Dungeons and Dragons’ latest anthology book features an adventure set in one of the locations featured Dungeons & Dragons: honor among thieves. Today Wizards of the Coast revealed additional details about Keys from the golden vault, a new anthology book of adventures focused on heist adventures. Like previous anthology books, Keys from the golden safe can be used as standalone adventures inserted into any campaign setting or strung together as a full campaign. The mysterious Golden Vault organization sends the players on an adventure, which gives adventurers their missions through magical keys inserted into a music box. However, it’s up to the players to organize and pull off the heist, using world maps that provide some (but not all) of the details of the location they’re trying to break into.

“A heist adventure is all about recreating the feel of the heist genre within the framework of a standard D&D adventure,” Amanda Hamon, co-lead designer of Keys from the golden vault, told ComicBook.com via email when asked about the challenges of writing a heist adventure. While a standard D&D adventure should ensure that characters are challenged in combat and have choice in the overall story, a heist adventure primarily focuses on providing the characters with a straight-forward objective – for example, obtaining a MacGuffin – including several viable ways to achieve that goal, creating a level of suspense throughout the experience and providing a sense of reward at the end of the adventure.Because a heist adventure is all about the mission, the combat is often de-emphasized in favor of stealth and the wiles of characters just like subterfuge and trickery are more important in a heist movie than in an action movie Writing a heist adventure is definitely a difficult mode as writers have to be well versed in crafting standard adventures and understand how to do it being able to make heist genre work in D&D.”

Included in the 13 adventures in Keys from the golden safe is “Prisoner 13”, a prison break-in adventure set primarily in Revel’s End, a prison in the Icewind Dale of the Forgotten Realms. While the other adventures are “neutral”, Revel’s End serves as a sort of tie-in to what’s to come Dungeons & Dragons: honor among thieves movie. Revel’s End was created for the D&D movie, but first appeared in the 2020 adventure Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. While “Prisoner 13” won’t see players break Chris Pine’s Edgin out of prison, they will still get a chance to explore one of the film’s locations. A Wizards representative noted that Revel’s End can be easily moved to a different campaign environment.

The desire to stage neutral adventures might explain why the new anthology uses the brand new Golden Vault organization (said to be affiliated with metallic dragons and headquartered in one of the Outer Planes) rather than an existing one group like the Harpers or Force Grey. “I created the Golden Vault in the style of mysterious spy agencies that have appeared in many popular heist-themed media,” said Hamon. There’s a bit of the IMF from the “Mission: Impossible” franchise in the Golden Vault, especially in the completely hidden nature of the organization and the one-off briefings it sends to its agents (the characters!). however, that the Golden Vault is a benevolent organization that strives to help the downtrodden or vulnerable when the law has otherwise failed them. Lever television series in the Golden Vault. The missions of the Golden Vault sometimes involve illegalities, but they always support a just cause.”

Keys from the golden safe will be released on February 21, though D&D Beyond subscribers will get early digital access on February 7. The adventures are designed and written by Amanda Hamon, Christopher Perkins, Jeremy Crawford, Justice Ramin Arman, Kate Baker, Makenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Brooks Donohue, Tim Hitchcock, Sadie Lowry, Jeffrey Ludwig, Sarah Madsen, Mario Ortegón, Ben Petrisor and T. Alexander Stangroom. As with other D&D books, Keys from the golden safe will have two covers: a standard cover by Anna Podedworna and an exclusive cover by Simen Meyer’s games store.