D&D 5E Announcement coming February 6th

[Parmandur]

Alright, so I've been looking around for the "Campaign settings as an AP" topic and have come up with nothing. I did, however, find two things of note.

First, during the Gamehole Con panel, it was mentioned they would do something more focused for a setting instead of generic and all-encompassing. I'm paraphrasing the quote, but it was "We want to give the DM something they can use for levels 1-20 with as little preparation as possible." I can 100% see how that could be inferred to be an AP.

Second, was from the Mearls AMA.
View attachment 93073

That one is a bit more specific.

Now, I do remember a comment about expansions to settings being rolled into APs, a la Chult in Tomb of Annihilation. But that's more of something I heard in an interview or podcast, and mayhaps not official.

Think this is what I was primarily thinking of, from early October:

John Dilley: "@JeremyECrawford [MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls how come wotc isn't making more 5e books akin to the Sword coast adventure guide? Lots of lore for less $"

Mearls: "We're treating our annual adventures as a chance to give world material, much like how Tomb of Annihilation covers Chult."

When asked about doing SCAG like books in the future, Mearls specifies ToA as their model moving forwards. In the Gameholecon panel, they do vaguely hint at the possibility of "genre books" that they might do for settings, to keep the material homebrew-relevant. Don't know exactly how their upcoming products will work, but SCAG seems out as a model.

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[mankyle]

I keep thinking about a Prime Material Planes supplement where in 25 pages or so six or seven Primes would be discussed.
Eberron, Athas, Oriental Adventures, Mystara, Spelljammer or Aebrynis from Birthright.

After that (120-140 pages) we could have between 30 to 40 pages of new classes, spells, rules and crunch related to eqch world.
Defilers and Templar Pacts from Dark Sun
Dragon Marks from.Eberron
Draconian variants, Knights of Solamnia paladins from Dragonlance
Ruling rules from Birthright.

I would buy such a supplement and it wouldn't be very difficult to develop. The ideas, concepts, maps and art are already there. It is just a matter of update them to 5e.
Anyway, just two weeks and a half for the announcement

 

[Tanin Wulf]

Wild and Irresponsible Speculation Time! *Kermit Flail*

Hmm... OK then! It'll be a Psionics Handbook with a campaign setting focus of Solamnia only.

 

[Ibrandul]

Today I had a thought that's so crazy it just might be true: what if "Broadway" is an official D&D adventure path set in the world of "Stranger Things"?

A few months ago Mike Mearls made an offhand comment that's stuck with me (in a video on RollPlay with him, Koebel, Colville and Mercer). In the context of a discussion of his development process, he said something along the lines of "if I were working on a licensed product, I would ..." and then went on to explain a bit about how developing a licensed product would differ from their usual D&D development process.

At the time I though he might mean something like the "Magic: The Gathering" setting pdf's they've released. But, since that's also a WotC IP, it's not exactly "licensed," is it?

And it just so happens that one of the actual IP licenses that we know WotC has access to -- since Hasbro announced several months ago that they had purchased the tabletop gaming license for the show, and now they've already released three quickie (read: low development time) games for it (a branded Ouija, a branded Monopoly, and a dumb little "Eggo" card game) -- is filled with explicit D&D references, and arguably has contributed more to the "normalizing" and popularizing of D&D than any other non-game pop-culture phenomenon. There's just no way Hasbro would sit on that license without trying to make a D&D product out of it!

This could also explain why there are two "adventure" books coming in the fall (if indeed these are both adventure books, which I agree is not certain based on the info we have available). Because of course, if WotC is going to release an adventure book based on an IP license in the fall, they're probably also going to want to release a second adventure book the same season (Catacomb), this one set within the existing D&D cosmology.

The more I consider this, the more plausible it seems...

 

[Parmandur]

Today I had a thought that's so crazy it just might be true: what if "Broadway" is an official D&D adventure path set in the world of "Stranger Things"?

A few months ago Mike Mearls made an offhand comment that's stuck with me (in a video on RollPlay with him, Koebel, Colville and Mercer). In the context of a discussion of his development process, he said something along the lines of "if I were working on a licensed product, I would ..." and then went on to explain a bit about how developing a licensed product would differ from their usual D&D development process.

At the time I though he might mean something like the "Magic: The Gathering" setting pdf's they've released. But, since that's also a WotC IP, it's not exactly "licensed," is it?

