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]

Because dice... wither and die?

I could understand if the dice were very game-specific. But how is a standard polyhedral set anything other than evergreen?

Its dice and miscellaneous, the key not so evergreen part being the miscellaneous like maps and cards.

 

[gyor]

And that's not necessarily a bad thing --- D&D is largely about outsiders going to exotic (for them) places and having grand adventures and then moving on. It's just that when those places are based on real-world cultures, the killing and looting can take on a different tone.

I'd be fine with a product that gave more of an outsider's view --- you can always follow up with a product more from the perspective of the locals.

And even "A Gaijin's Guide to Kara-Tur" can be written respectfully, and with the idea that this culture is something more than exotica.

You don't usually loot the human cities and kill regular folks, you just kill monsters and evil humaniods who hurt the innocent.

 

[JPL]

And if this is just "Sword Coast II: Everything to the Immediate East of the Last One," that's still probably a good book.

 

[gyor]

It is more than dice. It is the miscellany part of the previous sets that where tied to a specific book release, and this less evergreen. If the maps and cards aren't tied to anything specific, it could be more evergreen.

Ironically the cards and map feels very tied to the SCAG.

Btw does anyone else think SCAG sounds like a brand of cigarettes or a country singer or something?

 

[Umbran]

Its dice and miscellaneous, the key not so evergreen part being the miscellaneous like maps and cards.

Meh. When they just list it "miscellany"... I have a hard time thinking that anyone is really concerned about how long those extra things will be useful. They're cute, sure. Nice to have. But if you don't even tell me exactly what they are, they aren't a main selling point.

 

[JPL]

You don't usually loot the human cities and kill regular folks, you just kill monsters and evil humaniods who hurt the innocent.

Well, not to get political, but isn't colonization / empire-building usually justified by some variation on that? These guys aren't quite human, we're the good guys, gotta protect the innocent?

And I only bring it up because Maztica tried to do something with real-world parallels to colonization, and I dunno . . . if done at all, that kinda stuff needs to be done carefully.

 

[gyor]

Well, not to get political, but isn't colonization / empire-building usually justified by some variation on that? These guys aren't quite human, we're the good guys, gotta protect the innocent?

facepalm In this case they they really are monsters, like vampires and zombies and Yakman, Demons, ect..., this is make believe dude, yet a not make it politically silly or read things into it.

 

[Parmandur]

Meh. When they just list it "miscellany"... I have a hard time thinking that anyone is really concerned about how long those extra things will be useful. They're cute, sure. Nice to have. But if you don't even tell me exactly what they are, they aren't a main selling point.

They are player handouts for groups traipizing around the Sword Coast...and WotC has been behaving as if that is the primary audience of the game for five years now.

 

[gyor]

Meh. When they just list it "miscellany"... I have a hard time thinking that anyone is really concerned about how long those extra things will be useful. They're cute, sure. Nice to have. But if you don't even tell me exactly what they are, they aren't a main selling point.

For what you get with this product its insanely over priced. Paper map, 20 cheap cards, and a handful of okay plastic dice.

$40 Canadian. I have both the SCAG and the WD: DH so everything but the dice is redundant and you can get nicer dice for cheaper.

 

[Parmandur]

Ironically the cards and map feels very tied to the SCAG.

Btw does anyone else think SCAG sounds like a brand of cigarettes or a country singer or something?

We'll, if this book is a Force Grey organization book, that would fit with the dice product without being overly tied to a single campaign per se.