D&D 5E (2014) Witchlight Promo Video: Ellywick Tumblestrum

WotC posted this short video on its social media accounts today, featuring a character called Ellywick Tumblestrum, who is a bard from the Magic: the Gathering D&D set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

“Join Ellywick Tumblestrum from @Wizards_Magic's Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, bard of the multiverse, guest of the Summer Queen & bearer of Morningmist, as she casts Legend Lore to uncover the next Dungeons & Dragons story!”

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Join Ellywick Tumblestrum from Magic: The Gathering's Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, bard of the multiverse, guest of the Summer Queen & bearer of...

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[Parmandur]

Unlikely based on what? Exactly? I mean the past UAs were unbranded and left out obviously identifying content before. What evidence do you have they were planning on doing that any differently, before the leak?

With Ravnica, they let us know it was coming so they could put out a UA that clearly had MtG IP for races. I would wager they were waiting till the last moment to do something similar here.

 

[Mercurius]

I feel like they're targeting 10 year olds honestly. It was cringe worthy watching that.

That's because they are, or at least tweens and younger teens. Similarly with Strixhaven - both seem to be indicating a full embrace of the new demographic, or at least a re-centering on Zenniels and younger Millenials. Now I, as a Gen Xer who prefers "traditional" D&D tropes and prefer adventure and lost mysteries to whimsy and cosplay, am not getting more of what I want, but that is kind of to be expected, at this point. And it makes sense, from a business standpoint.

Still, as someone for whom D&D has been a part of my life for 80% of it (or so), it is a bit...saddening?...to feel that it is moving further and further away from my "cohort" as the primary demographic. But that really began with 4E, and the "let's try to appeal to the Warcraft Millenials!" Now it seems it is, "Let's try to appeal to the TikTok Zennials!"

And of course many Gen Xers embrace a lot of this stuff, whether because of personal aesthetic tastes or WotC homerism. So it is only a portion, of whatever size, of Gen Xers that are being cut out of the targeting demographic, or at least have to take a more pick-and-choose approach, rather than "Whatever comes out, I'll buy."

 

[Marandahir]

Unlikely based on what? Exactly? I mean the past UAs were unbranded and left out obviously identifying content before. What evidence do you have they were planning on doing that any differently, before the leak?

UA01 "Eberron", UA27 "The Artificer, Take 2", UA53 "Races of Eberron", UA54 "Races of Ravnica", UA49 "Preview - Duergar", UA55 "Dragonmarks", UA56 "Magic Items of Eberron", UA59 "The Artificer Revisited", UA60 "The Artificer Returns."

As opposed to the following UA that were scrubbed:

UA04 "Waterborn Adventures", UA11 "That Old Black Magic", UA44 "Eladrin and Gith", UA45 "Fiendish Options", UA46 "Elf Subraces", UA50 "Order Domain", UA51 "Centaurs and Minotaurs', UA57 "Of Ships and the Sea", UA63 "Bard and Paladin", UA75 "2020 Subclasses, Part 4", UA76 "2020 Subclasses, Part 5", UA77 "Gothic Lineages", UA78 "Folk of the Feywild", and UA79 "Draconic Options". That's just 14 articles.

Tomorrows UA will be article No. 80, and between the two groups of articles we're still at only like 30% of UA articles. The vast majority of UA articles are neither clearly identifying nor scrubbed; they're generalized options that either never made it into anything or whose ultimate destination was a big book of options as opposed to a themed setting book.

The likelihood I stated was because they've had a number of cases above that they didn't scrub of setting content and we knew they were announcing something. If they were announcing Strixhaven next week, I highly doubt that they would have scrubbed the Strixhaven UA of details; they would have run it like "Races of Ravnica." But I guess they might have ONLY planned to announced the Feywild Adventure, in which case I would they could have very well scrubbed Strixhaven. So perhaps it's a coin toss?

EDIT:

With Ravnica, they let us know it was coming so they could put out a UA that clearly had MtG IP for races. I would wager they were waiting till the last moment to do something similar here.

You said this more elegantly and faster than I was able to type my analytical and long-winded defense of my use of "unlikely."

 

[darjr]

I like both your responses

 

[Henadic Theologian]

"Bard of the Multiverse, Guest of the Summer Queen, Bearer of Morningmist"

I feel like these are hints at things. The first is obvious Bard of the Multiverse means she will be a Planeswalker in AFR, perhaps at rare or uncommon instead of the usual Mythic Rare. Also as such while she clearly appears on Toril, she might actually be from somewhere else like Sigil.

Guest of the Summer Queen suggests she appears in Witchlight., as the Summer Queen is an Archfey.

FR has a temple in Cormorant called Morningmist, so there could be connection there to her lute, which is likely to be an Artifact in AFR.

Lastly it's mentioned in stories so she is likely a key character in AFRs fiction. In fact she could be an a joint attempt by the MtG D&D team to create a kind of Gatewatch of D&D for on going story telling, with characters that move between D&D settings. They can't really use established characters for that, hence this new characters and perhaps others.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

I feel like they're targeting 10 year olds honestly. It was cringe worthy watching that.

Been saying for a while anyone over 30 is no longer the target audience
10-25 is their key demographic

Just surprised this was on Twitter and not Tiktok

 

[darjr]

Hmmm… anyone checking TikTok for info? Not I.
Ope!

 

[DEFCON 1]

Been saying for a while anyone over 30 is no longer the target audience
10-25 is their key demographic

Just surprised this was on Twitter and not Tiktok

Well, of course. Cause the only thing the over-30 crowd cares about anymore is when the campaign settings from AD&D and 2E get printed for 5th edition. [emoji3]

 

[Parmandur]

Been saying for a while anyone over 30 is no longer the target audience
10-25 is their key demographic

Just surprised this was on Twitter and not Tiktok

It was actually YouTube and Twitch.

 

[Marandahir]

It was actually YouTube and Twitch.

And Facebook, too.