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.

 

[darjr]

You don't think it's the multiverse that Crawford was talking about?

I don't think so. It's going to be something a new DM can take and modify and make their own. I think it'll be much more bog standard.

A paired down Greyhawk or subsection thereof would be perfect.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think so. It's going to be something a new DM can take and modify and make their own. I think it'll be much more bog standard.

A paired down Greyhawk or subsection thereof would be perfect.

Set the clock back to the original Folio, and put as much info in as rheborigonal folio...don't really need any more than that.

 

[Stormonu]

All wrong answers.

It'll be the Threshold and the Known World (Mystara), hexmap and all.

 

[Parmandur]

All wrong answers.

It'll be the Threshold and the Known World (Mystara), hexmap and all.

Still more likely than the Nentir Vale.

 

[DarkCrisis]

To be fair, the first suggestions that "The Realm" was actually the Forgotten Realms go back to the 1990s and 2000s: grown-up versions of the kids appear in the promotional tie-in comic The Grand Tour, and there are Easter eggs referencing them (in a mean way) in Baldur's Gate II.

Obscure references, obviously - I didn't even recognize them in the comic at the time - but there's precedent.

It’s believed that they plane hopped. The conclusion of the series (had the final episode been finished and aired) would have had them go through a portal to a new land (thus season 2).

So they probably ending up in Faerun since there is lore of them existing there.

 

[TerraDave]

Strahd and Saltmarsh actually rewrote the adventures to make them work in 5E. Running the giant adventures as-is from Yawning Portal is a bad idea unless you explain to your players, in detail, that they're not balanced like 5E adventures.

Updating to the Strahd level -- a top to bottom reimagining of a classic adventure -- would be the gold standard.

Saltmarsh is full of danger if played rashly. So is the giants , but they were changed. There were SO many giants in the originals.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Tasha loved her daughter. If the mother wants her return, you can guess what could happen, even if this means alliances with bad guys or even a bloodbath.

Barrier Peaks? Can you imagine the impact of modern firearms? But...... if Hasbro wants collabs or crossovers with no-fantasy franchises, then we could bet we are going to see a lot of alien spaceships, or maybe even the Fortnite battlebus. A first step toward more isekai crossovers? Now I say it seriously, Hasbro really wants D&D version of licenced franchises because that is its marketing strategy, or said with other words, Hasbro wants a D&D version of Magic Beyond the Universe.

The fun fact is the look of Nentir Vale was designed to seem close to Warcraft. A collab with Blizzards for a Warcraf TTRPG 5e but this time by WotC themself shouldn't be so impossible.

There was a sourcebook about the infinite staircase, and this was a compilation of adventures. I imagine something like this, altough the adventures could be different. My opinion is the infinite staircase is the perfect place if you want a D&D version of the creepypasta mythology of the backrooms.

WotC needs a plan about how to place the possible future classes. For example after the return of the psionic mystic the next ones could be the martial adepts, and these could be from the Asian version of Greyhawk.

If alternate realities are canon now in the D&D multiverse this could mean variants of the settings, for example a steampunk Greyhawk or a postapocaliptic tribal-punk version of Dragonlance, or a planetary romance version of Birthright.

 

[Zaukrie]

Nah, it will be Pelinore.

If only

 

[Zaukrie]

Well, I think any of Greyhawk, the Dale Lands (of the FR), or Nentir Vale would work well...in that order of likelihood, imo. But I'm guessing that Nentir Vale will never make it back as either the example setting in the DMG or its own setting book...maybe in some kind of setting or adventure anthology.

If I could actually make money on it, I'd resurrect nentir vale.....

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Is WotC owner of Pelinore IP? The old settings get old very poor because they aren't "ready" to new elements to be added from later editions, for example new classes, PC species and monsters.

Nentir Vale was designed to be a sandbox. This means you are totally free to add a new element because this could come from the other side of the planet.

It is not only the complete geography of the world of Greyhawk to be redrawn, but also the "twin planets", and one of these could be the Earth of Gamma World. And also the rest of the "wildspace". These could be rebooted (and you can blame Vecna event).

* I guess the goliaths will be more popular than the aasimars, and the psionic mystic should be added instead the artificier.

* Will appear the bastion rules in the SRD? Maybe later there is a sourcebook about building your stronghold. What if the rules of bastions and guilds are mixed? Then players could enjoy special facilities by the guild even if they haven't reached the necessary level.