Descent into Avernus Inspiring D&D Nine Hells Adventures and Content

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus released recently. The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign adventure is the latest from Wizards of the Coast, and as always the creative D&D community is sharing their enthusiasm for the hellish new quest. In sales, Descent into Avernus is No. 173 on the Amazon Best Sellers Rank for books, and No. 3 for Dungeons & Dragons behind the Player’s Handbook and the Essentials Kit. New players continue to discover the game and the PHB + Essentials Kit sales, with Descent into Avernus right behind, suggests they’re diving right into the hobby. And there’s a ton of content being created by gamers and designers to support Descent into Avernus, too.

Hellish content for Descent into Avernus

Over at Nerdarchy HQ we were looking forward to Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. While it’s no secret we almost exclusively create our own D&D adventures, we still love looking through new stuff and finding inspiration from it. The D&D team themselves have said each campaign storyline they make is designed to be a resource for different kinds of campaigns in addition to their specific adventures. I can tell you for certain the infernal war machines and the high soul octane they bring to the game will find their way into my post-apocalyptic Hellscapes games.

The Dungeon Master’s Guild is another terrific source of new D&D content inspired by Descent into Avernus. Literally every day, writers, artists and designers add new titles to the marketplace over there. This week the DM’s Guild newsletter put the spotlight on a few of these hellish new titles to expand on the campaign with new D&D Nine Hells adventures or build on concepts, themes and mechanics from it.

• Monster Loot – Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus is the latest in the Monster Loot series from Anne Gregersen. This supplement provides individual loot for each monster appearing in Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, as well as a basic crafting and harvesting system that works well with 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Check it out here.
• Blood War Bestiary from Darrin G. Scott, Micah Watt, Patrick E. Pullen, David Stephens, Steve Fidler, Anthony Joyce, Bryan Holmes, and Jason Mpakos contains 5 villains, 2 lairs, 57 monsters ranging from challenge 1/2 to 20, and lore on disease in the Blood War along with a new disease — Hellish Fever. Check it out here.
• Treasures of Avernus from David Stephens includes 40 new Blood War-themed magic items including 7 suits of magic armor and shields, 13 magic weapons and 20 wondrous items. Check it out here.
• Hellbound Heists from Bryan Holmes, Chad Lensch, Christian Eichhorn, Steve “Jaspor” Orr, John Parker, RPGPapercrafts, Justice Arman, Ryan Langr, Zavier Bates, Christopher Walz, Anne Gregersen comprises 9 new adventures — one on each layer of the Nine Hells! — along with 29 new monsters, 23 new items and one new background. Check it out here.
• To Hell and Back Again from Donathin Frye and Kienna Shaw in an 80 page adventure written as a solo adventure, where choices have gigantic consequences, but it also provides balanced rules to play with a group or a Dungeon Master. Check it out here.

In Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, D&D adventurers will be part of a story that takes them from the mean streets of the Forgotten Realms to the meaner streets of the Nine Hells! [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

Actual play action from the Nine Hells

Over in the live stream and actual game play world, I can’t even begin to list all the D&D players out there sharing their games with the community, but a few that I am aware of are a great place to watch people exploring Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus.

• On the Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel, Nerdarchy friend Guy Sclanders is running the Descent into Avernus: Blood War campaign. Check out the full playlist on YouTube here.
• Also on the Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel, Roll20 Presents: Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus with DM Adam Koebel ventures into the Nine Hells. You can find the playlist for that campaign here.
• I’d be remiss if I didn’t point to one of my favorite DM’s, Sean McGovern of Powerscore RPG. His long-running Hell’s Rebels campaign is incorporating Descent into Avernus into their adventures. Sean is an awesome DM and you can find the Hell’s Rebels campaign here.
• DM Aram Vartian’s Rivals of Waterdeep campaign is incorporating Descent into Avernus into their campaign. You can check out the playlist here.
• On Twitch, Tales from the Grim is going to release their playthrough of Descent into Avernus soon, under the title Fury Roll. Look for that here.
• While not specifically a Descent into Avernus campaign, Scratticus Academy is playing Through Hells and Back with similar concepts and themes. The live game runs on Thursdays at 6 p.m. eastern on Twitch until the finale on Halloween, and they invite two guest players each week to join the campaign. Check out the channel here.

What about you? Are you playing through Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus? Are infernal war machines screaming across your campaign setting landscape? Do diabolical fiends tempt adventurers with devilish deals? Let me know in the comments below!