And it just so happens that one of the actual IP licenses that we know WotC has access to -- since Hasbro announced several months ago that they had purchased the tabletop gaming license for the show, and now they've already released three quickie (read: low development time) games for it (a branded Ouija, a branded Monopoly, and a dumb little "Eggo" card game) -- is filled with explicit D&D references, and arguably has contributed more to the "normalizing" and popularizing of D&D than any other non-game pop-culture phenomenon. There's just no way Hasbro would sit on that license without trying to make a D&D product out of it!

This could also explain why there are two "adventure" books coming in the fall (if indeed these are both adventure books, which I agree is not certain based on the info we have available). Because of course, if WotC is going to release an adventure book based on an IP license in the fall, they're probably also going to want to release a second adventure book the same season (Catacomb), this one set within the existing D&D cosmology.

The more I consider this, the more plausible it seems...

Now, that's some Grade AAA speculation!

To add some fuel to that fire, the book release date leak that gave us three codenamed D&D books is one thing, but at Gameholecon Mearls briefly let it drop that there would be 4 books in 2018, before trying to walk quickly past that slip: Stranger Things 5E as the mystery fourth book seems plausible to me.

Further, we know that at Gary Con Mearls will be running 5E rules versions of Gamma World and Star Frontiers, meaning they have put thought into non-Medieval settings and mechanics already. Wouldn't be surprised to see Gamma World or Star Frontiers in the next couple of years...

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[Sword of Spirit]

I keep thinking about a Prime Material Planes supplement where in 25 pages or so six or seven Primes would be discussed.
Eberron, Athas, Oriental Adventures, Mystara, Spelljammer or Aebrynis from Birthright.

After that (120-140 pages) we could have between 30 to 40 pages of new classes, spells, rules and crunch related to eqch world.
Defilers and Templar Pacts from Dark Sun
Dragon Marks from.Eberron
Draconian variants, Knights of Solamnia paladins from Dragonlance
Ruling rules from Birthright.

I would buy such a supplement and it wouldn't be very difficult to develop. The ideas, concepts, maps and art are already there. It is just a matter of update them to 5e.
Anyway, just two weeks and a half for the announcement

Yes, people have been making similar (very good) suggestions since about the beginning of 5e. We all want to buy it, we all think it would be a great idea. For some reason WotC seems completely unwilling to listen to us.

Maybe they should straight up ask it in a survey:

"How interested would you be in a single book that provides mechanical and setting update information for multiple previous edition D&D worlds (Dragonlance, Eberron, Mystara, etc)?"

I don't know why they appear so dead set against it. Maybe it will make more sense once I've had my breakfast and am less cranky.

 

[cbwjm]

Fair enough, but I would not be surprised to see the Planescape module end up being another Tales of the Yawning Portal which ties adventures together more using Sigil.

A 5e Well of Worlds? That'd be cool.

I wonder if this announcement has something to do with the hiring of Rosie Beestinger (whose actual name I've forgotten even though I read it 5 minutes ago). She is apparently starting on Feb 2nd.

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[Parmandur]

A 5e Well of Worlds? That'd be cool.

I wonder if this announcement has something to do with the hiring of Rosie Beestinger (whose actual name I've forgotten even though I read it 5 minutes ago). She is apparently starting on Feb 2nd.

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Likely both her start date and the announcement coincide due to natural business cycle needs: they are announcing a book that was substantially finished months ago, and she hasn't begun working on anything yet.

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[imdeadagain]

Well, I’ve seen plenty of good Ideas here, time for my impressions..

I think 2018 will play out similarly to 2017, first release will be another classic adventure rework in the vein of TfTYP

Later the main AP will drop, last year they did ‘lore you should know’ segments on Chult, Artus Cimber etc. Over the past few weeks they have covered Sigil and other plane related goodies, im expecting a planescape AP, which would be fun.

Lastly another crunch book like Volos or xanathars.


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[LordEntrails]

...
Further, we know that at Gary Con Mearls will be running 5E rules versions of Gamma World and Star Frontiers, meaning they have put thought into non-Medieval settings and mechanics already. Wouldn't be surprised to see Gamma World or Star Frontiers in the next couple of years...

Hadn't heard that, thanks.

I'm playing in a Star Frontiers game right now, would love to see that system updated to 5E. Wouldn't be too hard and given Starfinder's buzz, wouldn't be suprised they would want to play on that.