D&D General WotC Reveals New Information and Covers for 'Keys from the Golden Vault'

Due in just a few weeks, Keys from the Golden Vault has receoved little fanfare so far. However, a cover and descrioption has appeared on the Wizards Play Network site. Wizards Play Network (WPN) is a network of WotC-approved stores.

An anthology of 13 heist-themed adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.
 
Some jobs require more than simply wielding a sword or slinging a spell. Whether it’s procuring a well-guarded item or obtaining crucial information from an imprisoned contact, these tasks require careful planning and flawless execution. The secretive organization called the Golden Vault specializes in hiring crews for such jobs, and for the most daunting assignments—pursuing fabulous treasures and stopping dire threats—that crew is your characters.
Keys from the Golden Vault™ is a collection of 13 short, standalone Dungeons & Dragons adventures designed for characters levels 1–11. These adventures can be placed in any setting and you can run them as one-shot games or link them together into a campaign. This book also includes in-world maps to help players plan their heists, plus advice for running nontraditional games with high risks and huge rewards.

Contents:

• Book of 13 stand-alone adventures spanning levels 1–11, each focused on a single heist
• Adventures can be set in any D&D or homebrew world and can be played individually or as part of a full campaign
• Introduces the Golden Vault—a mysterious organization for which the player characters can work as heist operatives
• Each adventure includes a map to guide Dungeon Masters and a map to help players plan their heists
• Adventures emphasize player choice with each heist having multiple paths toward success
• Includes advice and detailed information for Dungeon Masters running nontraditional adventures with high risks and huge rewards

There's also an alternate cover.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So I told him that I break the glass and crawl through.

A guillotte blade, concealed in the wall, falls from above, cutting you in half.

Mua

Mua ha ha

Mua ha ha ha

 

[DEFCON 1]

You can keep saying it but it's laughably obviously untrue because so many 3PP adventures show it to be untrue.

It really sounds like what you're saying is WotC writes terrible adventures that are equally terrible for everyone. Great lol.

No... because I don't see needing to make changes to an adventure to fit my particular style means the adventure is necessarily "bad". So most likely we just have different requirements on what makes an adventure good/useful or not. Which is fine... we all have different wants and needs.

I mean... I would say that I disliked (if not outright hated) probably 90% of all the 4E adventures the WotC designers wrote for Dungeon Magazine through Insider. Most of those modules do not serve me at all. But I also recognize they all are written to serve the 4E game and the lovers of that game probably think the adventures work great for how that game plays for them. Now... does that mean those adventures are "bad" empirically just because I find no use of them? Nope, not necessarily. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But I also know I'm not the person who can adequately make that call.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Have you read ANY 3PP adventures at all?

If you've only read WotC adventures, I can understand why you think the way you do. But what you're reading are mediocre to terrible adventures, and you're trying to rationalize how bad they are as being some "middle path" thing lol.

Nope. Paizo's ones are for a distinctly different style to the way I DM. However they're definitely well-written and run well even if you don't use that style.

You have this theory about DMing styles, and that theory is wrong, and I don't think you even have enough experience of reading/running 3PP adventures to assess your own theory.

I'm personally pretty sure they're serving the vast majority of DMs far better than what WotC is usually doing.

That's fine. Agree to disagree. Although I assume when you say that you think my theory about DMing styles you think is wrong, it's not the part about there being a lot of different styles, right? It's rather that you think a single adventure can serve all of them relatively equally?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I almost want a special retcon rule added...
"oh you thought I fell for your trap, but let me show you in flash back how this was ALL PART OF THE PLAN" but I know it wont

Don't heist focused RPGs, like Blades in the Dark, have this kind of thing as a core mechanic?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

An awful lot of WotC's adventures (though definitely not all of them) have a "nobody playtested this" vibe.

what drives me nuts is when I think "It's almost like the playtesters never played D&D before... like the target audience of this book is ONLY first time player"

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Don't heist focused RPGs, like Blades in the Dark, have this kind of thing as a core mechanic?

I have not played Blades in the dark but yes I have played other superhero and heist focused games with such mechanics... but not normally D&D

 

[FrozenNorth]

Just WotC not being good at this. Again, 3PPs manage it all the time - Paizo is another one, they've been managing to do a vastly better job than WotC for decades on this front.

I like Paizo adventures, but honestly, that has not been the case. I agree with @DEFCON 1 on this.

 

[TravDoc42]

I feel bad for all the people who worked on this book. The lack of marketing due to the OGL fiasco has basically doomed the book to failure, because of decisions made by folks higher up the chain of command. If I had worked on this product, I'd be rather upset right now.

 

[Parmandur]

An awful lot of WotC's adventures (though definitely not all of them) have a "nobody playtested this" vibe.

Well, while I could just say "nuh-uh, they playtest!" that would be a bit silly and flat to leave there. What I will say is that based on what Chris Perkins has said about people do in playtests over the years goes a long way to explain how the final products are structured. And suggest that my experience ofnDMing my 5 and 7 year old children is actually fairly typical of most players. Once you step out of trying to imagine a Platonic "Well Designed Adventure" and look at the more practical al question of utility for how most people apparently play, the perspective shifts a fair bit.

 

[Parmandur]

Paramount will hold the copyright on the movie itself, though. But I can't believe the deal didn't include tie in product rights from the outset.

I don't think the people in charge know what they are doing.

About toy deals for films? The people in charge of that here assuredly are at the top of that game.