D&D 5E Legends & Lore 6/16/14

[the Jester]

My group is going to seriously increase our frequency of playing if we are going to keep up.

Thaumaturge.

That's (arguably) a good thing!

Also, remember how much faster 5e is than the last few editions. You can get thrice as much done in the same amount of play.

 

[Thaumaturge]

That's (arguably) a good thing!

It should be a great thing. We just keep getting our schedules filled.

Thaumaturge.

 

[am181d]

Cool dragon!


Glad to hear that WoTC will again partner with Kobold Press for content, its a great collaboration IMO!. Also glad that more ''story bible'' (i hope story bible = world bible) are in the pipeline and hope that the next in line are Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Eberron...

They explicitly did NOT say that they would partner with Kobold Press again (though it seems likely). Only that they would partner with "other RPG studios" again.

And given that their storylines are tied to Organized Play, you are pretty much guaranteed to only see Forgotten Realms adventures for the foreseeable future, at least at this scale. I suspect that other settings will be limited to sidebars and footnotes for the next couple of years.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Indeed.

And yet... I can't help but think that such a thing would be incredibly useful for a DM to have, so he could see an example for how it's done. After all, very few of us are involved in the scripting of video-games (or TV shows, or Adventure Paths, or anything else with a "splat bible"), but many of us are involved in campaign generation.

Dingdingding.

Plus, it lets DMs run games that dovetail with the OP options without necessarily being the "core adventures."

I know story bibles are for production purposes. The thing is, D&D consumers, often, are also producers, so production documents are also things we'd pay cash money for (especially if given some light polish and organization to be publicly presentable).

 

[DEFCON 1]

However, if they want to kick each storyline off with a new Epic, it sounds like it would make sense for the new storyline to begin at a major convention next year. Which kind of means Winter Fantasy, Origins or Gen Con. I guess Winter Fantasy would make sense. Then they could premiere another storyline at Gen Con as well.

It seems it would make the most sense for WOTC to do 2 APs a year.

Yeah... I'd agree with this. If GenCon is in August and Winter Fantasy is in or around February, that a six-month split between them. And in both cases, there is a PAX event that follows right behind (PAX Prime over Labor Day in September, and PAX East in late March.) So you could easily premiere the Epic events at GC and WF with second runs at the PAXes. Thendecide if you want to run them again at any other major cons throughout the rest of the year.

 

[jodyjohnson]

As far as Story Arcs go, having the next one done, 2 more by the end of the year, and 1 in development is just standard lead time.

Fall/Winter arc - Tyranny of Dragons lasting August through February/March (2 encounters seasons plus the convention schedule given where Expeditions adventures tied to the arc premiere).

Tyranny is 2 printed adventures which are the basis for home and Encounters play. An Epic at Gen Con. And roughly 10 Expedition adventures premiering at the Con list he Tweeted.

The next one that is done is the Spring/Summer arc - Unknown with an Epic at ?Pax East? and another set of Expeditions releasing at a selection of spring/summer cons.

The Fall/Winter story being the big one and the Spring summer one being smaller in a Tick/Tock arrangement.

If the big story is 2 adventures (Levels 1-8 and 9-15), 1 epic (GenCon only), 10 expeditions lasting from August to March (the Expeditions open one month after the premiere with the last Expedition con being GottaCon in late February - so open in March) then the Spring Summer arc really only has April to July so we get say 1 print adventure (Levels 1-10), maybe 5 Expeditions and an Epic at Pax East in April.

Gen Con launches the next big arc. Which according to Mike should be set by the end of the year.

For many groups the Fall/Winter arc will be big enough to last the whole year, so the Spring/Summer arc is a chance to do the smaller and maybe less Realmsy arc but probably not until 2016.


Regarding a specific weekly Encounters schedule I expect gaps where stores can fill in with Expeditions events or finish up the modules. Because it may take a while to run 10 Expeditions modules in 8 months for the Fall/Winter arc.

 

[Plaguescarred]

They explicitly did NOT say that they would partner with Kobold Press again (though it seems likely). Only that they would partner with "other RPG studios" again.

You're right, i just assume they meant it since they seem to have like the experience and said they'd want to collaborate with RPG studio again.

 

[MerricB]

Regarding a specific weekly Encounters schedule I expect gaps where stores can fill in with Expeditions events or finish up the modules. Because it may take a while to run 10 Expeditions modules in 8 months for the Fall/Winter arc.

Chris Tulach has confirmed there will be gaps.

MerricB: "How long will be the Tyranny of Dragons Encounter season? 12 weeks? 20? 3?"
Chris: "It's not going to be an exact length. Each group will be different. I'd expect 14-18 weeks of play."
MerricB: "Will there be overlap in Encounters seasons as a result, or a gap between seasons?"
Chris: "Gap. There will be more weeks than content to allow for store and player flexibility."

Cheers!

 

[TarionzCousin]

I'd be into that. I've got no real desire to participate in public play, but I'd be into getting a story bible that lets me know how to make my own adventures that dovetail with the story.

I would love this, too, but think it unlikely.

Let's hope WotC proves me wrong!

 

[The Hitcher]

incredibly[/I] useful for a DM to have, so he could see an example for how it's done. After all, very few of us are involved in the scripting of video-games (or TV shows, or Adventure Paths, or anything else with a "splat bible"), but many of us are involved in campaign generation.

Yeah, I can see the appeal in theory. But there's a huge gulf between an internal reference document and something they'd ever release to the public. A lot of the stuff would be covered by the adventures, so you wouldn't want to repeat everything, and then you'd potentially have to rewrite a lot of it for consistency of tone and so on. Not sure there would be a big enough market, unless the adventure itself proved hugely popular.