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

[Agamon]

Maybe we should hope they just leave it the Flan alone.

That's always been the mantra behind GH...well, maybe not in so many words.

FR gets the details down to the color of the socks of King Azoun's court jester (green and orange, for those that are curious). With GH, the details are left to the players.

 

[Chriscdoa]

I am so glad to see that WOTC finally gets the fact that adventure support is Key.

I just wish it wasn't in the form of World Saving mega adventure paths, which I have absolutely no use for.

This is disheartening for me. The kids group and I absolutely love 5e perhAPs the best of all. But I have little time for prep and even less time to spend on converting other edition modules. I dropped PFBB for largely the same reason (and the kids hated grid combats). 13th Age suffers from a similar issue. No adventures.


Its much easier for me to run my OD&D/S&W game, as there is not only reams of old moduls but also gobs of new OSR creations.

I am not going off on a ragequit rant, just that's the way it is with schedules and the need to be able to sit down and play with little prep. More things like LMOP are what we need.

Again, they need to copy Paizo.
Big APs for people who like those, and smaller modules for other people. Ideally that hop around some interesting locations.
IT looks like 3rd party may have you covered but will the quality be up to the official stuff?? and we still don't know about OGL anyway.

But surely using these APs is less effort than converting something...

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

3> Will we get anything not in the realms? as someone said this looks more greyhawk. IS it to to the obsession with factions so it can go with Adventurer's league?

WOTC looks like they really want to push the Adventurer's League. They want everything they publish to be playable in the Adventurer's League. AL is tied directly to the factions and to FR.

Honestly, I don't see a way for them to publish things in any campaign setting other than FR with the way they've connected the two. They might just allow other companies to take on the other campaign worlds.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

This seems to fit what's been said so far. Additional player material will be based on the major story arcs. The organized play document for Tyranny of Dragons mentions which materials are usable, which I can see meaning that those who do organized play will have an incentive to pick up the adventurer's handbook for each arc. It also means that old material might expire for organized play (and probably fall out of print). Long term, I wouldn't be surprised to see material get reprinted in newer arcs.

This would solve a lot of the problems with the publishing schedule of past editions. Games stores don't have to keep stock of much beyond the core books and the current storyline. New players can always jump into the latest material.

I suspect the smaller adventures and such will come from whatever becomes of the magazines.

Now, where's the setting material?

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

WOTC looks like they really want to push the Adventurer's League. They want everything they publish to be playable in the Adventurer's League. AL is tied directly to the factions and to FR.

Honestly, I don't see a way for them to publish things in any campaign setting other than FR with the way they've connected the two. They might just allow other companies to take on the other campaign worlds.

Meals has mentioned that the Forgotten Realms will be their focus for a while. I wouldn't expect to see anything for other settings for a few years. At which point, they could move the Adventurer's League stories to that world as well. Seeing as the major storylines are part of the videogames, too, I figure that any change of setting will happen with new games, or major updates to the existing ones.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

It also means that old material might expire for organized play (and probably fall out of print).

And end up on dndclassics.com, I hope. Especially the retired D&D Expeditions modules.

 

[Jester David]

I've been suspecting that splatbooks would be thematically tied to the adventure stories. This doesn't come as a surprise.

The name does. "Adventurer's Handbook" is far too generic a name for a book of options that should all be tied to fighting giants and elementals. If it is just a generic splatbook with a thin veneer or thematic tie then that defeats the purpose of tying them to APs: reducing the amount of splatbooks players have to consider when making a character. For example, if building a PC for a dungeon based game you likely wouldn't consider the Wilderness Survival Guide but would look at the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide.

If I was going to make a character for hunting giants and elementals and cultists, my instinctive stop wouldn't be the "Adventurer's Handbook".

Y'know, unless the full name is the "Elemental Evil Adventurer's Handbook". But that just says to me "don't buy the book if you're not running the adventure".

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This is only going to start an argument. You can't argue with hurt feelings. And fans of Greyhawk have had their feelings stomped repeatedly for decades at this point.

So, continuing a long standing tradition, then!

As someone who could care less about FR or Greyhawk I admit I would still prefer if they stick to intended targets....but admit I am completely flummoxed as to why the ToEE and all associated themes wouldn't also fit in FR. What makes it so uniquely Greyhawkian?


EDIT: I'll note that since I am used to adapting modules to my own setting, I really don't have a problem with the idea of making the module for the intended setting. I just don't recall anything about the ToEE or the Elder Elemental Eye that felt out of place in FR, especially with the expanded Planar lore that seems to be part and parcel of all the settings.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

There was this theory that the Prison Demiplane that Tharizdun was imprisoned in, was actually Ravenloft, which I remember being discussed back in 2e.

I also wouldn't like every adventure path being tied to FR, but the Temple of Elemental Evil since 3e was made fairly generic as far as settings go. Though I always felt the first 2 storylines were always going to be connected to Realms, and only later would they start moving beyond it.

 

[lkj]

Meals has mentioned that the Forgotten Realms will be their focus for a while. I wouldn't expect to see anything for other settings for a few years. At which point, they could move the Adventurer's League stories to that world as well. Seeing as the major storylines are part of the videogames, too, I figure that any change of setting will happen with new games, or major updates to the existing ones.

You're probably right. I do hold some small hope though. Mearls is a big Greyhawk fan. In fact, I think he even said that one of his personal dreams would be to get a Greyhawk setting book. However, it's very clear from the context of those comments that we may well not get one unless they can find a compelling way to do it for a broad audience (i.e., would have to make business sense). The chances for Greyhawk suffer, in my opinion, because of Forgotten Realms. For those of us buried in lore, Greyhawk and FR are two very different beasts in their character. But taken broadly, they're both 'vanilla' type European style medieval fantasy settings. Other settings-- like Eberron and Darksun-- offer a different niche. Which might give them a leg up down the road.

My hope, however, lies in this-- Because Mearls likes Greyhawk and because WotC is trying to find a way to give gamers from various backgrounds what they want, I wonder if they'll come up with a clever way to give us 5e Greyhawk and various other settings without having to take the risk of a major publication committment (full on setting book, adventure path, etc.). I've been happy with how they've handled a lot of things so far, so I wouldn't be surprised.

And yes-- for all these old settings-- you can get older material to use with 5e. Totally. But we all know that it's fun to get updated material with new goodies. It doesn't matter if it's rational.

AD