D&D 5E The New D&D Book: Candlekeep Mysteries: 17 Mystery Adventures [UPDATED!]

The cover of the upcoming D&D book has been revealed! Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of 17 mystery-themed adventures for character levels 1-16.

The image has appeared on Penguin Random House's product page for the book.

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UPDATE! Penguin's product page appears to have now vanished, but we now have the product description! Thanks to @Fezzwick for spotting that!

An anthology of seventeen mystery-themed adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Candlekeep attracts scholars like a flame attracts moths. Historians, sages, and others who crave knowledge flock to this library fortress to peruse its vast collection of books, scribbled into which are the answers to the mysteries that bedevil them. Many of these books contain their own mysteries ̶—each one a doorway to adventure. Dare you cross that threshold?

· 17 mystery-themed D&D adventures, each tied to a book discovered in the famed library fortress of Candlekeep
· Easy to run as stand-alone mini adventures or to drop into your home campaign
· Adventures span play from levels 1 to 16
· Includes a full poster map of Candlekeep, plus detailed descriptions of the various locations, characters, and creatures that reside within it
· Introduces a variety of Dungeons & Dragons monsters, items, and non-player characters (NPCs)

Candlekeep Mysteries is a collection of seventeen short, stand-alone D&D adventures designed for characters of levels 1–16. Each adventure begins with the discovery of a book, and each book is the key to a door behind which danger and glory await. These adventures can be run as one-shot games, plugged into an existing Forgotten Realms campaign, or adapted for other campaign settings. This book also includes a poster map of the library fortress and detailed descriptions of Candlekeep and its inhabitants.

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There have been mentions of an upcoming adventure anthology since 2019, with Kate Welch's name attached, along with other celebrity adventure writers including Critical Role's Marisha Ray, and actor Deborah Ann Woll. There were also suggestions that the authors might all be women. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

 

[Emirikol Prime]

The cover of the upcoming D&D book has been revealed! Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of 17 mystery-themed adventures.

View attachment 131150

The image has appeared on Penguin Random House's product page for the book. There is no description yet.

There have been mentions of an upcoming adventure anthology since 2019, with Kate Welch's name attached, along with other celebrity adventure writers including Critical Role's Marisha Ray, and actor Deborah Ann Woll. There were also suggestions that the authors might all be women. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

Nice! I actually guessed a thing!

 

[Argyle King]

Hopefully it plays out better than the mystery adventure that came out during the playtest phase.

Murder at some snowy town or something... I forget the name.

I remember thinking the concept was awesome, but how it actually played out seemed as though the actions of the players didn't impact the story much.

I think it's cool that 5E is attempted to try different things. Though, I will likely pass on buying this.

 

[Mistwell]

If anyone wants an example of a very good mystery for D&D, the second adventure in the 2e module "Four From Cormyr" is excellent. It's named "Murder Most Magical" by John Terra. A very good mystery, easily adapted to 5e. If even a few of the 17 adventures in this book are as good as that one, this will be well worth it.

I've also heard Murder on the Eberron Express is good. I heard good things about Moon Over Graymoor by S. T. Mannell on DMs Guild, and a night of masks and monsters as well. How Not to Host a Murder by the Penny Arcade guys (for 5e) is supposed to be pretty funny and good too.

It's a bit more complicated to run mysteries in D&D, but if they are good the payoff can be really satisfying. And it's a style that's a bit neglected for this edition so I think it's filling a gap well worth filling.

 

[Parmandur]

16 * 16 = 256 Im not following you here? I counted 222 pgs of adventures in TFtYP. I didnt include the intro or appendixes. Thats how I got ~13 pgs per adventure. Is there an actually page count for the new book, I didnt see one? Regardless its really not that important as you said we'll know sooner than later.

256 pages is the length of most 5E books, because of publishing convenience if the book is 256 pages, we're looking at well less than 26 pages per adventure. But it could be longer, we'll see.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

I have to admit, I’m a bit disappointed by this. I feel like I have enough adventures to last a lifetime. But maybe previews will get me excited, and maybe I could use some of the adventures in my Eberron game that takes place in Sharn.

