D&D General Dungeons & Dragons Sneak Peek at Gameholecon: 50th Anniversary Adventure, Rod of Seven Parts, The Endless Stair, Tsojcanth, Barrier Peaks?

I was leaving a panel at GameHoleCon when Chris Perkins walked in and then Justice and Bill and then quite a few other WotC folk! So I stayed.

I'm glad I did because what started as a very funny trivia game challenge to the WotC folk and some of the audience soon turned into a discussion about things they are working on. Cool things. Oh and some of those questions were by Jon Peterson and were hard! I pride myself in getting a couple correct! Iron Rations for the win! Chris Lindsay talked about the DMSGuild too, and strongly hinted to me about the Manual of the Planes. I just wasn't on the same plane.

Anyway they discussed things that have already been covered, but I think with a bit more detail on particular things. This was more of a conversation than a presentation after all.

• Ron Lundeen discussed the internal playtests and that he liked it when he would see similar things discussed in the same ways in both public and private testing.
• Bill Benham discussed Jaquaysing the maps and adventures and how they are taking that more to heart. I think she was on everyone's mind at the panel, see this thread if you would, she could use our help.
• Ron also dicussed how he learned that scrolls are a secret magic item table of power and rarity for magic items generally. That's a nice hint I'll have to take a closer look at.

And then Chris talked about how their adventures take this fine line of between having too much and overwhelming new people yet also having to satisfy old hats like myself.

• The new core books will have an update to format and art like the more recent books.
• Gateway to new players was a term they kept using for the new PHB and even the DMG.
• Oh and they mentioned Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron as a new spell, which Hollie will be delighted with.
• All three books will have mostly new art from new artists too, like from two concept artists from Obi Wan and the Avatar shows.

Then they went on to the DMG and how it'll talk about what a DM does, what are the parts of the game, the books and even how to use the DM Screen in play.

• It'll have handouts and tools to help you organize and build your notes and show you a campaign setting designed to be customized as a tutorial to make it your own and eventually build one from scratch.
• There will be new magic items to fill in more rarity niches and more cool common ones too.
• And finally we'll get the 1980 cartoon series magic items, something Chris seemed almost giddy about.

The Monster Manual will have more high level creatures and they noted things they'll put in stat blocks that were missing before, like proficiency bonus.

'Romp around the multiverse', I don't think that's a new book title, but it's a new kind of anthology book that revisits all the things they've done in D&D, a '50th anniversary book'. Chris Perkins actually ran the Ravenloft adventure at the convention, I wish I'd captured the events he ran because I'm guessing the title and a few details are in that entry. Anyone here play in his games? Care to share?

And then Chris started to display cool secrets. I'm not sure if any of these are separate books or part of the above mentioned book, but I think they are separate books the way Chris was hinting. I must also offer an apology. There was no way I could get all of these images. I was caught off guard and in a bit of awe. The last one especially is just killing me, it was wonderful and Chris refused to show me after the panel with that wry smile of his.

So here is the only clear image I got. What do you see? Give me your guesses and I'll later give you what the jokes were they made. I even got a laugh out of the crew with one!

However the missing last image was my biggest regret. It was a cute fluffy bunny on a stump...... Oh the agony! I got a selfie with Chris as a consolation prize!

OK I’ll spill more. I’m not sure but they indeed seemed to be talking about multiple books and this new book for the 50th. I think they intentionally obfuscated things.

• The key to me is that the 50th book is a visit to all the 5e adventures and the stuff that isn’t from those are either for the story to tie them together or are from other books
• The bunny was undead, a Sheep in Wolfs clothing. It was a brand new painting and I didn’t recognize the artist.
• My joke was that the Rod would fall apart way to easily, as they tried to hint what it was.

So from what they were taking about I think.

• A D&D 50th Anniversary book
• An Endless Stair book
• A Rod of Seven parts book
• And Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• Oh and Tsojcanth

Please note those are all guesses by me. Oh and Tsojcanth.

Chris did say that the D&D 50th book had been announced but I can’t find anything on it.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Greyhawk was the first setting, and you can guess then they were starting, without the same experience level. You shouldn't blame them so hard.

Even if the design wasn't so good, maybe the Vecna event it could be rebooted, not only the planet, but the complete wildspace, and those "twin worlds". If Greyhawk is unlocked in DMGuild, maybe these "twin Earths" could be included. Maybe the Greyspace was also affected by the Sundering.

If Hasbro is interested into the return of Greyhawk, you can bet it will be not only for the TTRPG, but as a part of a plan of D&D brand as a multimedia franchise. Only FR would be putting all the eggs in an only basket.

