D&D 5E March's D&D Book To Be Announced On January 9th

A mysterious entry has appeared on Amazon! With a product title of "Dungeons & Dragons March Release Book (Title announced January 9th)" and a release date of March 17th, 2020, this $49.95 hardcover release will be revealed in under a week!

The description reads "Your first look at the next D&D title comes on January 9th! Keep an eye on wherever you get your D&D news for a preview of the book."

Could there be a clue in the dice being released on the same day? Laeral Silverhand's Explorer's Kit is described as "Dice and miscellany for the world's greatest roleplaying game" for $29.99. We'll find out on Thursday!

Who's Laeral Silverhand? She's a prolific creator of magic items from Waterdeep, and one of the most powerful wizards in the Forgotten Realms. She's one of the Seven Sisters, introduced in 1987's Forgotten Realms boxed set, although Laeral herself wasn't described in that product. Ed Greenwood'sThe Seven Sisters supplement fully detailed them in 1995. Laeral and Khlben 'Blackstaff' Arunsun led a group called the Moonstars. In 5th edition, she appears in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I've only ever seen it used to mean the exact opposite: that anyone is inside of "us." The Nativists don't want a melting pot.

Good for you. Other people have experienced other things from you.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I've only ever seen it used to mean the exact opposite: that anyone is inside of "us." The Nativists don't want a melting pot.

So there's actually three broad opinions on this. Didn't name 2 or 3 as they don't really have names.

Pure Nativists: These are the worst of the worst, and I don't think anyone here actually agrees with this POV. They're the ones who think all immigration is bad as it dilutes the national stock, yadda yadda racist stuff. They don't like any of this analogies, melting pot, cook out, whatever.

Group 2: This group believes that the state X has certain national traits that all citizens should adhere to. I'll use the French as the example, because their probably the biggest adherents of this; if you become a citizen of France, you are French, nothing more nothing less. There are no African-French, Hispanic-French, Chinese-French, you are French. Although from one POV this seems fine, there is a degree of assimilation here, especially when you consider how France (and Quebec) have certain laws that try to make the citizens "more French" like not being allowed to wear certain clothes or symbols. And citizenship is treated as an "award" that one can earn by good/moral deeds, as if doing immoral deeds means you are not French. For example, an African man who rescued a child from falling off a balcony was given French citizenship, while most African migrants are not.
The melting pot is largely this analogy, as when a new person is added to the pot, the "melt" into the national soup; yes this changes the pot as a whole, but everyone in the end becomes the same.

Group 3: This group recognizes that people can both be a citizen of state X, and take seriously certain national traits, while at the same time maintain elements of the citizen's culture of origin. This is largely Canada's modus operandi (excluding Quebec, which goes by Group 2 rules), and certain U.S. states like California. The idea here is it is absolutely fine to be African-Canadian, Chinese-Canadian, Indian-Canadian, etc, and it is also ok to keep elements of your original culture. So wearing a turban as a Sikh while also being a member of parliament and leader of a political party is considered perfectly fine, and there is no expectation that everyone must speak the same language, have the same religion, etc. The idea is that although we all buy into certain national beliefs (equality, justice, democracy, etc), we are also supposed to respect each others differences.
This is the "cultural mosaic" POV, that everyone has elements of culture that are different, but everyone is still Canadian. It's one that Canada has been forced to adopt because for such a small country has a pretty big divide between the French-Anglo split, and the Indigenous population. And there is still plenty of racism in Canada despite this model (today largely toward Indigenous peoples). But I still find this Group 3 model a much better model to adopt in the modern world with much more free-flowing movement of people and culture.

 

[Morrus]

WotC’s new Facebook avatar today.

 

[Morrus]

Drop the political discussion, please, folks. This thread is about the new D&D book.

 

[Salthorae]

View attachment 117349
WotC’s new Facebook avatar today.

Well...

That makes me think of Planescape.

Specifically this image from the Planescape Torment video game.

Maybe combined with a stylized Lady of Pain?

But also... Gond

I'm hopeful that this is related to the new book.

 

[jasper]

View attachment 117349
WotC’s new Facebook avatar today.

IT is Vault 1974. The next book is a fallout theme one.

 

[Prakriti]

Maybe combined with a stylized Lady of Pain?
View attachment 117351
But also... Gond
View attachment 117352

I'm hopeful that this is related to the new book.

Good guesses. Planescape was the first thing I thought of too. A Gond connection didn't occur to me, but it makes even more sense. We've had hints about Lantan being an important location in an upcoming adventure for a while now (ever since the SCAG mentioned the island's mysterious return).

To quote the FR Wiki entry on Lantan: "People who traded with the Lantans said that the Lantanese were more secretive than before, and that their technology was more advanced as well." And for the Gond connection: "Lantan was an island-nation in the Trackless Sea north of the Chultan peninsula, known for its advanced technology and the population's devout worship of Gond."

Chris Perkins even explicitly said in a 2017 Dragon Talk that Lantan will be a key site in an upcoming adventure. Here's a Reddit thread from the time.

Maybe Lantan's disappearance had something to do with the planes, and the island will be used as a stepping stone to the multiverse?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Hmm, that makes me think of Gond too. They did say they were planning on visiting Lantan soon, and Gond is the state religion there. Lantan also brings up the possibility of Spelljammer as well. Plus, it's one area of the setting that has never been covered other than a short paragraph here and there, even during the 2e and 3e eras. If it does have anything to do with the book, it does open up some interesting possibilities.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Urriak Uruk]

View attachment 117349
WotC’s new Facebook avatar today.

The background is the exact same as the Eberron variant cover. Could mean nothing.