And in 2011...

February 2011
It is in February next year that D&D starts getting products again, with the Fortune Cards of Nentir Vale. That's about 8 weeks away according to their site, and I don't know a thing about them!

Let's see what Previews has to say about them. Hmm - not mentioned. Oh well. Does anyone know anything about them?

It's been interesting watching my friends buying Gamma World packs (I'm not involved in a game at present). They really enjoy them. It will feel very, very odd buying packs of cards for a game of D&D. This is a product that has potential, but I'd like to know something more about it first!

We also have the new deluxe DM Screen coming out in February. Sadly, I'm not a fan of Wayne Reynold's art, but if the contents of the screen are identical to that in the Essential's DM Kit, I'll be very happy with it. The first deluxe screen was very good, the Essentials one is better.

For those who want a book to take home, read on the train, or something like that (but not in the car when driving), there's Heroes of Sword and Spell, which takes an Essential look at five of the Player's Handbook classes. (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard... and Warlord).

The most exciting thing about this book is the errata. No, I'm wrong: the most exciting thing about this book is that it gives the rules for integrating Essentials characters with non-Essentials characters. Yes, I know how to do it and you know how to do it (I think), but the new Essentials character doesn't yet. But he or she will. Thanks to this book.

Although I'm unconvinced on the Red Box, I'm very happy with a lot of the other Essentials products. This "transition" book might not be the most exciting for someone with the old PHB, but it might just prove a lot more useful than it appears at this stage.

March 2011
Only one book this time, but it's an interesting one: Heroes of Shadow.

Sadly, the Necromancer is making a return to D&D. Why sadly? Well, because it'll mean the characters are reanimating the bodies of the enemies that were supposed to kill them and uhyjupjjjjjjjjjkjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj (sorry, cat jumped on keyboard)... I mean, upsetting the natural state of thing where monsters are meant to kill PCs, not other monsters. You can tell I'm a DM, can't you?

Oh, and the Assassin and the Hexblade.

Which means my profoundly warped players are going to really enjoy this book. Not quite as much as if it had included the warlock, but it's still going to be fun seeing how these classes, none of which are entirely sane, will be presented. I know there have been previews, but this will be in an actual book, and I like books, even if I no longer have the shelf space to hold them.

Interestingly, it seems like the Necromancer isn't actually a class in itself: it's a way of life for some wizards. Along with Nethermancy, which is the wizard path for the shades.

April 2011
New classes are all very good, but the Essentials line is lacking one major thing at present: Magic Items. Oh, it's a big lack. I mean, there weren't that many items in the original books when I think about it, but even the short list in the PHB seems like a massive cornucopia of items compared to what's in Essentials.

And so, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium. A book that promises items of three rarities, with descriptions to make them more interesting than their powers yet allow, and that the DM should secrete away from their players because DMs should be bastards.

Yes, the unintended consequence of magic item rarity: you need to confiscate any copy of this book your players might buy, rip out all the pages which have non-common items, and then give it back as the "expurgated" version. The one without the gannet.

It's good to be a DM.

For those players who are *also* DMs, well, I suggest removing the bits of their brain that remember magic items, and putting them in jars which they can access when the DM. Like in Fringe. That'll teach them to take on two roles at the table!

Seriously, this book is the one I'm most waiting for. April seems such a long time away...

May 2011
There are more products announced for June and beyond, but I'm a little hazy as to what they are - or mean. Let's just finish with the D&D Product for May. Which is awesome, because it's a boxed set on the shadowfell: The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond

Well, when I say "shadowfell", mostly it's about Gloomwrought, a major city in that dark plane. Cards, an Adventure, Monster Tokens, a Campaign book (128 pages!) and did I mention a deck of 30 cards? This is - at present - the most innovative of the upcoming products, and the most risky.

It also will provide me with even more problems with shelf space. The Essential books are great: hardly any space required. Boxed set? Urgh.

Things seem to be getting interesting as we move further into 2011...

Cheers!

MerricB said:

February 2011For those who want a book to take home, read on the train, or something like that (but not in the car when driving), there's Heroes of Sword and Spell, which takes an Essential look at five of the Player's Handbook classes. (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard... and Warlord).

Click to expand...

Man, once can just mix the hexblade in, the PHB warlock will finally be what I want: an arcane striker mixing dangerous weapon attacks and devastating spells. You know, what we thought the swordmage was going to do before finding out what it actually does.

EDIT: Wait! 2 'W' classes on that list.... but not Warlock. Mother

I think the cards are going to be very similar to the "twitter buffs" we see in D&D Encounters right now. Something temporary that affects the combat mildly (e.g. fog rolls in, everyone has partial cover)

- Fortune Cards: I read this as a way to bring the twitter buffs from Encounters to your home game. Extra minor effects that shift the flow of battle somewhat spontaneously and randomly. At the very least, I hope they're not just basic conditional delver rewards like the RPGA cards.

