Earlier this month Wizards of the Coast announced their new Campaign Book, Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus. This campaign setting takes players from levels 1 to 13 in the city of Balder’s Gate and is sure to rekindle many people’s love for the source material. Based on the series of video games set in the DnD Forgotten Realms universe, the material pulls from titles spanning all the way back to it’s initial release in 1998.
While Baldur’s Gate has been a successful series of video games, this will be the first table top adaptation of that story for the 5th edition DnD, finally fleshing out the setting in much greater detail.
What’s in Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus?
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus is a 256 page campaign book. The book is specifically focused on the city of Baldur’s Gate and brings players into the first layer of the Nine Hells, Avernus. Being designed for levels 1-13, the beginnings of the campaign has the promise for challenging encounters and a lot of hard decisions as the Blood War rages on in the story’s periphery. The campaign setting is reported to focus heavily on devil deals and is set to offer new mechanics for game play unique to this campaign setting.
Aside from fleshing out devil deals, the campaign setting also adds a full set of rules for the new Infernal War Machines, which will be player usable vehicles equipped for combat. While the full details on these war machines have not been released yet, they are likely to change combat in some big ways and potentially have far more options than traditional mounted combat rules.
Like other campaign books that have come before it, Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus will be a full standalone campaign with everything you need to run a game for your players through level 13. After finishing the campaign setting, your players are likely to be deeply embroiled in the ever-continual Blood War. We’re very excited to see how Dungeons and Dragons pulls this iconic story together!
When Does Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus Come Out?
The book is set to release on September 17, 2019. It is available for pre-order now and will have a normal printing, as well as a limited edition printing with special cover art by Joshua M. Smith, known also as Hydro74. The normal cover will be widely available, while the limited edition cover will only be available in game stores where DnD products are sold.
How to get the Limited Edition Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus Cover
If you want to get a copy of the limited edition cover, you have to purchase the book in stores. While it is possible to find limited edition covers online after release, they are often much more expensive and hard to come by. The best bet is to ask your local game store if it will be available, and if so, pre-order or reserve a copy to make sure you don’t miss out. The same held true for the limited edition covers put out for the 5e core rule books previously, and is likely an attempt by Wizards of the Coast to support local games stores as much as local game stores support them.
Interviews with Chris Perkins and Adam Lee on the Creation of the Book
D&D Beyond sat down with Chris Perkins and Adam Lee, two of the book’s creators, to talk about how a campaign that sends low level players into hell might work. The insight into the creative process and story telling behind the book really sells the narrative as something that dungeon masters are going to be able to really get into and work with as their own.
Sources:Wizards of The Cost, Venture Beat, Wikipedia