D&D 5E Strixhaven Table of Contents

Strixhaven's table of contents has appeared on Reddit. The book contains 7 chapters, plus an appendix, including four adventures.

1. Basic setting information, about 20 pages
2. Character options, about 22 pages
3. 4 adventures organized in a unified campaign, about 32 pages per adventure (plus general campaign organizational tools which take up about 20 pages)
4. NPCs & monsters, about 42 pages

D&D 5E - Strixhaven Previews Start to Appear

It's that time in the D&D pre-release publicity phase where previews of the upcoming book start to appear across the web on various sites. It looks like each site is getting a different college to preview -- Screenrant has Prismari, and Polygon has Silverquill, for example. There are 5 colleges...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Strixhaven's Monsters: Groffs, Mage Hunters, & Oriq Recruiters

Gizmodo has a preview of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, showing off some of the new monsters in the book. The Oriq Recruiter is an agent of a dark mage cult; a Groff is a canine swamp creature; and a Mage Hunter is a spider-legged drone. The article also talks about trudges, daemogoths, the...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Strixhaven Has Exams, Jobs, & Extracurricular Activities

It's IGN's turn to preview part of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, taking a look at exams, extracurricular guilds, and jobs. An example of an exam includes the Magical Physiologies exam, and a success gives them an advantage when fighting those creatures. The exams have a studying and a...

www.enworld.org

 

[Marandahir]

I mean, the adventures are 120 pages and the rest of the book is 100 pages. I think it's pretty darn close.

(Note that I'm counting Pages 40-60 as non-adventures because they're laying out more of the setting details and characters who show up in the various adventures).

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, the adventures are 120 pages and the rest of the book is 100 pages. I think it's pretty darn close.

(Note that I'm counting Pages 40-60 as non-adventures because they're laying out more of the setting details and characters who show up in the various adventures).

While it is more Adventure than previous Setting books have had, it is also more Setting than previous Adventure books have had, proportionally.

WotC folks have said that the important element of "Setting" to them is about adjusting genre expectations, and that is what this book does: provide campaign guidelines for a divergence from the base games assumed genre tropes.

 

[whimsychris123]

While it is more Adventure than previous Setting books have had, it is also more Setting than previous Adventure books have had, proportionally.

WotC folks have said that the important element of "Setting" to them is about adjusting genre expectations, and that is what this book does: provide campaign guidelines for a divergence from the base games assumed genre tropes.

My main concern is that this appears as a “setting” book that doesn’t offer the same amount of material for multiple campaigns. How much does this portend future “settings” books?

With settings like Eberron, Wildemount or Forgotten Realms, an imaginative DM could easily spend a lifetime developing adventures and campaigns. However, with the scant material of this book, multiple campaigns would almost be like starting from scratch. Maybe I’ll feel differently once I see the books, but I this feels like a one-and-done campaign setting.

 

[Jacqual]

I can really see WotC doing this from now on as an adventure/setting book is bought by the DM, while player options is bought be players. If a book incorporates all of the above more books will be sold as both players and DM's get use of them.

 

[Parmandur]

My main concern is that this appears as a “setting” book that doesn’t offer the same amount of material for multiple campaigns. How much does this portend future “settings” books?

With settings like Eberron, Wildemount or Forgotten Realms, an imaginative DM could easily spend a lifetime developing adventures and campaigns. However, with the scant material of this book, multiple campaigns would almost be like starting from scratch. Maybe I’ll feel differently once I see the books, but I this feels like a one-and-done campaign setting.

It probably portends very little for Setting products overall, other than showing that WotC is willing to experiment.

 

[humble minion]

It probably portends very little for Setting products overall, other than showing that WotC is willing to experiment.

I'm not so sure.

It looks a lot to me like this is WotCs preferred model for perhaps more experiemental settings. It's not like there's a lack of precedent either - remember Ravenloft was brought into 5e as an adventure module and the setting book only came much later once the module had proven successful (and imho this was one of the reasons Van Richten's was such a big miss for me - WotC tried to stuff all of Ravenloft into a single domain in CoS, and then go back and expand it into a setting in VRGtR while keeping all the dodgy shortcuts and handwaves and setting design laziness from CoS)

It looks a lot to me like Witchlight functionally is the 5e Feywild sourcebook, for instance. It looks a lot to me like WotC are going to dribble out FR setting material in dribs and drabs in their big adventure books too, rather than ever replace the deeply inadequate SCAG. And remember that WotC has also said that one of the upcoming legacy settings will be in a 'new and never before seen format' or something along those lines. Wouldn't at all surprise me to see that book being (for instance) a Spelljammer hardback adventure with 20 pages of token setting material up the front, or similar for Dark Sun.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not so sure.

It looks a lot to me like this is WotCs preferred model for perhaps more experiemental settings. It's not like there's a lack of precedent either - remember Ravenloft was brought into 5e as an adventure module and the setting book only came much later once the module had proven successful (and imho this was one of the reasons Van Richten's was such a big miss for me - WotC tried to stuff all of Ravenloft into a single domain in CoS, and then go back and expand it into a setting in VRGtR while keeping all the dodgy shortcuts and handwaves and setting design laziness from CoS)

It looks a lot to me like Witchlight functionally is the 5e Feywild sourcebook, for instance. It looks a lot to me like WotC are going to dribble out FR setting material in dribs and drabs in their big adventure books too, rather than ever replace the deeply inadequate SCAG. And remember that WotC has also said that one of the upcoming legacy settings will be in a 'new and never before seen format' or something along those lines. Wouldn't at all surprise me to see that book being (for instance) a Spelljammer hardback adventure with 20 pages of token setting material up the front, or similar for Dark Sun.

Sword Coast Adventuers's Guide is, at least, adequate and a major seller to boot. I wouldn't expect a replacement, maybe in 2024, but even maybe nor then.

The Ravenloft book is a good counter to your concern: it is more in line with the Eberron or Ravnica books. The reality is that WotC will probably make these decisions on a case by case basis.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

They are following the same pattern as the Paizo adventure path model.

Adventure material : 57-63 pages : 63-69%
Setting: 6 -12 pages : 7-13%
Options: 6 pages : 7%
NPCs and Monsters: 16 pages : 18%

Adventure material: 142 pages : 64%
setting details: 27 pages : 12%
Player material: 12 pages : 5%
NPCs and monsters: 42 pages : 19%

If the monsters section have every time the same amount of space and looking at the MM as the preferred manual of my kids (9 years) I must accept the fact that monsters sells a lot. But anyway I'm totally unable to understand why people needs this amount of different monsters in their game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Guess I'm in the minority then. I like the adventures we have been getting. What I dont want to happen is bloat and I'm afraid we are approaching that.

I agree, after Tasha's I feel 5e has more than enough rules. But you can always have more adventures, especially if they are wildly different and stuff I could never think up myself.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

With settings like Eberron, Wildemount or Forgotten Realms, an imaginative DM could easily spend a lifetime developing adventures and campaigns

So people only need to buy one.

Not a good outcome if you are WotC.