The New D&D Book Is Called "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" [UPDATED!]

FitzTheRuke · Feb 26, 2019

I'm a little disappointed with my store getting the books later than the big boxes, what with all the games we run to keep our WPN scores up. Still, it's better than the last two books shipping fiasco (I hope)!

R_J_K75 · Feb 26, 2019

Can anyone shed any light on why WotC is so secretive as to what their releasing any given year for 5E? Editions past you knew what was coming well in advanced. Now they give us minimal bits and pieces for one product, and then announce something after the first is released with little detail. I dont see why they dont come out at the beginning of the year saying we are planning to release this?

Azzy · Feb 26, 2019

R_J_K75 said:
Can anyone shed any light on why WotC is so secretive as to what their releasing any given year for 5E? Editions past you knew what was coming well in advanced. Now they give us minimal bits and pieces for one product, and then announce something after the first is released with little detail. I dont see why they dont come out at the beginning of the year saying we are planning to release this?

Titilation.

Herosmith14 · Feb 26, 2019

R_J_K75 said:
Can anyone shed any light on why WotC is so secretive as to what their releasing any given year for 5E? Editions past you knew what was coming well in advanced. Now they give us minimal bits and pieces for one product, and then announce something after the first is released with little detail. I dont see why they dont come out at the beginning of the year saying we are planning to release this?

I could be completely off with this, but I imagine it's the same reason DDB doesn't give release dates; setbacks happen, plans change, etc. They're quiet with their roadmap so as to not get crucified if they don't make a deadline.

R_Chance · Feb 26, 2019

Aaron L said:
Given how they transplanted Acererak and Elemental Evil to Fearun, ham-fistedly described ripping Castle Greyhawk from Oerth to float around from world to world, and later gave Evermeet the same shabby treatment being ripped it from Faerun and having it "cast adrift in the planes" as a mystic homeland for all Elves no matter what world they're from (barf), I'm sure the default of these adventures will be Toril.

(As well as how they've tried to shoehorn the Weave into the PHB, even though the relationship between the Weave and Mystra was a defining element of the Forgotten Realms that made the setting unique and interesting, and made all Elves 6+ feet tall like 'Realms Elves as part of the Realmsification of all D&D settings. I like the 'Realms, but c'mon. Making these things just Generic D&D cheapens and robs the setting of its distinctiveness.)

That ship has already sailed, about 50 posts back. And you're in luck. The discussion about that has pretty much subsided. The default setting for the U series adventures in the book is (according to the product page) the Azure Coast in Greyhawk. They will give suggestions for other settings as well, although given how generic the background is for these the difficulty of porting it to most settings / homebrew is about... zero.

R_J_K75 · Feb 26, 2019

Herosmith14 said:
I could be completely off with this, but I imagine it's the same reason DDB doesn't give release dates; setbacks happen, plans change, etc. They're quiet with their roadmap so as to not get crucified if they don't make a deadline.

I suppose you could be right but I'd assume that most gamers fall into a few categories of purchasers, most Id think would be forgiving if something was cancelled or pushed back. Compared to 2E thru 4E, 5E is releasing substatially less product, not counting DMs Guild, so maybe they know something marketing wise as to why their so tight lipped. I dont watch game live streams or pod casts, or twitter/FB, so perhaps I miss alot of info.

Azzy · Feb 26, 2019

R_J_K75 said:
I suppose you could be right but I'd assume that most gamers fall into a few categories of purchasers, most Id think would be forgiving if something was cancelled or pushed back.

Oh, sweet summer child... Gamers tend not to be reasonable or forgiving (a little more time on these boards will illustrate that).

Compared to 2E thru 4E, 5E is releasing substatially less product, not counting DMs Guild, so maybe they know something marketing wise as to why their so tight lipped. I dont watch game live streams or pod casts, or twitter/FB, so perhaps I miss alot of info.

It, from my understanding, is to build up anticipation and excitement of the next product without further products detracting from that. It's a slow hype train.

R_J_K75 · Feb 26, 2019

Azzy said:
Oh, sweet summer child... Gamers tend not to be reasonable or forgiving (a little more time on these boards will illustrate that).

Id reckon that 90% of people who said they felt scammed or that their old books were obsolete and would never switch from edition x to edition y most likely did to one extent or another. Geez I could imagine playing any edition of D&D other than 5E these days, but I still use lots of my old books. Seems like a petty thing to get upset about, a book not coming out or getting released late.

Are there any statistics for whose currently playing what edition of D&D these days?

Azzy · Feb 26, 2019

R_J_K75 said:
Id reckon that 90% of people who said they felt scammed or that their old books were obsolete and would never switch from edition x to edition y most likely did to one extent or another. Geez I could imagine playing any edition of D&D other than 5E these days, but I still use lots of my old books. Seems like a petty thing to get upset about, a book not coming out or getting released late.

Are there any statistics for whose currently playing what edition of D&D these days?

No hard stats for the entire community, but I think there are are some stats on what's being played online in certain places (though I don't know where).

MonsterEnvy · Feb 26, 2019

Aaron L said:
Given how they transplanted Acererak and Elemental Evil to Fearun, ham-fistedly described ripping Castle Greyhawk from Oerth to float around from world to world, and later gave Evermeet the same shabby treatment being ripped it from Faerun and having it "cast adrift in the planes" as a mystic homeland for all Elves no matter what world they're from (barf), I'm sure the default of these adventures will be Toril.

(As well as how they've tried to shoehorn the Weave into the PHB, even though the relationship between the Weave and Mystra was a defining element of the Forgotten Realms that made the setting unique and interesting, and made all Elves 6+ feet tall like 'Realms Elves as part of the Realmsification of all D&D settings. I like the 'Realms, but c'mon. Making these things just Generic D&D cheapens and robs the setting of its distinctiveness.)

Acererak has been a world traveler since 2e and Elemental Evil has always been setting generic. (The ToEE is not, but it honestly has little to do with the actual forces of Elemental Evil like the Princes.)

When did Castle Greyhawk get moved?

Also the answer is already stated this stuff is in Greyhawk by default.