"Dust" and "Midway" - Codenames for Upcoming D&D Hardcovers

Tales from the Yawning Portal was codenamed Labyrinth. Curse of Strahd was Cloak, and Storm King's Thunder was Dagger (or vice versa). Now two new codenames have emerged, spotted by EN World member kettite. Dust is dated 19 Sep 2017, hardcover, $49.95, and Midway is dated 21 Nov 2017, hardcover, $49.95. These have both appeared over on edelweiss' catalog. They do not match the four unnamed RPG Accessories on Amazon. Engage speculation mode - two new hardcovers later this year!

Typically the September release has been an adventure, and the November release a rules book (Sword Coast Adventurers Guide; Volo's Guide to Monsters). WotC has been hinting at a "major rules expansion" for a while now.

My guess? Take it with a massive truckload of salt, but I'm going to guess that Dust is fey or fey wild related. Possible the thing Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward helped with. But it really is a wild guess.

"Dust"
Wizards RPG Team
FRONTLIST
On Sale Date: 19 September 2017
9780786966103, 0786966106
Hardcover
$49.95 USD, $63.95 CAD


"Midway"
Wizards RPG Team
FRONTLIST
On Sale Date: 21 November 2017
9780786966110, 0786966114
Hardcover
$49.95 USD, $63.95 CAD

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[Quickleaf]

Regarding "Dust", not sure if this has been mentioned already, but the PAX East Acquisitions Inc. show ended with

[sblock] the characters being told by the giant oracle to look for an hidden city in a distant land, and to ask the children of Ubtao for guidance in finding an artifact called the Soulmonger, so it's possible Dust will be set in Chult, tying in with the Artus Cimber plotline from SKT.[/sblock]

Oh man, I had no idea about either of those! That sounds possible, given how Wizards has been setting things up with the trans-media approach. It could be its own thing or part of a compilation focusing on "lost cities of the Realms."

Sounds like there are a couple connections...

The barae were the seven Chosen of Ubtao, undying men and women who ruled the holy city of Mezro as priest-kings....It was said that if the city of Mezro were ever destroyed, the barae would turn to dust. source

Ubtao is a traditional enemy of yuan-ti, who are covered extensively in Volo's Guide to Monsters.

Ubtao is also associated with dinosaurs...which haven't been in any of the 5e adventures so far...and dinosaurs feature prominently in the Isle of Dread...which I think was part of the D&D Next playtest.

Artus Cimber (from Sword King's Thunder) was first introduced in the novel Ring of Winter where he was searching for the ring of winter in the jungles of Chult, an object said to herald a second ice age and make the bearer immortal. The ring was briefly mentioned in SKT.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Oh man, I had no idea about either of those! That sounds possible, given how Wizards has been setting things up with the trans-media approach. It could be its own thing or part of a compilation focusing on "lost cities of the Realms."

Sounds like there are a couple connections...

The barae were the seven Chosen of Ubtao, undying men and women who ruled the holy city of Mezro as priest-kings....It was said that if the city of Mezro were ever destroyed, the barae would turn to dust. source

Ubtao is a traditional enemy of yuan-ti, who are covered extensively in Volo's Guide to Monsters.

Ubtao is also associated with dinosaurs...which haven't been in any of the 5e adventures so far...and dinosaurs feature prominently in the Isle of Dread...which I think was part of the D&D Next playtest.

Artus Cimber (from Sword King's Thunder) was first introduced in the novel Ring of Winter where he was searching for the ring of winter in the jungles of Chult, an object said to herald a second ice age and make the bearer immortal. The ring was briefly mentioned in SKT.

Wait... where's all this from? (Aside from SKT?)

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[Quickleaf]

Wait... where's all this from? (Aside from SKT?)

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

Various sources of FR lore, based off of what [MENTION=6805135]briggart[/MENTION] mentioned about PAX East Acquisitions Inc. A lot, including the "dust" connection, is pulled from The Jungles of Chult (1993).

The Ubtao stuff I found on the Forgotten Realms wiki, and is cited as coming from the FR Campaign Setting 3rd edition & Faiths and Pantheons (2002).

Personally...I wonder if there's enough there to hang an entire hardcover adventure book on...or if this theory might lend itself better to some kind of compilation.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Various sources of FR lore, based off of what [MENTION=6805135]briggart[/MENTION] mentioned about PAX East Acquisitions Inc. A lot, including the "dust" connection, is pulled from The Jungles of Chult (1993).

