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]

Lateral Silverhand’s Guide to Exploration, perhaps?

If so, I kinda hope they present her as having explored distant worlds, and make it a more player facing multiverse exploration book.

Edit: okay no, not more player facing, actually. I want lore on several worlds, and new monsters, new rules, and new player options, that all support those worlds.

 

[Parmandur]

My guess is that this is where the Gem Dragons will be featured: may even just be the MMIV.

 

[Weiley31]

Well worse case, I can still use the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms books for lore.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

My guess is that this is where the Gem Dragons will be featured: may even just be the MMIV.

Could be, though it would be odd if the book has "Forgotten Realms" as it's starting title and it's just a monster book.

 

[Parmandur]

Seeing Tales of the Yawning Portal and Ghost of Saltmarsh were announced in January, guessing a bunch of adventures set in the FR centered around Silverhand. Maybe a series of Force Gray missions

You know...a series of mini-Gazeeters and Adventures set around the Forgotten Realms would fit with what Kate Welch has hinted at for a project she has coming this year. Aaand the last Dragon+ said that Kate Welch is the one to spill the beans on the next book in the upcoming issue, so the likelihood of this being that project seems high...

 

[Salthorae]

Could be, though it would be odd if the book has "Forgotten Realms" as it's starting title and it's just a monster book.

Unlike say Monsters of Faerun?

I think it'll be a combo book honestly. Mini-gazetteer/adventures with new monsters included. Hopefully also the Gem Dragons

 

[Parmandur]

Unlike say Monsters of Faerun?

I think it'll be a combo book honestly. Mini-gazetteer/adventures with new monsters included. Hopefully also the Gem Dragons

Yeah, we know books monsters are something that sells well, and that they want to do periodically. MToF will be roughly 2 years old when this book releases, and Volo's was almost two years old when MToF came out.

Things we know in general, maybe about this book:

• Kate Welch is the point women for this book (per the teases for the next issue of Dragon+)
• Kate Welch last year's had talked about a book she is working on that includes smaller Adventures from a number of guests writers, primarily DMsGuild authors but also a few D&D celebs such as Mariah's Ray and Deborah Ann Will.
• Nate Stewart said last year that they would be going to several non-Western European places in 2020.

It seems to me that one book can do all these things together...that could be cool. Basically, Mordenkein's with old school Adventure Modules rather than generic Race lore...

 

[gyor]

Yeah, we know books monsters are something that sells well, and that they want to do periodically. MToF will be roughly 2 years old when this book releases, and Volo's was almost two years old when MToF came out.

Things we know in general, maybe about this book:

• Kate Welch is the point women for this book (per the teases for the next issue of Dragon+)
• Kate Welch last year's had talked about a book she is working on that includes smaller Adventures from a number of guests writers, primarily DMsGuild authors but also a few D&D celebs such as Mariah's Ray and Deborah Ann Will.
• Nate Stewart said last year that they would be going to several non-Western European places in 2020.

It seems to me that one book can do all these things together...that could be cool. Basically, Mordenkein's with old school Adventure Modules rather than generic Race lore...

If it was just another TotYP adventure book but with more monsters, they wouldn't have Forgotten Realms right in the title, it's not 5e style. If you look at very thing it's obviously the Setting book for the Forgotten Realms. There MiGHT be a few miniadventures mixed, or not, but it won't be the main feature of the book. This book is going to be FRs answer to Eberron Rising From the Last War.

 

[gyor]

Unlike say Monsters of Faerun?

I think it'll be a combo book honestly. Mini-gazetteer/adventures with new monsters included. Hopefully also the Gem Dragons

Basically like E: RFtLW was.

 

[gyor]

Ok, my guess is that this is a tour of the Realms and beyond, including far-flung regions like Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, with added extraplanar and Spelljammer material! I don’t think it’s going to be the UA stuff we’ve been seeing as I think the timings are too tight.

It depends on how the UAs scored. If 95% of the UAs was popular with 60% of the fans or only need minor tweaks, there will be no need for a second playtest pass. And I think folks were mostly happy enough with that stuff that a second pass won't be needed and that gives them enough time to put them in the book, its a second playtesting of them where they would run out of time.

But we will likely find out Thursday