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Spanning multiple worlds and settings in theDungeons & Dragonsmythos, Vecna: Eve of Ruin is arguably the most pioneering officially published adventure in all of fifth edition. It is also the second official adventure that takes PCs (Player Characters) to level 20.
DMs (Dungeon Masters) aspiring to run this ambitious high-level adventure will need to keep a number of details at the front of their minds as they prepare their sessions. Thankfully, we’ve organized all of the most important information in this succinct blurb. While Vecna is attempting to reshape the universe, you’ll need to focus on reshaping your campaign.
Get Comfortable With The Multiple Settings
The first important detail of this adventure is that itcovers various worlds and settings in the D&D multiverse. Consequently, you’ll need tofamiliarize yourself with the basics of each of these settingsbefore your PCs enter their worlds.
Learning about the settings prior to beginning the campaign is advised. Undoubtedly, your PCs will have all kinds of questions about the different settings when they learn they’ll be adventuring in them.
It would probably make sense forthe Wizards Three, each from a different setting, toknow tons of details about their home worldsas well as potentially others.
While the adventures that take place in the book do a decent job of highlighting the themes inherent in their setting, you could easily add more setting flavor to each chapter—the myriad differences between the worlds that the PCs visit are an important plot point of this adventure.
Exhibiting thebeauty of the settings' differences highlights the atrocity Vecna would commitin destroying them.
Learn How To Handle High-Level Characters
Seeing as this adventure begins with the PCs at or around level 10, they should already be established adventurers who have made a name for themselves.
The book has someuseful tables for establishing the past heroic deeds of newly created characters, so don’t be afraid to use them if your players struggle with ideas.
There’s no better PC backstory than one developed at the table. Porting PCs from previous adventurers into this campaign is the best way for players to feel that their characters are already accomplished heroes.
Furthermore, high-level characters have a lot of abilities, spells, feats, weapons, magic items, and more at their disposal.
Make certain yourplayers are familiar with their characters' abilities before starting the adventure in earnest.A handful of one-shots with the proposed party is a great way to ensure everyone is comfortable in their character’s skin.
High-level characters will likely already have multiple magic items in their possession.Allow your players a choice of oneuncommon rarityand one rare rarity magic item pending DM approval.
An explanation of how they acquired each item will also serve to better build their heroic backstory.
Increasing Encounter Difficulty
It’s no secret that the challenge rating system is far from perfect. In fact, many claim that challenge rating becomes almost entirely useless as PCs climb through the third tier of play (levels 11-16). In our own opinion, these claims are largely true.
If you want to really challenge the PCs throughout this adventure,you’ll need to homebrew a lot of the encounters to significantly increase their difficulty.
This is on a case-by-case basis and becomes more necessary as the PCs grow closer to level twenty. Less experienced DMs should not shy away from adding monsters to an encounter on the fly to really up the ante of combats.
There’s no substitute for experience when it comes to building challenging yet achievable encounters.
Learn from every encounter your party faces, understand their tactics, and create obstacles that make their typical approaches to combat obsolete. Every battle your monsters lose is a lesson the DM should learn for the future.
How To Use Powerful Secrets
As the god of secrets,Vecna is always reaching for more forbidden knowledge to add to his evil repertoire. This adventure establishes mechanics for using secrets to aid the party at crucial moments even though it comes at a cost they don’t truly understand.
Throughout the adventure, the PCs will have opportunities to learn all kinds of juicy secrets about the characters they encounter, the worlds they visit, and the plans their allies and adversaries hold close.
It should be clear to the players thatlearning as many of these secrets as they can is a very important part of the adventure.
Additionally, it should be hinted that holding these secrets close may be beneficialto the party in the long run.
Revealing a secret gives the entire party a massive power boost, so the players will be quite tempted to reveal them often. However,held secrets can make a monumental difference in the penultimate encounter with Vecnaat the end of the campaign.
When a secret is revealed, give the players a vision of Vecna that shows him either furthering his plot to destroy the multiverse or ecstatic about accumulating this new knowledge.
These scenes should subtlylet the players know there is a cost for revealing their secrets.
Establish A Link To Vecna
Speaking of visions of Vecna, the characters become linked to the lich-god early on in the campaign. This link takes the form of a blessing found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, though it also comes with some other neat benefits.
Allow the players to describe how their link manifestsor come up with unique manifestations of your own that fit each character’s personal story.
This link provides an explanation for the characters toexperience visions of Vecna throughout the campaign.Use this to your advantage togive the PCs a relationship with Vecna.
If you don’t, Vecna can seem like a bit of an aloof villain who isn’t really concerned with the characters. While this is largely true, you may still make the PCs care about Vecna even if he doesn’t care about them.
A Hidden Agenda
Vecna might be the villain on the cover of this campaign, but the true villain the PCs will spend the most time with is his former right-hand man and trusted lieutenant,Kas.
Every D&D player who has done the bare minimum of research on Vecna knows that he was originally betrayed and destroyed by Kas: his most faithful servant.
Vecna’s only remains from the battle were the legendary artifacts, the Eye and Hand of Vecna. Meanwhile, Kas was shunted to the realm of Cavitius where he remained until he was accidentally freed by Vecna himself. He then became the darklord of Tovag: one of the many domains of dread.
The Hand of Vecna, Eye of Vecna, and Sword of Kasare some of the most legendary artifacts in D&D, however, theyaren’t actually featured in this adventure.
Feel free to add them where you feel appropriate butbeware the amount of power your PCs will wield after acquiring them. Further encounter tweaking will be necessary.
Kas knows of Vecna’s plot to reshape the universe and wishes to finally complete his revenge against his original master by hijacking Vecna’s ritual the moment before it completes.
To accomplish this goal,he has taken the form of Mordenkainen and impersonates the great wizard throughout this adventure.
Kas' involvementin the campaignshould be foreshadowed throughout the adventure,but don’t allow the PCs to discover that Mordenkainen is, in fact, Kas unless they work very hard for this bit of information and truly deserve it.
After all,Kas revealing his true identity is one of the biggest moments in the moduleand is sure to delight your players just as much as it devastates their PCs.
Use Alternative Resolutions
Finally, the cast of characters and encounters found in this book come with a refreshing twist:an opportunity for peaceful resolution.
Almost every boss encounterat the end of each chapter offers a method of resolving the conflict between the party and the chapter’s villain nonviolently.
Any time such an opportunity is present, make it crystal clear to the players.You may even want to go as far as straight-uptelling the players as the DM that there is a way to get what they want without killing the bossin their way. That being said, the cost of cutting a deal with such villains should also be obvious.
Are the PCs really okay withhelping Strahd strengthen his chokehold on Barovia’s inhabitants? Can they live with allowing Lord Soth to let evil fester in the world of Krynn?
These arebig questions of moralitythat the PCs should struggle with, especially considering the failure of their own quest means the end of the multiverse as they know it.
Aiding a villainmay result in aPC’s alignment changing, other NPCs' attitudes towards them souring, and more. The gods may curse such a character with an ailment or reward them with an evil boon.
As always, your imagination is the limit. Consequences for these choices make it clear to the players that the entire multiverse is watching.
Maybe siding with the villains is okay just this once, as it’s “for the greater good.” Then again, maybe not. Let the PCs hash out their reasoning, sit back, and enjoy the entertainment. It’s one of the best parts of being the Dungeon Master.
