I am continuing my somewhat exhaustive research of all things related to The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, as I've finished the guide to it (will be posted soon).
This article contains some spoilers for the adventure, so please skip it if you are planning on being a player.
Watching these youtube videos has been extremely helpful in helping me understand the tone of the book and the mindset of the DM preparing to run the adventure.
- You can watch this video here.
- You can buy The Wild Beyond the Witchlight here.
- You can buy the D&D Beyond version here.
- You can buy the Wild Beyond the Witchlight Dice Set here.
How has designing adventures evolved? Chris says that he is learning as he goes. He says that he has designed/edited 5,000 adventures.
Chris talks about how they did a little more hand-holding for the DM in the beginning of this adventure. "Some adventures need flow charts."
Flow charts never worked for me. I just don't process information in that way. I need to know the broad outline, really, and then have the option of zooming in on smaller details.
With this adventure, he first started with the image of the cauldron with 8 eyes, 8 bats, 8 cats, 8 snakes, 8 feet, and 8 toes. This is Iggwilv's cauldron and a very cool idea. Being a big Iggwilv fan, I am really happy that they added to the lore.
I'm a bit torn on what they did with Iggwilv. While I love that they added another name/persona/guise to her list, I am not 100% on board with her as a fairy godmother type.
I do love that they have moved her to middle age, complete with white hair, and have shown that she may become a hag-like entity in the future. I should read up on how hags become hags. Maybe we could cook up a story on how Iggwilv becomes a hag, and whether or not the other hags are on board with her joining their ranks.
Chris says that this adventure plays with the theme of time. Not time travel, he thinks it is a nightmare to run. I've tried it. We've probably all tried it, right? I've never made it work, but I feel like it could be done in a fun way.
Chris feels like he's getting to the end of his professional tenure, and time is more important to him. He tried to make the theme subtle. The code name for this adventure was "Hourglass."
He wanted to pull things from the past of D&D, and also look to the future. There are things in this adventure that foreshadows events to come. Honestly all of that went right over my head. Very little stuck out to me. Except, I guess, the inclusion of Ellywick Tumblestrum, a planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering. But that's not something I am into.
Grazz't's agents were creeping around. Maybe we're getting a Grazz't adventure in the future?
Chris is taking more risks. We're deep into the line of 5th edition. They can explore some elements of the D&D multiverse that they haven't been able to get around to.
Chris says that this adventure easily imports into your campaign world. The carnival links to another realm. Chris says that, generally, players don't know anything about the Feywild so the DM is free to indulge their wackiest instincts.
Almost everything in this adventure can be handled without combat. It's true! I think you'd need to tell the players this in some fashion, though, as many groups are in combat-default mode.
This adventure plays to Chris's predilictions. Chris is a big fan of Halloween, and this is the most Halloween-y thing he's ever made.
I guess it is halloween-y. I do love the idea of a horror-based D&D adventure, though. Zombies, especially. A D&D zombie apocalypse, from outbreak to 'cure', is definitely on my bucket list of campaigns to run.
Thanks for reading!