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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

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.

I think Greyhawk is the DMG setting.

 

[Parmandur]

I think Greyhawk is the DMG setting.

That's what the tea leaves have seemed to indicate so far. Just trying to cone to grips with these hits about S3 and S4, and potentially 2 or 3 books beyond the Vecna campaign.

And, the DMG could have the digest version of Greyhawk, and then a more full treatment in a Spelljammer/Planescape type box.

Include a Bestiary full of old timey AD&D weirdos like the Wolf-in-Sheeps-Clothing, an Adventure ties to weird gonzo unique Grryhawk stuff like Taojcanth and Barriar Peaks...

 

[mamba]

I agree that Saltmarsh is the ideal for an anthology, but...can you explain what theme you saw in Yawning Portal...? Good stuff, but coherent theme is not an appellation I would apply.

dungeon crawls, with levels that follow the char playing through them. I agree Saltmarsh did it better

 

[Parmandur]

dungeon crawls, with levels that follow the char playing through them. I agree Saltmarsh did it better

Granted, itnis fungeon crawls organized by appropriate Lwvel. Kind of a weak theme.

 

[mamba]

Granted, itnis fungeon crawls organized by appropriate Lwvel. Kind of a weak theme.

Saltmarsh was not that much better, adventures near the sea, again for levels following the char progression. ‘Near the sea’ is not that much stronger thematically than ‘in a dungeon’, but it hung together somewhat better, still not the way an AP would / should

I like the Saltmarsh adventures better however

 

[Parmandur]

In perhaps one of the geekiest a ys of my life, I present to a rough estimate of the ~1000 or ~1100 miles between the locations if the big Dungeons in S3 and S4:

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth lication

Crashed spaceship location

As the drunken were crow flies betwixt them

 

[Parmandur]

Saltmarsh was not that much better, adventures near the sea, again for levels following the char progression. Hung together somewhat better, but not the way an AP would / should

I like the Saltmarsh adventures better however

The frame worked better on it's own terms.

 

[Reynard]

If you polled the 12 to 25 year olds that make up the majority of D&D customers, how many would even know what Greyhawk is, let alone would be clamoring for its return?

Why in the world would WotC use Greyhawk as the 2024 DMG setting when they could do something new that actually resonates with their core customer demographic?

 

[mamba]

The frame worked better on it's own terms.

that is what I meant by 'Hung together somewhat better' but still, if you wanted to, you could easily turn this into a more integrated AP with some small changes. They again did nothing to integrate the adventures (see SlyFlourish's posts on how he did it), they just picked a stronger theme.

 

[Parmandur]

If you polled the 12 to 25 year olds that make up the majority of D&D customers, how many would even know what Greyhawk is, let alone would be clamoring for its return?

Why in the world would WotC use Greyhawk as the 2024 DMG setting when they could do something new that actually resonates with their core customer demographic?

Classic high fantasy, which people love (see also, Forgotten Realms and Exandria) and Gho@ts of Saltmarsh is one of the best selling 5E Adventures.

Greyhawk has the advantage over Exandria of being owned by WotC, and unlike the Forgotten Realms yoy can fit the whole Setting in a DMG chapter.