The New D&D Adventure Is - Tomb of Annihilation!

Tomb of Annihilation is in the Forgotten Realms set in the Lost Continent of Chult - Away from the Sword Coast (the hosts of the live stream are very interested with undead dinosaurs). Acererak is, as many predicted, the source of this plotline as the Archlich is more or less "eating" resurrection magic from the rest of the Forgotten Realms and causing a zombie apocalypse. Pendleton Ward from Adventure Time is a creative consultant on this adventure.

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More updates will be coming through the Dungeons & Dragons marathon live stream live on Twitch throughout the weekend.

 

[Horwath]

It would be nice to get more beasts from 1 to 6 CR for moon druids. This book will be a great source.

 

[GarrettKP]

It would be nice to get more beasts from 1 to 6 CR for moon druids. This book will be a great source.

This book does not have new monsters. For that go check out Volo's Guide to Monsters.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This book does not have new monsters. For that go check out Volo's Guide to Monsters.

That's an odd assertion when they have specifically called out having "Zombie T-rexs that vomit zombies" Which I for one have not seen in Volo's

As well as a few other creatures they mentioned, though I don't recall the list

 

[GarrettKP]

That's an odd assertion when they have specifically called out having "Zombie T-rexs that vomit zombies" Which I for one have not seen in Volo's

As well as a few other creatures they mentioned, though I don't recall the list

My fault, just realized this is the Adventure thread. Thought I was replying to a comment in the Xanathar's Guide to Everything thread. My apologies.

 

[Demetrios1453]

This book does not have new monsters. For that go check out Volo's Guide to Monsters.

Actually, they said it will have a section in the back for new monsters, just like every AP so far. The stream and related interviews have even mentioned a few, like the pterafolk. I'm sure we'll see some new beasts as well, at the very least some new dinosaur varieties...

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

 

[GarrettKP]

Actually, they said it will have a section in the back for new monsters, just like every AP so far. The stream and related interviews have even mentioned a few, like the pterafolk. I'm sure we'll see some new beasts as well, at the very least some new dinosaur varieties...

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

Refer to my post directly above yours.

 

[jimmytheccomic]

Just because WoTCs adventure paths are getting trashed in this thread in general, I just wanted to add my perspective to the mix. I think I'm the target audience they're trying to hit, and they're nailing it.

I've been tabletop gaming with some combination of the same group for 23 years now, since middle school, but we barely touched Dungeons and Dragons except when we were just starting out. We played a bit with our parents, but we got into D6 Star Wars in High School, and stuck with that for a while. As a DM, I didn't like running 3rd or 4th edition, I found them too clunky- so, we had a soft spot for D&D, and I always kept an ear open for what was going on, but we stuck with D6 Star Wars, Adventure!, Mutants and Masterminds, and various homebrew stuff. (Except for a return to 2e so I could run "Ravenloft" for everybody.)

Growing up, we'd always heard about Tiamat, Beholders, Demogorgon, Acecerak, etc. from our parents, but we'd left the game before ever really getting high level enough to deal with it, they were like these mythical things we were just sort of aware of. Now, 5th edition came out just as a long running campaign wrapped up (a five year game I ran based on the Dark Tower novels), and it was finally a system that I liked running! It felt smoother, it's got enough complexity to keep my rules lawyers players happy but my story-based players aren't overwhelmed, and the plots are letting us take in experiences with these epic monsters that had always been to the side. As a DM, I also love it because it's pretty easy to convert older material, so I've got a wealth of D&D stuff to use to punch up the modules- I started a thread a while ago about adding 4e and 3e adventures to the Tiamat campaign.

Yawning Portal let us finally try our hands at the "Tomb of Horrors" that we'd always been aware of- it ended in a total party kill, my players are itching to get revenge against Acerak, and now they're handing us this campaign to let them take him down a peg.

I know it probably doesn't seem a fresh to people that have been active in D&D specifically all this time, but I've never been more jazzed for it. I am dropping so much cash on campaign books, supplements, miniatures (We haven't used miniatures on the table in 20 years!). So, I did just want to give firsthand evidence that what they're doing is working like gangbusters to certain segments.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Now, 5th edition came out just as a long running campaign wrapped up (a five year game I ran based on the Dark Tower novels), and it was finally a system that I liked running! It felt smoother,

Smoother--that's a good descriptor for how it feels to me too. It's hard to describe why that term fits, but that's the feel I get.

Yawning Portal let us finally try our hands at the "Tomb of Horrors" that we'd always been aware of- it ended in a total party kill, my players are itching to get revenge against Acerak, and now they're handing us this campaign to let them take him down a peg.

What level was the TPKed party at, and how much experience did they have playing 5e at the time? (Trying to calibrate for running it for my group.)

 

[pming]

Hiya!

More assumptions. If the WotC team says Acererak is in the book why would we not believe them? He is in the book, he is a major NPC and he built everything you have to face or stop in this adventure. So why do you assume he has nothing to do with it when they have said the exact opposite?

I think we're going in circles here. Acererak is dead. He *can't* be a major NPC....well, unless they decided to just ignore everything about his AD&D history and basically build yet another uber-lich and slap the name "Acererak" on it for nothing more than name recognition. I can slap "Lamborghini" on the side of my Honda Odyssey mini-van...doesn't make it a lambo though.

That's my main contention. If they are going to use specific names of things that have already been established...they should also honour the history that got those things established in the first place. They shouldn't be grabbing name's, places, items, etc willy-nilly and then ignoring 90% of what those things actually *are*. In D&D, Acererak is dead. Long dead. He was a lich, then died...becoming a demi-lich (which is basically a skull that sits there until you poke it with a stick). Now, having an entirely new lich who happened upon something that Acererak created, researched, found, or whatever...ok. Fine with me. That serves to tie things together, 'timeline' wise and would be a good use of 'name recognition'. But I hate it when writers take something already established, then "re-imagine" it, banking on name recognition to somehow make their crappy story seem good (...not calling ToA crappy...it's not even out..just going by other such re-imagined stories, books, video games and movies). Ditto for those that take something that was destroyed/killed and try the handwaving "But no!....y'see...it was all a dream!"...and then stare at you with s dumb smile on their face waiting for you to grasp just how genius their idea is when all you want to do is violate their facial space with your fist.

"Ok, so it's set in Middle Earth, right. And, like, the beginning scene opens up on Mount Doom erupting, lava bombs falling from the sky, poisonous gas, and all that kind of thing. Then...as the camera gets closer to the ground and a small lava flow...there it pops up. The One Ring! ...pause... Get it? So the ring didn't get destroyed at all! It came flowing out with the lava! ...pauses with dumb smile on face waiting for others to acknowledge his genius..."



^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Mouseferatu]

Except that, once gain, you're ignoring the character's history. This is what he's been since second edition. This is what he was in Return to the Tomb of Horrors (which had Gary's stamp of approval). This is what he was in the 4E Tomb of Horrors.

The designers of 5E aren't ignoring or changing the character's history, they're building on it. You may not like, or even have read, the source material subsequent to the original ToH, but that doesn't make it suddenly cease to exist.