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Review of Vecna: Eve of Ruin
Warning Shot
Whenever there's trouble threatening the multiverse, player characters should be the ones to save it. But when there's adventure to be had, it should speak to the characters as narratively connected to the villains whose dastardly plots unfold and are overcome, hopefully not just picking up the pieces of a mcguffin on the way to a dull boss fight with stakes which do not feel earned.
Product Notes
Wizards of the Coast gives Dungeon Masters a high-level adventure which takes a brief pamphlet survey view of adventures in prior visited settings to make the main villain of the adventure not worth the build up to even though it does allow the characters to save the multiverse.
Rating
6 out of 10:
4 for Style.
2 for Substance.
Vecna: Eve of Ruin review...
"The story spans many beloved settings and wondrous planes of existence. Its cast includes characters iconic to longtime fans. This adventure's stakes involve the fate of all worlds—in other words, the multiverse."(from "Introduction: Danger to the Multiverse".)
Vecna: Eve of Ruin is a high level Dungeons & Dragons campaign adventure designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. It features not just the world in peril, but the entire multiverse. It features the villainous Vecna, the multipart mcguffin artifact Rod of Seven Parts, and a trio of wizards that wish for the player characters to resolve the main issue of the adventure.
The basic plot behind Eve of Ruin is the good-ole mcguffin hunt. When the Wizards Three, in their sanctum in Sigil the City of Doors, have your player characters arriving as result of their wish spell, one of them tasks the characters with hunting down and retrieving the Rod of Seven Parts to help with the whole, multiverse-ending machinations of the god of secrets, Vecna. It seems that the characters after being involved with the Whispered One's cult managed to connect their essences (or something like it) to the god of secrets himself and the Wizards Three desire to stop Vecna requires the use of those connected to Vecna. The Wizards Three feature Mordenkainen, a young Tasha the Witch (not yet Witch Queen), and Alustriel Silverhand. With the failed wish spell, Mordenkainen requests the characters hunt down the Rod of Seven Parts to stop the villainous Vecna's plot to rewrite the multiverse in his image.
What follows is an adventure that takes the characters to highlighted sections of Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons adventures; adventures featuring the Sword Coast, Underdark, Planescape, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and Greyhawk. A plethora of NPCs feature in some bizarre adventure connections, even when the connections undermine the setting the connection comes from.
The connected adventures are breezy, fifth edition fare; often requiring the DM make some connections where there is little offered as to what the Wizards Three are doing while the characters are off on their particular mcguffin hunt. There's a part which could be relevant to the ending and twist for the conclusion, but the placement of the tidbit is buried so near the end of seven out of seven quests, that a remix to place it earlier could add to the potential roleplay between jaunts to pick up the next segment of the Rod of Seven Parts. Other elements are posted before the characters would naturally pick up on an indication that there's something amiss within their sanctum stagetorium, that make the placement feel cartoonish enough to feature a riddle and balding man in red-robes offering it to some kids from an '80s carnival ride.
Saving the multiverse is a strong point and requires strong villains. This adventure does not feature a narratively strong villain. Vecna forms the titular villain of the adventure, but other than a minor lead-in encounter which connects the characters to him, there is little in the way of Vecna fighting as the adventure goes forward. As for the main villain of the piece, there's something said about having it grow from a more logical point as the main villain is not the same as the titular villain of adventure. The adventure doesn't feature either villain with enough screen time within the pages, making either shine requires the DM do a lot of work to feel earned. (I would think using the artifact which allows the adventure to take place, not the artifact which forms the throughline of the adventure quests, could allow for a wondrous reveal but would require a lot of player trust to make an impact.)
Parsing the adventure out into scavenged pieces to develop threads from has some merit, though to do so may undercut the story the pieces connect to. (For example, I was very disappointed in the connections to Ravenloft, as Strahd in Eve of Ruin comes across as very poorly. "'Boo,' I say, "boo!'" type villain that lets the characters go after a bit of stalling encounters. "Well, you said you weren't connected to the inquisition, ta-ta." I do not recommend using Eve of Ruin to follow up Curse of Strahd.)
