D&D 5E What's coming out for D&D in 2017?

Tomb of horrors themed AP set in Chult is the current thinking. Not sure if this is Labyrinth

Jester David said:

I believe they announced they were re-releasing the starter iconics without Drizzt. Making them look more epic rather that identical to the original run encourages people with the first set to buy this new one, while also keeping those minis available for anyone who needs them to run the starter set adventure but missed the first run.

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I must have missed that part of the announcement. That's fine by me; I never really cared enough for Drizzt, and he seems out of place in a set of minis meant to represent the most generic adventurers possible.

Jester David said:

I believe they announced they were re-releasing the starter iconics without Drizzt. Making them look more epic rather that identical to the original run encourages people with the first set to buy this new one, while also keeping those minis available for anyone who needs them to run the starter set adventure but missed the first run.

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They already released a new version of the Icons of the Realms Starter Set without Drizzt. He was replaced by a new figure (bottom center), the others in the set are the same sculpts as the first set, with new paints. These came out about 2 months ago.
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Prism said:

Tomb of horrors themed AP set in Chult is the current thinking. Not sure if this is Labyrinth

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I am guessing this is coming from somewhere, otherwise it feels very random.

As noted, undermountain and tsojcanth fit the open ended mega-dungeon more (or they could do temple of elemental evil yet again).

TerraDave said:

I am guessing this is coming from somewhere, otherwise it feels very random.

As noted, undermountain and tsojcanth fit the open ended mega-dungeon more (or they could do temple of elemental evil yet again).

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Acherack us up to shenanigans in Chult, per the latest Ed Greenwood novel (interesting as he is traditionally a Greyhawk baddie...), and he and the Tomb of Horrors presence in Chult is also discussed in the recent Dungeonology book, along with Elemental Evil cults, rampaging giants and the like. Dunno if it is Labyrinth or not, but Tomb of Horrors is coming down the pipeline sooner or latter (Acherack is also on the cover of the DMG...).

It's very tempting to add those clues together with the name, and deduce that Labyrinth is going to be that module - but then if the code names have nothing to do with the contents, it is actually less likely with a name like Labyrinth. It does seem, though, that those clues add up to a fairly convincing bet that we'll see a module along those lines sooner or later.

It does get me a bit miffed with all the shoehorning of things into FR. So far, the Elder Elemental Eye/Tharizdun, Strahd, now Acererak, what's next? -- Lord Soth pops up, being chased by Bigby and Elminster? Iuz threatens Cormyr? It's like DC Crisis on Infinite Earths, only with FR as being the last earth standing.

Parmandur said:

Acherack us up to shenanigans in Chult, per the latest Ed Greenwood novel (interesting as he is traditionally a Greyhawk baddie...), and he and the Tomb of Horrors presence in Chult is also discussed in the recent Dungeonology book, along with Elemental Evil cults, rampaging giants and the like. Dunno if it is Labyrinth or not, but Tomb of Horrors is coming down the pipeline sooner or latter (Acherack is also on the cover of the DMG...).

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Hmm. Ok.

If you go through the books that have been published under 5E, you will find references to a lot of different things from D&D's past. But I am sure we will be seeing some of those more developed at some point.

Parmandur said:

Current bets are for Waterdeep/Underdark, or more likely, Chult/Tomb of Horrors.

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Both those would make me sad. They've already done a major Underdark book, in the form of OotA. And, I'd rather they not grab another legacy, non-Realms story and tie it to the Realms. Stop getting ketchup on my chocolate!

CapnZapp said:

I'm afraid I would. I consider it wishful thinking they would address such a small minority share of the customer base with a print product.

(Based on the figure of 50% homebrewers, 25% realmsers, and 25% all other official campaign worlds.

If you consider that probably more than half of homebrewers are open to using Realms-specific material like Volo's Guide to Monsters in their home campaigns, it's easy to see why all product to date has been placed in FR: it covers perhaps 50% of the total customer base. That in itself might not say much, but if you consider that the next possible world placement would probably struggle to cover even a tenth of that (5%) of the customer base it all becomes clear.)

More realistically expect Greyhawk or Eberron support to come through Unearthed Arcana articles.

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The difference between Realms and the next-best world placement is probably not as big as 50% vs 5%.

For example, probably about the same % of homebrewers would be open to using, say, Greyhawk-specific material as are open to using Realms-specific material, so in that case it might be more like 50% vs 30%. (Which is still not an argument in favor of setting their next AP in Greyhawk vs the Realms ). This argument probably applies to settings like Mystara and Nentir Vale, but may not apply to settings like Eberron and Dark Sun, which might draw a different % of homebrewers.

I, personally, am more interested in the Planescape/Great Wheel setting. Since the Realms is (I think?) using the Great Wheel cosmology now, I figure the odds of them eventually doing a planar AP are pretty good, since they might be able to get most of the Realms audience, whatever is left of the Planescape audience, and whatever % of homebrewers buy the official APs. So that one might be more like 50% vs 50%. (However, what I actually want is setting books that cover post-Faction War Sigil and develop all the planes to the same depth that the 9 Hells and the Abyss have been developed, and that's got about a 0% chance of happening )

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There is, of course, also the issue of self-fulfilling prophecies. Since everything they've released so far has been set in the Realms, it is probably not surprising that when they survey, they find that most groups using an official setting are using the Realms.

It's also possible that this is their unstated goal. In much the same way that they tried to convert as many people as possible from older editions to 5e, they may be trying to grow the Forgotten Realms audience by converting people over from other settings. See for reference that forbes interview with Nathan Stewart, in which he discusses D&D as a multimedia brand. The existing multimedia franchise is centered mainly around the Forgotten Realms, so it probably makes sense for them to try to get as many tabletop groups as possible to use Realms material in order to grow the market for their novels, the base for a Balder's Gate 3 videogame, etc. This could explain why they're taking things that were originally from other settings and moving them into the Realms.