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

GarrettKP · Apr 20, 2018

Jester David said:
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.

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.

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.

QUOTE=LordEntrails;7400399]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?

You can not believe it, but 3 Hardcovers are coming this fall. Kate Welch specifically spoke of editorial work and playtesting for all 3 products, so it won't be dice or tiles. And one of the D&D 5e Facebook page admins who did artwork for the fall books confirms there are 3 hardcovers coming. So we have 2 WotC employees and a freelance artist contracted to work on the books all confirming 3 hardcovers are coming. I don't know what more evidence you need.

Jester David · Apr 20, 2018

GarrettKP said:
You can not believe it, but 3 Hardcovers are coming this fall. Kate Welch specifically spoke of editorial work and playtesting for all 3 products, so it won't be dice or tiles. And one of the D&D 5e Facebook page admins who did artwork for the fall books confirms there are 3 hardcovers coming. So we have 2 WotC employees and a freelance artist contracted to work on the books all confirming 3 hardcovers are coming. I don't know what more evidence you need.

Friend of a friend, eh?

I’ll believe it when it’s announced. Or we get a release date with ISBN and possible codename.
After all, we had a cover, release date, and details for 2015’s Adventurer’s Handbook, but that was never released. And this forum is prone to wild speculation. We were all convinced two months ago that the spring AP would be The Great Modron March meets Lantan and Spelljammer.

And even IF there is another hardcover that isn’t the art book... that doesn’t mean it will be a D&D product, let alone a D&D TTRPG book. Releasing one in September, November, and December is a super fast 3e/4e pace of releases.

In the meantime, I see no reason to get my hopes up for a fourth RPG book.

LordEntrails · Apr 20, 2018

Jester David said:
....
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....

I think 5E UM goes back several years. I think it was planned to go with movie that was early on talked about being released this year (which we now know is years away if ever).

Ok, UM is not easy to write, I will give you that. I know, I'm doing it for release on the Guild. But, doing it the way WotC/TSR has always done it is pretty straight forward. They have never done it completely, they don't even do full maps. They do it in parts and setup one or more quest lines. Doing that is horrendous. And again, since I believe they did all that in '16/17 ever since then it has been editing and re-writing. Which can be as intensive as you want it to be.

Traps aren't that hard to write/create. They have lots to draw upon, I certainly don't have much problem with them once I decided which of the various formats I wanted to go with.

Maps are straight forward. They can base them on the 2E versions, the FRIA versions, the 4E versions or even throw all that out like they did in Encounters and make new ones for the small areas that they do in detail.

Besides, I don't think it's like last month they go, "ok, we now need to write two APs for release this fall...." Nope, instead they are APs that have been in draft for many many moons.

All that said, discussion is of little value at this time until we learn something new right?

Jester David said:
...And this forum is prone to wild speculation. We were all convinced two months ago that the spring AP would be The Great Modron March meets Lantan and Spelljammer....

Yes it is. But "we" were? Cuz I wasn't *G*

Herosmith14 · Apr 21, 2018

Jester David said:
Friend of a friend, eh?

I’ll believe it when it’s announced. Or we get a release date with ISBN and possible codename.
After all, we had a cover, release date, and details for 2015’s Adventurer’s Handbook, but that was never released. And this forum is prone to wild speculation. We were all convinced two months ago that the spring AP would be The Great Modron March meets Lantan and Spelljammer.

And even IF there is another hardcover that isn’t the art book... that doesn’t mean it will be a D&D product, let alone a D&D TTRPG book. Releasing one in September, November, and December is a super fast 3e/4e pace of releases.

In the meantime, I see no reason to get my hopes up for a fourth RPG book.

Hate to throw a log on this fire, but I think the Adventurer's Handbook turned into SCAG...

Jester David · Apr 21, 2018

LordEntrails said:
I think 5E UM goes back several years. I think it was planned to go with movie that was early on talked about being released this year (which we now know is years away if ever).

I think WotC has learned their lesson about trying to coordinate with video games and movies.

LordEntrails said:
Besides, I don't think it's like last month they go, "ok, we now need to write two APs for release this fall...." Nope, instead they are APs that have been in draft for many many moons.

Right. But when they finish a book they move onto a new one. No matter how far ahead they started the draft, at the end they’re still trying to make three books in the same time as they normally try and make two. A 50% increase on their output.

Herosmith14 said:
Hate to throw a log on this fire, but I think the Adventurer's Handbook turned into SCAG...

Not really.
Adventurer’s Handbook was done by Sasquatch Games. SCAG was written by Green Ronin. Very different books. And several of the subclasses were released on UA well after AH was to be released.
A few subclasses might have been planned for AH but I think most was scrapped.

briggart · Apr 27, 2018

This year AL D&D OPEN is Gangs of Waterdeep and will premiere at Origins.

Last year' was Lost Temples of Lake Luo, which gave way to the ToA storyline, so this points toward Season 8 being Waterdeep related.

GarrettKP · May 1, 2018

http://dnd.wizards.com/some

Told y’all it was Undermountain.

Prakriti · May 1, 2018

I thought we would get a planar adventure this year. I'm still a little surprised that we aren't, but Waterdeep is one of my very favorite D&D locations, so I'm happy.

Congrats to those who guessed correctly.

gyor · May 1, 2018

Looks like I was wrong and it's Undermountain, how that ties into Lantan I don't know, but Skulport does have Spelljammers.

TheSword · May 2, 2018

Awesome, one of my groups got into D&D through the lords of waterdeep game. They’ll be stoked to have a campaign set there. Definitely a good choice and unique in D&D history outside of Dungeon Magazine.

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

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