Descent into Avernus Sidebars

I have the updated version of the module. The first chapter's page on the Elfsong Tavern references a sidebar from the book   " (see the “Taverns in Baldur’s Gate” sidebar)." I can not find this anywhere in roll20 or the compendium  Either I am missing it's obtuse location or it is not included.

In the module, it is a handout in "Chapter 1: A Tale of Two Cities" > "Chapter 1 Player Handouts" > "Taverns in Baldur's Gate". The text in the Elfsong Tavern handout should be a link, where it references the handout. Clicking on it will open the handout in-game. Make sure you do not have your handouts and character sheets set to pop out by default, as that can cause unexpected behavior.

That handout does not exist, nor is there a hyperlink in the Elfsong Tavern handout to any other handouts related to this sidebar. The dynamic lighting is pretty awful so far as well. In a certain bathouse, a certain secret-door is completely visibile, the way the lines were drawn. Half of the "S" to mark the secret door on the map is visibile as well.

Warning: screenshots show potential spoilers for Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus. Hi Brinton! I'm not sure why it isn't showing up in your game, but if it helps clear up matters, here is a screenshot from the latest version of the module, showing the link and the handout: As for the secret door issue, it sounds like you are viewing this in GM mode, which has control over what the GM sees. Here is the area in question with the GM Layer Opacity at medium and zero. In neither case will the player view show the secret door marking:

Also, please note that this is a pretty old module, and has not yet received the refresh treatment the entire 5e catalog is getting: updating modules for the latest standard, including the newer Doors and Windows treatment on Dynamic Lighting. If you do find any errors that need fixing, now is the best time to report them, in a  Help Center Request . This will create a ticket that will be marked to be addressed when the module is updated.

My version does not remotely match yours, and I only purchased it a month ago, and the game was created a few weeks ago. It says that it *is* the 2024 remastered edition, and has doors/windows in the dynamic lighting (some done quite sloppily as well; the bathouse has multiple doors directly on top of windows, as does the villa map from the same chapter). All that information, tells me you have the old version, I have the new version, and the new version is somehow worse. That new version does not have the hyperlink or the handout you screenshot either. As you can see, the "S" that is part of the base map is still there, and partially visible to players, with the secret door line drawn halfway through the "S". (As far as I searched into the campaign as per below, I did not find a repeat of this particular mistake; all other secret doors I noticed were done properly) Additionaly, now searching for more examples, I have found multiple maps that somehow have doors and windows, but restrict player movement not turned on. I have found maps with just plain wrong dynamic lighting door/use (see cathedral map below, where the base map displays curtains pulled aside, however whomever did the dynamic lighting decided to just stretch a single door against the curtains, and the gap between them. On the Graveyard chapel map, one set of double doors had one door locked and one door unlocked, with the area's description not mentioning locked doors. That map additionally has unecessary windows on gaps in the walls where windows would be , unless you actually read the room's description and how it mentions those windows are shattered. I am going to stop there with looking for examples for the time, however I think what is wrong with this remaster is clear. A contractor did a horribly sloppy job on this module (and hey, maybe thats because they wern't paid enough, I don't know, and I am not passing judgment on anything other than the end product), and there is clearly a complete lack of quality control. This is unfortunatly my standard experience with Roll20 over the past decade and I find that the sunk cost fallacy is quickly losing power daily, and greener pastures begin to call.

Hmm. I was indeed looking at the un-remastered version. I had thought the original pulled afterward, but since I technically "own" both (as a member of the conversion team) I grabbed the wrong one. These concerns are valid, and should absolutely be reported in a  Help Center Request . I will direct attention here, and thank you for pointing these out.

While the module is being reviewed, I can answer at least one of your questions. It looks like on the remaster, it was decided to incorporate sidebars within the overall handout instead of breaking them into handouts of their own. The text "(see the “Taverns in Baldur’s Gate” sidebar)" , should probably have been worded as "(see “Taverns in Baldur’s Gate”, below)." The sidebar information is at the end of that handout.

Ah, that was silly of me to miss, I was mislead by the "see..." looking like a broken hyperlink for another handout, and didnt think to find anything useful beyond the "treasure" section of the handout. Didn't even notice it while running that encounter last night either, as I had no reason to ever scroll down there. To be honest, it is a bit of a silly place to put it as well, it's own handout with a hyperlink to that handout, as per the legacy version is a much much cleaner method of doing that. Instead, jamming it at the bottom of the handout where even if I know it's there to some degree, 3 months for now if I wanted to find it, thats going to be a pain to remember. Since you work on the conversion team, is there not a set of standard practices for organization, and a second person checking work before it's released? Not an attack, just some basic practices that I think should be adopted if they are not currently being used.

Yes, there are all those practices. But humans make mistakes, and standards change. that's why we have a ticket system for redress. In the case of the handouts, it's probably a standards shift. Weighing less clutter in the sidebar vs. larger handouts. I have long wished that handouts had actual anchor text so that you could open a handout to a particular position, but this does not seem to be possible in the current text-editing codebase.

FWIW, I have called all of these issues to the attention of the team. There may be other bugs that have been reported through  Help Center Requests . Thanks for these finds. If you discover any more, please file a request, or if you report them in this thread, I will likely see it and pass it on. The requests are far more certain, though, as they create actual tickets.