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.

 

[generic]

This is a cheap hobby, at least compared to other luxury hobbies. Anyone who console games regularly drops $50-100 on a new game and RPGs don't have a $300-$500 start up cost added on. Even someone who shoots pool is probably dropping the cost of a hardback in table rental every time they go to the pool hall. Once you count in the reuseability of RPG products the difference is pretty stark.

I'm an avid player of video games as well as D&D and other RPGs, so I can confirm this. I've dropped hundreds of dollars on computer components, and around $750 total on Switch, games, and controllers for the Switch.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Dunno about "fear of offending" . . . I think of it more in positive terms --- a desire to include. And from a storytelling standpoint, it's just good to be open to these different perspectives and different influences, because it's all new ingredients to throw in the pot, right?

A desire to include is why they don't produce those settings? I think you may have misread what I was saying, or I didn't do a good job of explaining. Of course they should be respectful of any real-world societies that influence the settings. As often as possible they should look for different perspectives and influences. I'm just worried that we'll be stuck with pseudo-europe as our only setting because pseudo-south america or pseudo-china have been done badly in the past, and to revisit them, could be seen as problematic. I think that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[JPL]

Well, I think they've already indicated that they're going to try again and do better on some multi-cultural stuff. But sure, it may be that one of the reasons that stuff hasn't happened yet is a concern that it will be closely scrutinized and perhaps controversial. Whether you call that a fear of doing it wrong or a desire to do it right is maybe a matter of perspective.

As an aside . . . 1970s superheroes are the best example of half-assed inclusion. The Super-Friends are an obvious example, but I love that when they were brainstorming names for X-Men, all they could think of was "Wagner" for the German guy and "Rasputin" for the Russian.

 

[JPL]

Butcher European history? Never.

I've been hip deep in "Pendragon" lately, and it's a weird riff on this --- built off of a combination of legend, literature, accurate history, inaccurate history (with varying degrees of inaccuracy), and stuff the author made up.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Well, I think they've already indicated that they're going to try again and do better on some multi-cultural stuff. But sure, it may be that one of the reasons that stuff hasn't happened yet is a concern that it will be closely scrutinized and perhaps controversial. Whether you call that a fear of doing it wrong or a desire to do it right is maybe a matter of perspective.

It's probably a bit of both. It is nicer to think that it's the latter more than the former. Maybe I'm just feeling a bit cynical. I hope they do it, and do a good job of it, even if it takes more time, so there's that...

As an aside . . . 1970s superheroes are the best example of half-assed inclusion. The Super-Friends are an obvious example, but I love that when they were brainstorming names for X-Men, all they could think of was "Wagner" for the German guy and "Rasputin" for the Russian.

The New X-Men were terrible stereotypes in a lot of ways, but at the time, it was revolutionary that they weren't all just a bunch of Americans. At least the Irish guy wasn't named "Shamrock" and had "luck-powers". Though I guess Banshee wasn't much better than that. (That character actually exists at Marvel, though!)

 

[Parmandur]

I'm an avid player of video games as well as D&D and other RPGs, so I can confirm this. I've dropped hundreds of dollars on computer components, and around $750 total on Switch, games, and controllers for the Switch.

Yeah, $30 for high-use items like dice and handouts isn't really that much.

 

[generic]

Yeah, $30 for high-use items like dice and handouts isn't really that much.

It's not much at all, especially considering the fact that people spend far more than that on headsets, mice, and monitors. It's not uncommon for people who game to spend thousands of dollars on their computer, accessories, monitor, special mouse (pssst, the mice are all pretty much the same), keyboard, and gaming chair.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Well, we know it's almost definitely not the big adventure book, as that usually gets heavier promotion at D&D Live, and not an earlier release.

In 2019, the book released early was GoS, a remake of old modules. In 2018, it was MToF, a monster book. In 2017 it was TftYP, another remake of modules. In 2016 it was CoS, another remake of Ravenloft.

I doubt it's a setting book so soon after Eberron. Probably not a player's book either, I'd expect the UAs to probably get more testing and be released around November.

I think it's probably Welch's book, of new adventures from 3rd party authors. Seems like something that would be easier to release for the team, and we know it's coming eventually.

 

[gyor]

Well, we know it's almost definitely not the big adventure book, as that usually gets heavier promotion at D&D Live, and not an earlier release.

In 2019, the book released early was GoS, a remake of old modules. In 2018, it was MToF, a monster book. In 2017 it was TftYP, another remake of modules. In 2016 it was CoS, another remake of Ravenloft.

I doubt it's a setting book so soon after Eberron. Probably not a player's book either, I'd expect the UAs to probably get more testing and be released around November.

I think it's probably Welch's book, of new adventures from 3rd party authors. Seems like something that would be easier to release for the team, and we know it's coming eventually.

I hope your wrong, it sounded aweful. But you could be right.

I will point out that not all Player options get playtested. And MTOF is one part monster book, one part Player option, but mostly it's a lore book.

And I don't buy that there haven't been time for the rescent UAs contents in the book. I suspect most of it was well reviewed so it could be in the book already, the rest just cut.

Whether there is enough time for it to end up in the book depends on if they believe it needs a second playtest of the content or not. I believe it likely doesn't.

 

[Parmandur]

I hope your wrong, it sounded aweful. But you could be right.

I will point out that not all Player options get playtested. And MTOF is one part monster book, one part Player option, but mostly it's a lore book.

And I don't buy that there haven't been time for the rescent UAs contents in the book. I suspect most of it was well reviewed so it could be in the book already, the rest just cut.

Whether there is enough time for it to end up in the book depends on if they believe it needs a second playtest of the content or not. I believe it likely doesn't.

UA Class content tends to be early drafts, before balance work is done. Crawford discussed the recent spat of UA material on Twitch yesterday, however, and we can safely rule that out for this book based on his statements. So this is not a Xanathar style book.