Vecna: Eve of Ruin Review - Worth Your Money?

Don’t call it a comeback, Vecna’s been here for years. Do you like clip compilations and greatest hits albums? Then you *might* like the latest adventure from the coastal wizards of dungeons and dragons. I’m GM Jim, and I’m going to dive into this book and tell you what works, what doesn’t work, and ultimately, if buying it is worth your hard-earned currency. I’ll start with some general non-spoilery thoughts for players, then get into major spoiler territory after that. If you think you might be playing in it, I’ll let you know to click away before we get there.

0:00 Intro
0:31 For Players
1:27 Overview for DMs
2:40 The Story
8:18 The Good
9:28 The Bad
10:51 The Ugly

#vecna #eveofruin #5e #dnd #wotc

[TheScottMcclintock]

Wow! Im the Doomed Forgotten Realms guy, so thanks so much for the shout out! Love your channel and appreciated the review ❤

[crankysmurf]

WotC's 5E design philosophy is "DMs, you fill in the gaping holes of rules and lore!"

[TheOtherMrEd]

A very fair review. It feels like the last few WotC adventures were written by people who don't actually DM. And the maps on this adventure... dear lord... the maps. Featureless ink drawings... I was furious. I'm going to check out the doomed forgotten realms adventure.

[DUNGEONCRAFT]

A VERY thorough and fair review. --Professor DM, Dungeoncraft

[foxbat]

My comments on "The Bad": 1) Railroad-y... Solution, Tell your players this is a train ride, and if you want to board the train, you have to buy a ticket knowing that it goes from one place to the next and doesn't deviate. 2) Lack of Re-occuring NPC's: What? This is a problem for you? You're going to 7 different multiverses, of course this is going to happen... You have the quest giver, that's all you need... The UGLY: Yes, the lack of direct Vecna-ness is poor. There needs to be a prequel Module where he is a major force and opponent. A level 3 to 10... (and your end statement: Never sell yourself short...)

[MykeDiemart]

I thank you for the overview and breakdown, I don't think I'll pick it up but Im going to check out the Doomed FR adventure.

[lelandvaughan]

Ok damn! A video that quickly and succinctly gives me the info I wanted AND gives an honest opinion regardless of the pressure of new content, thank you! Subscribed!

[RichardtheregularDM]

Dude, this is a great review. Thanks for laying it out so clearly. The secrets remind me of Lazy DM.

[BSemperGumby]

Great review! This is exactly the info I needed

[Ahill]

You'd think with HOW MANY TIMES I had to skip the ads for this book that it would be a homerun... this is downright depressing.

[fatrabidrambocow]

I'm picking up the module as the last campaign for 5th Edition, but I think Vecna's involvement is a big disappointment. In the book, his whole purpose of leaving Oerth is that he is bored - not that he went to Ravenloft, and then Planescape to become a god? It's all been wiped out in two paragraphs. Regurgitated items, barely any new monsters, and no unique background options that you would normally see. Considering the marketing they threw at this, it's been a let down. I feel I've had to "fix" a fair few story beats to make it more interesting for the players AND me! To spice it up, I've added that Vecna is working with Atropus; Vecna reshapes his universe, and Atropus gets all the dead as a result. I've replaced Kas with Iuz as the impersonator - Kas remains imprisoned on Cavitius as a nice Vecna past throwback, where he can reveal the Vecna hideout location "from the old days". And as the game progresses, the world biomes start smashing together, like Eberron x Athas, or Barovia x Feywild.

[MC-gjfg]

Since it's a high level adventure with characters that may well have been all over, consider replacing NPCs in the module with those they've met before the adventure kicked off if you wish to create NPC interconnectivity, not just with the adventure, but with the entire campaign.

[MrDeman]

Great analysis !! I took a hiatus from the game as a DM and a player for a couple years now, although I still enjoy reading, watching reviews etc like yours. I was debating to pick this up, maybe to rekindle my lost flame of the D&D hobby .
Congrats, you got a new sub from me :)

[VanGothASMR]

Hopefully there’s enough gold in this that there’s an Alexandrian Remix. I’ll wait to see then, as we know that will be far superior

[VassDts]

Monsters from Planescape have also been using the multiple reactions approach to legendary creatures. I do recall the writers mentioning that PHB 2024 rules have bled into the development of Planescape and seeing as Eve of Ruin also serves as a transition to the revised rules, what we're seeing is a taste of 2024 stat blocks.

[SalsaDoom]

It will take a player about 5 seconds to find out about Mordenkinen online so it seems pointless for them to include this sort of twist in a published module. So in other words it is almost certain that the DM is going to have to pivot and pick up the pieces. There should be way more contingency built in to this. Thanks for the review.

[stopnoodleabuse]

I am a big fan of modifying WotC adventures, so this campaign works really well for me, I plan on having them actually explore each setting they go to, and having to assemble characters and items from across the realms to have an actual climactic fight with Vecna. But it disappoints me that WotC wants to churn out books so fast they cant spend the time actually making their story engaging, just set peice to set peice. I think that this book works for DMs who just like using WotC as a baseline for a hombrew game, but for everyone else it’s a huge disappointment.

[ThePiergeiron]

Thank you for your honest review. I had almost the same feelings during my reading on my vacation. Luckily I am a experienced DM and I will remake (😂) this adventure. Vecna needs to be more present like in Stranger Things or Strahd in CoS. I think I can trigger the potential.

I love Tier 3/4 gameplay and so does my PCs. As you said in this case it is delivering a great run through the worlds. A bit like Expedition to the Demonwebpits. Also Vecna will be completely reworked to ensure a most climatic, dramatic endgame my PCs and me will never forget!

I really recommend to play Eldritch Eye as a starter. There would be a better connection to Eve of Ruin.

[sumdude]

Honestly, IMHO this is a 5e problem. Your characters are super heroes. Vecna shows up, they will all try to kill him. Result either TPK or dead Vecna, dead campaign. In OSR, players know btr and run OR they die and spend 5 mins rolling up new characters as opposed to an hour with 5e.

[carolxs]

I didn't care for Vecna before, don't care for him now. I can swap Vecna for any other character. However, I do think there's value in this book, I love the Red Belvedere as a setting, and the Colossus on chapter 4. I agree the story is poor, but settings, monsters and npcs are cool. I would rarely use an adventure book as is, anyway.