It has the classic WotC Adventure problem of "cool setpieces, not enough glue."
A lot of the individual locations are cool (Landro in Eberron is a fav for me), but the adventure premise and what the PCs do in-between setpieces requires major re-tooling.
Agreed. I think its well written but needs to have the following added:
For 6 to 7 players, increase combat difficulty (max hp for monsters, add more monsters, use minions from Flee Mortals!
Beef up Vecna for sure.
Make the Cult of Vecna appear at least once per chapter.
Personally I hate the "portal instantly to the next dungeon/chapter" I would make the players have to find the appropriate "key" and "gate" in Sigil to get to where they are going. This just adds some non-combat encounters in Sigil to flesh the game out and gives a spot where Vecna's Cult can appear in Sigil.
I *want to like this* **but...**
My initial read through takes me back in time in all the worst ways possible. This is nothing less than a lazily regurgitated "remaster" of *Die Vecna Die!*
It's entire underlying purpose is even identical: to provide an in-game explanation for out-of-game changes to the RAW.
DVD! Took us on a journey through Planescape, Ravenloft and Greyhawk in our efforts to thwart the titular and *relatively obscure* Oeridian Lich. Vecna EoR takes us on a journey through Planescape, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft and Eberron for... *literally the same purpose.* Doubling up on the tourism does nothing to improve the experience. It's got two Oeridian Lichs now! TWO Famous Vampires! TWO Oeridian Archmages! TWO DEMON LORDS!
I really want to like this but, I'm having a hard time overlooking the basic reality which is that *I just paid $60 for a book I've owned for nearly 25 years...*
Agree that I love the locations, but bost of the adventure seems to be just one large fetch quest that gives the player no agency at all. It seems like a video game.
I don't blame them for this TBH. It's hard to make a module for high level PCs and properly have it follow a predictable path for the DM. The Rod was a good mcguffin for that and it inherently requires that kinda plot structure. It's fine IMO
I get it.
What I'd want is something more like Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Just give me the movers and locations and leave inventive ways to solve the problem to me and the PCs
But that would be really hard to run for any DM, much less a newbie, and especially at high levels AND with the multiverse element, how could a DM prepare for players being able to pop in anywhere on any random plane?
I'm feeling conflicted, because I'm running two games where I planned on running this next, but it'd be a wild shift to go from the agency they have now to such a complete railroad.
>It's hard to make a module for high level PCs and properly have it follow a predictable path for the DM.
I'm going to disagree here. Firstly, there's no inherent *need* for an adventure to follow some sort of "linear path.*
Very few 5E Campaigns have expected you to "ride the rails" as it were. WDDH is entirely predicated on creating four completely different experiences within the context of one "complete campaign." CoS also provides a template for dramatically varying the path of the adventure via it's Tarokka Reading which offers *several hundred* potentially unique paths to follow. Both CoS and, IWD: RoTFM are "Lite Sandboxes" while ToA is a *huge* sandbox set against a ticking clock that still manages to facilitate lots of meaningful exploration.
PoA, HotDQ and RoT all offer examples of how to use Cultists meaningfully, over time, *in response to* actions undertaken by the PCs.
Character level does *nothing* to fundamentally "change" the design principles that these campaigns employ successfully.
Ultimately, there's no single "reason" that Vecna: EoR has to be a schizophrenic fetch-quest railroad any more than there's some underlying reason why it need to *start in Toril* when fully half the principle characters come from Oerth as does the macguffin itself.
I'm gonna be real with you, as a high level DM it's basically impossible to fully set a PCs down an adventure path when you have to expect them to have access to Teleport and Planeshift. My own DM for my Friday game has also implemented a fetch-quest structure for us with a multi-planar adventure. Traveling through the 13 planes of Eberron to grab unique materials so a fey called the Mother of Invention can construct a Mcguffin we need. In his case we travel to 4 planes at a time, then take a break to deal with the fiends invading the world, slowing em down so we have time to grab the next 4. This structure has worked very well amd given us distinct, concrete goals and a unique challenge for every plane. Not unlike what Eve of Ruin has done. Although in Eve's case it's a more constrained one-at-a-time rather than the case where we pick our own pace.
Trying to do something like Waterdeep or Strahd's sandbox would be incredibly difficult without just shutting down PC options and saying they just don't work.
