D&D 5E WotC Announces An Impending Announcement: New Setting, Storyline

Levistus's_Leviathan · Jun 8, 2020

Parmandur said:
I'd argue they've done it multiple times since 2018, with Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica and following.

No. GGR was not another Xanathar's book. It was a setting book. It barely had player options. It had 2 subclasses and a handful of races. A "Xanathar's 2.0" has to have a similar amount of subclasses to XGtE, which had 31.

Parmandur · Jun 8, 2020

So, it seems that the plot of the Livestream game involves the leaders from ten towns...

"Tito spoke to ScreenRant's Scott Baird about D&D Live's Reality RP show, which combines roleplaying, ARG, and reality TV roles. In the interview, Tito explained Reality RP's basic storyline as a wizard trying to root out a secret cultist that has sabotaged the food supply of a region. "He traps ten representatives from the settlements who he believes are the most suspicious," Tito says in the interview. "He sets a series of challenges for them which he believes will be instructive in finding out who is the cultist and, hopefully, root them out, and choose a champion that is worthy of support to lead the region through the dark times that are happening right now." At first glance, that doesn't seem like a lot of information, but Tito's note that there are ten cast members from a number of settlements seems to be a hint towards the Ten Towns, the disparate settlements within Icewind Dale. Couple that with the snowy owlbear that serves as this year's D&D Live mascot, and the sole piece of artwork released for the adventure, and it certainly seems like the new adventure will take place within Drizzt's old stomping grounds."

Dungeons & Dragons Drops More Icewind Dale Teases for 2020 Adventure

Dungeons & Dragons has dropped another subtle hint that its next adventure will be set in the [...]

comicbook.com

Parmandur · Jun 8, 2020

AcererakTriple6 said:
No. GGR was not another Xanathar's book. It was a setting book. It barely had player options. It had 2 subclasses and a handful of races. A "Xanathar's 2.0" has to have a similar amount of subclasses to XGtE, which had 31.

Quantity isn't everything, nor are Subclasses: the new Race, Background and Renown options are significant game changers, and the Setting books have all had such options. Why do one Xanathar's book and one Volo's books when you can do a few Setting books that combine those audiences?

Paul Farquhar · Jun 8, 2020

Parmandur said:
Quantity isn't everything, nor are Subclasses: the new Race, Background and Renown options are significant game changers, and the Setting books have all had such options. Why do one Xanathar's book and one Volo's books when you can do a few Setting books that combine those audiences?

Because there are people who won't shell out a lot of money for a big heavy book full of stuff they don't want in order to get a couple of things they might want (but don't really need). And not everyone wants to go digital.

The sales figures speak for themselves - Xanathar, with lots of subclasses, sold way better than any setting book with just two or three.

Parmandur · Jun 8, 2020

Paul Farquhar said:
Because there are people who won't shell out a lot of money for a big heavy book full of stuff they don't want in order to get a couple of things they might want (but don't really need). And not everyone wants to go digital.

The sales figures speak for themselves - Xanathar, with lots of subclasses, sold way better than any setting book with just two or three.

But again, between the PHB and XGtE, they have hit most of the big archetypal options, per Crawford himself. They have to go further afield for.options, which means ...settings.

Urriak Uruk · Jun 8, 2020

Parmandur said:
So, it seems that the plot of the Livestream game involves the leaders from ten towns...

"Tito spoke to ScreenRant's Scott Baird about D&D Live's Reality RP show, which combines roleplaying, ARG, and reality TV roles. In the interview, Tito explained Reality RP's basic storyline as a wizard trying to root out a secret cultist that has sabotaged the food supply of a region. "He traps ten representatives from the settlements who he believes are the most suspicious," Tito says in the interview. "He sets a series of challenges for them which he believes will be instructive in finding out who is the cultist and, hopefully, root them out, and choose a champion that is worthy of support to lead the region through the dark times that are happening right now." At first glance, that doesn't seem like a lot of information, but Tito's note that there are ten cast members from a number of settlements seems to be a hint towards the Ten Towns, the disparate settlements within Icewind Dale. Couple that with the snowy owlbear that serves as this year's D&D Live mascot, and the sole piece of artwork released for the adventure, and it certainly seems like the new adventure will take place within Drizzt's old stomping grounds."

Dungeons & Dragons Drops More Icewind Dale Teases for 2020 Adventure

Dungeons & Dragons has dropped another subtle hint that its next adventure will be set in the [...]

comicbook.com

Yeah that smells like the ten towns of Icewind Dale. And the "characters" will all have instagram accounts released this week (Facebook says a character a day starting today) so we will likely see that confirmed soon.

