Villains Venger & Vecna Will Vex Future D&D Adventures, Says Chris Perkins
Behold a villainous view of D&D’s future, as Chris Perkins reveals more details about Vecna, Venger, and more.
D&D’s future seems to be heavily vested in revisiting its past. As Wizards of the Coast makes its plans for the coming D&D adventures, it seems we’ll be seeing more villains from the old D&D cartoon make a big appearance.
Chris Perkins gave out a few details about forthcoming adventures. Mostly about villains. And perhaps the most interesting thing about it is, the emphasis on “characters [WotC] own[s].” Because after the D&D movie, it feels like WotC is hoping to expand into more of a “cinematic universe,” for better or worse. And its villains may be the key.
Vecna and Venger Vie For Views in New Video
As we learned in the D&D Direct, there are some big villains on the horizon for the coming adventures. It’s a slight shift in concept for D&D adventures. Where other adventures have been very event-focused, from the Descent into Avernus to the disruption of the Ordning in Storm King’s Thunder, it sounds like future adventures might be focused more on an antagonist.
Which is a great way to establish common touchpoints for everyone. In the D&D movie, the party of adventurers faces down the Red Wizards and Szass Tam. So it should be no surprise that the Red Wizards return for a new adventure, featuring both Venger and another, separate adventure in the pipeline for 2025.
At any rate, that’s only one section. Venger and Kelek and the other villains from the cartoon might be coming later. But Vecna is coming a year before, in 2024. This “scary dude” is set to make a big comeback as part of the adventure that ushers in the 2024 edition core rulebooks, which will update 5th Edition.
Vecna also helps firmly root D&D in “a multiverse” for the next fifty years. Vecna’s adventure will take players across multiple worlds, each one of which, no doubt, will hint at future IP moves. Where D&D heads after this, is anyone’s guess. But it’s probably going to be found in D&D’s past.
After all, as Perkins said, D&D’s past doesn’t die, it just becomes an amorphous, malleable palette.