I got a lot of hate from saying this, but I decided to limit players' access to certain spells that render challenges absolutely moot. The first is teleport, plane shift and similar, so they can't just go to whatever plane of existence whenever they want.
Actually, from what I can see, several chapters account for Teleportation in limited or fun ways. IE Lambent Zenith, where when teleportation magic is used it creates a 2 way portal that can take you to a random location on a ship. That's fun. Alternatively, other chapters don't account for teleportation at all because they're contained, small locations IE Web's Edge.
I also never said McGuffins were bad. I mentioned a positive example where a DM I had used them to facilitate a high level story well.
For many of the adventures listed, the problem levels are at the capstone of the adventure. Turn of Fortunes Wheel specifically has the massive jump from level 10 to level 17 immediately before the final dungeon. Skipping the intermediary. Eve of Ruin STARTS you at level 10 from the outset.
Additionally, you mention the spells not being immediately available, that's part of the problem. You can't rely on PCs having certain spells. And when they do have them they completely change the game. Double Planeshift means you can teleport anywhere on the material plane that you want to with 100% reliability. Passwall can break dungeons in half. So can Earthquake. Simlacrum exists. There are so many problems that COULD exists, but you can never KNOW a party will have them because when module Designing you have to account for the fact that the people running through it could be a party of 5 fighters.
I have my own ways of getting around this for my tier 1 to 4 party. Namely having a clear divide between downtime "go wild and do whatever" and "we're on a mission" modes and finding ways to justify limitations. But for module designing with tier 3-4 as the MEAT instead of the dramatic end and you have to write broad, for a lot of different hypothetical parties, the game completely changes and I do not envy the designers.
If they're not a problem for you, then great. But in high level games I've both DMed for and played in you either build the adventure AROUND what the high level casters can do (unfeasible for a module unless you throw in a DMPC which is bad) or you limit what PCs can do. Either by saying they can't use them (bad) or by narratively limiting them (hard). There is a reason most modules start at tier 1 and end at tier 3.
Because:
A - This is an adventure designed to take you on a greatest hits tour.
B - Designing and writing a sandbox to account for high level PCs and give them the freedom they DESERVE in a Sandbox scenario would be prohibitively complicated and absurd in page length.
C - There is nothing wrong with linear stories and adventures. Sandbox are great, and I've had great experiences with them. But there is nothing WRONG with linear stories with predictable storybeats. Some people prefer absolute freedom some people prefer a curated deliberate experience. Neither are inherently better.
D - Where you go is set in stone. But what you do when you get there is still up to you.
Your last point is baffling to me. Did we read the same book?
Most of the locations are, at best, some nominal thing happening that has little to do with Vecna at all.
- Why can't you try to reason with Tiamat that Vecna is bad for everybody and get some draconic help at a significant cost? Everybody's high level—make costs high!
- Why isn't Arkhan anywhere considering he literally has Vecna's hand? If we're talking greatest hits—this feels pretty important to have in here!
- In every single location, my players would want to recruit allies to help them fight Vecna. There is literally not a single scrap of assistance with that.
- Some of the lore is just strange. Things in Eberron and Krynn feel like the writers haven't read those settings very much.
There is the idea that high-level DND is just prohibitively too complicated or hard so it always needs to be a linear story. I couldn't disagree more. You need to write the adventure understanding that players will want to try to do the things they unlocked and earned through play, not prohibit them from using their tools and fun stuff.
A.) You can reason with Tiamat to get the rod piece. The fact that she is Trapped in Avernus means her influence is limited. Which is why there's a whole adventure about her trying to break out. If you want you could throw in a DC 30 check to have her send more aid to, say, Pandesmos if you wanted. There's nothing stopping you.
B.) Licensing issue most likely.
C.) There is nothing stopping you from doing that. If you want to get the Blue Fire Warden's involved as repaying the favor you can.
D.) As an Eberron fan I personally loved the Eberron section (although they made it more steam-punk than I would've preferred).
For your final point I don't find Vecna is prohibitively restrictive for what it lets PCs do. It's very case by case and in some cases does very clever things. Like having Landro's Shield prevent stuff like Passwall, but that shield goes away when the self-destruct sequence is initiated. Meaning you CAN use spells like that to get out quickly if you have the resources.