Dungeons & Dragons (@dndwizards) • Instagram photos and videos

393K Followers, 173 Following, 1,645 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Dungeons & Dragons (@dndwizards)

www.instagram.com

Interesting that one of the characters is secretly a cultist. A cultist of the mind flayers perhaps? Or something else?

Urriak Uruk · Jun 8, 2020

Paul Farquhar said:
Because there are people who won't shell out a lot of money for a big heavy book full of stuff they don't want in order to get a couple of things they might want (but don't really need). And not everyone wants to go digital.

The sales figures speak for themselves - Xanathar, with lots of subclasses, sold way better than any setting book with just two or three.

On paper you're right; Xanathar is the best selling non-core rulebook, so it makes sense that they would make more. But they also haven't made more since, which makes me think that perhaps there are other considerations for why one hasn't been made. It simply may be that they are having trouble creating enough material that is entirely player focused to fill a book.

I personally think a book that is 100% like Xanathar's is unlikely. I still believe gem dragons are coming this way (unless plans have changed) so think that whatever this is, it's more of a Volo's/Mordenkainen's book with maybe some metasetting of Planescape/Spelljammer sprinkled in. It will have new player options, new monsters, and maybe some new setting material.

Levistus's_Leviathan · Jun 8, 2020

Urriak Uruk said:
On paper you're right; Xanathar is the best selling non-core rulebook, so it makes sense that they would make more. But they also haven't made more since, which makes me think that perhaps there are other considerations for why one hasn't been made. It simply may be that they are having trouble creating enough material that is entirely player focused to fill a book.

Looks like if they want to do a Xanathar's 2.0 they're going to have to playtest a lot of Unearthed Arcana spells and subclasses.
Looks back at the past year of UA. "I guess we're getting Xanatha'rs 2.0!"

Urriak Uruk said:
I personally think a book that is 100% like Xanathar's is unlikely. I still believe gem dragons are coming this way (unless plans have changed) so think that whatever this is, it's more of a Volo's/Mordenkainen's book with maybe some metasetting of Planescape/Spelljammer sprinkled in. It will have new player options, new monsters, and maybe some new setting material.

Of course being exactly like Xanathar's 2.0 is unlikely. There's not many rules that need clarification, which Xanathar's 2.0 had many pages for. They have already made better rules for downtime and traps and rivals and awarding magic items. Most of the stuff that 5e needed fixes for were fixed in XGtE.
I agree, it's going to be a heavy player's book with a lot of information for the Planes of Existence, which IMO is the thing 5e needs clarifications for the most. The DMG has a tiny section on the planes, and we need expansions for that. If we get this Planescape book, they're going to have to add some more races and monsters that fit into Planescape, like the Bauriar race or more Modron monsters and Celestials.

Urriak Uruk · Jun 8, 2020

AcererakTriple6 said:
Looks like if they want to do a Xanathar's 2.0 they're going to have to playtest a lot of Unearthed Arcana spells and subclasses.
Looks back at the past year of UA. "I guess we're getting Xanatha'rs 2.0!"

Of course being exactly like Xanathar's 2.0 is unlikely. There's not many rules that need clarification, which Xanathar's 2.0 had many pages for. They have already made better rules for downtime and traps and rivals and awarding magic items. Most of the stuff that 5e needed fixes for were fixed in XGtE.
I agree, it's going to be a heavy player's book with a lot of information for the Planes of Existence, which IMO is the thing 5e needs clarifications for the most. The DMG has a tiny section on the planes, and we need expansions for that. If we get this Planescape book, they're going to have to add some more races and monsters that fit into Planescape, like the Bauriar race or more Modron monsters and Celestials.

Well some of those UA were actually for Theros, and another big chunk is for psionics. Still a fair amount of UA, but how much actually makes the cut after feedback?

Anyway, I'm agreeing with you that this book will be some hybrid of a metasetting, player's options, and monsters.

Levistus's_Leviathan · Jun 8, 2020

Urriak Uruk said:
Well some of those UA were actually for Theros, and another big chunk is for psionics.

Only 2 are known to be for Theros, and psionics could be for Xanathar's 2.0, though I doubt it.

Urriak Uruk said:
Still a fair amount of UA, but how much actually makes the cut after feedback?

We have 24ish new subclasses, excluding the Theros ones. XGtE had 31 subclasses. I think we'll get a bit more subclasses UA and more revisions to old ones in upcoming UA.