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D&D 5E The New D&D Book: Candlekeep Mysteries: 17 Mystery Adventures [UPDATED!]

The cover of the upcoming D&D book has been revealed! Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of 17 mystery-themed adventures for character levels 1-16. The image has appeared on Penguin Random House's product page for the book. UPDATE! Penguin's product page appears to have now vanished, but we now have the product description! Thanks to @Fezzwick for spotting that! An anthology of...

The cover of the upcoming D&D book has been revealed! Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of 17 mystery-themed adventures for character levels 1-16.

Screen Shot 2021-01-11 at 6.35.34 PM.png


The image has appeared on Penguin Random House's product page for the book.



UPDATE! Penguin's product page appears to have now vanished, but we now have the product description! Thanks to @Fezzwick for spotting that!

An anthology of seventeen mystery-themed adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Candlekeep attracts scholars like a flame attracts moths. Historians, sages, and others who crave knowledge flock to this library fortress to peruse its vast collection of books, scribbled into which are the answers to the mysteries that bedevil them. Many of these books contain their own mysteries ̶—each one a doorway to adventure. Dare you cross that threshold?

· 17 mystery-themed D&D adventures, each tied to a book discovered in the famed library fortress of Candlekeep
· Easy to run as stand-alone mini adventures or to drop into your home campaign
· Adventures span play from levels 1 to 16
· Includes a full poster map of Candlekeep, plus detailed descriptions of the various locations, characters, and creatures that reside within it
· Introduces a variety of Dungeons & Dragons monsters, items, and non-player characters (NPCs)

Candlekeep Mysteries is a collection of seventeen short, stand-alone D&D adventures designed for characters of levels 1–16. Each adventure begins with the discovery of a book, and each book is the key to a door behind which danger and glory await. These adventures can be run as one-shot games, plugged into an existing Forgotten Realms campaign, or adapted for other campaign settings. This book also includes a poster map of the library fortress and detailed descriptions of Candlekeep and its inhabitants.


There have been mentions of an upcoming adventure anthology since 2019, with Kate Welch's name attached, along with other celebrity adventure writers including Critical Role's Marisha Ray, and actor Deborah Ann Woll. There were also suggestions that the authors might all be women. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

 

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Uta-napishti

Adventurer
Some thoughts:
1. D&D desperately needs more adventure types that aren't just combat after combat.
2. A Good Mystery story rocks like nothing else, yet a Bad one Sucks like almost nothing else.
3. Writing a good mystery story is damn hard, with stakes, information management, character motivation, pacing and logic being much more important and easier to screw up than a standard D&D adventure.
4. Ergo, 17 or even half that many good mysteries in a single book would be an amazing, unlikely accomplishment.
5. WotC has a mixed record of doing hard things well. See Tascha's section on puzzles which dissapointed not only those of us who hate "find the letter / color combination to open the door" puzzles, but also dissapointed those I've talked to who love puzzles.
6. That means, I have great eagerness to see if WotC can pull this off (if so, instant classic), but not very high hopes it happens.
 


Dr. Bull

Adventurer
This is unexpected, but exciting! I prefer old-school (shorter) adventures.

I've wondered why Candlekeep had not been given a 5e treatment... Now I know why!
 



G

Guest 6801328

Guest
Personally I am not going to get too hung up on the "mystery-themed" wording on the cover. That looks like a nice marketing schtick to get folks interested. It's 17 different adventures (that's a nice amount!), so my guess is it will be a bunch of short (8-10 page) adventures that accommodate a variety of playstyles with hooks to other "mysteries", perhaps all loosely linked.
Yeah, they could very easily be kick-in-the-door, hack & slash adventures with aesthetic elements that are evocative of mysteries.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
It would probably take fairly minimal work to convert them to Morgrave University. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising the book suggests that, and even gives conversion tips...
Morgrave University would be a pretty disappointing way to do mysteries in Eberron. Hard-boiled D&D detectives, ink-stained journalists, veterans from the Last War who can't hold down a consistent job -- so many better choices.
 

I've wondered why Candlekeep had not been given a 5e treatment... Now I know why!
Candlekeep is part of the Sword Coast Adventurers’ Guide, and (spoiler for a published 5e adventure) Candlekeep is also a location in Descent into Avernus. There’s also a truly excellent Candlekeep guide on the DMs Guild.

But yes, this is the first official product to centrally spotlight Candlekeep since one of the D&D Next adventures.
 


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