D&D General Dungeons & Dragons Sneak Peek at Gameholecon: 50th Anniversary Adventure, Rod of Seven Parts, The Endless Stair, Tsojcanth, Barrier Peaks?

I was leaving a panel at GameHoleCon when Chris Perkins walked in and then Justice and Bill and then quite a few other WotC folk! So I stayed.

I'm glad I did because what started as a very funny trivia game challenge to the WotC folk and some of the audience soon turned into a discussion about things they are working on. Cool things. Oh and some of those questions were by Jon Peterson and were hard! I pride myself in getting a couple correct! Iron Rations for the win! Chris Lindsay talked about the DMSGuild too, and strongly hinted to me about the Manual of the Planes. I just wasn't on the same plane.

Anyway they discussed things that have already been covered, but I think with a bit more detail on particular things. This was more of a conversation than a presentation after all.

• Ron Lundeen discussed the internal playtests and that he liked it when he would see similar things discussed in the same ways in both public and private testing.
• Bill Benham discussed Jaquaysing the maps and adventures and how they are taking that more to heart. I think she was on everyone's mind at the panel, see this thread if you would, she could use our help.
• Ron also dicussed how he learned that scrolls are a secret magic item table of power and rarity for magic items generally. That's a nice hint I'll have to take a closer look at.

And then Chris talked about how their adventures take this fine line of between having too much and overwhelming new people yet also having to satisfy old hats like myself.

• The new core books will have an update to format and art like the more recent books.
• Gateway to new players was a term they kept using for the new PHB and even the DMG.
• Oh and they mentioned Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron as a new spell, which Hollie will be delighted with.
• All three books will have mostly new art from new artists too, like from two concept artists from Obi Wan and the Avatar shows.

Then they went on to the DMG and how it'll talk about what a DM does, what are the parts of the game, the books and even how to use the DM Screen in play.

• It'll have handouts and tools to help you organize and build your notes and show you a campaign setting designed to be customized as a tutorial to make it your own and eventually build one from scratch.
• There will be new magic items to fill in more rarity niches and more cool common ones too.
• And finally we'll get the 1980 cartoon series magic items, something Chris seemed almost giddy about.

The Monster Manual will have more high level creatures and they noted things they'll put in stat blocks that were missing before, like proficiency bonus.

'Romp around the multiverse', I don't think that's a new book title, but it's a new kind of anthology book that revisits all the things they've done in D&D, a '50th anniversary book'. Chris Perkins actually ran the Ravenloft adventure at the convention, I wish I'd captured the events he ran because I'm guessing the title and a few details are in that entry. Anyone here play in his games? Care to share?

And then Chris started to display cool secrets. I'm not sure if any of these are separate books or part of the above mentioned book, but I think they are separate books the way Chris was hinting. I must also offer an apology. There was no way I could get all of these images. I was caught off guard and in a bit of awe. The last one especially is just killing me, it was wonderful and Chris refused to show me after the panel with that wry smile of his.

So here is the only clear image I got. What do you see? Give me your guesses and I'll later give you what the jokes were they made. I even got a laugh out of the crew with one!

However the missing last image was my biggest regret. It was a cute fluffy bunny on a stump...... Oh the agony! I got a selfie with Chris as a consolation prize!

OK I’ll spill more. I’m not sure but they indeed seemed to be talking about multiple books and this new book for the 50th. I think they intentionally obfuscated things.

• The key to me is that the 50th book is a visit to all the 5e adventures and the stuff that isn’t from those are either for the story to tie them together or are from other books
• The bunny was undead, a Sheep in Wolfs clothing. It was a brand new painting and I didn’t recognize the artist.
• My joke was that the Rod would fall apart way to easily, as they tried to hint what it was.

So from what they were taking about I think.

• A D&D 50th Anniversary book
• An Endless Stair book
• A Rod of Seven parts book
• And Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• Oh and Tsojcanth

Please note those are all guesses by me. Oh and Tsojcanth.

