D&D 5E Any news about upcoming 5e WOTC products (post April 2016)?

[werecorpse]

I'm interested in tabletop 5e, non AL stuff.

Did any news for future releases of upcoming product (game resources) come out of Pax east 2016 ?

Or is the latest thing still a possible rumour about an adventure path with Shakespearean Giants?

when should we expect new announcements?

 

[Kite474]

No new news on anything I'm afraid. Latest thing is still the whole Shakespearean Giants. As for new accouterments.... Honestly I have no clue at this point

 

[bmfrosty]

We'll probably hear about a new book in June for a July or August release, and other product that's accompany that. We may hear something in may, but not until the new season book is announced.

 

[designbot]

This is the most solid information so far.

It's clear now that Chris Perkins was describing Curse of Strahd when he talked about an "upcoming story that does go back to a past adventure" and "a story with vampires." He said they were playtesting adventures named Cloak and Dagger. Cloak featured a temple in an icy mountain which, in retrospect, is clearly The Amber Temple from Curse of Strahd. So Cloak was Curse of Strahd. (Of course, vampires also traditionally wear cloaks.)

Presumably, the next adventure is the one codenamed Dagger. About that, we know that one aspect involves "going around and pillaging the ancestral mounds of barbarian tribes. And that has a slightly different feel, don't you think? It feels a bit more pulpy, and oh, you've got an airship!" But that doesn't give "anything away about the main plots." At the same event, Chris Perkins also specifically confirmed "we'll do a story with giants."

My guess is that the next adventure is a re-imagining of Against the Giants with plot elements inspired by Macbeth ("Is this a dagger I see before me?")—in the same sense that Out of the Abyss was inspired by Alice in Wonderland—set in Eberron (because airship), possibly in Xen'drik.

 

[Ath-kethin]

My guess is that the next adventure is a re-imagining of Against the Giants with plot elements inspired by Macbeth ("Is this a dagger I see before me?")—in the same sense that Out of the Abyss was inspired by Alice in Wonderland—set in Eberron (because airship), possibly in Xen'drik.

I think your guesses are pretty good. And it's amazing how (assuming you are more or less correct) they could pull together so many disparate elements I love and still produce a product I won't be interested in purchasing.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm honestly surprised with the lack of marketing from WotC with 5E. I know that they are purposely releasing less products for 5E, but they also don't seem to be doing much to maintain people's interest in between products (especially as they aren't announcing products more than a month or so before they are released).

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I'm honestly surprised with the lack of marketing from WotC with 5E. I know that they are purposely releasing less products for 5E, but they also don't seem to be doing much to maintain people's interest in between products (especially as they aren't announcing products more than a month or so before they are released).

I don't know how much like the typical person I am, but...

I've never found that anything can maintain my interest for a long period of time through marketing. Let's take movies as an example: You tell me the film is announced, and I say "ah, okay... that could be interesting." and then I don't think about the movie at all for months, or a year, or however long it takes between the announcement that the movie is going to get made and when I see a trailer telling me the movie is going to be out in a couple of months.

And then, I forget about the movie again by the time it has actually been released - but the coverage saying how well it did or didn't do on opening weekend reminds me of the movie, and I go see it within a week or two if it looks interesting.

The same works for gaming books - I backed the Exalted Third Edition kickstarter, then completely forgot about it until they sent out the advanced PDF to backers.

So, for me at least, the approach of not bothering to say anything about what is coming out until it is at the "you can actually tell your FLGS guy you want a copy of this and he won't be confused what you are asking for" stage is the right time to worry about having my attention.

 

[happyhermit]

I'm honestly surprised with the lack of marketing from WotC with 5E. I know that they are purposely releasing less products for 5E, but they also don't seem to be doing much to maintain people's interest in between products (especially as they aren't announcing products more than a month or so before they are released).

There's marketing that costs money, and there's "marketing" that almost can't be bought.

