Dungeons & Dragons’ latest anthology book consists of an adventure embedded in one of the locations seen in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Burglars. Today, Wizards of the Coast revealed additional details about Keys From the Golden Vault, a new experience anthology book focused on break-in adventures. Like previous anthology books, Keys From the Golden Vault can be used as standalone adventures placed into any project setting or strung together as a full-length project. Sending the players on adventures is the strange Golden Vault organization, which provides travelers their objectives through magical keys inserted into a music box. — it will be up to the gamers to arrange and carry out the heist, with the aid of in-world maps that supply some (however not all) details about the area they’ll be trying to break into.
Keys From the Golden Vault will be launched on February 21st, although D&D Beyond subscribers will get early digital gain access to on February 7th. The experiences were designed and composed by Amanda Damon, Christopher Perkins, Jeremy Crawford, Justice Rain Aryan, Kate Baker, McKenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Brooks Donahue, Tim Hitchcock, Sadie Lowry, Jeffrey Ludwig, Sarah Madsen, Mario Oregon, Ben Petrichor, and T. Alexander Stan groom. Similar to other D&D books, Keys From the Golden Vault will have 2 covers– a standard cover by Anna Podedworna and a game keep exclusive cover by Simon Meyer.
Today, Wizards of the Coast exposed additional information about Keys From the Golden Vault, a new experience anthology book focused on heist adventures. A break-in experience is all about recreating the feel of the heist genre within the structure of a standard D&D experience, Amanda Damon, co-lead designer of Keys from the Golden Vault, told through email when asked about the challenges of writing a heist adventure. While a standard D&D adventure needs to make sure characters are challenged in battle and have agency in the overall story, a heist adventure mainly focuses on supplying the characters with a straight-forward objective– acquiring a McMuffin, for example– including multiple viable methods to achieve that objective, creating a level of suspense throughout the experience, and providing a sense of reward at the experience’s end. Consisted of in the 13 adventures featured in Keys From the Golden Vault is Detainee 13, a jail break-in experience set mostly in Revel’s End, a prison discovered in the Ice wind Dale of the Forgotten Realms.
The desire for setting neutral experiences may explain why the new anthology uses the brand name new Golden Vault organization (which is said to be associated with metallic dragons and headquartered in one of the Outer Planes) instead of an existing group like the Harper’s or Force Grey. There’s a bit of the IMF from the Objective: Impossible franchise in the Golden Vault, specifically in the organization’s entirely covert nature and the one-time briefings it dispatches to its representatives (the characters!). Most significantly, however, the Golden Vault is a benevolent organization striving to assist the vulnerable or downtrodden when the law has actually otherwise failed them.
A break-in experience is all about recreating the feel of the break-in category within the framework of a basic D&D adventure, Amanda Damon, co-lead designer of Keys from the Golden Vault, informed through e-mail when asked about the difficulties of composing a heist adventure. While a basic D&D adventure needs to make sure characters are challenged in combat and have agency in the overall story, a break-in adventure primarily focuses on offering the characters with a straight-forward goal– getting a McMuffin, for example– including numerous viable ways to attain that goal, producing a level of suspense throughout the experience, and supplying a sense of reward at the adventure’s end.
Consisted of in the 13 adventures featured in Keys From the Golden Vault is Detainee 13, a prison burglary experience set primarily in Revel’s End, a jail discovered in the Ice wind Dale of the Forgotten Realms. While the other adventures are setting neutral, Revel’s End serves as a tie-in of sorts with the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves motion picture. Revel’s End was developed for the D&D motion picture but initially appeared in the 2020 adventure Ice wind Dale: Rime of the Frost maiden. While Detainee 13 will not see the players break Chris Pine’s Edwin out of jail, they will still have the chance to get into check out one of the areas from the motion picture. An agent from Wizards did note that Revel’s End can easily transfer into any other project setting.