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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[gyor]

There are 3 books coming still. Waterdeep, Undermountain, Lantan/Spelljammer can all work together. Also Chris Perkins said simply that Lantan is in an upcoming story, not in a story this year. So there is that.

That is possible, I guess we will see.

I think the new third book will be either a Campaign Setting book, hopefully FRCG, although a different setting is possible.

Or its another player book. I don't see them having three APs n a single season, maybe one AP and a Module update book like TOTYP with the third book being more like the SCAG, but hopefully bigger.

This is my guess and we will see who is right and gets all the glory and who is wrong.

 

[Morrus]

Marathons link goes to MTOF and the other two now just go to the home page of that book store.

This post was 6 months ago. That's why I copy/pasted the info.

 

[Jester David]

I expect the people thinking we will see four RPG books this year will be disappointed.
Even two original APs in the fall is unlikely.

Perkins is the primary adventure writer, and there’s almost no way he can get one (Broadway) in September and another related one (Catacomb) in November.
If there is a second AP, it will likely be written by the rest of the team and likely be reprint heavy. Or simply another book that isn’t quite splatbook or storyline adventure.

Meanwhile, when is this fourth RPG book expected to come out? December? A month after Catacomb. Unlikely. There’s a reason Mordenkeinan’s is coming out in May, six months after Xanathar's, rather than April like the previous books.
Wouldn’t we see its codename?

More than likely the fourth *product* isn’t for the RPG, being a WotC or even a D&D product that is not an expansion of the tabletop game. The art book certainly qualifies, which has been leaked but not officially announced/ discussed by WotC. Another board game or related product would also count. (As would the dice for that matter.)

 

[Parmandur]

I expect the people thinking we will see four RPG books this year will be disappointed.
Even two original APs in the fall is unlikely.

Perkins is the primary adventure writer, and there’s almost no way he can get one (Broadway) in September and another related one (Catacomb) in November.
If there is a second AP, it will likely be written by the rest of the team and likely be reprint heavy. Or simply another book that isn’t quite splatbook or storyline adventure.

Meanwhile, when is this fourth RPG book expected to come out? December? A month after Catacomb. Unlikely. There’s a reason Mordenkeinan’s is coming out in May, six months after Xanathar's, rather than April like the previous books.
Wouldn’t we see its codename?

More than likely the fourth *product* isn’t for the RPG, being a WotC or even a D&D product that is not an expansion of the tabletop game. The art book certainly qualifies, which has been leaked but not officially announced/ discussed by WotC. Another board game or related product would also count. (As would the dice for that matter.)

Well, whatever it turns out to be, it would be something that Kate Welch could edit, so no dice.

 

[LordEntrails]

I expect the people thinking we will see four RPG books this year will be disappointed.
Even two original APs in the fall is unlikely.

Perkins is the primary adventure writer, and there’s almost no way he can get one (Broadway) in September and another related one (Catacomb) in November.
If there is a second AP, it will likely be written by the rest of the team and likely be reprint heavy. Or simply another book that isn’t quite splatbook or storyline adventure....

Four would surprise me, but you do know that Broadway and Catacomb have already been written? The commissioned the art for it a couple months ago according to one of the artists.

Besides, Waterdeep and Undermountain aren't that hard to write, especially since they were written last year and play tested in ~November.

I think the fourth, if it happens, will be something new. Not an AP, probably not a setting. Maybe a book of fiction or myths?

 

[Parmandur]

Four would surprise me, but you do know that Broadway and Catacomb have already been written? The commissioned the art for it a couple months ago according to one of the artists.

Besides, Waterdeep and Undermountain aren't that hard to write, especially since they were written last year and play tested in ~November.

I think the fourth, if it happens, will be something new. Not an AP, probably not a setting. Maybe a book of fiction or myths?

My money is on something off the wall, like Star Frontiers or Gamma World...which might also explain why the codenames wasn't uncovered...

 

[Jester David]

Well, whatever it turns out to be, it would be something that Kate Welch could edit, so no dice.

It could also be a board game or a card game.
Or referring to the Drizzt book due this September.
Or she could have misspoke and was thinking of the spring 2019 book.

But she did say it was something she did not work on, since she only worked on two of the three. So dice would fit. Heck, so would Dungeon Tiles or a map pack. Design work is design work, and doing art orders would be part of her job.

Four would surprise me, but you do know that Broadway and Catacomb have already been written? The commissioned the art for it a couple months ago according to one of the artists.

Right. And they’ve already begun work on the spring 2019 book. (But they were working on editing the May 2018 book as late as a couple months ago, so the fall books aren’t finished yet.)

The point is they would be hard pressed to get three books written within four months. Because whether they wrote it right now or six months ago, to get a book out in November and then December they’d need to be writing both at the same time. They’d be trying to get two books done in the same time they normally do one.

Besides, Waterdeep and Undermountain aren't that hard to write, especially since they were written last year and play tested in ~November.

Which is still assuming those are the books. No shortage of other possibilities.

Regardless, I’m curious what you mean by “not hard to write”.

Waterdeep would be easier as there’s a couple books already. But that still means researching, collating, updating, fixing contradictions, and the like. And you pretty much need to rewrite every word. So not very “easy”.
Still not sure that’d be the best book. That’s super niche when most gamers don’t play in the Realms.

Undermountain would be a big mega dungeon which would be a bear to write since you need to design and redesign dungeons, rooms, floors, etc. While thinking of new traps and magic and weirdness. That would be much, much harder than an overland adventure as dungeons are very space compact.

Plus, that’s be releasing two adventure a couple months apart. They’d compete with themselves. Whatever Catacomb is, it probably is not an adventure.

I think the fourth, if it happens, will be something new. Not an AP, probably not a setting. Maybe a book of fiction or myths?

Or an art book. Or many other options I posted above.

But, again, these codenames were revealed five months ago. If there was another unknown book in the works due a month after Catacomb, where is it’s codename and Amazon listing?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I would have to try and remember where I saw it and then go and dig it up again, though I am pretty sure I posted about it when it happened, but late last year or the beginning of this year, Mearls himself hinted there would be four hardcover books in 2018.

 

[77IM]

Breaking news! This just in! Get ready to have your minds blown!

If you put all the clues together, it's pretty clear that Marathon refers to an upcoming product called... Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes!

Unfortunately, we've got absolutely no info on this mysterious product, so its contents will remain a complete unknown for the foreseeable future.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I would have to try and remember where I saw it and then go and dig it up again, though I am pretty sure I posted about it when it happened, but late last year or the beginning of this year, Mearls himself hinted there would be four hardcover books in 2018.

Yep, it was either Mearls or Crawford who mentioned the fourth book they weren't sure they were allowed to even mention the existence of at that point. It might have been considered a trolling joke, but the recent statement by Kate now seems to confirm it.