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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

And Conan. And that Grey Mouser fellow.

There Tolkien elements to FR might be slightly stronger then in Greyhawk, but they are still very, very different from Tolkien, Ed's elves are much hornier, and less chaste, and the Catholism influences of Tolkiens are completely absent from the Realms, replace by more Canadian hippy values, more wonderfully pagan in nature.

I'm glad you noted the Narnia influences because some times those get ignored, but they are very strong, again minus the Christian element mostly (Nobanion and Imater being exceptions).

As I've stated else where the Conan influences get stronger the more eastwards you go. And then there are all the none Greenwood elements that got added, much of it early on after the Grey Box, but which have their fans too.

I run into one highly ubscure such example, Achea, which was originally created by Ray Winninger back in 1987 as just an island you could drop into any setting, inspired by the Greek and Romans, that was mostly about the Archean games, in an adventure called Blood and Laurels, but later in Tales of the Outer Planes, a year later got place in the Forgotten Realms, abit distant from Faerun by hundreds of miles, and a Mount Olympus placed there that acted as a Portal to THE MOUNT OLYMPUS on Arborea, the key being climbing the mountain. This was done to give a way for Forgotten Realms players to do Ray Winninger's Mount Olympus adventure, but in a way that didn't interfere the main story lines, so it was kept far away from the main events, but close enough should you want to use the Island of Achea. Tales of the Outer Planes was released in 1988 so it makes sense he was encouraged to create a link to FR and his adventures.

 

[Maxperson]

Can say as I've ever seen a Gith PC outside of BG3.

I saw one githyanki played back during my 1e days in the mid 80's. Haven't seen one played since. Except in BG3.

 

[Maxperson]

He was talking about making magic items and another designer pointed out that scrolls can be a shorthand for matching a magic item to a rarity and power.

I think he meant this chart.

View attachment 316182

It struck me as a neat insider secret.

Where is that chart from?

 

[Parmandur]

Actually I think Ed prefers to compare Elminster to Merlin. Honestly I think Elminster is far different from either once you get to know them. Elminster I think is more gender fluid and pansexual then either of those, long before that was commonly accepted, but with a slice of demigods to him, although TSR was heavily pressured him into that.

That's the hippie part. But other than being a hippie, Eliminster is your friendly local Shadowdale mage who might send you on an Adventure to protect his home and neighbors.

Mordenkainen is a balance obsessed weirdo who is interested in keeping everyone and everything in check, doesn't care about his neighborhood, and will probably hire you to walk ahead of him in the Tomb of Horrors.

 

[Parmandur]

In terms of how the game actually plays out, there isn't a big difference to me. And to be fair, this is a problem to one degree or another with most D&D settings where the rules are pretty much the same throughout.

Fair enough! Though I don't think it has to be thst way

 

[Maxperson]

Actually I think Ed prefers to compare Elminster to Merlin. Honestly I think Elminster is far different from either once you get to know them. Elminster I think is more gender fluid and pansexual then either of those, long before that was commonly accepted, but with a slice of demigods to him, although TSR was heavily pressured him into that.

I see Gandalf in Elminster far more than I see Merlin(not at all).

 

[Parmandur]

I see Gandalf in Elminster far more than I see Merlin(not at all).

T. H. White's Merlin, I can see.

 

[Maxperson]

T. H. White's Merlin, I can see.

I don't know that version.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know that version.

Lot's of anachronistic 50's British humor, the Disney adaptation of the first part of the book is pretty accurate:


And I do not think it is a coincidence thst this movie was in theaters starting when Greenwood was 4.

 

[darjr]

Where is that chart from?

That’s from the Basic Rules for the Spell Scroll.

Or the DMG magic item Spell Scroll.