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.

 

[JEB]

Could be the world of the cartoon

Considering the kids' weapons are also going to be in the DMG, I think this is more likely.

 

[Reynard]

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.

Maybe you are right, but I have never seen online a drive toward Greyhawk by anyone younger than the GenX set.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

Tsojancth has a lot going for it, especially as a mini-expansion of AD&D ahead of Monster Manual II and Unearthed Arcana, but heavily burdened by plot, it is not. It's a good blank slate to add stuff to.

 

[Mercurius]

No one cares about poor bunnies.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

As someone who's run a nautical campaign, even having a book on stuff on islands or adjacent to the water is much easier to use than "well, they're all in dungeons." It would have been nice if there had been a bit more connective tissue, especially since they went to the trouble of fleshing out Saltmarsh the way they did.

 

[Lidgar]

I like it, feels a bit cramped though, page wise and level wise, so maybe drop WG4?

Or drastically expand S3, Curse of Strahd style maybe, since T1-T4 was kinda revisited in Princes of the Apocalypse

I could see a sandbox that includes Tsojcanth, Tharizdun, and Barrier Peaks very compelling.

 

[Parmandur]

I like it, feels a bit cramped though, page wise and level wise, so maybe drop WG4?

Or drastically expand S3, Curse of Strahd style maybe, since T1-T4 was kinda revisited in Princes of the Apocalypse

Given the page size differential (AD&D had a very low word pet page density, compate the YP Chapters with the original modules) on one end, and if it was say 320 paged *which several 5E Adventures have been)...it wouldn't be so cramped with added context, even.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OK, try this one on for size, using the semi-secret "WG" module series amd the 1E page counts (for your amisement as well, @darjr ):

• WG1: The Village of Hommlet, low Level intro, about 24 pages
• WG2: The Temple of Elemental Evil, for charachers of up to 8th Level, about 104 pages
• WG3: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, for characters Level 6-10, about 64 pages (lotnof bestiary)
• WG4: The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (which is literally next door to Tasha's old stomping grounds in WG3), for characters of Level 5-10, about 32 pages
• S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, for charof Level 8-12 as a campaign capper, 68 pages but based on Tomb of Horrors WotC would probably drop most of the handout material.

So, that would be 292 pages in AD&D pagination. 5E pages are more information dense, though it is hard to calculate hownl that would hash out with thw new font size and also the addition of full color art and such.

It...could work.

This feels pretty unlikely to me, unless they announce that they're letting Yawning Portal go out of print. (Which, to be clear, would be my preference. Give us new and improved versions of those adventures instead, please.)

 

[Parmandur]

Considering the kids' weapons are also going to be in the DMG, I think this is more likely.

Honestly, though, that never got really developed before it was re-connect into being the Forgotten Realms. Still predicting Greyhawk, it fits yhe known facts best.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe you are right, but I have never seen online a drive toward Greyhawk by anyone younger than the GenX set.

I am a Milleniel, my dude. 3E nostalgia is also a thing.