Keys From the Golden Vault - Free Preview Adventure and Early Access Preorder

[Psyren]

Keys From the Golden Vault released an "everything you need to know" video guide today:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhwUWke8w3I

Highlights:

1) We were correct about this heist anthology having a direct tie to the movie - "contains an infamous prison (Revel's End) that you'll see in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves." This prison appears to be located not far from Icewind Dale.

2) One of the adventures from the book (the 4th-level adventure, Prisoner 13), has already been released for free - you can claim it right now (https://www.dndbeyond.com/claim/source/prisoner-13) even if you don't plan to buy the book.

3) The anthology can either be run as one cohesive heist campaign, or the various component adventures can be chopped up and sprinkled into other ongoing campaigns. Each one has a different expected level, ranging from 1-11.

4) Digital preorders get early access to the book on 2/7, with the official release date being 2/21.

I don't believe there to be any player-specific options here, however Perkins has said the book will contain advice for DMs running intrigue and heist-style campaigns. The free adventure contains some interesting elements already, including:
antimagic cells and guard patrol routes.

[Unoriginal]

The prison in question was already described in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

[KorvinStarmast]

I have gotten this prompt from roll20, just waiting for the weekend to claim it.

[Mastikator]

The prison in question was already described in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

Is it good?

[Luccan]

It's not really a feature of any specific 5e book at this point so much as 5e adventure anthologies in general that the adventures can be run consecutively or apart. Have any of them not done this?

Don't care about the movie tie-in but I guess that firmly places it in Faerun (as if that weren't obvious). For some reason a lot of people a lot of people I saw seemed convinced the movie is set in a new, even more generic setting.


Is it good?
from what I've played of Frostmaiden and more importantly the map I saw, the prison isn't actually in that campaign, it's just mentioned. Could be wrong, we never finished the game

[Mastikator]

It's not really a feature of any specific 5e book at this point so much as 5e adventure anthologies in general that the adventures can be run consecutively or apart. Have any of them not done this?

Don't care about the movie tie-in but I guess that firmly places it in Faerun (as if that weren't obvious). For some reason a lot of people a lot of people I saw seemed convinced the movie is set in a new, even more generic setting.


from what I've played of Frostmaiden and more importantly the map I saw, the prison isn't actually in that campaign, it's just mentioned. Could be wrong, we never finished the game

I think it's pretty easy to swap out the setting for another setting. Just change some names.

I kinda prefer the anthologies version since it means I can plug in a heist into my campaign whenever I want to.

[Unoriginal]

Is it good?

I'm not sure how to answer this question, Mastikator.

What are the criteria?



from what I've played of Frostmaiden and more importantly the map I saw, the prison isn't actually in that campaign, it's just mentioned. Could be wrong, we never finished the game

Revel's End is pretty out of the way, but it is in the book.

[Mastikator]

I'm not sure how to answer this question, Mastikator.

What are the criteria?

Did people at the table have fun? How much extra prep did the DM have to make it fun?

[Luccan]

I kinda prefer the anthologies version since it means I can plug in a heist into my campaign whenever I want to.

Oh sure, nothing wrong with that. It just isn't a surprise at this point. It's just that at this point it'd be something if they came out and said "we've given no framing to potentially tie these adventures together" or even "these are all classic adventures but we've tied them in such a way playing any adventure without first playing the early adventures in this book will be impossible" because the way they do it now is, I think, to be expected at this point. Not really something you need to confirm.

[Unoriginal]

Oh sure, nothing wrong with that. It just isn't a surprise at this point. It's just that at this point it'd be something if they came out and said "we've given no framing to potentially tie these adventures together" or even "these are all classic adventures but we've tied them in such a way playing any adventure without first playing the early adventures in this book will be impossible" because the way they do it now is, I think, to be expected at this point. Not really something you need to confirm.

I agree with you that it is redundant to say so at that point in the game's life cycle, but tb100%f Tales of the Yawning Portal didn't really have a campaign-style connection/framing device, so they've technically set the precedent for "anthologies where the adventures have no framing tying them together".

[Cheesegear]

Is it good?

Revel's End is one of the weakest parts of Rime.

It's all the way out in nowhere. You get a quest to talk to a guy...Who has no real useful information that you couldn't get elsewhere. There's no loot worth having. And Rime works on a Milestone system so there's not really XP to be gained, either.

It's...Possible...To break Prisoner 237 out of Revel's End. But the modules gives zero indications on how to do that, and there's no incentive for the players to do it, either. Since the whole thing is basically a Delivery Quest with extra steps. A prison break achieves nothing in the wider context of the story...Nearly to the point where, as I said, it's possibly the weakest portion of the whole module since it offers basically nothing;
No loot.
No XP.
No story progression.
No Easter eggs you get for going that you would otherwise miss.

It's a nice bit of world-building.
Yeah. There's a prison in the ass-end of nowhere staffed by the Lords' Alliance. That makes sense. Sure, why not? ...But you wouldn't want to actually go there because there's nothing to do in a prison in the ass-end of nowhere. Because it's a prison in the ass-end of nowhere.

[Envyus]

Prisoner 13 is a good use for Revel’s End.

I like the map the player’s get.

Also Revel’s end was created for the movie and then incorporated into books.