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?

 

[Parmandur]

Another terrible name. It sounds more like a generic Monster Manual 2 than a book you’d look to for information on the multiverse.

I'm also tired of special covers. Two in a row? They have ceased to be special.

Thing is, it is basically a MM III, but with IP specific flavor. Volo's Guide 2: This Time It's Planar.

 

[Leatherhead]

This alternate cover doesn't seem to fit with the others.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

Honestly, they are not great at naming: but the names have been memorable.

 

[Quickleaf]

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

Why then do you think they picked this code name?

I postulated a couple theories back in this thread that were meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but who knows....

A marathon is 26.219 miles, which is close to the old TSR product codes for several Planescape products, such as TSR2620 Planewalker's Handbook, TSR2621 Hellbound, TSR2628 Great Modron March, TSR2629 Faction War, TSR2631 Dead Gods, etc.

The word marathon comes from the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory. So that could be the premise for a war-based adventure/supplement.

 

[Quickleaf]

Thing is, it is basically a MM III, but with IP specific flavor. Volo's Guide 2: This Time It's Planar.

At the end of the stream Stewart said, "Not a Monster Manual 3."

Hmm...

 

[Jester David]

Thing is, it is basically a MM III, but with IP specific flavor. Volo's Guide 2: This Time It's Planar.

Maybe
The tagline is "Discover the truth about the great conflicts of the D&D multiverse in this supplement for the world's greatest roleplaying game". Does that mean it's giving a chapter each to demons, devils, and gith? Or chapters to the conflicts, like the Blood War and Illithid hunt?
It does seem to be about "Mordenkainen's musings on the endless wars of the multiverse" (Although I doubt it will be in-character) and not the monster types.

I'm curious how the "several varieties of elves and duergar" are meant to fit in...


Which makes me sad. As the planes are locations, not just places for monsters and conflict. This feels like doing a Forgotten Realms campaign setting and just focusing entirely on the bad guy nations and villainous factions...

 

[Jester David]

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

Why then do you think they picked this code name?

I don't know exactly. I imagine it's has as much to do with the first syllable as the meaning. It's something recognisable that isn't going to be easily confused when discussing around the office.

I postulated a couple theories back in this thread that were meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but who knows....

A marathon is 26.219 miles, which is close to the old TSR product codes for several Planescape products, such as TSR2620 Planewalker's Handbook, TSR2621 Hellbound, TSR2628 Great Modron March, TSR2629 Faction War, TSR2631 Dead Gods, etc.

The word marathon comes from the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, who reported the victory. So that could be the premise for a war-based adventure/supplement.

I've joked before that they could be pulling them from a random generator and we'd still invent a deep meaning for them.

 

[Parmandur]

Hmm...

In the same way that VGtM wasn't a MM2 (which they insisted on), absolutely.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe
The tagline is "Discover the truth about the great conflicts of the D&D multiverse in this supplement for the world's greatest roleplaying game". Does that mean it's giving a chapter each to demons, devils, and gith? Or chapters to the conflicts, like the Blood War and Illithid hunt?
It does seem to be about "Mordenkainen's musings on the endless wars of the multiverse" (Although I doubt it will be in-character) and not the monster types.

I'm curious how the "several varieties of elves and duergar" are meant to fit in...


Which makes me sad. As the planes are locations, not just places for monsters and conflict. This feels like doing a Forgotten Realms campaign setting and just focusing entirely on the bad guy nations and villainous factions...

A monster book, with player options: I'd lay money on that based on the description.

 

[guachi]

Pass. Like I've passed on everything after the DMG except "Monsters" and that's only because I had store credit at a store going out of business and had to buy something.