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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not quite, there is Boston or Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

Boston was just copy-pasted from the town in Lincolnshire. I'll give you Pennslvania.

 

[Parmandur]

A further bit of evidence supporting Mystara is in the new ToFW the PC's meet an NPC named Farrow who is a Shadar-Kai from Mystara. This is the first overt reference to a character being from Mystara in an actual 5E adventure that I can remember reading about.

NPC, I think thst you are right, but there has actually been a fairly stradybdrip of small references here and there. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel and Ghosts of Saltmarrsh both make suggestions and setting stuff in Mystara. I think they may try to do something with it eventually.

 

[hojulation]

NPC, I think thst you are right, but there has actually been a fairly stradybdrip of small references here and there. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel and Ghosts of Saltmarrsh both make suggestions and setting stuff in Mystara. I think they may try to do something with it eventually.

Very true! My point was that Farrow is the first character I can recall being firmly tied to Mystara, as in canonically mentioned in the text of an adventure. In the case of GoSM and JttRC they offer suggestions on how one might port an adventure into Mystara.

So to your point, yeah they've been slowly making suggestions/references about it for years. I believe it was brought up in Tomb of Annihilation too.

They do love to claim sticking hints about future products in each new release, and ToA did also have a reference to Sigil, so who knows? Maybe Mystara has been in the he works for years!

 

[Parmandur]

Very true! My point was that Farrow is the first character I can recall being firmly tied to Mystara, as in canonically mentioned in the text of an adventure. In the case of GoSM and JttRC they offer suggestions on how one might port an adventure into Mystara.

So to your point, yeah they've been slowly making suggestions/references about it for years. I believe it was brought up in Tomb of Annihilation too.

They do love to claim sticking hints about future products in each new release, and ToA did also have a reference to Sigil, so who knows? Maybe Mystara has been in the he works for years!

Mystara is on their radar. Quite literally, their annual durvey thst asks questions like what is your favorite Setting always has a radio button for Mystara and for Birthright. I doubt thst we have seen the last of it.

 

[JEB]

Mystara is on their radar. Quite literally, their annual durvey thst asks questions like what is your favorite Setting always has a radio button for Mystara and for Birthright. I doubt thst we have seen the last of it.

Though to be fair, so was Dark Sun, until they finally admitted recently that they didn't think they could make it work (with Spelljammer's "Doomspace" very clearly being an attempt).

 

[Maxperson]

Yes, lots of different depictions of Merlin, and I suspect the TH White Merlin was a significant influence on Gandalf in the first place (JRRT toning down the zany). But if Elminster actually appears in a game as an NPC, he is going to be used as a plot-expositor and/or quest giver, so that's the aspect that is most familiar.

The current depiction of Mordenkainen is clearly heavily influenced by Doctor Strange, as played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Yep. Gandalf appeared twice and both times he sent hobbits off on quests. Plus both Gandalf and Elminster like to smoke the pipe weed and make magical smoke shapes. Elminster has fighter, cleric and rogue levels. Gandalf was a wizard with divine powers(through race, but he also communed with the West) and used a sword, and was quite good at sneaking through Moria. And so on.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm not arguing that the place names are particularly brilliant: but as an American, they are perfectly on par wirh real place names Insee on maps all the time when planning a trip.

Yep. Just last month I decided to go vacation in Aman(heaven) and ended up in the middle east. I fired my travel agent.

 

[Maxperson]

Most American names are less than a couple of hundred years old. The only good ones are the ones that come from the aboriginal languages.

And a lot of our names are unoriginal. New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey and New England for example.

 

[Maxperson]

Not quite, there is Boston or Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

Sure, but we here in America just can't top Canada in this regard.

Giant phallus-shaped iceberg floating in Conception Bay surprises residents of Dildo, Canada

A phallus-shaped iceberg hovered off the coast of Dildo, Newfoundland in Conception Bay before collapsing.

www.livescience.com

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

My point was that Farrow is the first character I can recall being firmly tied to Mystara, as in canonically mentioned in the text of an adventure.

That may admittedly just be the 5e Planescape writers choosing not to mess with Farrow's backstory - in case anyone is unaware, Farrow and their alter egos are originally from the 2e Faces of Sigil book, so while hardly one (or fifteen) of the more iconic characters in the setting, they aren't a new creation and neither is their connection to Mystara.

Nothing against Mystara, of course. It's never really been my thing, but I'll hardly begrudge it getting some focus and attention for those that do enjoy the setting.

Also helps that even if I'm never going to use a setting as is, I'm always willing to scavenge for ideas, plots, mechanics, etc.