"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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[Sword of Spirit]

Chult is fine. Accerack in Chult annoys me, especially since we already just got him in his appropriate context. Although, if they were planning to have Accerack make a FR appearance, releasing the Tomb of Horrors before it could have been intentional to reduce outrage over taking him from Greyhawk. I'd say it succeeds in "reducing" it at least, though it still annoys me.

 

[Mercurius]

The sad thing is that we probably won't know for two or three more months.

Anyhow, it is interesting to see folks come up with scenarios that want to see, aka confirmation bias.

I honestly don't know what I want to see, although i suppose if I could choose, Dust would be some kind of Desert of Desolation meets Dark Sun story arc emphasizing psionics, and Midway would essentially be a Manual of the Planes that details Sigil and gives extensive planar sandboxing guidelines and/or a Gith focused war campaign. But I'm not wedded to either, and Acererak in Chult or something fae related both sound good.


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[darjr]

Whatever I'm pretty certain WoTC will hit it out of the park. I've been very happy with the adventures so far. Both in the overall story/adventure and the utility of their parts. From cool little dungeons to use as a part of a Forgotten Realms sandbox.

 

[Hussar]

Chult is fine. Accerack in Chult annoys me, especially since we already just got him in his appropriate context. Although, if they were planning to have Accerack make a FR appearance, releasing the Tomb of Horrors before it could have been intentional to reduce outrage over taking him from Greyhawk. I'd say it succeeds in "reducing" it at least, though it still annoys me.

Hasn't Acererak been pulled out of Greyhawk for a while though? Didn't Return put him in his own little demi-plane? And 3e made him into a Vestige for Binders. I'm not sure if there is an "appropriate context" for Acererak anymore.

 

[DEFCON 1]

No idea of the likelihood of this... but I know way back a year or two ago when the idea of a BBo'M (Big Book of Mechanics) was being rumored... I had said that I hoped that the BBo'M would include all the mechanical stats for things necessary to run all of the main campaign settings, rather than having to wait for an individual setting product for each of them. So that the book would include the mechanics for psionics for Dark Sun and Eberron; include the Warlock-King patron and Defiling rules from Dark Sun; the shifter, warforged, changeling, kalashtar, artificer and dragonmarks for Eberron; the three wizard specialty schools for Dragonlance; and anything else mechanically needed to run Greyhawk, Mystara, Kara-Tur, Planescape, and Birthright.

Well, based upon the UAs for the Mystic, Artificer, several Oriental Adventure subclasses, and stuff from the Feywild... it certainly does seem we are getting a bunch of "off-world" stuff not directly connected to the Realms. When you throw in the GH Mad Mage reference in Curse of Strahd, Acererak's mention of crossing the multiverse to show up in Chult, Planescape: Torment just getting the Beamdog treatment, and Mike's mention (in regards to Volo's Guide) that he doesn't want to produce just generic books but would want to "connect them" with something... it seems to me that what would make the most sense to connect this BBo'M "to" something would be a Planescape-related identity. Because the book will go over a whole crapload of mechanical things from "across the multiverse".

And if that's the case (not saying it's in any way definite, but there's enough stuff to hint at a cross-planar effort)... then I'd think that the campaign setting released this autumn could also be planar-related just to make use of a lot of this stuff being released. Maybe related to chasing down Acererak as he goes planar to escape our wrath down in Chult? Now I'm not saying necessarily a "greatest hits" trip to each and every one of the primary D&D settings, but at the very least maybe hitting the Feywild, maybe hitting the Shadowfell, maybe a stop in Dark Sun or back to Greyhawk, who knows?

I'm probably completely off-base here, admittedly. But I know that if I had a product of multiversal mechanics for most of the campaign settings... the most fluffy way to tie that book together would be Planescapish. And if you were going to do that... having the new Adventure Path make do with some of that plane-hopping fluff wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

 

[Alex Mosier]

Just received my copy of Yawning Portal, and after a bit of browsing, it seems like a good bet for Dust is Undermountain.

 

[pukunui]

Just received my copy of Yawning Portal, and after a bit of browsing, it seems like a good bet for Dust is Undermountain.

What makes you think that?

 

[Alex Mosier]

I wouldn't call it a spoiler since the info is already out there, but the yawning portal is a tavern in Waterdeep with a well in the center that is an entrance to Undermountain. But Undermountain's not in this book. That dungeon could easily serve as its own book. And Dust is one of two 50 dollar books announced for this year. Why tell where the entrance is if you're not going to release more on the dungeon? Also dust is a good code name for something that involves a lot of underground adventuring.

 

[pukunui]

I am familiar with the Yawning Portal and Undermountain. I would've thought it would make more sense to put the two together, rather than put the entrance in one book and the actual dungeon in another, don't you?

 

[Alex Mosier]

Oh I agree. But that's not what they did. We got 7 classic adventures and an introduction that explains the tavern and the well. It even talks about the patrons betting on the groups who venture down. Seems to me they would want to make money on the dungeon, so they'll have to release another book. It's that or let people convert the old box set on their own.