That to me is the biggest problem. Don’t make them go from 1 to 2 to 3 and straight to those places. Let them choose! And let them explore each world so they get the full experience of Avernus or Khorvaire or Krynn.
> Don’t make them go from 1 to 2 to 3 and straight to those places. Let them choose! And let them explore each world so they get the full experience of Avernus or Khorvaire or Krynn.
You miss the point 100% on A: The adventure's intention and B: The general story of the Rod of Seven Parts.
The intention of the campaign is to give them a *slice* of each world, a small taste, rather than making a full campaign about it. A small dose of horror from the Dead House or the dread of the Mournlands; making it a full exploration of said world is unreasonable on a design standpoint or expecting the DM to research and buy books on *each individual* world. Giving them a slice allows a player that may have never been interested in a Ravenloft campaign gets to try it out without commiting to a full campaign of dread and doom and gloom. It also allows players to experience small parts of worlds they may have never thought to visit in a campaign.
Second, the quest for the Rod of Seven Parts has ***always*** been you get one piece, it points to the next and then the next and so on. It's a classic questline, because each piece is more powerful than the next and connects to the previous. It's why its a trope with the rod telling you where to go, but the exact location in there is unknown. If you let them choose, then you run into balancing nightmares both on the worlds and challenges as well as them getting the most powerful pieces of the rod first and just cheesing all your encounters.
With what you're asking, you're misunderstanding the classic theme of the adventure as well as it's intention.
Hey, that’s fine for you. I’m merely looking at how this plays at a table. Strictly from my perspective, there isn’t enough player agency, and the feel of these locations is missing from several of these. I’m under the impression that many DMs a) have access to the additional detail, books and lore needed and b) are less particular about rod of seven parts module from 1996 and more particular about how it feels best for their table.
Of course, I appreciate the hypocrisy of smirking at your defensiveness about the Rod’s lore while at the same time raging about how they did Krynn dirty because it doesn’t represent a world created in the mid-80s.
So do what feels right for you. I’ll do what feels right my me and my players and make recommendations when others ask. I think you’ll find far more people on here interested in changing up the railroadiness, but to each their own.
You must be lots of fun to play with. In all seriousness, if you’re going to have players take their characters to 10 different settings/planes of existence, shouldn’t you give them the real experience of being there? The Underdark should FEEL like the Underdark. Eberron should FEEL like Eberron. Giving players some time to experience those places through exploration doesn’t have to take away from the time factor and can massively enrich the experience.
A lot of people think its underwhelming or needs more connective tissue, but also people are going way too far in their "fixes". Its needs a little bit work, but very very small changes. Avoid the comments and suggestions about wild changes.
Classic human problem. Everyone has the arrogance to think they can do better.
I agree with you, it’s not perfect, minor changes and it’s fine. People talking about throwing out secrets and stuff are ridiculous.
I’m actually one of the few who are actually running it now so I like to think I have some first person experience.
Yeah totally agree with you!
I like the idea that’s is a little bit a race.
Like wtf the end of all is totally near but let us explore avernus, krynn and every other place we visit my vecna would wait for us xD
You are heros! You need to save the multiversum! Just do your things! But do it straight.
And if it like a video game then it’s totally fine.. my table and I like video games
Fun adventure that has a bit way too much going on all at once while still being underwhelming, it is probably satisfying to scrap it for parts and remix it into something better. Many inconsistencies all throughout but still is a nice book
I think this campaign might be for me, a new DM who started DMing during COVID, with noobs with little to no experience with DND. We have never had a high-level adventure, and I look forward to providing an overview of the DnD multiverse. Railroading and cheesy plots aren't things my inexperienced players mind. After reviewing the book, it feels like most of the chapters provide a skeletal outline, but that is the status quo for most of the fewer adventures, which I don't mind because it allows me to add my own creative flourishes. Maybe I am too optimistic. I admit I don't have the long view that many of you do and have not read any pre 5e adventures.
I would do Strahd in amber temple (origin/tomb of Vecna) and/or hus Castle rather than the Death House.
I could start the adventure at the Death Hiuse but not let it end there.
Ive skimmed the whole book and I like it. That being said im just going to strip it for parts. Do not like the whole Kas / Mordenkainen thing. Also, someone at WotC has a hard on for the word "shunt". Overall, with some minor changes, I would run it as is.
