D&D 5E New D&D Hardcover To Be Announced On The 23rd (Tomorrow)?

According to this page on Amazon.com, a new Dungeon & Dragons hardcover title for May will be announced tomorrow. Users in the US see the product below (those in the UK are seeing a Wizkids miniatures set instead).

So far signs look like Ravenloft, but we’ll know for sure tomorrow.

[Update -- also mentioned by Todd Kendrick, recently of D&D Beyond].

WotC has posted the below animation, which says “The Mist Beckons”.

 

[Parmandur]

It existed before planescape, shadow spells in the phb drew upon it. I'm just not sure how developed it was before planescape, not actually sure about how developed any of the planes were before planescape to be honest. Was there a manual of the planes in 1e/2e or were the planes mostly described in dragon articles and adventures?

Manual of the Planes was one of the latter 1E books, sets up a sort of Planescape with no Sigil. Fun book.

 

[cbwjm]

Manual of the Planes was one of the latter 1E books, sets up a sort of Planescape with no Sigil. Fun book.

Might need to have a look for it on dmsguild, should be interesting to have a read through.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Might need to have a look for it on dmsguild, should be interesting to have a read through.

It's a much lesser work than Planescape, just to warn you. While it lays out a lot of good bones, it's written in the dense textbook style a lot of 1E products are and with the same indifference to actually looking good.

 

[Faolyn]

I've often thought that the rigid hierarchy of planes published in The Dragon and later the 1E PHB was a mistake. If the planes were "stuff out there," only loosely grouped into "inner" and "outer" planes, with scholars disagreeing as to whether that's an actual distinction, it would allow a lot more flexibility for DMs and TSR/WotC creators.

Gygax liked very narrow distinctions (how many creatures were made based on various spellings of Norse dwarves and elves?). It would have been interesting to have had a much looser "afterlife" then what we ended up with. What little I know about the planes in 4e seems to indicate that it could have been a better way to go.

As DM, I want the freedom to spring things on my players like the Stygian Library without it violating any sort of canon. My players are used to this, but I think it's a freedom every DM should be allowed.

I hadn't heard of that before! Has it been printed yet?

And when it comes to a place like Ravenloft, which is apparently both a prison and has someone actively trying to trap people there, it ought to not be reachable in any sort of reliable fashion, given the schizophrenic nature of the place. (Also, the 2E idea that there are "scholars" who have lots of ideas about the Dark Powers and the nature of Ravenloft itself is eye-rolling. Something awful should happen to those scholars, whether it's a monster popping out of the mists to behead them or them suddenly waking up in Ravenloft itself, unable to share their smartypants theories with TSR writers.)

I think the main idea is that there are scholars with lots of ideas, but absolutely no way to test them and they're probably wrong anyway, except for the bit about the Dark Powers and the Mists being two separate entities/groups/minds/whatever.

I always assumed that the only scholars who studied Ravenloft were those who lived in it, but sometimes their books got loose.

One of the more amusing non-canon ideas is that the Dark Powers are not, in fact, evil at all, since they only target people who actively commit evil (except for Strahd in the very beginning, but he was thinking about it) and only imprison the worst of the worst.

 

[Parmandur]

It's a much lesser work than Planescape, just to warn you. While it lays out a lot of good bones, it's written in the dense textbook style a lot of 1E products are and with the same indifference to actually looking good.

As someone who only read the book recently, that's part of the charm.

 

[darjr]

I loved that book. Is the 3e one anything like it?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I loved that book. Is the 3e one anything like it?

The 3E one is much more of a toolkit. The 3E ethos of everything having an underlying system is carried to its logical extreme here, including showing readers how to use the systems underlying the Great Wheel can be used to make new planes, of which several examples -- PLANE OF MIRRORS! -- are given. I think it's useful for that reason alone.

It's much less colorful and frisky than Planescape was, although a lot less dry than the 1E Manual of the Planes, but it gives a good and clear outline of how the cosmos works and lays out several alternates for those who might want one.

It's also a very 3E book in terms of art and design. You would have no question which edition it was from if you just saw a random page. In keeping with that, it's also got a bunch of nice templates for 3E/Pathfinder monsters, along with the usual collection of prestige classes (most of them good) and spells (none of them memorable, as I recall) and critters of all sorts of power levels.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I hadn't heard of that before! Has it been printed yet?

I've got my backer copy and the PDF is available from DriveThruRPG now. A similar product, the Garden of Ynn, describing a vast interplanar garden, will also get a revamped version later this year.

One of the more amusing non-canon ideas is that the Dark Powers are not, in fact, evil at all, since they only target people who actively commit evil (except for Strahd in the very beginning, but he was thinking about it) and only imprison the worst of the worst.

It definitely makes sense that the powers that be in Ravenloft seem to be working at cross purposes. I would be disappointed if it was as neat and simple as "mists good, Dark Powers evil." I would want there to be multiple entities using the mists and multiple competing entities who are lumped together as the "Dark Powers." Has TSR/WotC ever given any indication that there's a "right" answer?

 

[humble minion]

It definitely makes sense that the powers that be in Ravenloft seem to be working at cross purposes. I would be disappointed if it was as neat and simple as "mists good, Dark Powers evil." I would want there to be multiple entities using the mists and multiple competing entities who are lumped together as the "Dark Powers." Has TSR/WotC ever given any indication that there's a "right" answer?

Codifying the Dark Powers and what they wanted/who they were was something all editions of Ravenloft have steered very well clear of, which was probably a smart move.

 

[Parmandur]

The 3E one is much more of a toolkit. The 3E ethos of everything having an underlying system is carried to its logical extreme here, including showing readers how to use the systems underlying the Great Wheel can be used to make new planes, of which several examples -- PLANE OF MIRRORS! -- are given. I think it's useful for that reason alone.

It's much less colorful and frisky than Planescape was, although a lot less dry than the 1E Manual of the Planes, but it gives a good and clear outline of how the cosmos works and lays out several alternates for those who might want one.

It's also a very 3E book in terms of art and design. You would have no question which edition it was from if you just saw a random page. In keeping with that, it's also got a bunch of nice templates for 3E/Pathfinder monsters, along with the usual collection of prestige classes (most of them good) and spells (none of them memorable, as I recall) and critters of all sorts of power levels.

I'd say that 1E MotP, 2E Planescape, and 3E MotP all more or less typify their respective Editions on a nearly Platonic level.