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]

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

Thanks!

More interesting is the gulf between tiefling and aasimar. D&D players are a bit on the naughty side, I guess...

 

[uncanny_kate]

I did play in the adventure! And yeah, as you said, we were a group of level 10 adventurers sent by some names you'll recognize to collect the Rod of Seven Parts. The part we played was a trip to Ravenloft, chasing leads to the Death House. The adventure is going to take you to all corners of the D&D-verse - he explicitly mentioned Dragonlance and Eberron, so it's not just the core Forgotten Realms. I'm pretty excited to play in the full campaign when it releases!

 

[Azzy]

The thing about it being most likely to be Greyhawk is that it's also most likely to be a version of Greyhawk that is unrecognizable to the groggiest of nards. There will be Dragonborn. And Tieflings. And Goliaths.

I also imagine the amount of clothing-per-person in the artwork is going to also be a bit alien to the hardcore fans.

As a Greyhawk fan, I find it rather silly that some other fans are so opposed to bring in new(ish—most of which aren't actually new) elements when GH was the original kitchen sink that absorbed later elements in 1e and 2e. It was never meant to be stagnant and not add in new options, the idea that it is a later invention.

 

[Azzy]

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.

I mean, Springfield, Silver Springs, Oxford, Newfoundland, Rio Grande, Jefferson City, Black Forest, etc.

 

[Demetrios1453]

As a Greyhawk fan, I find it rather silly that some other fans are so opposed to bring in new(ish—most of which aren't actually new) elements when GH was the original kitchen sink that absorbed later elements in 1e and 2e. It was never meant to be stagnant and not add in new options, the idea that it is a later invention.

I'm always amused by the "no tieflings!" bunch. Um... what have Iuz and the Great Kingdom been doing for decades? There are plenty of people with some fiend lineage running around those areas now!

 

[Azzy]

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

Yeah, GH has several distinct human ethnicities—and yet, as you say, are almost never reflected in the art.

 

[darjr]

As a Greyhawk fan, I find it rather silly that some other fans are so opposed to bring in new(ish—most of which aren't actually new) elements when GH was the original kitchen sink that absorbed later elements in 1e and 2e. It was never meant to be stagnant and not add in new options, the idea that it is a later invention.

Yea. For example he had others campaigns in it too Blackmoor being the known one.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Just how is comparing race numbers to race race numbers apples and oranges on the topic of race numbers? They're literally the same thing. Look, I get that you don't like it, but it is in fact evidence. Not strong evidence. And it proves nothing. But it IS evidence.

One is free to make characters with, the other you pay for, it's a massive difference, only being part of the PHB/SRD is more important.

 

[Scribe]

Thanks!

More interesting is the gulf between tiefling and aasimar. D&D players are a bit on the naughty side, I guess...

Sex and Edge sells. Its forever been true.

 

[Quickleaf]

Huh? So maybe they are all places in Greyhawk where prices are hidden? Barrier peaks too?

How does the stair fit?

Might be they're going to change up the origin of the Infinite Staircase a bit... tie it to the "Weavers" who are responsible for the obelisks (and who Vecna apparently eradicated from history)?