- DM Screen: I'd want to see one in person; artwork is great, but I need to know if the tables and errata are that much better than the existing ones. Though, for all my talk, I'll probably buy this, as I do love me some good artwork.

- Heroes of Sword and Spell: We've already got lots of build options for Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Rogue; why are we adding more? That said I love class design ideas so this is definitely worth a look. I love Warlords too (as a player; stupid bastards ruin my fun as a DM ).

- Heroes of Shadow: Class options, like above; I don't mind, though again I have to ask: "More Wizard, wut?"...they're getting up to a point where they have as many builds as the Fighter.

- Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium: First off, I'm disappointed they couldn't alliterate a third "M" instead of using Emporium. Second, this is a great idea but looking at the cover it's going to be one of their standard, large-sized hardbacks; I'd really like to see something digest sized so that during any given adventure I can say "You find a level 4 magic weapon" and toss them the book to find one they like. Sort stuff by slot and then level and you'd have a handy "catalog" that would make it super simple to hand out equipment to make your players happy.

- Shadowfell: Hooray! That place is damn fun. The Feywild tends to be confusing in terms of properly conveying it to your players, but it's a lot easier to cast a setting in the Shadowfell that your players can understand. Resources to help that along (with adventures! <3) is a welcome addition, including tokens. I love tokens.

All I want for 2011 is for them to fix DDI. Couldn't care less about what products get released. They release useful stuff, great, they don't, fine, just whatever is useful to a D&D 4e game, integrate it into compendium and CB, make it correct, make it work. That is all. I don't even care if there is a one or two month delay between paper and paperless.

Heroes of Sword and Spell is what stands out to me. I like it because I dread dealing with the classes that have a ton of errata to deal with.

I like new and shiny things, so I probably pick up every 2011 D&D product I can get my hands on.

MerricB said:

Well, because it'll mean the characters are reanimating the bodies of the enemies that were supposed to kill them and uhyjupjjjjjjjjjkjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj (sorry, cat jumped on keyboard)...

Click to expand...

Is it an undead cat? You evil bastard, you

Nullzone said:

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium: First off, I'm disappointed they couldn't alliterate a third "M" instead of using Emporium.

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Whatcha talking about, the third word totally starts with an "Em."

Despite so many non-standard products, I'm quite looking forward to many of them. Rules on multiclassing Essentials characters - yes please! Shadowfell box set might also be great. When is the Player's book with themes and skills and RP stuff supposed to come out? July?

Destil said:

Man, once can just mix the hexblade in, the PHB warlock will finally be what I want: an arcane striker mixing dangerous weapon attacks and devastating spells. You know, what we thought the swordmage was going to do before finding out what it actually does.

EDIT: Wait! 2 'W' classes on that list.... but not Warlock. Mother

Click to expand...

The Warlock won't be presented in Essentials format (beyond what the Hexblade had), but IIRC this book will have multiclassing rules to mix Essentials and Core D&D classes, so you'll be just fine.

I'm not seeing a lot of awesome in early 2011, personally.

I am something of an extremist when it comes to a complete rejection of "random booster packs" in my D&D games (and in a lot of other places). I'm not buying anything with the words "booster" or "randomized" on it, ever again (and "collectible" is on notice). I wish they didn't exist, but whatever, I'm not really going to begrudge those who want to give in to the Gotta Catch 'Em All compulsive consumer mindset their precious little cardboard cocaine. For now, they can do their thing without hurting me, so it's cool.

The Heroes books look pretty neat, but they're kind of standard "wait for it to bump to the DDI" stuff for me.

I'm hesitant about M2E. I'm a fan of rarities as a concept, but so far, WotC has given me no reason to lust for Rares other than "well, they're rare." If you're using a Wishlist anyway, you'll get what you ask for, and if you're not, then something you can't use isn't going to benefit you any more just because it's really super-rare. It's sort of a deeper problem with the 4e system here, that magic items are a player resource rather than a sort of shared toy between the players and the DM. If this is just a book filled with bland magic items, it'll be in the "Wait for the DDI kick" section. It could be more, though, in which case....cool.

The Shadowfell boxed set has definite potential, but I'm not sold by "It's a boxed set about the shadowfell!!!!" It'll take more info to persuade me. I like city-focused products, I don't have anything against Gloomwrought, it's probably not just a DDI kick, and toys are fun to have (but uuuuuuugh if they include those collectible cards!). All it has to do is convince me that it's going to be kind of awesome. Which shouldn't be hard, but man, I dunno, they've been effing that chicken pretty hard recently.

The product I'm most looking forward to is a functional DDI, though.