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.

 

[GarrettKP]

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[Davelozzi]

So what was Out Of The Abyss a 're-hash' of?

I don't have OotA so I can't speak to specifics, but at birds eye view, an AP against Demogorgon was done already with Savage Tide, and certainly there have been a couple of big underdark based campaigns, notably the original drow series in 1e as well as Night Below in the 2e era.

 

[Mistwell]

I don't have OotA so I can't speak to specifics, but at birds eye view, an AP against Demogorgon was done already with Savage Tide, and certainly there have been a couple of big underdark based campaigns, notably the original drow series in 1e as well as Night Below in the 2e era.

Out of the Abyss is nothing like Savage Tide. In fact at most you could say part of Savage Tide was a re-tread of Isle of Dread.

 

[Jawsh Murdock]

Sounds kind of cool, except that I ran Age of Worms not that long ago, so I've already done a D&D version of zombie apocalypse... Might still check it out.

Annihilation is really cool!

 

[Benji]

I don't have OotA so I can't speak to specifics, but at birds eye view, an AP against Demogorgon was done already with Savage Tide, and certainly there have been a couple of big underdark based campaigns, notably the original drow series in 1e as well as Night Below in the 2e era.

Out of the Abyss is nothing like Savage Tide. In fact at most you could say part of Savage Tide was a re-tread of Isle of Dread.

This. This exactly. Could, at this point, anyone come up with anything and no one go 'It's just X rehashed'? I doubt it.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I've said it before, but calling the Adventures all rehashes is little more than dramatic license. The only one that is a true rehash is Curse of Strahd, and it's also the best AP.

 

[Kite474]

So so far count me as disappointed. Another mediocre written adventure into the Realms (Though to be fair by the very nature of adventures and TTRPG's a good story is something that's hard to present.

Look I get they have to make money. D&D is pretty much the red-headed stepchild of WoTC and has to justify its existence. But would it kill them to do something a little different?

 

[GarrettKP]

So so far count me as disappointed. Another mediocre written adventure into the Realms (Though to be fair by the very nature of adventures and TTRPG's a good story is something that's hard to present.

Look I get they have to make money. D&D is pretty much the red-headed stepchild of WoTC and has to justify its existence. But would it kill them to do something a little different?

I love how it is a "mediocre written adventure" when you haven't even read it yet. Can I borrow your crystal ball?

 

[Mistwell]

This. This exactly. Could, at this point, anyone come up with anything and no one go 'It's just X rehashed'? I doubt it.

Mine was not speculation. Part of savage tide is set on isle of dread. That part was specifically stated to be a refresh of Isle of Dread for 3e by Erik Mona.

 

[The Last Rogue]

Okay, my conspiracy theory:

Perkins is the AP guy, right? That's his job.
Except he wasn't involved at all with Tales from the Yawning Portal. That was Mearls and former WotC employee Kim Mohan, likely brought in as freelancer.

Making the storyline adventures takes a LOT of work. There's a reason Paizo has two teams that alternate APs. Plus, they have to start them a year in advance.
The summer/fall storyline is the big one. It involves the Neverwinter videogame and is tied to the minis. So that one's locked in well over a year in advance. They needed to start work on the concept art to send to Cryptic and WizKids in mid to early 2016. And 2016 was a busy, busy year for Perkins. He had Force Grey and AI: the Series and the three convention games (one more than 2015). Then the winter AI special. And he was doing Dice, Camera, Action all year. And he was involved in Volo's Guide to Monsters, helping with the lore and flavour there.

I suspect Perkins was going to blow his deadline for an adventure.

There was too much and Perkins couldn't handle the winter/spring storyline and the summer/fall one. So Mearls and Mohan stepped in and did Tales from the Yawning Portal at the last minute. Because changing that storyline didn't involve tweaking minis and video game plans. Which is why they went with reprints that could be quickly converted (or not at all for Dead in Thay). And why a third of the maps are reprinted (all the Against the Giants ones). And why they put that adventure out when it overlaps so very, very much with the adventure immediately before and after.
They rushed TftYP out the door while letting Perkins double down on his work for Tomb of Annihilation.

So Artus and the ring of winter storyline got bumped. Back burnered to winter/spring 2018. Or later.
Which sucks… but is understandable. Because Perkins is human and I don't want him burning out. And it means Tomb of Annihilation is a better product. And Tales from the Yawning Portal made a heck of a lot of people happy, so win-win.

Except the last place Artus was actually seen, canonically, was Chult. He settled down there. Right?