Dungeon Masters hoping to run this adventure should prepare bonus side treks and roleplay encounters in the Sigil sanctum so the ending of the adventure feels earned. DMs should prepare more connections to Vecna beyond the first part of the adventure to make sure the threat of the end of the multiverse shows impact, as it can be hard for characters to be invested in defeating a villain that waits nine chapters to have major influence on the adventure.
There are solid kernels of adventuring concepts in the adventure, but there are distracting remember-this parts too. Why feature Lord Soth when Dragonlance's featured death knight does not advance the plot or tie into the destruction of the multiverse? So DMs can have a duplicate death knight fight? Same can be said for Strahd von Zarovich. Remember the cool first edition wizard-vampire or the Dark Lord of Barovia? Remember the thinking-DMs vampire with variable goals and appearances? He's not present in this adventure, more the mean-spirited vice principal delaying characters from leaving once the bell has rung. If you have major villains from other settings reappearing as part of the ending of the multiverse, they should feel tied to that story not feel like some over-glorified cameo in a film or television series (whether or not there's a 4th wall breaking turn to camera to introduce the guest musical artist).
There are a lot of good parts featured within Eve of Ruin in spite of the assembly of the pieces. This could allow the DMs Guild to rework the pieces into a more cohesive yarn or flesh out the areas which get short-changed (scenes in Sigil, make a looming threat of Vecna with more connections to that villain). However, as it stands, the characters are merely connected to the end of the multiverse because they stopped a Vecna cult cell that one time and the Wizards Three sent them out to pick up their dry cleaning.
Adventures are written to be as non-character connected as possible to start, but Eve of Ruin fails to pick up on the threads it wants to craft the main story with and connect them to the main characters in a meaningful way that pays off in the end. There can be better ties with the DM knowing which characters they will be running this for, and the players who will be playing those characters, but it feels hollow and more to show off what has come before than to allow the characters to shine in the roles offered them by the hook of the adventure.
Whenever there's trouble threatening the multiverse, player characters should be the ones to save it. But when there's adventure to be had, it should speak to the characters as narratively connected to the villains whose dastardly plots unfold and are overcome, hopefully not just picking up the pieces of a mcguffin on the way to a dull boss fight with stakes which do not feel earned.
Product Notes
Wizards of the Coast gives Dungeon Masters a high-level adventure which takes a brief pamphlet survey view of adventures in prior visited settings to make the main villain of the adventure not worth the build up to even though it does allow the characters to save the multiverse.
Rating
6 out of 10:
4 for Style.
2 for Substance.
Vecna: Eve of Ruin review...
"The story spans many beloved settings and wondrous planes of existence. Its cast includes characters iconic to longtime fans. This adventure's stakes involve the fate of all worlds—in other words, the multiverse."(from "Introduction: Danger to the Multiverse".)
Vecna: Eve of Ruin is a high level Dungeons & Dragons campaign adventure designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. It features not just the world in peril, but the entire multiverse. It features the villainous Vecna, the multipart mcguffin artifact Rod of Seven Parts, and a trio of wizards that wish for the player characters to resolve the main issue of the adventure.
The basic plot behind Eve of Ruin is the good-ole mcguffin hunt. When the Wizards Three, in their sanctum in Sigil the City of Doors, have your player characters arriving as result of their wish spell, one of them tasks the characters with hunting down and retrieving the Rod of Seven Parts to help with the whole, multiverse-ending machinations of the god of secrets, Vecna. It seems that the characters after being involved with the Whispered One's cult managed to connect their essences (or something like it) to the god of secrets himself and the Wizards Three desire to stop Vecna requires the use of those connected to Vecna. The Wizards Three feature Mordenkainen, a young Tasha the Witch (not yet Witch Queen), and Alustriel Silverhand. With the failed wish spell, Mordenkainen requests the characters hunt down the Rod of Seven Parts to stop the villainous Vecna's plot to rewrite the multiverse in his image.
