think there would have been much better advancement in how adventures are laid out and more thought into adding tools and structure to make the DM's job much easier. But it is still easier to put in the prep time and create notes and aids for running a published game than writing one from scratch.
There have been lots of attempts. And they've failed pretty spectacularly. And it's because RPG adventures are doing more things than you expect.

They need to be read before being played. And then they need to be usable at the table.

An adventure that reads very poorly before being played doesn't get played. The potential DM has to think it's worth it.

So they have to read well. And that often conflicts greatly with being playable at the table.

But it's not just that it - a DM has to understand how the adventure fits together. That is again a competing goal against making a single encounter easy to run. The larger and more complex the adventure, the more difficult this becomes.

The D&D adventures today ARE clearer than the early attempts, but there isn't all that much difference between them because the basics laid down in the early years were indeed correct. There are a few styles of adventure that you can divert from this structure, but there are always tradeoffs.

Cheers,
Merric
 

Reynard

Legend
Supporter
Are there actual criticisms of the product?
Just to pick a couple of examples from this very thread, starting with your own...



This isn't a criticism based on anything said in the review, it's just an attempt to set unrealistic expectations while at the same time preemptively dismissing people as apologists. As though calling something not the best thing ever made couldn't be applied to 99.9% of things.



This is just conspiracy theorist ravings.
I mean: 'Hire social media bots' ???

To some up, here's my boy Joffers...

View attachment 364536
Yes, cherry picking is the best way to reinforce your personal preconceptions.

What was the question?
 

Yes, cherry picking is the best way to reinforce your personal preconceptions.

What was the question?

They were the examples that seemed to get the most pushback from what I could see, which was an attempt to illustrate the point that it's mostly the unhinged stuff that people call out.

I just feel that the actual valid criticism gets lost in all the generic axe grinding.
 

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