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.

 

[Reynard]

It's a Europe sized continent that had a driving design goal of putting places for different sorts of stories to occur. The Shieldlands are very different from the Hold of Stonefist, the Pale is very different from Irongste, Blackmoor is very different from Ull. Etc, etc, etc. And those differences are largely insupport of genre variety.

And yet people still say "Greyhawk is..."

Greyhawk is a rorschach test. People see in it what they want. Then they argue about it on ENWorld with people that saw two puppies kissing instead.

 

[Parmandur]

I find it strange that Greyhawk sort of has expies for Turks (Baklunish), Indigenous North Americans (Flan), Aztecs (Olmec) and others, yet it's rarely reflected in most of the art.

The 3E era art was actually pretty good about thst sort of diversity for Greyhawk characters. Too many pouches, still. 5E art approach would probsvly serve diversity well.

 

[Reynard]

Chicken and egg. The goliath had been an option for three Editions before CR came along, going into the Misty prehistory of the game (2004). And the Goliath being so popular on Beyond data predates LoVM!

Does it predate CR S2?

 

[Parmandur]

And yet people still say "Greyhawk is..."

Greyhawk is a rorschach test. People see in it what they want. Then they argue about it on ENWorld with people that saw two puppies kissing instead.

Yes, exactly. That is why.it isn it to purpose as a DMG toolbox.

 

[Nikosandros]

It is the grognards choice.

 

[Parmandur]

Does it predate CR S2?

By a while, yes, though the earliest shared Beyond data in 2017 shows the Genasi aheqd of the Goliath: 5,971 to 4,522. Aasamir only.had 1,767, less than half the Aarakocra at 3,868.

 

[Reynard]

Yes, exactly. That isnwhybitnisnfit tonpurpose as a DMG toolbox.

I wonder if the baggage is worth it, compared to using something new. There are plenty of folks on this very forum that prefer current WotC not touch the old settings. Wouldn't you just sidestep that issue* by using something new and equally bland -- er, "easily modified"?

*I doubt it is a sales issue, but it may be a goodwill or public perception issue.

 

[Reynard]

By a while, yes, though the earliest shared Beyond data in 2017 shows the Genasi aheqd of the Goliath: 5,971 to 4,522. Aasamir only.had 1,767, less than half the Aarakocra at 3,868.

Link please?

 

[Parmandur]

I wonder if the baggage is worth it, compared to using something new. There are plenty of folks on this very forum that prefer current WotC not touch the old settings. Wouldn't you just sidestep that issue* by using something new and equally bland -- er, "easily modified"?

*I doubt it is a sales issue, but it may be a goodwill or public perception issue.

Based on little thar aort of bellyaxhing has corresponded withbsales issues? Don't thinknthwt is much of a problem. Probably more people who will brle put over the edge to get the DMG if it has a Greyhawk map than will complain about it.

And new players don't have that baggage, so it isneasybto lean into the strengths and the retro prestige.

 

[Parmandur]

Link please?

Here you go:

Is Your D&D Character Rare?

We got a peek at what kind of characters everyone is building, and a lot of players are sticking close to reality.

fivethirtyeight.com