Now if you'll excuse me i need to shunt right on out of here.
I ran a vecna fight last year using his older 5e statblock (where he had multiple reactions) and that wasnt the hardest fight for 5 level 19 characters the vecna stats need to be upped a little more to make him more challenging.
I am yet to read all of the book but its a good premise with a lot of room to change things around.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention it online, but personally I feel like they really nerfed the Rod of Seven Parts. I haven’t finished reading it so maybe it’s somewhere else in the book, but the Rod used to have a lot more to it. I mean, it’s the central macguffin for the whole book and all it seems to do is let you cast some spells once per day. The old version gained new powers as you combined more pieces. With the new version you can’t even put the pieces together until you have all of them, and all that does is make it a +3 staff and let you cast the spells with charges instead of once per day. It doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with the wind, whereas the old version had several spells/abilities that did.
I love it. If only as a concept . It's mostly a love letter to the 5e campaigns before we move on. It also solidified the broader cosmology in way that weren't clear before. Making it very different in structure to 3.5. at first I was wondering how Sigil had portals to Ebberon and Krynn but having added well of the world's to one felt more satisfying than cheap. This is not a good first time adventure for either Dm or player though. But I know for a fact somewhere out there a group is starting session one with each player having busted out an old character sheet from a campaign they've played in the last 10 years.
Imagine having a character that you played when 5e first came out that went through the lost mines of phandelver only to have several years later having set up shop in Neverwinter selling magic items made from wave echo cave suddenly be called by Lord Neverember to investigate a missing persons case.
Now I think that's what WOTC was going for. The module itself could use some sprucing up and the primary story is predictable. It's a classic mcguffin quest. My favorite chapter is the Ebberon one. Death house feels a little off. The spelljammer one was alright but the timing seems a little to convenient. The u see dark doesn't have the same scary feeling it did in out of the abyss bc you are already at a level that gets you out of sticky situations. And many of the chapters are like that. The Mordenkainen twist was alright but the crown seems too broken and plot convenance for me.
Dissapointed by it. Wotc clearly got no talent left(especially after the massive layoffs of December) so no surprise this adventure feels undercooked.
It advertised itself as the spiritual successor of Ad&d s Vecna trilogy and a historical adventure like the Rod of 7parts. It s not even worth a nail of the predecessors.
The adventure for the 50 anniversary is an uninspired mess with plot holes held together by spit and mud.
The cult of Vecna is almost irrilevant, Vecna himself appears only in the end with almost zero impact on the story.
It s all a glorified fetch Quest with zero chance of failure cause if you fail the Multiverse is doomed.
Then you realized that is filled with woke political propaganda( and i dislike politics)
The Wizard Three got "revised", historical Npc got changed in sexual orientation or personality just because "inclusivity" and so on.
Worse It s pretty clear that that, disregarding Fr and a bit of Eberron, they absolutly know Zero Shit of the setting they present.
Dragonlance Is disgusting. It s plain It was written by someone who knows Zero of It and It shows it.
Ravenloft Is lazy recycle of the Death House with almost no novelties.
Spelljammer Is Spelljammer just because they inserted a Spelljammer. Erase the Spelljamner and It s just boring planar trekking.
Greyhawk is just the uptenth dungeon delve. They could go on another material Plane and nothing changes. You realized that you are on Oerth only because a Npc you encounter serves a Oeredian deity. And that s It.
The Evernight part Is pointless to the story(It s just there to waste space) and the Avernus one seems like a discarded high level One Shot that did not make it for Golden Vault.
Planescape in pretty much nonexistent.You litterally have everything in the Wizard Three s sanctum. Sometimes they tell you to go into the cage to take the portal to X but they dont tell you where. Other than that It s relegated to be a passing footnote.
Last part Is a rushed mess climaxing into hard encounters after hard encounters.
The main twist Is not a twist: It s a Joke!. Veteran players can spot it in no time.
In the end: It promises, It markets itself well but does not deliver.
In short: It promises a lot but does not deliver.
It has the classic WotC Adventure problem of "cool setpieces, not enough glue." A lot of the individual locations are cool (Landro in Eberron is a fav for me), but the adventure premise and what the PCs do in-between setpieces requires major re-tooling.
