DDAL Lost Tales of Myth Drannor: DDAL's "Secret" D&D Book For Gen Con 50

Lost Tales of Myth Drannor is an official D&D Adventurers League book containing six adventures for characters of levels 1-20. It is billed as a promo for Gen Con's 50th anniversary, although it will eventually appear on the DMs Guild -- from DDAL's Greg Marks: "It is a book that is a promo for GC50 and cons the admins are invited to. It will eventually appear on the DMsGuild."

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Greg also added that "When initially released some are being distributed by BMG at Gen Con (I can't speak to how) and some by admins as promos" and that its appearance on DMsGuild would be "some months later.... PDF and possibly POD".

He added later that "I can't speak to what the BMG folks will be doing with their allotment, but the admins that are there will have some as well (myself, Claire and Alan are attending). The first print run of Super Secret Project 76 (not its real name) will be used by the admins as a promo item that we hand out at cons we go to (an actual book is a pretty awesome promo!). It will eventually go up on the DMsGuild as well, though not immediately. I will continue to tease more info on my twitter (@Skerrit7h3green) up until it is released on August 17th."

And there's a LOT of them sitting in boxes at Gen Con this week!

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[Jester David]

The point of delaying publication of previously con-exclusive content used to be to allow for other conventions to run that same material without their players knowing what was it in, so it remained spoiler-free for most players.

Which is great... except that other Adventurer's League modules and the published modules are the majority of content played at Adventurer's League games, and easily purchased. The honour system is already in place.
And is still assumes the players weren't at one of the other cons or purchased it from secondary vendors.
And this assumes there aren't fan scans of the module available. Which there are.

Delaying publication in NO way prevents people from cheating.
All it does is keep the content from people who want to use it but cannot afford to get to a convention—or attended the convention but were not one of the lucky few to get a copy, as it was not available for anyone who asked—including many Adventurer's League players. And away from collectors.
The only people who really benefit from a long term collectable are people on the secondary market who can turn an amazing profit selling the books.

 

[Mistwell]

Which is great... except that other Adventurer's League modules and the published modules are the majority of content played at Adventurer's League games, and easily purchased. The honour system is already in place.
And is still assumes the players weren't at one of the other cons or purchased it from secondary vendors.
And this assumes there aren't fan scans of the module available. Which there are.

Delaying publication in NO way prevents people from cheating.
All it does is keep the content from people who want to use it but cannot afford to get to a convention—or attended the convention but were not one of the lucky few to get a copy, as it was not available for anyone who asked—including many Adventurer's League players. And away from collectors.
The only people who really benefit from a long term collectable are people on the secondary market who can turn an amazing profit selling the books.

If I had gotten it at the first convention they gave it out, you can be darn sure it would have been uploaded to eBay the next day, with no reserve and free shipping and international shipping allowed. Because that sucker would have paid for the convention costs

 

[cbwjm]

I forgot this was even a thing.

 

[EthanSental]

If I had gotten it at the first convention they gave it out, you can be darn sure it would have been uploaded to eBay the next day, with no reserve and free shipping and international shipping allowed. Because that sucker would have paid for the convention costs

There was a person selling multiple copies on eBay when they were fetching $250+...put a dent in his/her convention bill!

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

https://mobile.twitter.com/dnd_advleague/status/1013082190287200257

 

[Ancalagon]

https://mobile.twitter.com/dnd_advleague/status/1013082190287200257

Interesting - I look forward to reading reviews!

 

[gyor]

There was a person selling multiple copies on eBay when they were fetching $250+...put a dent in his/her convention bill!

$250 for an adventure that isn't even canon, wow.

 

[darjr]

$250 for an adventure that isn't even canon, wow.

It is cannon

 

[Jester David]

$250 for an adventure that isn't even canon, wow.

A collectable is a collectable.

Also... define "canon"? Because I'm not certain how you think it applies here. Do you mean the events in the adventures impacting and altering continuity? That's a big assumption that any events in the adventures will change the world or end up causing lasting consequences.

If you mean the intersection of canonicity and being official... how canon were the various D&D Encounters adventures published during 4th Edition? They were officially published and vetted in-house and lot of them had impact on the Realms and involved gods like Lolth, but none of the events are recorded in any way. Are they canon?
How about the Free RPG Day stuff?

I like canon and like it when the games respect and use continuity. But I don't think products outside canon don't have value. I'd prefer non-canon over something that changes or ignores canon...

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

$250 for an adventure that isn't even canon, wow.

Canon or no...I just want a fun series of adventures.