Second Dungeons & Dragons Product for Fall 2018: Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Wizards of the Coast announced the second product for Fall 2018, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

View attachment 98050
​

A video promotion from D&D Beyond (linked below) aired at the end of the Saturday events on the "Stream of Many Eyes" and was uploaded to YouTube shortly after. The book will be a megadungeon that runs from Level 6-20 that details 23 different levels to Undermountain each with their own feel and theme, along with a full detailing of Skullport. It's stated in the video that running the module with weekly sessions will take at least eight months. Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage will be out November 13, 2018, with an MSRP of $49.95.

[video=youtube;wbVRQIOuI8s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbVRQIOuI8s[/video]
​

This is the second product announced during the "Stream of Many Eyes" event on the Dungeons & Dragons Twitch channel. The event will continue on Sunday with celebrity games and potentially more product announcements from third-party companies like Gale Force Nine. The first product announced, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (along with a special dice set), were announced on Friday, June 1.

View attachment 98048​

 

[Mistwell]

It's tiring when WotC releases products that I am not interested in buying. It's tiring when they repeatedly tease their support of other campaign settings with little to show for it. It's tiring when I voice my dissatisfaction with what the adventures are publishing only to have a chorus of yes men shout down any alternative viewpoints. It's tiring to have people living in a bubble who are repeatedly dismissive of other people about the troubles of finding alternative adventures worth running and assume that converting adventures is easy for everyone. And it's tiring having to deal with your strawmen about "OMG Realmz Suxx!!!" If adventures are so easy to convert, then please let's have a Greyhawk, Eberron, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, or Planescape adventure book for converting to the Realms.

I understand and appreciate your frustration for people treating your viewpoint with disrespect and a lack of empathy. However, when you respond that you think they're just a bunch of yes men living in a bubble, you're treating them similar to how you feel they are treating you. I get that you feel it's what people deserve for reacting that way to you, but all it likely does is cause them to dig in and further entrench in trying to disagree with you rather than try and understand where you're coming from.

The best way to get support for other settings is to gather allies. And as you don't have enough right now to get it done, you're going to need some who currently don't care either way, and also some who currently disagree with you, to come around.

So why not pick a setting you want to see support for, and tell people why it's awesome to play in that setting, and how these kinds of releases would work even better in that setting than in FR? For example, might this newest set of releases work great for the Free City of Greyhawk, and the Castle Greyhawk megadungeon?

 

[Aldarc]

Fair advice, [MENTION=2525]Mistwell[/MENTION]. Thank you.

 

[GarrettKP]

The interview says:

"Dungeons & Dragons plans to start talking about the new product as early as next month. "We have two surprises that I think hardcore D&D fans are really going to love coming this summer," Stewart said. "And then I think we got one surprise that's going to release later this year that we've not told anyone about. We're going to announce it in July."​

That's THREE things. Two this summer and another later this year.
And given we haven't seen codenamed releases for them on Amazon, despite releasing earlier in the year than Dragon Heist, I'm betting these are digital products.

Pretty sure the first two mentioned are the Waterdeep adventures and this was done before the stream started (the author on reddit implied it was done before the stream). And the third surprise is the final hardcover.

Look i know you’ve been a skeptic since the start, but this 4th hardcover is happening. From the sounds of it it’s a big “Guide to the Multiverse” book with chapters covering a bunch of settings. It is likely done to open up those settings to the DMs Guild and also prep people for those settings getting adventures in the future.

Time to embrace it dude! Revel in the surplus!

 

[gyor]

Pretty sure the first two mentioned are the Waterdeep adventures and this was done before the stream started (the author on reddit implied it was done before the stream). And the third surprise is the final hardcover.

Look i know you’ve been a skeptic since the start, but this 4th hardcover is happening. From the sounds of it it’s a big “Guide to the Multiverse” book with chapters covering a bunch of settings. It is likely done to open up those settings to the DMs Guild and also prep people for those settings getting adventures in the future.

Time to embrace it dude! Revel in the surplus!

We will have a better idea of what is going on in July.

 

[Jester David]

Pretty sure the first two mentioned are the Waterdeep adventures and this was done before the stream started (the author on reddit implied it was done before the stream). And the third surprise is the final hardcover.

First, the link to reddit?
Second, let's re-read the posted article with some word emphasis

ComicBook.com spoke with Nathan Stewart, the Brand Director and Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons, at the Stream of Many Eyes,

When asked to give a tease about plans for 2019, Stewart revealed that the brand still had more surprises for later this year.

Next month we're going to talk about a couple of different settings that people can start playing as early as this year," Stewart said.

We havetwo surprises that I think hardcore D&D fans are really going to love coming this summer," Stewart said. "And then I think we got one surprise that's going to release later this year that
we've not told anyone about. We're going to announce it in July."