Chris did say that the D&D 50th book had been announced but I can’t find anything on it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

5E Tasha is a more complex character, not an evil villain per se. Drelnza would no doubt have a changed up story, too.

As I realized a bit too late for that post, she could be an owner/guardian of one of the pieces of the Rod. Even perhaps they are re-dressing Lost Caverns by adding that piece of the Rod to add it to the plot.

 

[darjr]

Huh? So maybe they are all places in Greyhawk where prices are hidden? Barrier peaks too?

How does the stair fit?

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

How does the stair fit?

If I recall, the Infinite Staircase traditionally connects to places of artistic expression.

It's mostly an FR thing (a lot of ties to the goddess Selune), but there's no reason it couldn't connect to Oerth as well.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Huh? So maybe they are all places in Greyhawk where prices are hidden? Barrier peaks too?

How does the stair fit?

There's a lot of ways this could go. In fact, yet another idea is that the Stair product is going to be Yawning Portal 2 and have a bunch of old school modules like Lost Caverns and Barrier Peaks, and these don't have anything to do with Vecna and/or the Rod. You can get to those old module locations by using the Stair (and if they're smart, connecting the Stair to the Yawning Portal to answer the question of "How do you get to all these places from the Yawning Portal?" that the YP book never clarified). Another old-school module anthology would be a very smart idea for the anniversary to celebrate the history of the game.

 

[Demetrios1453]

If I recall, the Infinite Staircase traditionally connects to places of artistic expression.

It's mostly an FR thing (a lot of ties to the goddess Selune), but there's no reason it couldn't connect to Oerth as well.

The Stair can connect to just about anywhere in the D&D multiverse, so Oerth is definitely available.

They really should make it Escher-esque, with all sorts of non-Euclidian geometry and the like.

 

[darjr]

OK but this doesn’t match the 50th book that hits the 5e adventures up till then. So it’s at least two books?

 

[Demetrios1453]

The Stair can connect to just about anywhere in the D&D multiverse, so Oerth is definitely available.

They really should make it Escher-esque, with all sorts of non-Euclidian geometry and the like.

Aaaaaaand a quick bit of research confirms both - the 2e Infinite Staircase specifically mentions Oerth connections, and it can definitely be like an Escher drawing...

 

[Gradine]

There was definitely speculation back when Tales from the Yawning Portal was revealed to have seven adventures in it, that the Rod of Seven Parts might play into a central framing device that never actually materialized. I could definitely see the Rod involved in anthology adventure product in the future.

 

[Parmandur]

OK but this doesn’t match the 50th book that hits the 5e adventures up till then. So it’s at least two books?

I am taking the fact that everyone whonhas reported being in this talk came away with the impression that he was talking about multiple books very seriously until we get more solid info. I don't think y'all would get that impression without some cues, perhaps subtle or hard to call to mind specifically. Bit that could I d be 2, 3 or 4 books potentially.

I had actually been thinking recently that I wouldn't expect the Vecna Adventure (sounds like this Anniversary booknhe spoke about) to be the only RPG release even with the new Core obviously being the stars for the year. My most likely candidates were an anthology (2017, 2019, and 2021-23 streak, popular formst for WotC) or a Settong (at least one full Setting product every year since 2018).

Heck, maybe we will get an anthology tied to the Infiiote Staircase for getting around, and a Greyhawk Slipcase. Sprinkle the Rod of Seven Parts in there somewhere.

 

[Parmandur]

There was definitely speculation back when Tales from the Yawning Portal was revealed to have seven adventures in it, that the Rod of Seven Parts might play into a central framing device that never actually materialized. I could definitely see the Rod involved in anthology adventure product in the future.

To be honest, even knowing that it was intended to be a movie tie-in to the Warner Bros. movie thst ended up not happening, that "theming" has to be the most baffling and half-baked idea in 5E's prodict development run.