Coming in May: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes! [UPDATED!]

So they just gave the title and showed the cover mock-ups; no specific info till Monday?

 

[pukunui]

I was hoping for something more alliterative.

 

[lkj]

I was hoping for something more alliterative.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Manual of Master Menageries.

 

[lkj]

. . . for Modrons . . .

 

[Imaro]

Hiya!

Had my coffee. I'm ready to get my Curmudgeon-Grognarditis flaring up again...



This is specific and it specifically pre-empts (?) many, many, DM's campaigns where it doesn't exist (mine), or has been resoloved/changed (friends). Anything on a "Blood War" is wasted space that is too campaign-specific to be useful in a, supposedly, 'generic' book for a DM to use.




No. Just, no...again. Same problem. It's all FAR to 'campaign specific'. All this would do is clutter up pages that could have been better spent helping a DM figure out his own deity/pantheon conflicts.




Semi-no here. Maps would be pointless unless done in VERY rough idea to help DM's get a grip on just what this "Planar Wheel" layout is (us 1e old timers know it almost off by heart, but I've had some new players just not 'get it'; they have maps hard-wired into their brains that if you walk far enough in one direction you will run into an ocean, other country, etc...and the planes don't work like that because they are infinite).



Ah-HA! Now this guy gets it! If THIS was how they handle the whole book...where it's not so much as "Here is X, Y and Z", and more of "You can use the alphabet, or numbers, or shapes, or colours, or whatever to craft your own"...then I'd be TOTALLY down with that! Give me the TOOLS & MATERIALS...don't give me a completed table. Alas, I don't suspect I'll get that if the past books are anything to go by.

I believe my 1e Manual of the Planes is still going to be forced into service once again. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I love my MotP!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

The weird thing is I don't think I'd pay for something as generic as you seem to want this book to be... I mean there's plenty of this type of general info in D&D blogs, or D&D youtube videos, generic (systemless) campaign building books and so on, with the added bonus that most don't cost a dime... I'm not sure i see what value a book that is as generic as you seem to want it to be would provide...

EDIT: Which isn't to say I wouldn't mind a chapter of generic advice and general examples on building out my own stuff but an entire book devoted to it would be a non-starter for me.

 

[darjr]

Mordenkainens Modron recipe book!

 

[Agray Day]

anyone recall the code word for this release and the code word for the next release?

 

[OB1]

Here would be my wishlist for the page count

50 pages general planar lore and rules (2 pages each to the 16 outer, sigil, feywild, shadowfell, 4 elemental, prime material, far realm)
50 pages - in-depth look at 5-7 great conflicts in the planes
45 pages Foes - 15 in-depth looks at Tier IV cosmic forces that fuel the great conflicts at 3 pages each
100 pages - 150 minions of the foes, averaging 3/4 page each
20 pages - 5 new planar pc races


Sent from my iPhone using EN World

 

[pukunui]

anyone recall the code word for this release and the code word for the next release?

This is "Marathon". The next two are "Broadway" and "Catacomb".

 

[Mistwell]

You can use this to translate the symbols.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Hiya!

Had my coffee. I'm ready to get my Curmudgeon-Grognarditis flaring up again...



This is specific and it specifically pre-empts (?) many, many, DM's campaigns where it doesn't exist (mine), or has been resoloved/changed (friends). Anything on a "Blood War" is wasted space that is too campaign-specific to be useful in a, supposedly, 'generic' book for a DM to use.




No. Just, no...again. Same problem. It's all FAR to 'campaign specific'. All this would do is clutter up pages that could have been better spent helping a DM figure out his own deity/pantheon conflicts.




Semi-no here. Maps would be pointless unless done in VERY rough idea to help DM's get a grip on just what this "Planar Wheel" layout is (us 1e old timers know it almost off by heart, but I've had some new players just not 'get it'; they have maps hard-wired into their brains that if you walk far enough in one direction you will run into an ocean, other country, etc...and the planes don't work like that because they are infinite).



Ah-HA! Now this guy gets it! If THIS was how they handle the whole book...where it's not so much as "Here is X, Y and Z", and more of "You can use the alphabet, or numbers, or shapes, or colours, or whatever to craft your own"...then I'd be TOTALLY down with that! Give me the TOOLS & MATERIALS...don't give me a completed table. Alas, I don't suspect I'll get that if the past books are anything to go by.

I believe my 1e Manual of the Planes is still going to be forced into service once again. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I love my MotP!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

I don’t follow your logic at all. The Blood War is a bad example when I mention it, but just fine when someone else mentions it?

Okay.