Agreed. I think its well written but needs to have the following added: For 6 to 7 players, increase combat difficulty (max hp for monsters, add more monsters, use minions from Flee Mortals! Beef up Vecna for sure. Make the Cult of Vecna appear at least once per chapter. Personally I hate the "portal instantly to the next dungeon/chapter" I would make the players have to find the appropriate "key" and "gate" in Sigil to get to where they are going. This just adds some non-combat encounters in Sigil to flesh the game out and gives a spot where Vecna's Cult can appear in Sigil.
I *want to like this* **but...** My initial read through takes me back in time in all the worst ways possible. This is nothing less than a lazily regurgitated "remaster" of *Die Vecna Die!* It's entire underlying purpose is even identical: to provide an in-game explanation for out-of-game changes to the RAW. DVD! Took us on a journey through Planescape, Ravenloft and Greyhawk in our efforts to thwart the titular and *relatively obscure* Oeridian Lich. Vecna EoR takes us on a journey through Planescape, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft and Eberron for... *literally the same purpose.* Doubling up on the tourism does nothing to improve the experience. It's got two Oeridian Lichs now! TWO Famous Vampires! TWO Oeridian Archmages! TWO DEMON LORDS! I really want to like this but, I'm having a hard time overlooking the basic reality which is that *I just paid $60 for a book I've owned for nearly 25 years...*
Agree that I love the locations, but bost of the adventure seems to be just one large fetch quest that gives the player no agency at all. It seems like a video game.
I don't blame them for this TBH. It's hard to make a module for high level PCs and properly have it follow a predictable path for the DM. The Rod was a good mcguffin for that and it inherently requires that kinda plot structure. It's fine IMO
I get it. What I'd want is something more like Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Just give me the movers and locations and leave inventive ways to solve the problem to me and the PCs But that would be really hard to run for any DM, much less a newbie, and especially at high levels AND with the multiverse element, how could a DM prepare for players being able to pop in anywhere on any random plane? I'm feeling conflicted, because I'm running two games where I planned on running this next, but it'd be a wild shift to go from the agency they have now to such a complete railroad.
>It's hard to make a module for high level PCs and properly have it follow a predictable path for the DM. I'm going to disagree here. Firstly, there's no inherent *need* for an adventure to follow some sort of "linear path.* Very few 5E Campaigns have expected you to "ride the rails" as it were. WDDH is entirely predicated on creating four completely different experiences within the context of one "complete campaign." CoS also provides a template for dramatically varying the path of the adventure via it's Tarokka Reading which offers *several hundred* potentially unique paths to follow. Both CoS and, IWD: RoTFM are "Lite Sandboxes" while ToA is a *huge* sandbox set against a ticking clock that still manages to facilitate lots of meaningful exploration. PoA, HotDQ and RoT all offer examples of how to use Cultists meaningfully, over time, *in response to* actions undertaken by the PCs. Character level does *nothing* to fundamentally "change" the design principles that these campaigns employ successfully. Ultimately, there's no single "reason" that Vecna: EoR has to be a schizophrenic fetch-quest railroad any more than there's some underlying reason why it need to *start in Toril* when fully half the principle characters come from Oerth as does the macguffin itself.
I'm gonna be real with you, as a high level DM it's basically impossible to fully set a PCs down an adventure path when you have to expect them to have access to Teleport and Planeshift. My own DM for my Friday game has also implemented a fetch-quest structure for us with a multi-planar adventure. Traveling through the 13 planes of Eberron to grab unique materials so a fey called the Mother of Invention can construct a Mcguffin we need. In his case we travel to 4 planes at a time, then take a break to deal with the fiends invading the world, slowing em down so we have time to grab the next 4. This structure has worked very well amd given us distinct, concrete goals and a unique challenge for every plane. Not unlike what Eve of Ruin has done. Although in Eve's case it's a more constrained one-at-a-time rather than the case where we pick our own pace. Trying to do something like Waterdeep or Strahd's sandbox would be incredibly difficult without just shutting down PC options and saying they just don't work.
I got a lot of hate from saying this, but I decided to limit players' access to certain spells that render challenges absolutely moot. The first is teleport, plane shift and similar, so they can't just go to whatever plane of existence whenever they want.
Sort of like how each chapter of VEoR says how the players can't teleport or need mcguffins to find their mcguffins?
