New D&D Adventure Reveal On 17th May at 'The Descent'

GarrettKP said:

Eberron got a PDF. But Mearls said in an interview with Comicbook.com that the PDF did not mean a Hardcover wouldn't also be coming. And since they are testing Artificer heavily in UA right now, seems obvious to me that Eberron is getting a full hardcover now.

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It's true they are testing the Artificer, and this continued interest might mean they are considering a hardcover. But they've stated in the past that the Artificer will be added to the Wayfinders pdf, so, in and of itself, it's not definitive proof of a print book.

AD

lkj said:

It's true they are testing the Artificer, and this continued interest might mean they are considering a hardcover. But they've stated in the past that the Artificer will be added to the Wayfinders pdf, so, in and of itself, it's not definitive proof of a print book.

AD

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True, but their having said "we are thinking of doing a hardcover for Eberron," which they did explicitly when the Guide was released, does suggest that they are thinking of doing a hardcover for Eberron. Why spend all the time playtesting the crunch, if not to give it a bigger release?

Prakriti said:

There's no mastermind behind Dark Sun like there is with Eberron, so it seems unlikely. The only reason we got the Wayfarer's Guide was because Keith Baker continues to champion the setting. If Dark Sun had a highly respected and enthusiastic creator who was willing to do the work for them, then I'm sure WotC would arrange something with them. But that, as far as I know, is not the case.

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You mean like Troy Denning, who wrote the entire first series of Novels for Dark Sun and many other WotC D&D novels? Who as recently as last year was tweeting about how much he enjoyed people being enthusiastic about Dark Sun?

Parmandur said:

On the other hand, they have been talking about doing Dark Sun for years, they are working on Psionics with a focus on Dark Sun (per Mearls), and Mearls was able to casually go very into detail on what they would put into Dark Sun on the Happy Fun Hour, like he had already written out the draft. We'll see it sooner or latter.

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I read somewhere that Mike Mearls has actually made enough rules to run Dark Sun for a campaign in the office.

I don't think they'd just drop a PDF Dark Sun without any hints though. The Mystic is kind of the psionic and I don't think it's been updated, and Dark Sun hasn't been mentioned in some time on Talk or Dragon+.

It's definitely come to come eventually but they probably want to launch it right, so I'd say next year is the earliest.

Matthia05718273 said:

I read somewhere that Mike Mearls has actually made enough rules to run Dark Sun for a campaign in the office.

I don't think they'd just drop a PDF Dark Sun without any hints though. The Mystic is kind of the psionic and I don't think it's been updated, and Dark Sun hasn't been mentioned in some time on Talk or Dragon+.

It's definitely come to come eventually but they probably want to launch it right, so I'd say next year is the earliest.

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They gave very little indication about Eberron before the Wayfinder's Guide dropped. A similar Dark Sun book, with fluff and recycled art, would not be unprecedented as a sudden surprise release.

This may not be the time of a Dark Sun release, but I expect that when we get it, it will be a bomb drop, not something that they hint at obviously for a while.

Personally, I wish they'd do these settings in two sets of books: One set that is edition agnostic and just tells us the story of the setting, and another that is crunch and mechanics driven with the stats, monsters, items, etc... They're better off wieh the approach Keith Baker has held for Eberron: Create a point in time where it is best to start adventuring in a campaign world and just build your products with the assumption that all campaigns will start at that key point in time. I'd much rather they reboot the FR back to when it all began, they brought Dark Sun back to the time of the first novel, they restarted the War of the Lance in Krynn, etc... than tell the poor sequels they've been telling for so long.

jgsugden said:

This may not be the time of a Dark Sun release, but I expect that when we get it, it will be a bomb drop, not something that they hint at obviously for a while.

Personally, I wish they'd do these settings in two sets of books: One set that is edition agnostic and just tells us the story of the setting, and another that is crunch and mechanics driven with the stats, monsters, items, etc... They're better off wieh the approach Keith Baker has held for Eberron: Create a point in time where it is best to start adventuring in a campaign world and just build your products with the assumption that all campaigns will start at that key point in time. I'd much rather they reboot the FR back to when it all began, they brought Dark Sun back to the time of the first novel, they restarted the War of the Lance in Krynn, etc... than tell the poor sequels they've been telling for so long.