Edit: Also, cool cover.

I had the biggest eye roll when I saw this reveal. Adventures come a dime a dozen, if not by WotC, then extremely far more by 3rd party publishers. Not to mention many people craft their own for fun. I don't understand WotC's stance on pushing so many adventures, one big one per year should be enough. What people want is content and lore, not another adventure they may never, ever get around to. Not while they have a pile of adventures they're still sitting on.

Adventures last weeks, if not months. Pretty sure everyone has a massive pile of adventures they have yet to even crack open. But new content is always getting cracked open, whether it's the lore in "Elminster's Forgotten Realms" and "Eberron: Rising of the Last War" or "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything" and "Xanathar's Guide to Everything."

They need to release more content, and then release a mini-adventure booklet as a cheaper, smaller accessory tied to the theme of whatever product they released. The format of "super adventure" with the campaign setting lore scattered all over it makes for both an extremely poor layout for an adventure and a terrible reference guide for setting lore.

But what do I know? Me playing for over 2 decades and through 4.5 editions means nothing I guess. I guess I got nothing on the newbs running the D&D show or the veterans who do know better but are slaves to Hasbro Overseers who only care for the bottomline.

 

[whimsychris123]

And now we have a description on Amazon...

Candlekeep attracts scholars like a flame attracts moths. Historians, sages, and others who crave knowledge flock to this library fortress to peruse its vast collection of books, scribbled into which are the answers to the mysteries that bedevil them. Many of these books contain their own mysteries ̶—each one a doorway to adventure. Dare you cross that threshold?

· 17 mystery-themed D&D adventures, each tied to a book discovered in the famed library fortress of Candlekeep
· Easy to run as stand-alone mini adventures or to drop into your home campaign
· Adventures span play from levels 1 to 16
· Includes a full poster map of Candlekeep, plus detailed descriptions of the various locations, characters, and creatures that reside within it
· Introduces a variety of Dungeons & Dragons monsters, items, and non-player characters (NPCs)

Candlekeep Mysteries is a collection of seventeen short, stand-alone D&D adventures designed for characters of levels 1–16. Each adventure begins with the discovery of a book, and each book is the key to a door behind which danger and glory await. These adventures can be run as one-shot games, plugged into an existing Forgotten Realms campaign, or adapted for other campaign settings. This book also includes a poster map of the library fortress and detailed descriptions of Candlekeep and its inhabitants.

 

[Fezzwick]

 

[R_J_K75]

And now we have a description on Amazon...

Candlekeep attracts scholars like a flame attracts moths. Historians, sages, and others who crave knowledge flock to this library fortress to peruse its vast collection of books, scribbled into which are the answers to the mysteries that bedevil them. Many of these books contain their own mysteries ̶—each one a doorway to adventure. Dare you cross that threshold?

· 17 mystery-themed D&D adventures, each tied to a book discovered in the famed library fortress of Candlekeep
· Easy to run as stand-alone mini adventures or to drop into your home campaign
· Adventures span play from levels 1 to 16
· Includes a full poster map of Candlekeep, plus detailed descriptions of the various locations, characters, and creatures that reside within it
· Introduces a variety of Dungeons & Dragons monsters, items, and non-player characters (NPCs)

Candlekeep Mysteries is a collection of seventeen short, stand-alone D&D adventures designed for characters of levels 1–16. Each adventure begins with the discovery of a book, and each book is the key to a door behind which danger and glory await. These adventures can be run as one-shot games, plugged into an existing Forgotten Realms campaign, or adapted for other campaign settings. This book also includes a poster map of the library fortress and detailed descriptions of Candlekeep and its inhabitants.

I like that a poster map is included. Doesnt seem as if the adventures are linked in any way, I could be wrong, but seems as if after running one maybe two in any one campaign running more may feel forced. Overall pretty much what I expected so probably worth the money.

 

[DragonBelow]

To me, this book arrives about 2 months late. My players just had a few sessions there, and they were working on a few mysteries themselves .

I'll probably get it. I really like the location. I hope there are a few high level adventures.

 

[darjr]

Like a tv series.