"Dust" and "Midway" - Codenames for Upcoming D&D Hardcovers

Tales from the Yawning Portal was codenamed Labyrinth. Curse of Strahd was Cloak, and Storm King's Thunder was Dagger (or vice versa). Now two new codenames have emerged, spotted by EN World member kettite. Dust is dated 19 Sep 2017, hardcover, $49.95, and Midway is dated 21 Nov 2017, hardcover, $49.95. These have both appeared over on edelweiss' catalog. They do not match the four unnamed RPG Accessories on Amazon. Engage speculation mode - two new hardcovers later this year!

Typically the September release has been an adventure, and the November release a rules book (Sword Coast Adventurers Guide; Volo's Guide to Monsters). WotC has been hinting at a "major rules expansion" for a while now.

My guess? Take it with a massive truckload of salt, but I'm going to guess that Dust is fey or fey wild related. Possible the thing Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward helped with. But it really is a wild guess.

"Dust"
Wizards RPG Team
FRONTLIST
On Sale Date: 19 September 2017
9780786966103, 0786966106
Hardcover
$49.95 USD, $63.95 CAD


"Midway"
Wizards RPG Team
FRONTLIST
On Sale Date: 21 November 2017
9780786966110, 0786966114
Hardcover
$49.95 USD, $63.95 CAD

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[briggart]

What about it? What is the "Midway Survey" thing?

The webpages for the feedback on the latest batch of UA content had "Midway" in the title, which suggests Midway is the codename for the rules expansion.

Anyway, WotC said the next storyline will come in September in the Stream of Annihilation teaser:

Kicking off at 10am on both June 2nd and 3rd, hosts Anna Prosser Robinson and Kelly Link will talk to the Wizards of the Coast D&D team and learn all about our next exciting storyline coming in September.

So at least for this year, they are sticking to the September AP/ November Expansion schedule.

 

[orial]

DUST as the Dustmen from Planescape, or the Planes of DUST from Dragonlance?

 

[Quickleaf]

What about it? What is the "Midway Survey" thing?

See my post 128 where I include a screenshot where you can see D&D Midway Survey 13.

A followup post 131 by [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION] includes further links to corroborate "Midway" as a UA player's option supplement.

 

[Quickleaf]

DUST as the Dustmen from Planescape, or the Planes of DUST from Dragonlance?

Well, you want to know my theory?

Factol Skall of the Dustmen *is* Acererak. Nonsense, you say? Well, we need look no further than the art for proof!

Factol Skall is described as a lich who projects himself as a disembodied head above a cloak. What does a disembodied head remind us of?

Surely not a demilich (like someone we know)!

And notice the downward projecting horn-like things along Skall's face? Who else is a lich with horns?

Surely not Acererak from the cover of the 5e DMG?

And even back in the original Tomb of Horrors that green face in the wall had curving horns as well! Further evidence!

It's all an elaborate ruse. Skall has planar redoubts. Acererak now has planar redoubts. Both were believed to be dead/mazed. I'm telling you... Factol Skall is Acererak. It's obvious.

 

[Belltent]

DUST as the Dustmen from Planescape, or the Planes of DUST from Dragonlance?

It's worth noting that the codenames for CoS and SKT were "cloak" and "dagger", respectively, neither of which had a ton to do with the actual products.

 

[Quickleaf]

It's worth noting that the codenames for CoS and SKT were "cloak" and "dagger", respectively, neither of which had a ton to do with the actual products.

"Dagger" = "Macbeth with Giants", how Chris Perkins was talking about SKT before SKT was announced.

Macbeth Act 2, Scene 1, Page 2
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.

"Cloak" = reference to the iconic Strahd illustration on the cover of I6 done by Clyde Caldwell...in which Strahd wears a great big billowing cloak

Pretty straightforward, really.

 

[Belltent]

Straightforward, sure. But at no point does a proper noun correlate in those like the post I was quoting suggested

 

[Jester David]

"Dagger" = "Macbeth with Giants", how Chris Perkins was talking about SKT before SKT was announced.

"Cloak" = reference to the iconic Strahd illustration on the cover of I6 done by Clyde Caldwell...in which Strahd wears a great big billowing cloak

Pretty straightforward, really.

True.
But, as I said earlier:

Kinda.
They have meaning, but they're also generic enough to apply to multiple different adventures. Dust, Cloak, and Dagger could all easily be used to describe Curse of Strahd.

The code name could be Rainbow and chosen at random, and we'd find a way to Rorschach it into relevance.

Sure, the names relate to the projects. You can draw a connection. But they're so generic it would be hard not to find a connection if you wanted.

Pulling up a random noun generator I find:
Account
Black
Commerce
Cytoplasm
Deck
Discussion
Party
Piccolo
Radish
Strike

We don't know the codename for Tyranny of Dragons. If I said it was one of the above, we could probably justify any of those.
Well... maybe not piccolo and radish. But most.

 

[Quickleaf]

True.
But, as I said earlier:

Sure, the names relate to the projects. You can draw a connection. But they're so generic it would be hard not to find a connection if you wanted.

At least in the case of SKT, where Chris Perkins explicitly said before SKT release, that they were doing "Macbeth with giants", it's pretty clear what Dagger was referring to.

Those other nouns you list are pretty silly and don't have any glaring connection to Tyranny of Dragons. Not in the same way that Dagger relates to "Macbeth with giants" or Cloak describes the I6 cover art.

 

[Prakriti]

At least in the case of SKT, where Chris Perkins explicitly said before SKT release, that they were doing "Macbeth with giants", it's pretty clear what Dagger was referring to.

Wasn't it King Lear? There are obvious parallels there -- a king who loses his throne and has three daughters; two evil, one good -- but no real similarities with Macbeth that I can see.