Marathon, Broadway, and Catacomb: Upcoming D&D Products?

WotC has been using codenames for its upcoming products for some time, mainly to stop anybody figuring our what's in the pipeline. Those codenames end up as placeholders on bookstores and the like. Eagle-eyed reader Sean spotted some upcoming items on McNally Robinson, a Canadian bookstore's website.

The items spotted were a 192-page hardcover accessory codenamed "Marathon" (May 2018); a 256-page hardcover adventure codenamed "Broadway" (September 2018), and another 256-page hardcover adventure codenamed "Catacomb" (November 2018). There's also a set of "Broadway" dice.

Past codenames have included "Labyrinth", which turned out to be Tomb of Annihilation, and "Dust", "Midway", "Cloak", and "Dagger".

Let the speculation begin!

D&D "Marathon" HC
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966240
format: Hardcover
series: D&D Accessory
pages: 192
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-05-29

D&D "Broadway" Dice
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966288
format: Game
series: D&D Accessory
pages: n/a
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-09-18

D&D "Broadway" HC
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966257
format: Hardcover
series: D&D Adventure
pages: 256
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-09-18

D&D "Catacomb" HC
By Rpg Team Wizards
ISBN: 9780786966264
format: Hardcover
series: D&D Adventure
pages: 256
publisher: Wizards of the Coast
pub. date: 2018-11-20

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[GarrettKP]

If Waterdeep/Undermountain are done, I would see that as being one book, not two.

There’s no way this will be the case. Undermountain and Waterdeep are both large enough to encompass whole books by themselves. And there’s a reason the September and October books are so close together. They are connected. One is a true adventure (Broadway) and one is a companion to it (Catacomb). Waterdeep will be the Adventure, and Undermountain will be the Companion book. Just a Book detailing every room of Undermountain.

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

Why are we hypothesizing about a Stranger Things product? Has there been any talk of that?

 

[GarrettKP]

I went back and listened to the Gameshole Con State of D&D panel. In the panel they very specifically said that telling a story over multiple books is something they “very very very well may do” but that they wouldn’t do so over the course of multiple AL seasons/years.

Waterdeep and Undermountain are Broadway and Catacomb, people. Get ready for it. It’s happening.

 

[AsteronCalypse]

Catacomb: Tomb of Anhhialation Sequel
Marathon: Somthing underwater

 

[GarrettKP]

Catacomb: Tomb of Anhhialation Sequel
Marathon: Somthing underwater

... Marathon is Mordenkainens Tome of Foes. That’s already been announced.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I went back and listened to the Gameshole Con State of D&D panel. In the panel they very specifically said that telling a story over multiple books is something they “very very very well may do” but that they wouldn’t do so over the course of multiple AL seasons/years.

Waterdeep and Undermountain are Broadway and Catacomb, people. Get ready for it. It’s happening.

I sure hope at least one of them is a major city-wide urban campaign. Having just re-read WFRPG's The Enemy Within 1-2, I have an urge to play a urban adventure instead of pushing my players across half a continent. I'd like a smaller scale adventure with more focus on personal goals; no saving the world this time, please.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I went back and listened to the Gameshole Con State of D&D panel. In the panel they very specifically said that telling a story over multiple books is something they “very very very well may do” but that they wouldn’t do so over the course of multiple AL seasons/years.

Waterdeep and Undermountain are Broadway and Catacomb, people. Get ready for it. It’s happening.

That would be perfect for me.

 

[LordEntrails]

There’s no way this will be the case. Undermountain and Waterdeep are both large enough to encompass whole books by themselves. And there’s a reason the September and October books are so close together. They are connected. One is a true adventure (Broadway) and one is a companion to it (Catacomb). Waterdeep will be the Adventure, and Undermountain will be the Companion book. Just a Book detailing every room of Undermountain.

I agree with everything you said except the part in bold

WotC will never detail every room in Undermountain in a published book. There are about 4000 rooms in UM. Were they to detail them at 4 per page that would be a thousand page book... *G*

Now, it's not impossible. I know, because I'm in the process of doing it. But I sure as heck am not going to be making it print on demand. I'm doing it in a database (Fantasy Grounds) where you can actually have that much data in a useful format. (I might someday make it available in a PDF, but there are organizational challenges in doing such and I have limited bandwidth.)

 

[Quickleaf]

Nice to see this, but are any of the authors actually very closely related with WotC?

Joe is the only name I recognize, but that's not saying much as I rarely pay attention to author names.

Well, in a word, yes.

Michael Witwer (Author) penned Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of D&D.
Sam Witwer (Author) is on Dice, Camera, Action.
Kyle Newman (Author)...wasn't he part of Extra Life? I can't remember.
Jon Peterson (Author) was interviewed by Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble.
Joe Manganiello (Foreword) is an offical spokesperson for D&D.

 

[gyor]

I'm going to buck the trend here and say I honestly don't think the next books are going to be Undermountian and Waterdeep. I still think one will be a Lantan/Spelljammer adventure and catacombs with be a Tales of the Yawning Portal style book.