Just look at Critical Role, week after week of new multiple hour episodes that will be watched over 100 000 times. People love it and are watching attractive and fun people playing D&D. It goes far beyond product placement when it is the entire framework for the show, but even at that what would it cost.

Paizo just sponsored 1 session where they played Pathfinder (which the group actually started with).

That is just one of a long list of shows that started or switched to 5e, and now WOTC is putting out more shows themselves. Several places also featured Ravenloft or COS stuff lately. Watching or listening to interesting people play D&D may turn out to be the best marketing for the product.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

There's marketing that costs money, and there's "marketing" that almost can't be bought.

Just look at Critical Role, week after week of new multiple hour episodes that will be watched over 100 000 times. People love it and are watching attractive and fun people playing D&D. It goes far beyond product placement when it is the entire framework for the show, but even at that what would it cost.

Paizo just sponsored 1 session where they played Pathfinder (which the group actually started with).

That is just one of a long list of shows that started or switched to 5e, and now WOTC is putting out more shows themselves. Several places also featured Ravenloft or COS stuff lately. Watching or listening to interesting people play D&D may turn out to be the best marketing for the product.

THIS + 8000

People equate new product with Marketing. Marketing is simply directing people AT new product. It is not the product itself. Happyhermit was spot on the mark. WOTC have found that a lot of people are invested in Acquisitions Inc or Critical Role.. both are groups of people actually playing the game. People can watch each session, then watch it again and so on. Both feature interesting dms and relatively interesting players. People new to the hobby might think 'Wow, this looks interesting Ill have to seek it out and try it'. Even IF there experience isnt the same, thats some marketing done right.. just there.

 

[Quickleaf]

Piggy-backing on what [MENTION=6777589]designbot[/MENTION] said, Chris Perkins also mentioned the level range of two upcoming releases (Curse of Strahd and ?):

Level ranges - Tyranny of Dragons, the TRPG products that were released for it, took you from levels 1-15. Elemental Evil, same, 1-15. Out of the Abyss, our Rage of Demons adventure, 1-15. We're going to be changing up that model in the future. So you may see future stories which are strictly low-level, you may see some that are sort of set in the middle, you may see some that are set strictly high-level. Or you may see a story that can be told at level 3, level 10, and level 15. We're going to change that up for a couple of reasons. 1) We don't want to be boring and predictable. 2) We've discovered that when we give people 4-6 months to play an adventure, they won't necessarily get to the end. Tyranny of Dragons, most games did not make it to the end. Elemental Evil, most games did not make it to the very end. Out of the Abyss remains to be seen. So, for the next one, we're going a little shorter, and for the one after that we're going a little shorter still. That doesn't necessarily mean that the products will be getting tremendously shorter; for instance one of the upcoming products that we're doing it enormously replayable. It's a short adventure, but you can play it 200 times and never have the same adventure twice.

Against the Giants (the original G-series) spanned only 8th-12th level. So it would be a prime candidate for a "little shorter still" and "set in the middle." Moreover, Chris converted the series for 4th edition in a labor of love.

Two further thoughts relating to the trans-media strategy and Against the Giants:

1. Predicting Eberron because of airships might be problematic when it comes to tying the adventure into the Adventurer's League season. Traveling to the demi-plane of Barovia in Curse of Strahd required devising a way to get the PCs from the Forgotten Realms into Barovia. But Ravenloft has the whole "sucked in by the Mists" trope. I'm not sure they have an equivalent for traveling from one Prime Material World to another. Spelljammers maybe, but Chris specifically said "airships." So maybe instead of Eberron we're looking at something based in Halruaa of the FR?

2. There's been discussion about how technically difficult it is for D&D Online and Neverwinter to incorporate larger creatures into their video games. I think the specific example was creating Tiamat for the Tyranny of Dragons storyline IIRC. Giants (of the Huge variety) could pose similar technical challenges. Not insurmountable, but definitely something they'll be devoting development time toward.