D&D 5E March's D&D Book To Be Announced On January 9th

A mysterious entry has appeared on Amazon! With a product title of "Dungeons & Dragons March Release Book (Title announced January 9th)" and a release date of March 17th, 2020, this $49.95 hardcover release will be revealed in under a week!

The description reads "Your first look at the next D&D title comes on January 9th! Keep an eye on wherever you get your D&D news for a preview of the book."

Could there be a clue in the dice being released on the same day? Laeral Silverhand's Explorer's Kit is described as "Dice and miscellany for the world's greatest roleplaying game" for $29.99. We'll find out on Thursday!

Who's Laeral Silverhand? She's a prolific creator of magic items from Waterdeep, and one of the most powerful wizards in the Forgotten Realms. She's one of the Seven Sisters, introduced in 1987's Forgotten Realms boxed set, although Laeral herself wasn't described in that product. Ed Greenwood'sThe Seven Sisters supplement fully detailed them in 1995. Laeral and Khlben 'Blackstaff' Arunsun led a group called the Moonstars. In 5th edition, she appears in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

 

[gyor]

What makes me think it is a compilation book is the timing and who heads it up. We just had a campaign module drop. So it would be unlikely another campaign module would drop so soon. A setting book on the Realms could make sense, but I would doubt they would outsource major part of the realms to freelancers unless they had been authors of realms material before. I could see them doing small adventures in each area of the realms or even less interesting focusing on the sword coast. I hope I am wrong and it is setting book. I personally do not have any interest in a book of small adventures so soon after a big campaign adventure in Baldurs Gate. That may be just me though.

We don't know who heads it up or who the authors are. People keep assuming it's Kate Welsh and her team, there is no evidence it's that book yet. It's companion accessory certainly indicates nothing of the sort.

 

[gyor]

I hope it is setting book, I hope it is not a compilation of adventure s. I have not bought any of those and we have 2 already.

Agreed, it's time for a proper setting book, FR fans have been waiting long enough.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Secondly It's bigger then Eberron's book, but FR is bigger with more lore and nations and Gods ect..., just as Eberron: RftLW is bigger then Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica because Eberron has a lot more lore then Ravnica.

Thirdly BG: DiA has a beautiful, detail maps 2 cities and a odd map of Avernus, and it was the Avernus map that made it into the Dice and Misc Accessory not the other maps in the book.

Fouthly the title is more like Eberron: Rising From The Last War and Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, setting name + fluff.

Fifthly there is zero evidence that it isn't a Campaign Setting Guide.

The size here is completely unimportant. The biggest book as we know is the Monster Manual, so if we are going by what the size than we would guess it is another monster book. But it can be literally any type of book, how big it is doesn't hint at anything.

Back to why the maps are important; if I'm tying a new dice set to a new book, I'm not going to be putting in materials that are newer unless I have no choice. The Descent dice set includes material entirely new to that book, including the Avernus map and the concept art of the devils/demons.

If this book was a guide to the rest of FR, it would include maps to other regions, and those maps would be in this dice set. Instead, they are using the map of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep, which are at least a full year old. This is evidence that there are no new regional maps in the book, which would be extremely strange (and a complete ripoff) if it was a setting guide to the Forgotten Realms beyond the Sword Coast.

The name itself is weird. Based on previous books, all we know for sure is that this book is set in the Forgotten Realms. But it also has Laeral Silverhand in the title, similar to books like Xanathar's, Volo's, and Mordenkainen's. The naming convention does not perfectly align any specific book type, and parallels several very different books.

The absence of new maps in this dice set nearly confirms that this is not a setting book. What it actually is I'm not sure, but if I were to put money on it, I'd say it is the collection of adventures, plus new monster statblocks, plus maybe some new lore, maybe even player options if we're lucky.

As you say, the book is big so can fit all of this material within it.

 

[Parmandur]

We don't know who heads it up or who the authors are. People keep assuming it's Kate Welsh and her team, there is no evidence it's that book yet. It's companion accessory certainly indicates nothing of the sort.

We can be certain that this book, whatever it is, is headed up by Kate Welch. Per the "Next Issue" section from the latest Dragon+,: "We’ll also be rolling a Persuasion check to convince Kate Welch to reveal all about her latest project". It seems unlikely in the extreme that their sole reference to the next book release would be for some other book. So, this is Welch's project. I recommend calibrating your expectations, even if you are right it is better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.

 

[Parmandur]

The size here is completely unimportant. The biggest book as we know is the Monster Manual, so if we are going by what the size than we would guess it is another monster book. But it can be literally any type of book, how big it is doesn't hint at anything.

Back to why the maps are important; if I'm tying a new dice set to a new book, I'm not going to be putting in materials that are newer unless I have no choice. The Descent dice set includes material entirely new to that book, including the Avernus map and the concept art of the devils/demons.

If this book was a guide to the rest of FR, it would include maps to other regions, and those maps would be in this dice set. Instead, they are using the map of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep, which are at least a full year old. This is evidence that there are no new regional maps in the book, which would be extremely strange (and a complete ripoff) if it was a setting guide to the Forgotten Realms beyond the Sword Coast.

The name itself is weird. Based on previous books, all we know for sure is that this book is set in the Forgotten Realms. But it also has Laeral Silverhand in the title, similar to books like Xanathar's, Volo's, and Mordenkainen's. The naming convention does not perfectly align any specific book type, and parallels several very different books.

The absence of new maps in this dice set nearly confirms that this is not a setting book. What it actually is I'm not sure, but if I were to put money on it, I'd say it is the collection of adventures, plus new monster statblocks, plus maybe some new lore, maybe even player options if we're lucky.

As you say, the book is big so can fit all of this material within it.

I remain impressed with WotC ability to consistently surprise and take risks recently.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I'm pretty sure it's an actual "silver" hand, like the one from Monte Cook's Invisible Sun setting--only with five fingers instead of six.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So the set comes with 20 cards, each detailing a location from around the Realms. I would think the matching book would expand on those 20 locations, perhaps 10-12 pages per location, with the remaining pages in the book for new player content, monsters, magic items, etc.

edit: maybe not 20 locations, since I forgot the 20 cards cover key locations, lore and NPCs. So until we know how those are distributed, we won't know how the book will be divided.

 

[Parmandur]

So the set comes with 20 cards, each detailing a location from around the Realms. I would think the matching book would expand on those 20 locations, perhaps 10-12 pages per location, with the remaining pages in the book for new player content, monsters, magic items, etc.

Call it a 16 page Module per locale, and that fits what we know passing well.

 

[gyor]

We can be certain that this book, whatever it is, is headed up by Kate Welch. Per the "Next Issue" section from the latest Dragon+,: "We’ll also be rolling a Persuasion check to convince Kate Welch to reveal all about her latest project". It seems unlikely in the extreme that their sole reference to the next book release would be for some other book. So, this is Welch's project. I recommend calibrating your expectations, even if you are right it is better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.

Kate Welch I'm sure can head many projects. She headed the Rick and Morty Box Set.

 

[gyor]

Call it a 16 page Module per locale, and that fits what we know passing well.

It's not just locals, it's NPCs, and other stuff. Also I mean not everything in the book needs to be reflected in this pack.

And I still don't believe it's just a boring set of mini adventures, especially at it's large size.