It seems pretty clear that this was an interview AT the event and everything discussed was coming later. So the two products referenced that are *coming* this summer are new, as the two Waterdeep books are September and November, which is autumn and winter.

That's three new yet unknown "products'.

Look i know you’ve been a skeptic since the start, but this 4th hardcover is happening. From the sounds of it it’s a big “Guide to the Multiverse” book with chapters covering a bunch of settings. It is likely done to open up those settings to the DMs Guild and also prep people for those settings getting adventures in the future.

Time to embrace it dude! Revel in the surplus!

My reluctance is always that no one at WotC ever says "book". Even in the above interview and Kate's comment on the oft referenced stream, people only every say "product". The interviewer infers "book" but Stewart never says that.
With two coming as soon as the summer but no sign on Amazon (despite September and November's releases there) it's very likely they're not books and just PDFs like the Magic Plane Shift series.

Plus, I like to look at situations like this logically. Very likely, one of us is wrong and the other one right. Either there is a 4th hardcover coming or not.
If you're right and if I embrace your view I'm happy, but if you're wrong I'm disappointed. If I reject your view and I'm right I have the satisfaction of being right. But if I reject and am wrong, I eat crow but get a 4th book so I'm still happy.
Logic dictates I refuse to revel.

 

[GarrettKP]

First, the link to reddit?
Second, let's re-read the posted article with some word emphasis





It seems pretty clear that this was an interview AT the event and everything discussed was coming later. So the two products referenced that are *coming* this summer are new, as the two Waterdeep books are September and November, which is autumn and winter.

That's three new yet unknown "products'.


My reluctance is always that no one at WotC ever says "book". Even in the above interview and Kate's comment on the oft referenced stream, people only every say "product". The interviewer infers "book" but Stewart never says that.
With two coming as soon as the summer but no sign on Amazon (despite September and November's releases there) it's very likely they're not books and just PDFs like the Magic Plane Shift series.

Plus, I like to look at situations like this logically. Very likely, one of us is wrong and the other one right. Either there is a 4th hardcover coming or not.
If you're right and if I embrace your view I'm happy, but if you're wrong I'm disappointed. If I reject your view and I'm right I have the satisfaction of being right. But if I reject and am wrong, I eat crow but get a 4th book so I'm still happy.
Logic dictates I refuse to revel.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/co...ragons_to_announce_new_settings_for/?sort=new

Here’s the reddit link. The poster is the interviewer also. He said in a comment “Yeah - that seems to be the implication. Waterdeep is their 2018 storyline, but they have another product for fans who are looking for other campaign settings. I don't know if it will be a pure campaign setting book, or if it will have some sort of mini-adventure used as a frame for that world.”

Seems clear he is referencing a 4th product even if his article is confusingly written. I get the logical argument. But I think it’s a certainty this 4th book is coming so I say let those apprehensions go!

 

[Schmoe]

It ties into all the high level stuff in MTOFs.

Indeed, which was well-played by WotC. There also should be a lot more first-hand familiarity with high-level 5e by the end of the year. Is it too early for /popcorn?

 

[Demetrios1453]

First, the link to reddit?
Second, let's re-read the posted article with some word emphasis





It seems pretty clear that this was an interview AT the event and everything discussed was coming later. So the two products referenced that are *coming* this summer are new, as the two Waterdeep books are September and November, which is autumn and winter.

That's three new yet unknown "products'.


My reluctance is always that no one at WotC ever says "book". Even in the above interview and Kate's comment on the oft referenced stream, people only every say "product". The interviewer infers "book" but Stewart never says that.
With two coming as soon as the summer but no sign on Amazon (despite September and November's releases there) it's very likely they're not books and just PDFs like the Magic Plane Shift series.

Plus, I like to look at situations like this logically. Very likely, one of us is wrong and the other one right. Either there is a 4th hardcover coming or not.
If you're right and if I embrace your view I'm happy, but if you're wrong I'm disappointed. If I reject your view and I'm right I have the satisfaction of being right. But if I reject and am wrong, I eat crow but get a 4th book so I'm still happy.
Logic dictates I refuse to revel.

I honestly think the stuff for the two settings will be in-depth UAs for them, thus getting around the whole book thing, while making it possible, or even likely, that we'll get full-fledged books a year or two down the line once they've been fully playtested.

The mysterious fourth release still looks to be a book to me, in my opinion...

 

[gyor]

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Undermountain

 

[epithet]

I suspect that it will not be much work at all to run Dragon Heist in the Free City of Greyhawk, and the Dungeon of the Mad Mage in the original dungeon of the original mad mage, Greyhawk Castle, with some lingering remnant of Zagig bound there.