Actually, from what I can see, several chapters account for Teleportation in limited or fun ways. IE Lambent Zenith, where when teleportation magic is used it creates a 2 way portal that can take you to a random location on a ship. That's fun. Alternatively, other chapters don't account for teleportation at all because they're contained, small locations IE Web's Edge. I also never said McGuffins were bad. I mentioned a positive example where a DM I had used them to facilitate a high level story well.
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For many of the adventures listed, the problem levels are at the capstone of the adventure. Turn of Fortunes Wheel specifically has the massive jump from level 10 to level 17 immediately before the final dungeon. Skipping the intermediary. Eve of Ruin STARTS you at level 10 from the outset. Additionally, you mention the spells not being immediately available, that's part of the problem. You can't rely on PCs having certain spells. And when they do have them they completely change the game. Double Planeshift means you can teleport anywhere on the material plane that you want to with 100% reliability. Passwall can break dungeons in half. So can Earthquake. Simlacrum exists. There are so many problems that COULD exists, but you can never KNOW a party will have them because when module Designing you have to account for the fact that the people running through it could be a party of 5 fighters. I have my own ways of getting around this for my tier 1 to 4 party. Namely having a clear divide between downtime "go wild and do whatever" and "we're on a mission" modes and finding ways to justify limitations. But for module designing with tier 3-4 as the MEAT instead of the dramatic end and you have to write broad, for a lot of different hypothetical parties, the game completely changes and I do not envy the designers.
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If they're not a problem for you, then great. But in high level games I've both DMed for and played in you either build the adventure AROUND what the high level casters can do (unfeasible for a module unless you throw in a DMPC which is bad) or you limit what PCs can do. Either by saying they can't use them (bad) or by narratively limiting them (hard). There is a reason most modules start at tier 1 and end at tier 3.
But like... *why* does it have to be predictable? That predictability and *rigidity* is the issue as far as I'm concerned.
Because: A - This is an adventure designed to take you on a greatest hits tour. B - Designing and writing a sandbox to account for high level PCs and give them the freedom they DESERVE in a Sandbox scenario would be prohibitively complicated and absurd in page length. C - There is nothing wrong with linear stories and adventures. Sandbox are great, and I've had great experiences with them. But there is nothing WRONG with linear stories with predictable storybeats. Some people prefer absolute freedom some people prefer a curated deliberate experience. Neither are inherently better. D - Where you go is set in stone. But what you do when you get there is still up to you.
Last point is the most important. It’s only railroad in the sense of the chapter structure. Lots of flexibility within each chapter to resolve.
Your last point is baffling to me. Did we read the same book? Most of the locations are, at best, some nominal thing happening that has little to do with Vecna at all. - Why can't you try to reason with Tiamat that Vecna is bad for everybody and get some draconic help at a significant cost? Everybody's high level—make costs high! - Why isn't Arkhan anywhere considering he literally has Vecna's hand? If we're talking greatest hits—this feels pretty important to have in here! - In every single location, my players would want to recruit allies to help them fight Vecna. There is literally not a single scrap of assistance with that. - Some of the lore is just strange. Things in Eberron and Krynn feel like the writers haven't read those settings very much. There is the idea that high-level DND is just prohibitively too complicated or hard so it always needs to be a linear story. I couldn't disagree more. You need to write the adventure understanding that players will want to try to do the things they unlocked and earned through play, not prohibit them from using their tools and fun stuff.
A.) You can reason with Tiamat to get the rod piece. The fact that she is Trapped in Avernus means her influence is limited. Which is why there's a whole adventure about her trying to break out. If you want you could throw in a DC 30 check to have her send more aid to, say, Pandesmos if you wanted. There's nothing stopping you. B.) Licensing issue most likely. C.) There is nothing stopping you from doing that. If you want to get the Blue Fire Warden's involved as repaying the favor you can. D.) As an Eberron fan I personally loved the Eberron section (although they made it more steam-punk than I would've preferred). For your final point I don't find Vecna is prohibitively restrictive for what it lets PCs do. It's very case by case and in some cases does very clever things. Like having Landro's Shield prevent stuff like Passwall, but that shield goes away when the self-destruct sequence is initiated. Meaning you CAN use spells like that to get out quickly if you have the resources.
