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.

 

[darjr]

@Parmandur i updated by above post

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would not expect much more than Yawning Portal, Strahd or Saltmarsh in terms of adaption, however, especially given how wildly successful theybwere in sales.

Strahd and Saltmarsh actually rewrote the adventures to make them work in 5E. Running the giant adventures as-is from Yawning Portal is a bad idea unless you explain to your players, in detail, that they're not balanced like 5E adventures.

Updating to the Strahd level -- a top to bottom reimagining of a classic adventure -- would be the gold standard.

 

[billd91]

Given that the TSR-era OARs have vanished from Goodman's site, I suspect WotC has clawed them back.

There are a lot worse things they could do for the 50th anniversary than giving one or more of the OAR books a deluxe modern treatment. (i.e. not just the minimal conversions they got for Yawning Portal.)

A modernized Keep on the Borderlands in particular would be a great choice for a new treatment, maybe as the 2024 starter set adventure.

My guess is WotC has ended the special license Goodman Games had to publish those. But, just because Goodman Games no longer has them on their website doesn't mean they might not be available elsewhere in a distribution chain. I found one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Adv...r+keep+on+the+borderlands,aps,74&sr=8-1-fkmr1

 

[Parmandur]

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. Please note those are all guesses by me.

Chris did say that the D&D 50th book had been announced but I can’t find anything on it.

Well, they laid on the hints of Timey-whimey shenanigans linked to Vecna pretty heavily in recent Adventure books, so a "revisit the last decade of Adventures " adventure would make sense. Maybe thst one is the Vecna book, which is why he said it had been announced?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My guess is WotC has ended the special license Goodman Games had to publish those. But, just because Goodman Games no longer has them on their website doesn't mean they might not be available elsewhere in a distribution chain. I found one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Adventures-Reincarnated-Into-Borderlands/dp/1946231355/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?crid=1I647UPX6KBFA&keywords=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands&qid=1687121598&sprefix=oar+keep+on+the+borderlands,aps,74&sr=8-1-fkmr1

Yes, they're available still from retailers. But Goodman not even mentioning them on their site suggests that once they're sold out, they're gone.

We've got two Judges Guild OARs coming (Dark Tower is almost out to backers and Caverns of Thracia is in the very early stages) and Grimtooth's Traps. After that, it's hard to say, other than it's probably not going to be a TSR adventure.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Sure, but I thought it was odd they mention prof. bonus when that has been in the statblock since Volo's IIRC.

However, I don't expect them to put in all the extra goodies you and LevelUp do. I think the comment was limited to the actual statblock. They have promised more monsters, they will not have the space to add all the extra bits I don't think

So once again the owners of the IP put out a good product, but rely on the fans to polish it and make it really good. Same as it always was...

Man, what I'd love to do if I had the budget they have to make these books.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So once again the owners of the IP put out a good product, but rely on the fans to polish it and make it really good. Same as it always was...

Man, what I'd love to do if I had the budget they have to make these books.

If their goal is to increase clarity, that's a good motivation, but putting a sidebar off to the side, specially shaded to signify "don't worry about this while running combat" to add those other elements wouldn't be hard.

 

[Parmandur]

My joke was that the Rod would fall apart way to easily, as they tried to hint what it was.

LOL

A D&D 50th Anniversary book, an Endless Stair book, a Rod of Seven parts book, and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Please note those are all guesses by me.

OK, interesting, I could see that. Based on what Perkins said about it already being announced, I'm guessing that the 50th anniversary celebration is Vecna going full Doctor Who villain with the obelisk time travel magic, as I said above.

Did theybsay anything about the RoSP, Infinite Staircase, or Barriar Peaks specifically that yoy feel comfortable sharing? How does S4 fit into this?

 

[Parmandur]

Strahd and Saltmarsh actually rewrote the adventures to make them work in 5E. Running the giant adventures as-is from Yawning Portal is a bad idea unless you explain to your players, in detail, that they're not balanced like 5E adventures.

Updating to the Strahd level -- a top to bottom reimagining of a classic adventure -- would be the gold standard.

I would agree that Curse of Strahd is a gold standard, however, if you look I think that you will find that it includes a word for word reprint of I6 within, same as Yawning Portal or Saltmarsh. Saltmarah and Strahd add on, but then originals are included pretty much as is.

 

[darjr]

LOL

OK, interesting, I could see that. Based on what Perkins said about it already being announced, I'm guessing that the 50th anniversary celebration is Vecna going full Doctor Who villain with the obelisk time travel magic, as I said above.

Did theybsay anything about the RoSP, Infinite Staircase, or Barriar Peaks specifically that yoy feel comfortable sharing? How does S4 fit into this?

They did not. Chris was relentlessly teasing.