D&D 5E (2014) OK WotC, I've had just about enough of this...

[Mercurius]

In some cases, it's more a matter of being unable to share due to a little thing called an NDA. Some of us have been alpha playtesting upcoming supplemental material for a few months now, but we can't say anything about it.

Well exactly - that's the whole point of my comment.
[MENTION=6701829]Trickster Spirit[/MENTION], I think you're making too much of the speculation. From my perspective, as the original poster, I just want some sense of what is coming out beyond the current two-month radar range.

Now think about it. Speculations aside, vague hints aside...what do we, the paying customers, know about D&D 5E after March? Nothing - not one thing. We "know," I suppose, that another story arc will appear sometime later in the year, but that's it.

I'm just saying that we're due for some kind of information. Something. Anything!

 

[pukunui]

Well exactly - that's the whole point of my comment.

My point was just that it wasn't that some of us don't want to share so much as we simply aren't allowed to. That's all.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

**WARNING!! Kinda Longish!...**


I'm not sure WHAT they are doing, but I do know what I HOPE they are doing...

What I hope they are doing, is playing D&D.

I hope that... they all show up on Monday, and "Phil" (I'm just gonna make up names here to protect the innocent... ) says Ok guys...roll up some 1st level characters, using the core rules....make them oriented towards a coastal setting. Then the next hour or so is spent rolling up characters and getting the party "together". Then Phil starts DM'ing. This goes on until sometime around 9pm or so when someone face plants into the chip dip on the table and they all agree to call it a night.

Tuesday morning they gather at the 'big roleplaying table' with two to four litres of some sort of caffine-delivery beverage and Phil starts off with ...ok, so last night we left off with.... ...and they play again. Hours fly by, all the while the big-wig's wondering why all the hootin' and hollerin' is about, but ultimately shurg and quietly think to themselves......gamers.... A repeat of the previous nights face-into-dip occurse and the quit for the night.

Wednesday morning, they gather at the big table again, and Phil says Right. This will be the grand finnale! Ready? Lets get to it! A few hours pass, and somewhere around 4pm they finally defeat the bad guy, rescue the Prince, and all head back to the tavern to get drunk!

Now. At 4:01pm, I hope they are all laughing, yelling and wiping the sweat from their brow after such an amazing adventure. After a bit of settling down, Phil asks "So, what did you all think? Please be honest...", and he passes out a short "Hows my Adventure?" questionaire. The next several hours is spent going over the cool stuff, the bad stuff, the confusing stuff, and what they may have thought was going to happen at any point in the adventure. They go home and sleep on it.

Thursday: A meeting in the big table room has everyone refreshed. Everyone talks about the adventure they had and before anyone knows it, it's 5pm. Someone, lets say her name is Suzan, speaks out and says: Well, I guess that settles it then! We were talking about all the cool stuff that happened all freaking day! So...Phil...get to it first thing tomorrow. Everyone else, go back to your pet projects, or work on something 'coastal' that inspired you in Phil's adventure, or whatever neat-o thing you've been working on, and when someone has something ready to playtest, we'll do it all again.

...So, THAT is what I HOPE they are doing. All working on pet projects like adventures, races, classes, magic items, campaign settings, etc...whatever floats the individuals boat. Something the person is *excited* about. Something that *they* want to see in the game. And when someone has something ready to be tested out...they all test it out, get feedback, and either head back for tweeking, or get to writing a first draft.

I want the people writing D&D stuff to be playing D&D! If it takes 6 months for someone to come up with a kick-ass adventure, another to come up with 9 new spells, another to detail up two arch-types, and another to be the glue that keeps everyone from going off in totally random directions....AWESOME!

What I don't want? I don't want them to simply be "Writers writing for a fantasy RPG called D&D", who write what they are told to write because "The Masses (tm) say they want more cow bell...then by god we're gonna give them more cow bell!" I want to feel the love when I read an adventure, supplement, or campaign setting. I want to know, for a fact, that the adventure was used in an individual campaign run by an individual DM...not something broken apart into sub-pieces, shuffled off to a dozen people for writing, and then stitched back together.