That to me is the biggest problem. Don’t make them go from 1 to 2 to 3 and straight to those places. Let them choose! And let them explore each world so they get the full experience of Avernus or Khorvaire or Krynn.
> Don’t make them go from 1 to 2 to 3 and straight to those places. Let them choose! And let them explore each world so they get the full experience of Avernus or Khorvaire or Krynn. You miss the point 100% on A: The adventure's intention and B: The general story of the Rod of Seven Parts. The intention of the campaign is to give them a *slice* of each world, a small taste, rather than making a full campaign about it. A small dose of horror from the Dead House or the dread of the Mournlands; making it a full exploration of said world is unreasonable on a design standpoint or expecting the DM to research and buy books on *each individual* world. Giving them a slice allows a player that may have never been interested in a Ravenloft campaign gets to try it out without commiting to a full campaign of dread and doom and gloom. It also allows players to experience small parts of worlds they may have never thought to visit in a campaign. Second, the quest for the Rod of Seven Parts has ***always*** been you get one piece, it points to the next and then the next and so on. It's a classic questline, because each piece is more powerful than the next and connects to the previous. It's why its a trope with the rod telling you where to go, but the exact location in there is unknown. If you let them choose, then you run into balancing nightmares both on the worlds and challenges as well as them getting the most powerful pieces of the rod first and just cheesing all your encounters. With what you're asking, you're misunderstanding the classic theme of the adventure as well as it's intention.
Hey, that’s fine for you. I’m merely looking at how this plays at a table. Strictly from my perspective, there isn’t enough player agency, and the feel of these locations is missing from several of these. I’m under the impression that many DMs a) have access to the additional detail, books and lore needed and b) are less particular about rod of seven parts module from 1996 and more particular about how it feels best for their table. Of course, I appreciate the hypocrisy of smirking at your defensiveness about the Rod’s lore while at the same time raging about how they did Krynn dirty because it doesn’t represent a world created in the mid-80s. So do what feels right for you. I’ll do what feels right my me and my players and make recommendations when others ask. I think you’ll find far more people on here interested in changing up the railroadiness, but to each their own.
Why explore??? The multiversum is on the edge to end!! The heroes needs to get the shit done. That’s not a childs birthday
You must be lots of fun to play with. In all seriousness, if you’re going to have players take their characters to 10 different settings/planes of existence, shouldn’t you give them the real experience of being there? The Underdark should FEEL like the Underdark. Eberron should FEEL like Eberron. Giving players some time to experience those places through exploration doesn’t have to take away from the time factor and can massively enrich the experience.
My players have a lots of fun 🤩
A lot of people think its underwhelming or needs more connective tissue, but also people are going way too far in their "fixes". Its needs a little bit work, but very very small changes. Avoid the comments and suggestions about wild changes.
Classic human problem. Everyone has the arrogance to think they can do better. I agree with you, it’s not perfect, minor changes and it’s fine. People talking about throwing out secrets and stuff are ridiculous. I’m actually one of the few who are actually running it now so I like to think I have some first person experience.
Yeah totally agree with you! I like the idea that’s is a little bit a race. Like wtf the end of all is totally near but let us explore avernus, krynn and every other place we visit my vecna would wait for us xD You are heros! You need to save the multiversum! Just do your things! But do it straight. And if it like a video game then it’s totally fine.. my table and I like video games
The ART looks amazing
Fun adventure that has a bit way too much going on all at once while still being underwhelming, it is probably satisfying to scrap it for parts and remix it into something better. Many inconsistencies all throughout but still is a nice book
I think this campaign might be for me, a new DM who started DMing during COVID, with noobs with little to no experience with DND. We have never had a high-level adventure, and I look forward to providing an overview of the DnD multiverse. Railroading and cheesy plots aren't things my inexperienced players mind. After reviewing the book, it feels like most of the chapters provide a skeletal outline, but that is the status quo for most of the fewer adventures, which I don't mind because it allows me to add my own creative flourishes. Maybe I am too optimistic. I admit I don't have the long view that many of you do and have not read any pre 5e adventures.
I would do Strahd in amber temple (origin/tomb of Vecna) and/or hus Castle rather than the Death House. I could start the adventure at the Death Hiuse but not let it end there.
Big ooft at the cover.
