Roll20 Review – Keys from the Golden Vault

A review copy of the module was provided. Read more Roll20 Reviews and watch the video reviews on my YouTube channel.

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Designed by: Wizards of the Coast

Ah, the heist. A classic crime genre of assembling a crew, gathering information, and pulling off an elaborate, multi-step robbery. What is a heist if not a dungeon crawl with a specific objective?

Keys from the Golden Vault is an adventure anthology, featuring 13 heists ranging from level 1 to 11.

The following is included in the module ($29.99):

• • Key from the Golden Vault module.
    • 13 individual heist adventures, also available as add-ons.
    • 13 total battle maps, one for each adventure (6 sub-divided 10-ft square grids, 7 5-ft square grids).
    • Over 70 magic items
    • Over 100 monster sheets and tokens
    • Over 20 named NPC sheets and tokens
    • Over 20 player art handouts
  • Keys from the Golden Vault Compendium
  • Keys from the Golden Vault Art Pack

The titular Golden Vault isn’t one of the heists — it’s a group patron.

The Golden Vault is a good-aligned organization that works outside the law for the greater good (basically, Harpers). They provides music boxes to their associates. At the start of a mission, a golden key is delivered to the party. By inserting the key into the box, they play a classic, “here is your quest, should you choose to accept it,” mission briefing. Excellent!

The Golden Vault could help link these adventures into an overarching campaign (or at least an episodic series), but the other campaign-linking tools are shockingly underdeveloped and disappointing.

The rival crew is a great idea and a classic genre trope worth exploring. But they’re only given one-line descriptions, generic NPC statblocks (bandit, thug, mage, etc) and no unique portrait art. A major step down compared to the excellently designed rival team in Call of the Netherdeep.

Buried deep within one of the later adventures is the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention of an entire rival organization working against the Golden Vault. Another campaign tool, yet terribly underdeveloped.

Actual tips and advice on running heists are also disappointingly brief. This is an adventure book, not a setting/rules book, but a few more pages on heist complications or tracking time and patrols would have been nice!

The good news is, the adventures themselves are very well designed. Also — full color battle maps for the first time in an adventure anthology since Tales from the Yawning Portal released in 2017!

In “Murkmire Malevolence,” the party steals an eldritch egg from a museum before it hatches, and attends a pre-opening gala to case the joint.

“Heart of Ashes” is a reverse-heist, as the party is tasked with returning a cursed shard to an ill-fated dig site to prevent a coming catastrophe.

“Masterpiece Imbroglio” is a true test of traps and subterfuge, as the party must infiltrate an entire thieves’ guild to steal a magic, sentient painting.

And “Reach for the Stars” combines heist with eldritch horror, as the simple mansion job as been turned into a frightening gateway into far realm evil.

While they all feature a variety of locations and objectives, these heists can be divided into two major themes: traditional heists, and heist-like dungeon crawls.

Traditional heists take place in non-hostile areas, such as a museum, a casino, and a palace. They emphasize stealth, quick-thinking, and clever social skills.

Heist-like dungeon crawls, however, are set in more dangerous locations full of monsters or bad guys, such as a deep gnome town taken over by clockwork soldiers, or an effreti’s volcanic fortress. Room-to-room battling is certainly an option here!

I appreciate the balanced approach in heist design. A few of the adventures, such as a classic train caper operated by modrons, could go either way depending on how the players approach it. And things could always change halfway through!

One thing all these heist adventures have in common: detailed player map handouts.

A classic trope of the heist is the planning phase. In every adventure the players are given a semi-accurate map of the location provided by the quest-giver (or soon after meeting them). These maps are absolutely awesome, fully immersive, and incredibly helpful, and really drive the theme of a heist that the party can plan and execute.

The beautiful maps and handouts help make Keys from the Golden Vault one of the best adventure anthologies for Roll20. It also takes full advantage of the recent doors and windows update, which allow DMs to place lockable and/or hidden doors and windows that players can interact with — and these heist adventures are stuffed with ’em!

The adventures are compelling and well-designed; out of all the 5e anthologies released so far, this is the one I can see myself running the most, either as a linked campaign, or as drop-in dungeon adventures. Highly recommended!

Pros:

• Excellent variety of heist sub-genres, locations, and themes.
• Something for everyone, with traditional heists and heist-themed dungeon crawls.
• The Golden Vault group patron works well as a good-aligned heist organization.
• Full color battle maps that make full use of the new doors and windows features.
• Fun and useful in-game player handouts for each map.

Cons:

• No token art for the sample rival crew (they also lack unique stat blocks).
• Underdeveloped tools for linking the adventures together as a campaign.
• Highest adventure is level 11.

The Verdict: From a cavernous casino to a palace in the Feywild and an extra-planar train piloted by modrons, Keys from the Golden Vault features a wealth of well-designed heist locations, memorable complications, and intriguing characters.

A review copy of the module was provided. Read more Roll20 Reviews and watch the video reviews on my YouTube channel.

Support my video work via Patreon.