Sorry for the length, but I just felt it just needed to be said.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Well exactly - that's the whole point of my comment.

@Trickster Spirit, I think you're making too much of the speculation. From my perspective, as the original poster, I just want some sense of what is coming out beyond the current two-month radar range.

Now think about it. Speculations aside, vague hints aside...what do we, the paying customers, know about D&D 5E after March? Nothing - not one thing. We "know," I suppose, that another story arc will appear sometime later in the year, but that's it.

I'm just saying that we're due for some kind of information. Something. Anything!

I get that, but they've given us some sense of that - an Alice in Wonderland inspired adventure and sourcebook later in the year, probably Q4. Sure they've not officially given us titles or other details yet, but they just revealed the cover art for the Elemental Evil books for crying out loud - we know it's coming and that'll likely be all we get until after Princes of the Apocalypse has been out for a little while.

What I'd like is for everyone to consider the possibility that we've already been given all the "something" we're going to get, because that might very well be the only other product coming out this year. I'm sure we'll hear more details about next spring's King Lear giants adventure later this year, but there's no guarantee or indication yet that they are working on anything else to come out in 2015.

Look, either they are being really, really secretive about products that are coming out in the next few months, or they're doing what they've always done, announcing products several months ahead of time. Seeing as we knew about Princes of the Apocalypse before Rise of Tiamat was released, I'm just saying I think the likelier option is just that there's nothing else coming out anytime soon and we'll get some more product announcements this spring or summer.

 

[pukunui]

but they just revealed the cover art for the Elemental Evil books for crying out loud

WotC didn't reveal them. Some European gaming store's website did.

 

[jrowland]

My speculation:

The Adventure portion is being done by freelance workers, and givewn some bad press over HotDQ, where Bauer and Co had to write an adventure without rules, I think they decided to let the Elemental Evil folks have a little more time to digest the rules AFTER the DMG came out to modify their Adventure if needed. As a result things got pushed back, but due to the holidays and other work, aren't prepared to announce a push back on delivery since they don't know yet. The next announcement will include a release date LATER than we all expect.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Crawford killed a dude over the holiday break and they're waiting for the heat to die down.

Also, us chomping at the bit for info is pretty much what they want.

So you know, patience, padawans.

 

[Mercurius]

My point was just that it wasn't that some of us don't want to share so much as we simply aren't allowed to. That's all.

Gotcha. Didn't mean to imply otherwise except for the mistaken use of "want."

What I hope they are doing, is playing D&D.

All good stuff and I agree, although I kind of doubt that months upon months of playing D&D at the exclusion of creating product is necessary to create good product. Let us not forget that the good folks at WotC are employed full time to create stuff for D&D. Playing is part of the job, but so is playing. They've been playing 5E for, what, three years now?

All I'm saying is this: it is time--past time, really--to give us a sense of what is going on, even if in a general way. We know about the story arcs, but how about some product info? What are you working on? And so on.

 

[Mercurius]

I get that, but they've given us some sense of that - an Alice in Wonderland inspired adventure and sourcebook later in the year, probably Q4. Sure they've not officially given us titles or other details yet, but they just revealed the cover art for the Elemental Evil books for crying out loud - we know it's coming and that'll likely be all we get until after Princes of the Apocalypse has been out for a little while.

What I'd like is for everyone to consider the possibility that we've already been given all the "something" we're going to get, because that might very well be the only other product coming out this year. I'm sure we'll hear more details about next spring's King Lear giants adventure later this year, but there's no guarantee or indication yet that they are working on anything else to come out in 2015.

Look, either they are being really, really secretive about products that are coming out in the next few months, or they're doing what they've always done, announcing products several months ahead of time. Seeing as we knew about Princes of the Apocalypse before Rise of Tiamat was released, I'm just saying I think the likelier option is just that there's nothing else coming out anytime soon and we'll get some more product announcements this spring or summer.