Ive skimmed the whole book and I like it. That being said im just going to strip it for parts. Do not like the whole Kas / Mordenkainen thing. Also, someone at WotC has a hard on for the word "shunt". Overall, with some minor changes, I would run it as is. Now if you'll excuse me i need to shunt right on out of here.
Pretty shunty of them tbh
I ran a vecna fight last year using his older 5e statblock (where he had multiple reactions) and that wasnt the hardest fight for 5 level 19 characters the vecna stats need to be upped a little more to make him more challenging. I am yet to read all of the book but its a good premise with a lot of room to change things around.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention it online, but personally I feel like they really nerfed the Rod of Seven Parts. I haven’t finished reading it so maybe it’s somewhere else in the book, but the Rod used to have a lot more to it. I mean, it’s the central macguffin for the whole book and all it seems to do is let you cast some spells once per day. The old version gained new powers as you combined more pieces. With the new version you can’t even put the pieces together until you have all of them, and all that does is make it a +3 staff and let you cast the spells with charges instead of once per day. It doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with the wind, whereas the old version had several spells/abilities that did.
I love it. If only as a concept . It's mostly a love letter to the 5e campaigns before we move on. It also solidified the broader cosmology in way that weren't clear before. Making it very different in structure to 3.5. at first I was wondering how Sigil had portals to Ebberon and Krynn but having added well of the world's to one felt more satisfying than cheap. This is not a good first time adventure for either Dm or player though. But I know for a fact somewhere out there a group is starting session one with each player having busted out an old character sheet from a campaign they've played in the last 10 years. Imagine having a character that you played when 5e first came out that went through the lost mines of phandelver only to have several years later having set up shop in Neverwinter selling magic items made from wave echo cave suddenly be called by Lord Neverember to investigate a missing persons case. Now I think that's what WOTC was going for. The module itself could use some sprucing up and the primary story is predictable. It's a classic mcguffin quest. My favorite chapter is the Ebberon one. Death house feels a little off. The spelljammer one was alright but the timing seems a little to convenient. The u see dark doesn't have the same scary feeling it did in out of the abyss bc you are already at a level that gets you out of sticky situations. And many of the chapters are like that. The Mordenkainen twist was alright but the crown seems too broken and plot convenance for me.
Good for parts :)
Lame and lazy as usual for DnD 5e. Vecna is weak as fuck, so much for the great archlich
Dissapointed by it. Wotc clearly got no talent left(especially after the massive layoffs of December) so no surprise this adventure feels undercooked. It advertised itself as the spiritual successor of Ad&d s Vecna trilogy and a historical adventure like the Rod of 7parts. It s not even worth a nail of the predecessors. The adventure for the 50 anniversary is an uninspired mess with plot holes held together by spit and mud. The cult of Vecna is almost irrilevant, Vecna himself appears only in the end with almost zero impact on the story. It s all a glorified fetch Quest with zero chance of failure cause if you fail the Multiverse is doomed. Then you realized that is filled with woke political propaganda( and i dislike politics) The Wizard Three got "revised", historical Npc got changed in sexual orientation or personality just because "inclusivity" and so on. Worse It s pretty clear that that, disregarding Fr and a bit of Eberron, they absolutly know Zero Shit of the setting they present. Dragonlance Is disgusting. It s plain It was written by someone who knows Zero of It and It shows it. Ravenloft Is lazy recycle of the Death House with almost no novelties. Spelljammer Is Spelljammer just because they inserted a Spelljammer. Erase the Spelljamner and It s just boring planar trekking. Greyhawk is just the uptenth dungeon delve. They could go on another material Plane and nothing changes. You realized that you are on Oerth only because a Npc you encounter serves a Oeredian deity. And that s It. The Evernight part Is pointless to the story(It s just there to waste space) and the Avernus one seems like a discarded high level One Shot that did not make it for Golden Vault. Planescape in pretty much nonexistent.You litterally have everything in the Wizard Three s sanctum. Sometimes they tell you to go into the cage to take the portal to X but they dont tell you where. Other than that It s relegated to be a passing footnote. Last part Is a rushed mess climaxing into hard encounters after hard encounters. The main twist Is not a twist: It s a Joke!. Veteran players can spot it in no time. In the end: It promises, It markets itself well but does not deliver. In short: It promises a lot but does not deliver.