The Ubtao stuff I found on the Forgotten Realms wiki, and is cited as coming from the FR Campaign Setting 3rd edition & Faiths and Pantheons (2002).

Personally...I wonder if there's enough there to hang an entire hardcover adventure book on...or if this theory might lend itself better to some kind of compilation.

Hmmm... This might be the Year of Compilations. If Dust has Chult as a shorter adventure along with others, and we have Yawning Portal and Midway is a multi-setting crunch book...

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[gyor]

Well I'd be disappointed that it's not Desert of Desolation, but at least we'd be exploring beyond the sword coast for a change.

 

[briggart]

Various sources of FR lore, based off of what [MENTION=6805135]briggart[/MENTION] mentioned about PAX East Acquisitions Inc. A lot, including the "dust" connection, is pulled from The Jungles of Chult (1993).

The Ubtao stuff I found on the Forgotten Realms wiki, and is cited as coming from the FR Campaign Setting 3rd edition & Faiths and Pantheons (2002).

Personally...I wonder if there's enough there to hang an entire hardcover adventure book on...or if this theory might lend itself better to some kind of compilation.

A possibility is that one of the adventures in Yawning Portal will be relocated to Chult, so the Acq Inc would be a tie-in for that, rather than "Dust". The timing could go both ways, since the next Acq. Inc show will be shortly before "Dust" comes out, so it could either serve as a finale for the Yawning Portal references, or the beginning of the new storyline.

But your finding about the barae is intriguing, and I personally would love a full Chult AP. I've been trying for a while to get a Primordial Thule campaign going, but right now I don't have enough spare time for that. A Chult AP, especially with a Ring of Winter connection, could serve as a "Primordial Thule"-light campaign.

 

[Jester David]

Which did kind of irk me. I am sure that there are good reasons, like deadlines, but it seems to me that a month would be a reasonable amount of time before closing the surveys. As long as they got what they need I suppose.

But I imagine they want people to actually playtest them. Which likely requires much, much more than than the 1-2 sessions permitted by a month.

 

[happyhermit]

But I imagine they want people to actually playtest them. Which likely requires much, much more than than the 1-2 sessions permitted by a month.

Well that was my point though, some of the surveys weren't even open for a month afaict. I get that they move to non-public playtests but they could still grab data without shutting down the survey.

 

[gyor]

I hope we at least get a good map of Faerun, especially southern Faerun, at least in the AP.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Where it gets interesting is wondering how this will be distinct from previous edition's "Player's Handbook 2" or player's supplements. For example, they changed things up with Volo's Guide to Monsters, making it a monster book combined with a lore book and a monstrous humanoid race supplement. Maybe we'll see the several-parts-in-one-book approach again in "Midway"?

...

So, looking at all that, there is a LOT of content. 2 new classes, lots and lots of subclasses, new feats, and new spells. However, maybe there's some stuff coming on the DM side of the screen too, like the mass combat rules & more traps.

I don't think they will make a distinction between player source and DM source, just like they didn't with Volo's Guide. I think you are on the right track with a combined lore and crunch book. That seems to be the standard they are going for in this edition.

I've owned a comic and game store for over 23 years. We haven't had an edition where the core books sell this well 3 years in.

What's even more awesome, is how the *Starter Set* sells. I move a few of those every week. Which means, not only is the game still doing well, it's still *growing*!

I've found that the Pathfinder players I talk to (especially those who have started their role-playing experience with Pathfinder...wow...the very possibility of that makes me feel like a seasoned citizen) tend to have negative misconceptions about 5e, and that when I explain it to them better they become more interested in trying it out. Particularly, they've been told that it is doesn't have enough options. Now, for some people that will be truth rather than misconception, but it depends a lot on individual preferences. I've been talking to someone who was in that exact boat, and after a few hours talking about the differences and similarities, explaining where the options are found (ie, big meaningful options like subclasses and feats, with less micro-choices), and discussing the various implementations of new features, he asked me if I could run a game of 5e for him and some friends.

5e just hasn't really been looked at yet by a lot of players of other games.

I think this trend of players of 3e and Pathfinder discovering 5e for themselves (not all will want to keep playing it, but some will) will likely continue as 5e continues to establish itself as the dominant D&D edition.