What follows is an adventure that takes the characters to highlighted sections of Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons adventures; adventures featuring the Sword Coast, Underdark, Planescape, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and Greyhawk. A plethora of NPCs feature in some bizarre adventure connections, even when the connections undermine the setting the connection comes from.
The connected adventures are breezy, fifth edition fare; often requiring the DM make some connections where there is little offered as to what the Wizards Three are doing while the characters are off on their particular mcguffin hunt. There's a part which could be relevant to the ending and twist for the conclusion, but the placement of the tidbit is buried so near the end of seven out of seven quests, that a remix to place it earlier could add to the potential roleplay between jaunts to pick up the next segment of the Rod of Seven Parts. Other elements are posted before the characters would naturally pick up on an indication that there's something amiss within their sanctum stagetorium, that make the placement feel cartoonish enough to feature a riddle and balding man in red-robes offering it to some kids from an '80s carnival ride.
Saving the multiverse is a strong point and requires strong villains. This adventure does not feature a narratively strong villain. Vecna forms the titular villain of the adventure, but other than a minor lead-in encounter which connects the characters to him, there is little in the way of Vecna fighting as the adventure goes forward. As for the main villain of the piece, there's something said about having it grow from a more logical point as the main villain is not the same as the titular villain of adventure. The adventure doesn't feature either villain with enough screen time within the pages, making either shine requires the DM do a lot of work to feel earned. (I would think using the artifact which allows the adventure to take place, not the artifact which forms the throughline of the adventure quests, could allow for a wondrous reveal but would require a lot of player trust to make an impact.)
Parsing the adventure out into scavenged pieces to develop threads from has some merit, though to do so may undercut the story the pieces connect to. (For example, I was very disappointed in the connections to Ravenloft, as Strahd in Eve of Ruin comes across as very poorly. "'Boo,' I say, "boo!'" type villain that lets the characters go after a bit of stalling encounters. "Well, you said you weren't connected to the inquisition, ta-ta." I do not recommend using Eve of Ruin to follow up Curse of Strahd.)
Dungeon Masters hoping to run this adventure should prepare bonus side treks and roleplay encounters in the Sigil sanctum so the ending of the adventure feels earned. DMs should prepare more connections to Vecna beyond the first part of the adventure to make sure the threat of the end of the multiverse shows impact, as it can be hard for characters to be invested in defeating a villain that waits nine chapters to have major influence on the adventure.
There are solid kernels of adventuring concepts in the adventure, but there are distracting remember-this parts too. Why feature Lord Soth when Dragonlance's featured death knight does not advance the plot or tie into the destruction of the multiverse? So DMs can have a duplicate death knight fight? Same can be said for Strahd von Zarovich. Remember the cool first edition wizard-vampire or the Dark Lord of Barovia? Remember the thinking-DMs vampire with variable goals and appearances? He's not present in this adventure, more the mean-spirited vice principal delaying characters from leaving once the bell has rung. If you have major villains from other settings reappearing as part of the ending of the multiverse, they should feel tied to that story not feel like some over-glorified cameo in a film or television series (whether or not there's a 4th wall breaking turn to camera to introduce the guest musical artist).
There are a lot of good parts featured within Eve of Ruin in spite of the assembly of the pieces. This could allow the DMs Guild to rework the pieces into a more cohesive yarn or flesh out the areas which get short-changed (scenes in Sigil, make a looming threat of Vecna with more connections to that villain). However, as it stands, the characters are merely connected to the end of the multiverse because they stopped a Vecna cult cell that one time and the Wizards Three sent them out to pick up their dry cleaning.
Adventures are written to be as non-character connected as possible to start, but Eve of Ruin fails to pick up on the threads it wants to craft the main story with and connect them to the main characters in a meaningful way that pays off in the end. There can be better ties with the DM knowing which characters they will be running this for, and the players who will be playing those characters, but it feels hollow and more to show off what has come before than to allow the characters to shine in the roles offered them by the hook of the adventure.
