DDAL DDAL Legal DMs Guild Books

[Morrus]

The Border Kingdoms

This is a list of books on the Dungeon Master's Guild which have been 'officially' approved by WotC and are D&D Adventurers League legal. This does not include actual DDAL adventures.

• The Border Kingdoms (Ed Greenwood, Alex Kammer)
• Moonshae Isles Regional Guide (Baldman Games)
• Lost Tales of Myth Drannor (Greg Marks, Claire Hoffman, Alan Patrick, Travis Woodall, Bill Benham, Robert Adducci)
• Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron (Keith Baker, Ruty Rutenberg, Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Kate Welch)
• Lost City of Mezro (Rich Lescouflair, Will Doyle)

 

[tommybahama]

Are these regional guides like the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide or adventures like Descent into Avernus?

I don't see any Roll20 games advertised for Eberron so I wasn't sure if it was just a guide or widely unpopular?

 

[Morrus]

Are these regional guides like the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide or adventures like Descent into Avernus?

I don't see any Roll20 games advertised for Eberron so I wasn't sure if it was just a guide or widely unpopular?

The answer to your question is but a click away!

 

[CapnZapp]

Are these regional guides like the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide or adventures like Descent into Avernus?

Three of them offer campaign material (no ready-made adventures). Lost Tales of Myth Drannor, on the other hand, sports half a dozen adventures.

 

[Fenris-77]

Cool. Nice to see WotC reaching even a little bit outside the fold, even if it is for mostly the same designers.

 

[tommybahama]

The answer to your question is but a click away!

I did. Some of the descriptions mention "adventure hooks" but I wasn't sure what that meant. Part of my confusion is that I recently heard that the Sword Coast guide sold poorly. I wasn't sure why WotC would repeat the same thing again by publishing more guides.

 

[Morrus]

I did. Some of the descriptions mention "adventure hooks" but I wasn't sure what that meant.

An adventure hook is generally a short (paragraph or so) seed for an adventure. It's not a full adventure; it's just designed to give you ideas and get your started.

Part of my confusion is that I recently heard that the Sword Coast guide sold poorly. I wasn't sure why WotC would repeat the same thing again by publishing more guides.

Wildemount sold incredibly well. Theros probably will do, too. I assume Eberron did.

But WotC isn’t making these. Third parties are publishing them in DMs Guild.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I did. Some of the descriptions mention "adventure hooks" but I wasn't sure what that meant. Part of my confusion is that I recently heard that the Sword Coast guide sold poorly. I wasn't sure why WotC would repeat the same thing again by publishing more guides.

I very much doubt that it sold poorly in the sense that it didn't make a lot of money for WotC. The actual hardcover book may have had limited sales, but when you consider the secondary sales on D&D Beyond, Roll 20 and so on, which are at full price (or near to it), I am quite sure it and basically any other book with a decent amount of character options in it has sold a far larger number of "copies" than their Amazon sales might indicate.

 

[Ibrandul]

I very much doubt that it sold poorly in the sense that it didn't make a lot of money for WotC. The actual hardcover book may have had limited sales, but when you consider the secondary sales on D&D Beyond, Roll 20 and so on, which are at full price (or near to it), I am quite sure it and basically any other book with a decent amount of character options in it has sold a far larger number of "copies" than their Amazon sales might indicate.

Right. But WotC has decided to limit the number of books they release annually, as part of their overall "don't flood the market/overwhelm casual players" approach for 5e. And that means they want every one of their limited number of releases to sell as well or better than whatever else they might have released instead in that "slot." This is why, when SCAG sold less well than any other early 5e release, they put the kibosh on further setting guides for a while.

Then, when the corporate synergy of a Magic: The Gathering setting proved irresistable, they did Ravnica, and it sold extremely well, opening back up the setting guide option for official releases.

However, they've now done three consecutive setting guides (Eberron, Wildemount, Theros) and even though those three all seem to be selling/preselling very well, I'd be surprised if we get yet another setting book anytime soon.

 

[gyor]

Right. But WotC has decided to limit the number of books they release annually, as part of their overall "don't flood the market/overwhelm casual players" approach for 5e. And that means they want every one of their limited number of releases to sell as well or better than whatever else they might have released instead in that "slot." This is why, when SCAG sold less well than any other early 5e release, they put the kibosh on further setting guides for a while.

Then, when the corporate synergy of a Magic: The Gathering setting proved irresistable, they did Ravnica, and it sold extremely well, opening back up the setting guide option for official releases.

However, they've now done three consecutive setting guides (Eberron, Wildemount, Theros) and even though those three all seem to be selling/preselling very well, I'd be surprised if we get yet another setting book anytime soon.

I disagree with you on setting guides, there is a reason why WotC appears to be doing more setting guides, they sell very well, the top type of book required in surveys were Campaign Setting books, and they have produced alot of APs, more then most folks can play thru right now, so slowing the release of APs makes sense. And Campaign Setting books are a great way to mix setting lore, Player options, and DM resources in a single book, with a introductory adventure so they can get costumers beyond just a settings fans.

Now that they know these setting books are splitting up the fan base as they feared, there is no reason not to do more of these books.