The designer of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Star Wars: The Old Republic, James Ohlen, has written a new D&D adventure with Children of Time author Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Called 'Chains of Asmodeus,' this official 286-page sourcebook (which is available on Dungeon Master's Guild) sends your characters into the Nine Hells to save a soul – theirs, or that of a loved one. It also serves as something of a reunion for ex-Bioware staffers. Alongside Baldur's Gate designer James Ohlen, Drew Karpyshyn (who was involved with Mass Effect and many of its tie-in novels) is listed as a writer on the project.
While it's primarily available as a PDF download, Chains of Asmodeus will be given the print-on-demand treatment 'soon.' Either way, all proceeds go directly to Extra Life, the charity that provides medical care for children.
Designed for players levelled between 11 and 20, this will be more of a challenge than most Dungeons and Dragons books; alongside more than 50 'High Challenge' monsters that would very much like to kill you, adventurers will have to battle through a new item corruption mechanic as well as the Archdevil Asmodeus himself, Lord of the Nine. As those lofty titles would suggest, he's bad news.
Such bad news, in fact, that he spends most of his time plotting to entrap major figures like politicians, rulers, and adventurers. That's where you come in - he's either caught your soul in a pact or has captured the soul of a loved one to coerce you. (An average Tuesday for characters in the best tabletop RPGs, in other words.)
If the Nine Hells sound familiar, that's because they're the setting of the Baldur's Gate 3 opening. They also feature heavily in the game's D&D prequel, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, so Chains of Asmodeus could serve as a good add-on for that adventure.
If you want to check it out for yourself, you can grab Chains of Asmodeus for $29.99 here.
James Ohlen is certainly committed to the game; this Baldur's Gate writer spent 20,000 hours playing D&D to turn him into an RPG expert.
