Marathon, Broadway, and Catacomb: Upcoming D&D Products?

WotC has been using codenames for its upcoming products for some time, mainly to stop anybody figuring our what's in the pipeline. Those codenames end up as placeholders on bookstores and the like. Eagle-eyed reader Sean spotted some upcoming items on McNally Robinson, a Canadian bookstore's website.

The items spotted were a 192-page hardcover accessory codenamed "Marathon" (May 2018); a 256-page hardcover adventure codenamed "Broadway" (September 2018), and another 256-page hardcover adventure codenamed "Catacomb" (November 2018). There's also a set of "Broadway" dice.

Past codenames have included "Labyrinth", which turned out to be Tomb of Annihilation, and "Dust", "Midway", "Cloak", and "Dagger".

Let the speculation begin!

D&D "Marathon" HC
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966240
format: Hardcover
series: D&D Accessory
pages: 192
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-05-29

D&D "Broadway" Dice
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966288
format: Game
series: D&D Accessory
pages: n/a
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-09-18

D&D "Broadway" HC
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966257
format: Hardcover
series: D&D Adventure
pages: 256
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-09-18

D&D "Catacomb" HC
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966264
format: Hardcover
series: D&D Adventure
pages: 256
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-11-20

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[pukunui]

"Dagger" was a reference to MacBeth ("is this a dagger I see before me") ...

Yeah, that could be. Except that there's barely any Shakespeare in there sadly.

"Cloak" may have been ...

Or it could have just been a reference to the fact that vampires are often depicted wearing cloaks.

"Dust" was a reference to "ashes to ashes, dust to dust"

Could be.

"Midway" was included in many titles/URLs of the playtest surveys for Unearthed Arcana.

Yeah, but that doesn't give us any indication of meaning.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

If there’s one thing I learned from my days as an MTG player, it’s that WotC’s code names for upcoming products cannot be relied upon to hintvat the contents of the actual product.

However, so far they have. Maybe not obvious, but they made sense after the fact. People even guessed right on Dust as having to do with Chult and Acerak = Tomb of Annihilation, and Midway referring to the playtests of new crunch = Xanathar's. I'd say the best bet for speculation is to start with other hints and then see if any of the names support those.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, that could be. Except that there's barely any Shakespeare in there sadly.

Or it could have just been a reference to the fact that vampires are often depicted wearing cloaks.

Could be.

Yeah, but that doesn't give us any indication of meaning.

.

Oh, you tease: they do a decent job of coming up with codenames that make sufficient sense for internal communications, with zero risk of clueing us fans in when they slip. Part of it but may be that they haven't finalized the real names yet: Perkins talked quite a bit about the legal/marketing shennanigans of naming Sky King's Thunder, they went through a lot of possibilities. Whereas the codename means they can talk about the project without that being nailed down yet.

 

[pukunui]

Part of it but may be that they haven't finalized the real names yet: Perkins talked quite a bit about the legal/marketing shennanigans of naming Sky King's Thunder, they went through a lot of possibilities. Whereas the codename means they can talk about the project without that being nailed down yet.

Yeah, there's that too.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Broadway is totally a Complete Guide to Bards, with rules detailing adventuring musical theatre troupes.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I'm willing to wager that "Catacomb" is not going to be an adventure, but more likely an accessory.

Why? Well, it's being released only two months after "Broadway", and there is no way they would release two 256-page adventures in such a short time frame. Unless a group was playing marathon sessions during that period, there is no way they would be able to complete the first before the second was released. Since "Broadway" is being released concurrently with dice, and since the September release has in recent years been the big adventure for the year, I'm going with "Broadway" being and adventure with "Catacomb" being a typical November accessory release.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm willing to wager that "Catacomb" is not going to be an adventure, but more likely an accessory.

Why? Well, it's being released only two months after "Broadway", and there is no way they would release two 256-page adventures in such a short time frame. Unless a group was playing marathon sessions during that period, there is no way they would be able to complete the first before the second was released. Since "Broadway" is being released concurrently with dice, and since the September release has in recent years been the big adventure for the year, I'm going with "Broadway" being and adventure with "Catacomb" being a typical November accessory release.

I checked how the site in question catagorizes other books: Out of the Abyss us a "D&D Accessory," rather thanks Adventure. Release dates, page counts seem legit, probably codenames too.

 

[LordEntrails]

As for Undermountain: As I've said elsewhere, since rumor has it the D&D movie is going to be based around Waterdeep/Undermountain, my guess is they're holding this adventure back so they can release it with the movie.

I was going to say something very similar.

Though there is nothing recent on the movie, last we heard the movie was going to be Undermountain. Since filing hasn't started yet its pretty safe to assume the movie won't be released in 2018. And have to agree that they won't publish the adventure until they coordinate it with the movie.

 

[Parmandur]

I was going to say something very similar.

Though there is nothing recent on the movie, last we heard the movie was going to be Undermountain. Since filing hasn't started yet its pretty safe to assume the movie won't be released in 2018. And have to agree that they won't publish the adventure until they coordinate it with the movie.

I would speculate that they are intentionally linking in characters who will appear in the movie...like Volo, Xanathar, or the bartender dude.

 

[briggart]

They are clearly going to be 3 "how-to-draw-maps" supplements: "Marathon" will focus on the local/county (few tens of miles) scale, "Broadway" will show towns, neighborhoods, districts, etc. with individual streets called out, and "Catacomb" will feature dungeons, sewers and the like.