"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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[abs]

Yawning Portal, the actual location of the tavern, is at least anchored in or around Waterdeep, and it also feels more like a filler adventure for a quota than an actual attempt at an adventure path. Ravenloft was a stretch from the Sword Coast perspective, but it wasn't FR. On the flip side, it was also easy to tie to the FR, or any other world due to demi-plane nature. I would say that the wish for Dark Sun, which had a significant psionics presence if I remember correctly, would make more sense than abandoning the Sword Coast for some island to the south full of dinosaurs. I see psionics being a selling point for next set of publications; I don't see obscure magic and dinosaurs as the next selling point. Dark Sun, like Ravenloft, is not Forgotten Realms and wouldn't be constrained by staying within the Sword Coast. However, it could be tied to the Forgotten Realm by a dimensional portal. Unlike Ravenloft though, Dark Sun would be harder to tie in; so, I tend to go with the Underdark/Undermountain.

And, I might have missed something... Why Chult?

 

[pukunui]

Why Chult?

Possibly this.

 

[abs]

Possibly this.

I base mine off of a quote from Mike Mearls from Reddit:

Let’s say we wanted to do psionics. We’d tie that to a campaign you can play, maybe one centered on mind flayers or a similar foe. The psionic sourcebook would be the player’s companion to the DM’s mind flayer campaign. The sourcebook would have all the info for creating psionic characters, along with world material for players who are creating characters for the mind flayer campaign. The player’s book might also have a chapter written from an in-world perspective on psionics and psionic monsters, the kind of information that a character might have access to or have heard. You can expect us to do one or two such products a year, to give people enough time to play through a campaign without overwhelming them with new options.

It is an older quote, but it does spell out the general philosophy behind the scheduling of publications. Yes, they have made alterations to that philosophy since then; i.e., they couldn't really make it work it as intended early on. However, If they are going to play up psionics, especially with the new UA and it's apparent popularity within the community, in the next rules supplement, then I would bet on the next AP being associated with it.

 

[pukunui]

I'm familiar with that quote, and I would take it with a grain of salt, to be honest. I think he was using mind flayers as an example, rather than a hint of things to come. Besides, they've already done the Underdark. I don't think they'll revisit it again so soon.

 

[gyor]

They've been building up to searching for the Ring of Winter in Chult for along time now, hints in SKT, now at the end of The Lastest Adventurers Inc, game they out right said they we're off to Chult.

Look I was hoping for Desert of Desolation in the Old Empires Region, but I simply could not ignore the evidence when it was presented to me.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

mmm yesterday they talked about the Moonshae islands and let's remember the 4E backdrop article in a Dungeon or Dragon Magazine.
in thst article they described the situation of the Moonshae islands and there was a war between the eladrin kingdom of Sarifal and the Unseelie fey with the dwarves and humans in the middle and the Vampiress in the island of Snowdown.

i don't think this is a coincidence and I'm thinking that "dust" is going to be a fey related adventure set in the Moonshae Islands.

just my 2 cents

Interesting!

WHile I'd love to see an adventure set in another world, I do love me some Moonshaes Islands.

That interesting. Faerie dust brings to mind Peter Pan: pirates and natives and mermaids etc...

If so, I'm excited for the potential of a Pendleton Ward collaborated Peter Pan meets the Battle of Midway adventure path and book of player+DM options.


Yes, please.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The new podcast has stuff about Chult in it. Just sayin'.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[Prickly]

I would've guessed Planescape and Dark Sun


Seems like it's referring to the Enhance edition of Planescape Torment and a Chult expansion instead?

 

[Prakriti]

Chult seems to be a certainty at this point. I transcribed some of the recent Acquisitions, Inc. episode, for those who missed it. Chris always incorporates elements from current/upcoming adventures into the games. At the end of the session, the party visited the Oracle from Storm King's Thunder and asked the following questions:

Where is Portentia's soul?
"Inside an artifact called the soulmonger."

Where is the soulmonger?
"Look for a lost city in a distant land. Let the children of Ubtao guide you."

How do we save Jim from this curse?
"The evil that is trapping souls is drawing life from those who have been raised from the dead. They too will be consumed. The soulmonger must be destroyed."

How do we destroy the soulmonger?
"Under the lost city is a dungeon. The soulmonger is there guarded by the [Sewn? Seven?] Sisters. Defeat them, destroy their child, and then destroy the soulmonger."

So...
(1) Ubtao is the patron deity of Chult.
(2) Salvatore's Hero told us that Acererak is now in Chult, harvesting souls. All this soulmongering business is very Acererak-like.
(3) According to Storm King's Thunder and a tweet from Chris Perkins, a 2017 product will feature Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter.

Conclusion: The Fall 2017 adventure path will be a Tomb of Horrors sequel taking place in Chult. It will also feature Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter.

 

[Jester David]

Chult seems to be a certainty at this point. I transcribed some of the recent Acquisitions, Inc. episode, for those who missed it. Chris always incorporates elements from current/upcoming adventures into the games. At the end of the session, the party visited the Oracle from Storm King's Thunder and asked the following questions:

Where is Portentia's soul?
"Inside an artifact called the soulmonger."

Where is the soulmonger?
"Look for a lost city in a distant land. Let the children of Ubtao guide you."

How do we save Jim from this curse?
"The evil that is trapping souls is drawing life from those who have been raised from the dead. They too will be consumed. The soulmonger must be destroyed."

How do we destroy the soulmonger?
"Under the lost city is a dungeon. The soulmonger is there guarded by the [Sewn? Seven?] Sisters. Defeat them, destroy their child, and then destroy the soulmonger."

So...
(1) Ubtao is the patron deity of Chult.
(2) Salvatore's Hero told us that Acererak is now in Chult, harvesting souls. All this soulmongering business is very Acererak-like.
(3) According to Storm King's Thunder and a tweet from Chris Perkins, a 2017 product will feature Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter.

Conclusion: The Fall 2017 adventure path will be a Tomb of Horrors sequel taking place in Chult. It will also feature Artus Cimber and the Ring of Winter.

1) The AI games often do their own thing. Look at how the summer events in 2016 all tied into the Rod of Seven Parts. Mixing that with SKT and giants. Or how 2015 referenced both Elemental Evil and Rage of Demons while still being their own thing.

Most of those "clues" could just be Perkins doing a ToH homage as a nod to the current storyline *and* building off the Chult reference in Dungeonology. He's quite good at improvising and making it seem planned. I doubt he's seeding what comes next.

2) Do we *really* need two storylines in one year that are basically "killer dungeons"? That doesn't leave a lot of options for people who don't like that style of play. The spring and summer adventures should be very different by design, so if people don't like one they have something else coming in six months...