Dungeons & Dragons Reveals Keys From the Golden Vault Covers, Details With Little Fanfare

Wizards of the Coast quietly posted the cover and product description for its upcoming Dungeons & Dragons anthology with no fanfare or promotional push. Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast posted the main and alternate covers to Keys From the Golden Vault, an upcoming Dungeons & Dragons anthology adventure due for release in February, to a retailer support page. While Dungeons & Dragons releases usually come with a major marketing push with writer interviews and showcases of interior artwork, the Keys From the Golden Vault covers were released without any sort of media or social media alerts. You can see both the main cover and the alternate cover available only in hobby shops below. No artist credits were provided for either cover: 

A description for Keys From the Golden Vault was also provided, which gives a few new details about the anthology's contents. The book will contain 13 standalone adventures designed for Level 1-11 characters, each of which is focused on a single heist. The book will also introduce the Golden Vault, a new organization that plans heists and hires out player characters to act as operatives. Each heist will have multiple pathways to success, and each adventure will include a map to help players in planning out their heists. The book will also include "detailed information" for Dungeon Masters about running non-traditional adventures with high risks and high rewards. 

The muted rollout appears to be a sign of the continued fallout of a disastrous attempted rollout of a new Open Gaming License, which provides the legal framework for creating third-party material compatible with Dungeons & Dragons. The new Open Gaming License contained several massive changes and restrictions, leading to a grassroots revolt by both third-party publishers and fans. While Wizards is now actively engaging with the D&D community on the crafting of a new Open Gaming License, the brand is facing heightened scrutiny and negative comments on almost every social media post it makes, especially as Wizards appears to not be budging on several key points critical to the community. 

Keys From the Golden Vault will be released on February 21st.