 

[Jester David]

I have to agree. Mordenkainen's Guide to the Planes or Multiverse would have been much better. And if those titles don't fit the book's content well enough, then... the book's content is a problem too.

Volo's Guide to Monsters was a great name that explained what the book was about: monsters and a guide to them. It set you up for the flavour and contents. The book was focused, with monstrouseas PC races.
Tales from the Yawning Portal was so-so. You can tell it was a tacked on name they came up with at the last minute. It really needed a map of the tavern and an introduction to each dungeon as told by the people of the tavern
Xanathar's Guide to Everything was such a terrible name. It gave you zero idea what was in it. Player book? DM book? It really sounded more guidebook, a sequel to Dungeonology.

This just continues that tradition. They're so desperate to be original and not use old names that they're doing a terrible job of naming the books.
This sounds more like a Monster Manual that Volo's Guide to Monsters. It doesn't imply anything but monster.

And, really, after VGtM, Tome of Beats, the upcoming Creature Codex, Fifth Edition Foes, Tome of Horrors 5e I don't really need a lot of monsters. I need more lore, expanded rules for planes, and a better presentation of that information than in 1e. Maybe some variant monster rules for planar threats.

 

[tmanbeaubien]

Awesome! Do you know what I was just thinking to myself today?

"Self, do you know what D&D needs? MOAR ELFS! You know, for when you're hungry. Let's see ... you can barbecue elf, boil elf, broil elf, bake elf, saute elf. There's uh, elf-kabobs, elf creole, elf gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple elf, lemon elf, coconut elf, pepper elf, elf soup, elf stew, elf salad, elf and potatoes, elf burger, elf sandwich. And then you can get them in all your varieties; I like me some Wood elf stew for those cold nights on the ethereal plane."

And don't forget -
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked elves and spam!

 

[Remathilis]

I don’t follow your logic at all. The Blood War is a bad example when I mention it, but just fine when someone else mentions it?

Okay.

Don't mind him. Just another person who thinks D&D is a generic toolset devoid of any sort of story or setting identity.

 

[Olive]

Obviously other people's mileage differs here but at the end of the day I don't care what it's called, or what it's cover looks like (or how many there are although I think the different covers are a nice thing for the gaming shops). What I care about is if the books are useful for me and my gaming group.

We started a new campaign last week and we've already used every non-adventure book put out for 5e - we've used spells from Xanthar's and monsters from Volo's as well as the core books. I've played or run other games that used races from Volo's and player options from Xanthar's as well. The books have been, to my mind, great. I played a lot of 3/3.5 and I bought almost every WotC book but I would be hard pressed to say what books saw regular use at the table. Bang for buck has been so much better in 5e.

I see a lot of complaints that there is too much Realms content but we play in a homebrew that is much closer in tone to Greyhawk than FR and it's never bothered me. So discussion on the Blood War (or specific planes or whatever) won't be useful to me at all but I'm sure we can figure out how to use the monsters and PC options in our games.

In short, I don't really get the idea that 'if it's not perfect, it's not useful' I'm seeing a bunch of. Perfect for you will be useless for someone else.

 

[Olive]

This just continues that tradition. They're so desperate to be original and not use old names that they're doing a terrible job of naming the books.

For the rule based books I quite like the names as at the table we can refer to Volo's, Xanthar's etc. It's more useful that PHB2 and, as the design team have pointed out, far less confusing.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Please, please, please don’t use another iconic Greyhawk hero, villain, or storyline to supplement the Forgotten Realms. Let’s actually have a product that actually features something else in this supposed vast and varied multiverse.

I'm not sure how you coming to this conclusion. From the sound of things, it would appear that this book will touch very lightly, on the Forgotten Realms (though I doubt it will be ignored entirely). Frankly, I would expect more coverage on Greyhawk conflicts/foes like Iuz before we'll see much on the Realms - and I expect that planar coverage will dwarf that of any specific setting world...

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

 

[Charlaquin]

No. Just, no...again. Same problem. It's all FAR to 'campaign specific'. All this would do is clutter up pages that could have been better spent helping a DM figure out his own deity/pantheon conflicts.

I didn’t say it was a good idea, just that it’s what the book sounds like it’s going to be, based on the blurb and recent activity on D&D Beyond and Unearthed Arcana.

 

[silentdante]

some of these comments make me wonder why they bother playing the game at all

 

[RotGrub]

My only hope is that this book has a magical item like the Skull of Mondain, that when used, instantly kills all elf and dwarf subraces not found in the PHB.

 

[darjr]

So some of the code names make sense after the fact, some.

Why then do you think they picked this code name?