Ode to Will Doyle
You can order The Demonplague, my level 1 – 20 fifth edition adventure, right now!
This week Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus was released. I got to help contribute to the story for the book and wrote several thousand words for it (more on that in later posts), and I contributed to two DMs Guild products for it, Encounters in Avernus and Hellturel (more on those below). However, I did not work on these projects alone, especially when it comes to the hard cover adventure, which had a massive team to support it.
My friend and fellow designer, Will Doyle, was unfortunately left out of the credits for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. It was an innocent mistake, and Wizards of the Coast is working hard to correct the error in the next printing of the book and get Will’s name out on digital platforms. These things happen in publishing. Will has been super cool about it as has the entire D&D team. I wanted to take a quick moment to recognize Will’s work in the book and how awesome he is.
We’re all celebrating the release of this massive adventure that represents hours upon hours of labor. Will was a big part of that! He wrote a lot of chapter 3, including parts of the adventure that will be your favorite and most memorable not just of this adventure, but of any D&D adventure. I won’t get too spoilery here, but if something in chapter 3 makes you say, “Holy shit!” odds are Will contributed to it in a big way.
You may also know Will from his work on Storm King’s Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak, many DMs Guild Adepts products (including being the lead designer of our only Adamantine Best Seller, Waterdeep: City Encounters), his Adventurers League adventures (including many truly epic Epics), and/or his articles in Dungeon and Dragon magazines back in the 4e days. Will was also recently announced as one of the new Adventurers League admins (along with the incredible Shawn Merwin). He’s got a lot of other credits in a career dedicated to game design and our community. Will has made a lot of memories for people with his incredible products.
Most importantly Will is a great, brilliant human. I’ve worked with him on countless projects at this point, and every time he’s been collaborative, communicative, honest, organized, artistic, and straight-up genius. I learn something new from him on every single project. He challenges his fellow designers to innovate, while leading the charge to do so himself. He doesn’t rest on his laurels. Will sticks up for what’s right, makes incredible jokes, and hasn’t punched me in the face for making the same joke about throwing tea into the harbor every July 4th. This dude has spent many late nights to get the job done, revising and tweaking until a project is perfect. Working with Will is the definition of enthusiasm, mutual respect, and creativity. If you get the chance to work with him, do it.
If it were possible to bleed ampersands, Will Doyle would do it. He’s given hours to this community, far beyond the pay check he made on Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. So when you’re sending out tweets, posts, and more thanking people for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, don’t forget Will. He crushed it on this one.
DMs Guild Products
I also want to tell you about the two DMs Guild products I helped create for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus: Encounters in Avernus and Hellturel.
Hellturel
I wrote Hellturel on my own, but the maps for the product were created by Meshon Cantrill, a master cartographer! I don’t want to say too much because of spoilers. Here’s the description:
Note: Light spoilers for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus in this description!
Expand your Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus game with four new adventure locations, complete with plot hooks and NPCs, plus five new magic items all found in the holy city of Elturel! This supplement adds more challenges for characters of levels 5 to 6 who enter Avernus through the city.
Elturel is in Hell. It’s up to you to save it.
Encounters in Avernus
Encounters in Avernus is a great supplement from many DMs Guild Adepts that continues the trend of offering many encounters you can drop into you Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus campaign. Who worked on it?
- M.T. Black
- James Haeck
- James Introcaso
- Rich Lescouflair
- Shawn Merwin
- Ashley Warren
Here’s the description from the site:
Bring your Hell to life with this companion supplement for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus!
Encounters in Avernus presents more than 60 short encounters for the wasteland of Avernus, the River Styx, and the city of Elturel. Keep characters busy with these story-rich encounters that help flesh out the first layer of Hell. The supplement is great for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus or any infernal adventure!
Two longer encounter chains are included to help you craft an amazing story with Tiamat or Zariel!
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