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Yeah not a fan of this approach. I'm much more comfortable with the standard that Ravnica set (I'll try this for Eberron);
Chapter 1: Character Creation
2: Dragonmarked Houses
3: Eberron Setting/Lore
4: Creating Adventures in Eberron
5: Treasures
6: Friends and Foes

As for rebooting the main settings... I'm actually happier if they don't do this and treat older modules/adventures as past events. That doesn't mean move forward in time by 500 years, but 5 is fine.

The reason I like this more is because a setting book should provide the DM enough context that they can redo (or reinvent) past modules and history with their own spin if they choose. It also allows the D&D team to create new adventures that build off past events.

So for FR, we've had several adventures that are completely new and don't complicate the timeline. You can choose to play those, or a DM can play in the setting's past if they enjoy that time period more (a Kickstarter for Baldur's Gate does pretty much this). It provides more options overall for DMs.

An example of how to do this is Dark Sun, where the setting book says how many Sorcerer Kings are still alive (I think the past modules still haven't killed Nibenay, Hamanu, Kalid-Ma, Lalali-Pu, Oronis, or Daskinor). But it also provides history on the dead ones and past events so DMs can do that time period. But the first Dark Sun adventure assumes that the sorcerer kings killed in older modules are dead, so makes the villain Hamanu who still lives.

We are probably getting a little off topic though.

Parmandur said:

It also strikes me that a playtest PDF like the Eberron book might be announced at some point: Dark Sun, perhaps?

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I have a feeling that'll be the way they do things going forward for settings that either require testing or are low on the popularity scale. Put out a PDF with all of the required information, open it up on DM's Guild, and move on. If it sells like hot cakes and has overwhelming positive feedback, they may do a hardcover for the setting or an AP.

As far them releasing a Dark Sun PDF this year, I don't think that's likely...no matter how much I want it to happen. Psionics just aren't ready yet unfortunately.

We're definitely getting our AP that involves the Nine Hells of Baator and Zariel, that probably starts in Baldur's Gate.

I can see getting a setting book, my money is on Planescape or Spelljammer (no matter how much Nathan Stewart says "No")

The boxed set is probably just another starter set for the Realms.

Wild card product: something sci-fi.

I like that Eberron is getting a lot of love in the predictions, but I don't think they're going to go that hard on it this edition. We'll see more Eberron, I just don't think it's going to be both a hardcover setting book and a boxed set. Probably an AP first.

Parmandur said:

They gave very little indication about Eberron before the Wayfinder's Guide dropped. A similar Dark Sun book, with fluff and recycled art, would not be unprecedented as a sudden surprise release.

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Maybe a PDF, but not a physical book. Personally I think it won't happen till we get another Psion update from UA.

vecna00 said:

I have a feeling that'll be the way they do things going forward for settings that either require testing or are low on the popularity scale. Put out a PDF with all of the required information, open it up on DM's Guild, and move on. If it sells like hot cakes and has overwhelming positive feedback, they may do a hardcover for the setting or an AP.

As far them releasing a Dark Sun PDF this year, I don't think that's likely...no matter how much I want it to happen. Psionics just aren't ready yet unfortunately.

We're definitely getting our AP that involves the Nine Hells of Baator and Zariel, that probably starts in Baldur's Gate.

I can see getting a setting book, my money is on Planescape or Spelljammer (no matter how much Nathan Stewart says "No")

The boxed set is probably just another starter set for the Realms.

Wild card product: something sci-fi.

I like that Eberron is getting a lot of love in the predictions, but I don't think they're going to go that hard on it this edition. We'll see more Eberron, I just don't think it's going to be both a hardcover setting book and a boxed set. Probably an AP first.

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I don't think he said no to Planescape, just Spelljammer. I guess we find out tomorrow.