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.

 

[Scribe]

I think that most who play Half-Orcs (and aren't really invested into the mixed-heritage backstory), just want to play Orcs. They weren't allowed to play Orcs, so the closest thing to pick is a Half-Orc.

I suspect this is true as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I didn't suggest an Everything style book, more like VGtM, FToD, or B: GotG, but for Planar creatures and Planar Lore. Maybe a few new races or race variants.

Not in the core book release year.

They need to be driving people to pick up those books and use them immediately. There's going to be plenty of new stuff to absorb in the new core books as-is.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If I were to do a new Greyhawk I would lean heavily into it being the gritty low magic setting. I think there is a demand for that, even if that isn't what Greyhawk was originally intended as.

If I was going to do a gritty low magic setting, I'd start one from scratch, rather than trying to retrofit one that made a very big deal of knights and heraldry in its original folio and boxed set versions. There have been enough attempts already to turn Greyhawk into something it wasn't.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd sort of go the opposite: make Greyhawk the weird, old pulpy world. Lean into stuff lokw...the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, or Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.

Lost Caverns -- and Greyhawk more generally -- isn't particularly pulpy.

If there's a need to make a pulp world, it'd be a more successful one of it was all built around that theme, rather than pretending the Shield Lands and such don't exist on Oerth.

 

[Parmandur]

Lost Caverns -- and Greyhawk more generally -- isn't particularly pulpy.

If there's a need to make a pulp world, it'd be a more successful one of it was all built around that theme, rather than pretending the Shield Lands and such don't exist on Oerth.

Not sure hownthe Shield Lands are not pulpy...?

Though I rather suspect we may be using pulpy differently. I mean Gardner Fox, Poul Anderson, Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, etc...campy eclectic fantasy that is not really in the "high fantasy" vibe that Greenwood captured in the FR and has become the standard for Fantasy lit and D&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If I was going to do a gritty low magic setting, I'd start one from scratch, rather than trying to retrofit one that made a very big deal of knights and heraldry in its original folio and boxed set versions. There have been enough attempts already to turn Greyhawk into something it wasn't.

It was never anything other than core rules D&D. It has no real identity other than that which it inherited from the rules and art style of the time.

Recycling it to do something that D&D currently lacks seems more useful than throwing it away.

Otherwise, it's just the no-pants and chainmail bikini setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We do not have solid direct evidence. WotC, however, does have thst from research. The indirect evidence of Goliaths being added to the PHB by WotC speaks to what their data shows them.

Frankly, I don't think WotC would have been messing about with "aardlings" if their in-house statistics had suggested aasimir where remotely popular.

 

[Rabulias]

For all those pooh-poohing Greyhawk, nostalgia is just a fraction of the sales appeal. The vast majority of the D&D playing public today is unfamiliar with Greyhawk and to them it would be a new and novel setting.

That being said, I have not called my bookie to put money on this...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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Look at this map. The Grand Dutchy of Geoff! Dim Forest!! Good Hills!!! I think the only thing Greyhawk would show younger players is just how far we have come from the early days of world-building. JRRT this is not.

 

[Reynard]

Apparently, Greyhawk is a rorschach test.