Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus Hardcover Book (D&D Adventure)

One day, a prominent producer at Wizards of the Coast read Faust and then watched Mad Max. The resulting inspiration afterward was Descent in Avernus. The module features a full campaign, rushing the characters along quickly at first (level 1-4 go VERY fast in this module) but then settling down to a normal pace/cadence by the middle of the adventure. There's a fine line between lethal monsters, treacherous locations and pure camp. This module does NOT take itself too seriously, which allows the DM to keep it fluid and easy when they run it. So if you are looking for GRIT, this module is not it. If you are looking to hit the accelerator while driving away from a flying Erinyes, you've hit the jackpot. The module starts out as a conveyor belt to start, but opens up to less linear exploration and advancement. DMs have plenty of room to customize the experience. Power gamers will love the plethora of items, gear and power that can be accumulated (warning you may lose your soul in the process, the theme of TEMPTATION and CORRUPTION rings throughout the module). RPers will dig the creative NPCs and the unraveling story, that reveals cool snippets of lore and secrets as you advance. And what RPer would not want to give their LG War Priest a spin on the first level of Hell. If you are a fan of the old Planescape game, you'll love the heavy reliance on the lore of the The Blood War and the endless battle between Demons and Devils, a central tenant to the module's story. There's no major beef here with this, the writing is succinct, the story very understandable with plenty of unique configuration/flavoring that can be added by savvy DMs. The only thing that will stop you from liking this module is the tone. This module's tone is a juxtaposition of evil, war, blood, lust, temptation and corruption blended with tiny flying elephants full of glitter and huge raging, heavy metal vehicles lifted right out Mad Max. Think of this way, you can call the rock band "KISS" a metal band, but it's so dressed up with makeup, feather boas, latex and clown makeup that it's sometimes easy to forget it's a metal concert. Descent in Avernus is the "KISS Destroyer" of D&D modules.

Descent Into Avernus is a fully fleshed out adventure starting in the famous city of Baldur's Gate and leading the party into the first layer of hell. There's a lot of cool lore to unlock, enemies to fight, and discoveries to be made. My only complaint is that there are some uneven bits and parts that aren't outlined well enough, but the thing I discovered while running this is that I think that was intentional because it gives the DM this giant canvas in which they can paint their own custom parts to the campaign. It works as a really good balance between 100% in-the-book and the DM getting to get creative with the world and scenario. My players had a lot of fun and did some insanely unexpected things (that the book didn't explicitly allow, but had enough background information for me to imagine how these things would work). So, I guess, my review would be Avernus has an incredible set-up with a really good background story and lore. Some of its quests are a little rough around the edges but there is so much content in the book that the DM can very easily adapt and create new things for the players to do that fall in line with the overall story. Definitely my favorite of the 5e adventures, we had a ton of fun! Highly recommend!

Some have compared this to Mad Max in Hell. Which isn't wrong, but there's more to it than that. You can tell right off the bat that a lot of love went into this as you thumb through the pages. The artwork is stunning, and they even include a section of concept art, a few great but spoiler-y touches, an a large fold-out map of Elturel (side 1) and Avernus (side 2). And there's good reason why: the name Baldur's Gate has a lot of live up to. For me, it was my first foray into the world of D&D. Baldur's Gate II went down in history as one of the greatest RPGs of all time. And this campaign does honor to that—and more. Just reading through it, it feels and plays like the original Baldur's Gate series—it has a very similar vibe to the first game in particular, with what feels like some strong Planescape: Torment elements as well (although we really only go to one other plane). It's darker than your average campaign, I think. I've been getting my group ready to play this since it was announced, and I can't wait to get started. If you're a fan of the original Baldur's Gate series, I think you'll enjoy this campaign. Lots of callbacks and nods to the first game, but not so many that it feels like overt fanservice (with the exception of one miniature-giant-space-hamster reference that I still haven't recovered from).

This book is fantastic. Even if you don't intend on playing the adventure, I recommend buying this just as a resource for how to breathe life into a large city, just like Desscent into Avernus does for Baldur's Gate. Of course, it's also got a lot of good material for getting into the mind of running devils in any campaign, but I find the 43-page gazetteer on Baldur's Gate particularly useful for adapting to any adventure. It has good descriptions of how politics in a corrupt city work, how city districts interact with each other, crime and law, dangers in the streets, and a ton of descriptions of taverns, temples, and other locations you could put into any campaign.

Good book but you kind of have to go to other resources to make the adventure feel complete.

The book itself is really great and packed with extras for your other campaigns even if you're not going to run this one but the packing was really horrible. It came in a big carton box with nothing else inside as a protective layer for the book. Cover corners are all frayed. Really shameful...

Llegó super pronto, para el día 3 de diciembre y en teoría llegaba el 17. De locos, producto impecable y super rápido, aún comprado desde España. Un 10

Another top notch adventure. WotC really seems to have struck a good balance between guidance and freedom. Minor Spoilers ahead: Seeing that it takes place in Avernus had me slightly worried that the setting would get dull and boring, but there is quite a lot of variety and lore. This book good if you want more detailed information about the city of Baldur's Gate too. Like Waterdeep: Dragon Heist there is a lot of information about the city it takes place in. The only issue I had with the adventure this time was that you kind of have to assume that the characters want to save a city they may or may not care about. The adventure could have used a little more drive for the PCs, especially considering the dangerous environment they are headed to with seemingly very little planning. Nothing a DM can't work with though and it's a minor nitpick. I'd rank this with the top 5e adventures. I hope they move on and create a Neverwinter adventure. I'm really liking the city model they have been using.

"Dungeons & Dragons Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus" bietet zweifellos ein aufregendes und komplexes Abenteuer, das die Spieler in die Hölle von Avernus führt. Die Geschichte, die sich im Verlauf des Abenteuers entfaltet, ist gut durchdacht und bietet eine Vielzahl von Herausforderungen und Wendungen. Ein bedauerlicher Aspekt dieses Abenteuerbuchs ist jedoch, dass der Einsatz von Baldur's Gate, das im Titel prominent erwähnt wird, vergleichsweise begrenzt ist. Die Anfangssequenz in Baldur's Gate bietet zwar eine interessante Einführung, aber das eigentliche Abenteuer verlagert sich relativ schnell in die Hölle von Avernus. Dies könnte enttäuschend sein für Spieler und Dungeon Masters, die sich mehr Interaktionen und Abenteuer in Baldur's Gate gewünscht hätten. Abgesehen von dieser Kritikpunkt bietet das Buch dennoch eine Fülle von kreativen Ideen, moralischen Dilemmata und aufregenden Herausforderungen, die es zu einem lohnenswerten Erlebnis machen. Dungeon Masters haben auch die Möglichkeit, die Handlung anzupassen, um mehr Raum für Aktivitäten in Baldur's Gate zu schaffen, wenn dies gewünscht wird.

Llegó en bolsa pero sin ningún tipo de golpe o maltrato, e incluso llegó un día antes de la fecha estimada. No lo he jugado aún pero se ve muy divertido, y después de mucho tiempo de quererlo por fin lo tengo.