D&D 5E Princes of the Apolcalypse/Adventurer's Handbook by Sasquatch Game Studios

[Plaguescarred]

An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign.

Looking forward to more backgrounds builds and races!

Princes of the Apolcalypse (March 17, 2015; hardcover; $49.95) -- A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure.
Abolish an Ancient Evil Threatening Devastation in this Adventure for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game
Called by the Elder Elemental Eye to serve, four corrupt prophets have risen from the depths of anonymity to claim mighty weapons with direct links to the power of the elemental princes. Each of these prophets has assembled a cadre of cultists and creatures to serve them in the construction of four elemental temples of lethal design. It is up to adventurers from heroic factions such as the Emerald Enclave and the Order of the Gauntlet to discover where the true power of each prophet lay, and dismantle it before it comes boiling up to obliterate the Realms.

These reminds me of one of the 4E D&D Encounters Season called The Elder Elemental Eye, also looking forward to it.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Source? I'm not challenging you, I'm just curious. Most of the internet sources for FR lore are woefully behind "present day." (snip)

Beyond the single adventure that MerricB mentioned, the whole Lolth is making her own Weave is the basic theme of the whole Rise of the Underdark pseudo-storyline which was never fully developed, although...

Heh, weird. I guess those that played 4e published adventures got a whole lotta Lolth, then? My current campaign is about Lolth trying to take over the Weave, which I've come to find out now is kinda the same plotline to both a 4e adventure and the 2nd Sundering book.

Must be a good idea then.

... the Demon Weave, as it was called, was also mentioned in a couple of paragraphs in the rather excellent Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue.

Actually, I also think it's a good idea, in part because it's one of the best justifications for running D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and D3 Vault of the Drow with a definite goal and sense of purpose. That's on my DM Bucket List.

 

[drjones]

Thinking about it, maybe Greyhawk fans should be happy. It's starting to look like FR is getting the kitchen sink treatment. Everything is getting thrown in there. We have enough resources to run Greyhawk for a very long time. 5e is really easy to use with 1e/2e books. Maybe we should hope they just leave it the Flan alone.

Reading through the PHB in full it feels like there are tons of Greyhawk nods. Certainly more than Ebberon, Dark Sun, etc. One is definatley encouraged not to be a stickler about X is only part of world Y. I know my realms are going to be an amalgam of all the standard fantasy worlds and home brew to the point that it's not very recognizable.

 

[doctorhook]

D&D supervillains? Nobody here has mentioned Kyuss yet!

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

So that's their strategy to generate the "fresh core book" sales spikes for 5e? Well, in 4e calling them PHB 2, 3, etc. failed and people saw them as the splat books that they are rather than real PHBs. I don't think this new approach will have better success.

If we're comparing to 4E then I don't think this is "PHB 2" - It's "Heroes of the Elemental Chaos", which I thought was pretty cool.

The Tiamat adventure path (Scale of War) was THE big adventure path for 4e. I still perplexed that they chose to start two consecutive edition with a Tiamat path.

Don't forget Red Hand of Doom, the big published adventure for 3.5. You could say it they've done it for two-and-a-half consecutive editions

 

[Agamon]

... the Demon Weave, as it was called, was also mentioned in a couple of paragraphs in the rather excellent Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue.

Yeah, the Demon Weave, I know about. It's the actual Weave she's going after. I'm not sure if I want to check out this 4e adventure for ideas or just keep with my own ideas.

 

[Nilbog]

I don't mind this approach.

They are getting talented individuals to create what hopefully will be exciting adventures, this keeps the core wizard staff free to work on expanding the core rules more (it will be interesting to see what Mearls and co are working on after a taking a well deserved break!).

I agree that its a shame that the AP's so far are all of the save the world variety, and quite traditional in approach, but I can see the logic behind this, after all if you are wanting to attract new customers something as epic as saving the world from an evil dragon goddess or a banished elemental of madness seems more enticing than setting an abbey back on the straight and narrow after it stumbled upon a pack of cards (don't get me wrong madness at Gardmore was awesome!)

I imagine there thinking is that for smaller (in scale) adventures such as Gardmore, the traditional hardcore player will be able to design it by themselves or that 3rd parties will fill this void.

These are 5e's baby steps and although from my perspective I wish they'd have been a bit more adventurous (especially with monsters but that's a whole different discussion ) I can totally understand the way they are doing it, and to be honest with adventures it suits my personal circumstance better as real life is meaning our group has less and less time particularly DM side, so anything that lets us game with less prep time is welcome, and coming from 4e where pre-published adventures were of variable quality to say the least this is a step forward

I think what will be make or break time will be the second phase, when they need to start innovating more, will do this or still play it safe?

 

[Mirtek]

Yeah, the Demon Weave, I know about. It's the actual Weave she's going after. I'm not sure if I want to check out this 4e adventure for ideas or just keep with my own ideas.

The Demon Weave is the actual Weave. The Weave was in tatters after the whole Cyric slays Mysta incident and Lolth was using these tatters to weave together her own new Weave, she just called it the Demon Weave. When she was defeated Mystra took over what Demon Weave Lolth has already strung together and attached the rest and called it the Weave again.

 

[Saplatt]

So long as WotC continues to tie its Adventurer's League to the MMO, I think the linear epic world-saving approach is going to continue ... at least once a year, just like a sports season.

And that will be the big annual multimedia event that may very well expand into boardgames and card games.

But that doesn't mean that they have to completely abandon more sandboxy settings or modules. I think it means they'll probably just get less attention and a lower priority, especially at the outset. And if they don't address that, a 3pp will, sooner or later, and probably sooner since we've already seen a couple of publishers making early forays onto the 5E scene.

 

[TwoSix]

Does "Apolcalypse" have some specific meaning I'm unaware of, or is it just a misspelling that hasn't been caught yet?