With Greyhawk they can allow themself a products with higher risks when FR is too valious. For example if there is a new Greyhawk videogame, but this is not sold so good, then the prestige of FR brand wouldn't be damaged.

The geography of Greyhawk has got some "empty space", the Fast-East region isn't detailed. This meas this could be the perfect place to place lore about new crunch elements, for example new PC species but also classes, like the martial adepts(crusader, warblade, swordsage..).

OK, maybe Hasbro isn't so interested in the older generation of players, but to create a new generation community, but reusing an old IP can be faster and easier than starting from zero, but without the same level of creative freedom.

I suspect WotC is not too interested into to create a lot of lore and metaplot, but if the franchise is too important, and they would rather this to be created by 3PPs in the DMGuild. Then here the risks are smaller.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The trouble is that Oerth is an extremely bad example of how to develop a setting.

This. I've already called out the lousy place names. It also has an understanding of history based on 1950s Hollywood, a lack of diversity (in all respects), little thought given to adventure hooks, and it is simply far too big an area. Number One advice for world building: start small. What's over the next hill doesn't matter until the players get there.

Grand Duchy of Geoff? Where are the Grand Duchies of Zippy, Bungle and George? I remember an article in White Dwarf in the 1980s discussing avoiding bad proper names. Thinking back, I wonder if it was inspired by Greyhawk.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Greyhawk was the first setting, and you can guess then they were starting, without the same experience level. You shouldn't blame them so hard.

This explains why it was bad. But it also illustrates why it would be unfair on the memories of the people involved to shine a light on it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

This. I've already called out the lousy place names. It also has an understanding of history based on 1950s Hollywood, a lack of diversity (in all respects), little thought given to adventure hooks, and it is simply far too big an area. Number One advice for world building: start small. What's over the next hill doesn't matter until the players get there.

Grand Duchy of Geoff? Where are the Grand Duchies of Zippy, Bungle and George? I remember an article in White Dwarf in the 1980s discussing avoiding bad proper names. Thinking back, I wonder if it was inspired by Greyhawk.

The good old Tiffany Problem at work. There's no reason that Geoff shouldn't be a name for a fantasy country, other than it sounds like a modern name. Is that really enough reason to exclude it? There are only enough phonemes to go around, after all. I'm of the opinion that any fantasy work should include one or two modern names simply because linguistics and random chance dictates it's likely to happen.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The good old Tiffany Problem at work. There's no reason that Geoff shouldn't be a name for a fantasy country, other than it sounds like a modern name. Is that really enough reason to exclude it? There are only enough phonemes to go around, after all. I'm of the opinion that any fantasy work should include one or two modern names simply because linguistics and random chance dictates it's likely to happen.

That was the thrust of the White Dwarf article, as I remember it. But if it's meant the be the Grand Dutchy of Geyov, then changing the spelling so it doesn't look like the short-form of a modern personal name is probably a good idea. Next: The Empire of Bob.

 

[Parmandur]

lousy place names

Part of the charm, though I am more of a fan of Ed Greenwood's flair for names.

It also has an understanding of history based on 1950s Hollywood

Part of the charm

a lack of diversity (in all respects)

Not as of 3E or Saltmarsh: Part of the utility of the broadsteokes approach, this has already been fixes, in all respects.

little thought given to adventure hooks

Well, that is perhaps overstating it. The original is chockablock with hooks.

and it is simply far too big an area

Helps with the aforementioned hooks: by providing a lot of low detail areas weach with a different setup, provides options for campaign types.

 

[billd91]

That was the thrust of the White Dwarf article, as I remember it. But if it's meant the be the Grand Dutchy of Geyov, then changing the spelling so it doesn't look like the short-form of a modern personal name is probably a good idea. Next: The Empire of Bob.

Bob's been around since at least the middle ages. Or do you really need it dressed up like the Carolingian Empire (which is basically the Empire of Charlies).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Bob's been around since at least the middle ages. Or do you really need it dressed up like the Carolingian Empire (which is basically the Empire of Charlies).

No one calls it "Chuck's Empire" do they? Even in real life, people will choose one name over another based on which sounds better.

 

[billd91]

No one calls it "Chuck's Empire" do they? Even in real life, people will choose one name over another based on which sounds better.

I'm not sure Christopher Hitchens would have agreed having lived in Crapstone, Devon much to his embarassment.
Aside from being a Tiffany Problem, this also all reeks of people holding fiction to a higher standard than reality because fiction, for some reason, has to be believable while reality just is.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some names of places are in honor of nobles or kings. For example Philipines is in honor of the king Felipe de España, and New Amsterdan was renamed New York for the duke of York, if my memory doesn't fail. Colombia for Christopher Columbus. America for Americo Vespucio.