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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[Demetrios1453]

The May release is the real Wild Card: I feel that will be a rules supplement, but something less rules innovative than Xanathar's Guide, and less in need of gouging public interest than whatever Planar book they are brewing. Dragons seem a decent bet, but time shall tell.

Something I just thought of - maybe a Volo's-type guide to dragons (as we discussed before), but instead some of the page count going towards player races as in Volo's, we see some mini-adventures centered around typical dragon lairs? That will make it not only useful for DMs in describing new monsters and fluff for old ones, but give them some one-shot or drop-in adventures for ongoing campaigns...

 

[Parmandur]

Something I just thought of - maybe a Volo's-type guide to dragons (as we discussed before), but instead some of the page count going towards player races as in Volo's, we see some mini-adventures centered around typical dragon lairs? That will make it not only useful for DMs in describing new monsters and fluff for old ones, but give them some one-shot or drop-in adventures for ongoing campaigns...

Well, if we theorized a chapter deep diving into the ten iconic dragons about the length of chapter one of Volo's, and a bestiary about the length of chapter three of Volo's, that brings us, interestingly, to about 192 pages.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Well, of we theorized a chapter deep diving into the ten iconic dragons about the length of chapter one of Volo's, and a bestiary about the length of chapter three of Volo's, that brings us, interestingly, to about 192 pages.

Volo's Bestiary section is 100 pages long (exactly so, interestingly enough), but the Monster Manual only needs 33 pages to detail all 10 chromatic and metallic dragon types. I can't see there being enough new dragon types to fill up a full 100 pages. Even if they detail some unique dragons and/or some draconic-type creatures (it would be neat to see Dragonlance's draconians get detailed, for example), they would be hard-pressed to fill that allotted page count (well, unless they went the 3e route and updated - or created - all sorts of weird dragon types just to fill space). And detailing non-draconic creatures would be really odd...

Give me a bestiary with the gem dragons, the lung dragons, a few old-school non-"true" dragons (like the brown dragon), the draconians, and a reasonable number of non-dragon draconic creatures, and I'll be happy, even if it caps out at 50 pages...

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

Wonder if Catacomb could refer to Sigil in some way?

 

[Herosmith14]

My thoughts...

Marathon-Multisetting Sourcebook. (Each setting is a movie, movie MARATHON)

Broadway-No idea, I only came on with 5e, so I have no clue if there are any things that it might reference is lore. Hopefully though, it sources off of the (speculated) multisetting sourcebook. On second thought, might be RP heavy adventure. Acting.

Catacomb. Adventure, obviously, but I think Dungeon/Combat heavy, because if I'm right, it would be a nice contrast with Broadway, and hopefully would source out of the (speculated) multisetting book.


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[Parmandur]

Volo's Bestiary section is 100 pages long (exactly so, interestingly enough), but the Monster Manual only needs 33 pages to detail all 10 chromatic and metallic dragon types. I can't see there being enough new dragon types to fill up a full 100 pages. Even if they detail some unique dragons and/or some draconic-type creatures (it would be neat to see Dragonlance's draconians get detailed, for example), they would be hard-pressed to fill that allotted page count (well, unless they went the 3e route and updated - or created - all sorts of weird dragon types just to fill space). And detailing non-draconic creatures would be really odd...

Give me a bestiary with the gem dragons, the lung dragons, a few old-school non-"true" dragons (like the brown dragon), the draconians, and a reasonable number of non-dragon draconic creatures, and I'll be happy, even if it caps out at 50 pages...

Reckon you have a point: there are an awfully large number of older Edition Draconic critters, though.

 

[Parmandur]

[MENTION=6801060]Demetrios1453[/MENTION] an interesting thought occurs to me, as well, regarding Dragons: Dragonborn are the 5th most popular player race, after Han/Half-Elf/Elf/Dwarf, but probably the least developed: Ecology of the Dragonborn alongside other Draconic material...?

 

[Demetrios1453]

[MENTION=6801060]Demetrios1453[/MENTION] an interesting thought occurs to me, as well, regarding Dragons: Dragonborn are the 5th most popular player race, after Han/Half-Elf/Elf/Dwarf, but probably the least developed: Ecology of the Dragonborn alongside other Draconic material...?

Now that is a good point - it would add something for the player side which is otherwise lacking in our theoretical book. Maybe a short update on Tyrmanther as well...

As for your point about previous editions' glut of dragons, well, I alluded to that in my last post, and am heartily hoping this edition avoids it. 2nd edition pushed the limits of what was reasonable concerning dragon species, and 3rd completely went beyond the pale in my opinion. Given this edition's history of restraint, I assume they aren't planning on going down that road again and will keep the types of dragons out there to a reasonable level...

 

[Parmandur]

Now that is a good point - it would add something for the player side which is otherwise lacking in our theoretical book. Maybe a short update on Tyrmanther as well...

As for your point about previous editions' glut of dragons, well, I alluded to that in my last post, and am heartily hoping this edition avoids it. 2nd edition pushed the limits of what was reasonable concerning dragon species, and 3rd completely went beyond the pale in my opinion. Given this edition's history of restraint, I assume they aren't planning on going down that road again and will keep the types of dragons out there to a reasonable level...

Hope springs eternal.

 

[Staffan]

Assuming the information about Broadway and Labyrinth both being big adventures and released only two months apart is true, it would sound likely that they're a two-part adventure much like Hoard of the Dragon Queen + Rise of Tiamat.

I think it's kind of useless to speculate on the contents of a product based on a single word that may or may not be related in hindsight. I mean, sure, Cloak = Vampire and Dagger = Shakespearean giants... you can make sense of it after the fact, but that's some Law of Fives-level justification.