''Vecna Lives!'' is an

adventure module An adventure is a playable scenario in a tabletop role-playing game. These can be constructed by gamemasters for their players, and are also released by game publishers as pre-made adventure modules. Different types of designs exist, including l ...

for the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

roleplaying game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

, set in the game's ''

World of Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''— Dave Arnes ...

campaign setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A ''campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and ca ...

Plot summary

The adventure concerns the

lich In fantasy fiction, a lich (; from the Old English , meaning "corpse") is a type of undead creature. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term fo ...

Vecna Vecna ( ) is a fictional character appearing in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Vecna has been named one of the greatest villains in ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Originally appearing in the ''Greyhawk'' campaign setting, Vecna ...

and his disembodied

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "h ...

and

eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

—both powerful magical artifacts. The arch-lich Vecna and his cult are plotting to change Oerth forever. The adventure starts with a scene in which the players play the City of Greyhawk's great

Circle of Eight Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''—Dave Arneson ...

wizards. Vecna has ascended to

demigod A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...

status, and serves as the ultimate foe for the adventurers in the module. Assuming the players are successful in defeating Vecna, he is transported to and imprisoned within the ''

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a ''Demiplane, pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of la ...

'' campaign setting.

Publication history

The module bears the code WGA4 and was published by

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had bee ...

in 1990 for the second edition ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' rules. The module was written by

David "Zeb" Cook David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer, best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook designed several games, wrote the '' Expert Set'' for ''Dungeons & Dragons'', worked as lead designer of the ...

and edited by

Mike Breault Michael Breault (born May 28, 1958 in Central Falls, Rhode Island) is a game designer and editor, and an author of multiple products for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game from TSR. Early life and education Mike Breault was bor ...

with cover art by

Jeff Easley Jeff Easley (born 1954) is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art. Early life Easley was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1954. He spent time drawing as ...

and interior art by

Ken Frank Kenneth Carl Frank Sr. is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Works Ken Frank produced interior illustrations for many ''Dungeons & Dragons'' books and ''Dragon'' magazine throughout the 1990s, as well as cover art for the a ...

Reception

Allen Varney Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...

briefly reviewed ''Vecna Lives!'' for ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' magazine #175 (November 1991). According to Varney, this adventure is "yet another way to scare players". He felt that after the first scene, the rest of the adventure is "more routine", but advised that the heroes "have many chances to mess this one up big-time, and that will transform your campaign in ways you may not want. For fans of high-level AD&D adventures, though, this is definitely worth a look." ''

DieHard GameFan ''GameFan'' (originally known as ''Diehard GameFan'') was a publication started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising. and Dave Halverson in September 1992 that provided coverage of domestic and import video games. It was notable for its ex ...

'' said that "''Vecna Lives!'' is one of my favorite adventures from Second Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ..Even if you never play the adventure, you should go out of your way to read/download/borrow it just to see what an incredible example of storytelling and adventure writing it is." Jonathan Bolding, for '' The Escapist'', wrote, "The first thing that happens in this game is that you kill the eight most powerful people in the world. Then the PCs have to fix it all. It's one of the finest examples of the kind of high-stakes adventures that have always best defined high level ''D&D'' play, where failure by the players means the complete undoing of all that is good and just in reality. The adventure itself is fairly standard - though remarkably episodic for its time period, dealing with a romping journey through the whole of the world and planes beyond. It's very much adventure fiction, but interspersed with a desperate, survival-horror feel as the players are stalked by the returned demi-god lich and his undead minions".

References

External links

World of Greyhawk Adventure series
at the Acaeum.com *

' at the TSR Archive {{D&D topics Greyhawk modules Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1990

Plot summary

Publication history

Reception

See also

References

External links