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.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

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

Considering how little info there actually is on it (All I've actually heard is that it is a collection of adventures) I am entirely reserving judgment. I'm cautiously optimistic as Wizard's has such a good track record of putting out content now, and they have such a good pool of 3rd party writers to pull from, that only the very best adventures made the cut.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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?

As a cook, I hate the melting pot analogy. Also, it always implies assimilation, to me. Assimilation is about as morally gross as a random melting pot would be literally gross.
The hobby should be a cook out, instead. Everyone is invited except the bigots, and everyone can bring their own dishes and share with each other on their own terms.

 

[JPL]

As a cook, I hate the melting pot analogy. Also, it always implies assimilation, to me. Assimilation is about as morally gross as a random melting pot would be literally gross.
The hobby should be a cook out, instead. Everyone is invited except the bigots, and everyone can bring their own dishes and share with each other on their own terms.

Well, my metaphorical pot wasn't a melting pot. It was a stew pot. Throw some stuff in there and stir it up. And D&D is already a stew, baby.

 

[Parmandur]

As a cook, I hate the melting pot analogy. Also, it always implies assimilation, to me. Assimilation is about as morally gross as a random melting pot would be literally gross.
The hobby should be a cook out, instead. Everyone is invited except the bigots, and everyone can bring their own dishes and share with each other on their own terms.

Pedantic nerd moment: "melting pot" was not originally a culinary metaphors, bit a metallurgical metaphors. The "smelting pot" is part of the process for taking different metals and forming an alloy. Very different idea of integration of different cultures into one society, possibly also weird.

Given the recombinational nature of human culture and sexual reproduction, though, a big ol' funky stew is a pretty apt metaphor in the longterm.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Pedantic nerd...

Isn't that redundant?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Pedantic nerd moment: "melting pot" was not originally a culinary metaphors, bit a metallurgical metaphors. The "smelting pot" is part of the process for taking different metals and forming an alloy. Very different idea of integration of different cultures into one society, possibly also weird.

Given the recombinational nature of human culture and sexual reproduction, though, a big ol' funky stew is a pretty apt metaphor in the longterm.

sure, but in modern usage, it’s a culinary metaphor.
But either way, it implies assimilation, IMO, and this grossed me out pretty hard.

 

[Kurotowa]

sure, but in modern usage, it’s a culinary metaphor.
But either way, it implies assimilation, IMO, and this grossed me out pretty hard.

My preferred replacement metaphor is a tossed salad. Everything gets mixed together in new and interesting ways, but while retaining more of their individual nature than a melting pot implies.

 

[Fenris-77]

A good word for what we're talking about is bricolage, which means construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My preferred replacement metaphor is a tossed salad. Everything gets mixed together in new and interesting ways, but while retaining more of their individual nature than a melting pot implies.

A good word for what we're talking about is bricolage, which means construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.

those are good, but I’m gonna stick with cookout. It’s already a good word for a community event that brings people together.
Growing up in an area where there are large populations of Hispanic, Black, South Asian, and East Asian, folks, cookouts are literally the best things ever.

 

[Parmandur]

sure, but in modern usage, it’s a culinary metaphor.
But either way, it implies assimilation, IMO, and this grossed me out pretty hard.

As someone with multicultural heritage, in a very diverse area where people are blending together, it is accurate though. Without institutions to prevent the course of nature, people will merge over time, analogous to soup ingredients.