I mean I suppose it is possible that all we'll see for the rest of 2015 is Elemental Evil and Alice in Wonderland, but to be honest I'd be surprised - especially at the alleged runaway success of 5E.

And again, it isn't the next few months I'm talking about - as in "new few" being January, February, and March. I'm talking about after that. Elemental Evil is March but then there are nine months in 2015. That's a lot of time for only 1-2 books for Alice in Wonderland, which is why I'd be surprised if we don't see 1-3 more products sprinkled in there.

 

[aramis erak]

Hiya!

**WARNING!! Kinda Longish!...**


I'm not sure WHAT they are doing, but I do know what I HOPE they are doing...

What I hope they are doing, is playing D&D.

I hope that... they all show up on Monday, and "Phil" (I'm just gonna make up names here to protect the innocent... ) says Ok guys...roll up some 1st level characters, using the core rules....make them oriented towards a coastal setting. Then the next hour or so is spent rolling up characters and getting the party "together". Then Phil starts DM'ing. This goes on until sometime around 9pm or so when someone face plants into the chip dip on the table and they all agree to call it a night.

Tuesday morning they gather at the 'big roleplaying table' with two to four litres of some sort of caffine-delivery beverage and Phil starts off with ...ok, so last night we left off with.... ...and they play again. Hours fly by, all the while the big-wig's wondering why all the hootin' and hollerin' is about, but ultimately shurg and quietly think to themselves......gamers.... A repeat of the previous nights face-into-dip occurse and the quit for the night.

Wednesday morning, they gather at the big table again, and Phil says Right. This will be the grand finnale! Ready? Lets get to it! A few hours pass, and somewhere around 4pm they finally defeat the bad guy, rescue the Prince, and all head back to the tavern to get drunk!

Now. At 4:01pm, I hope they are all laughing, yelling and wiping the sweat from their brow after such an amazing adventure. After a bit of settling down, Phil asks "So, what did you all think? Please be honest...", and he passes out a short "Hows my Adventure?" questionaire. The next several hours is spent going over the cool stuff, the bad stuff, the confusing stuff, and what they may have thought was going to happen at any point in the adventure. They go home and sleep on it.

Thursday: A meeting in the big table room has everyone refreshed. Everyone talks about the adventure they had and before anyone knows it, it's 5pm. Someone, lets say her name is Suzan, speaks out and says: Well, I guess that settles it then! We were talking about all the cool stuff that happened all freaking day! So...Phil...get to it first thing tomorrow. Everyone else, go back to your pet projects, or work on something 'coastal' that inspired you in Phil's adventure, or whatever neat-o thing you've been working on, and when someone has something ready to playtest, we'll do it all again.

...So, THAT is what I HOPE they are doing. All working on pet projects like adventures, races, classes, magic items, campaign settings, etc...whatever floats the individuals boat. Something the person is *excited* about. Something that *they* want to see in the game. And when someone has something ready to be tested out...they all test it out, get feedback, and either head back for tweeking, or get to writing a first draft.

I want the people writing D&D stuff to be playing D&D! If it takes 6 months for someone to come up with a kick-ass adventure, another to come up with 9 new spells, another to detail up two arch-types, and another to be the glue that keeps everyone from going off in totally random directions....AWESOME!

What I don't want? I don't want them to simply be "Writers writing for a fantasy RPG called D&D", who write what they are told to write because "The Masses (tm) say they want more cow bell...then by god we're gonna give them more cow bell!" I want to feel the love when I read an adventure, supplement, or campaign setting. I want to know, for a fact, that the adventure was used in an individual campaign run by an individual DM...not something broken apart into sub-pieces, shuffled off to a dozen people for writing, and then stitched back together.

Sorry for the length, but I just felt it just needed to be said.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

You should hope instead that Phil is running Dixie's adventure, not his own, because, otherwise, there's no telling how much was the adventure and how much was just Phil's GMing.

Playtesting your own stuff is not really playtesting at all. It almost never finds the flaws. Really, the fundamental test of a game or module only begins when someone other than the author runs it, and finds "I need X," "I don't get Y," and "Z makes not sense here."