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.

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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]
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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.

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[TheSword]

It get that there are some long term players and DMs that are tired of the Forgotten Realms. However I’m sorry to say we represent only small slice of the player base. The rest is made up of players from the last 10 years who aren’t so jaded; or run their own campaign settings; or long time players that like the realms (like me).

A good reason for WOC to not reverse their current position and release dragonlance content is that with would be moving niche to generic. Whereas it’s much easier to go generic to niche. I see this problem in the latter APs that Paizo released. For instance Hells Rebels, Strange Aeons and the War for the Crown. These are very niche campaigns and it is a lot harder to take the niche elements out of these campaigns than it is to add some intrigue, Cthulhu action or rebellion into a generically located campaign.

Niche narrows your market appeal. You are trading making some people very happy for the disinterest of the majority. What WOC has to do is make products that have wide appeal and are useful to most people whilst still working on high quality spinoffs using more Niche elements. When WOC does Dark sun I want it to be the best damn Dark Sun Product ever released, to capture a new generation of players. It’s why I don’t want a load of mediocre Dark Sun stuff released on the Guild before that point.

 

[Remathilis]

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.

Like clockwork, Magic: the Gathering fans complain about the latest set, Star Wars fans complain about the latest movie, and D&D fans complain about the latest book.

Well, good luck with your crusade to persuade WotC out of the Realms.

 

[Coroc]

I am curious if the undermountain has a better ready to use out of the box than the 2nd ed boxes, which required much extra work as some already pointed out.
The idea for a megadungeon just below the City with an included secret port (skullport) is great.
Concerning other Settings: I think the megadungeon as such is easy protable into other DnD worlds, the City with its unique fluff rather not so much, it would stay to much recognizable. (E.g. waterdeep and greyhawk City are different on so many Levels, you could not easily submit one with the other)
Tbh i am quite glad they do nothing for other Settings, because

1. There is more than enough 1st/2nd/3rd and maybe even 4rth Edition material for these Settings out there

2. I do not want a spellplague on oerth or eberron

3. The multiplanar part is certainly not interesting if it would be like :
FR -> solve a Problem on another material plane -> Portal (-> ?Sigil?) -> Oerth -> do your Thing -> go back. That would be boring
It is more for :
Your prime is FR solve some Problem on the elemental plane / in the abyss / beastlands or: now you are stranded in Sigil find your way home or whatever.

 

[Remathilis]

Waterdeep can easily be adapted to any generic pseudo-medieval fantasy setting.

The problem is some of us are bored with generic pseudo-medieval in general, not Forgotten Realms in particular.

So find a game that fits your genre. Nobody complains WoD should support more than Urban horror, or Shadowrun more than cyberpunk, or M&M more than superheroes, but D&D must support every genre of fantasy under the sun...

 

[Aldarc]

Well, good luck with your crusade to persuade WotC out of the Realms.

Another strawman. Cut it out. It's rude.

 

[dave2008]

It get that there are some long term players and DMs that are tired of the Forgotten Realms. However I’m sorry to say we represent only small slice of the player base. The rest is made up of players from the last 10 years who aren’t so jaded; or run their own campaign settings; or long time players that like the realms (like me).

Or long-time players / DMs who have never run a published setting, but are able to use material from any setting and fit it in their own campaign world, like me. I've never run a Forgotten Realms campaign, but I have purchased almost every 5e book because they are so easy to grab interesting tidbits from and use in my own world.

 

[DQDesign]

Is it so difficult to understand that I care nothing about wotc supporting old settings? They can stick with FR forever, for what I care (I'll not buy wotc books until they switch to something else, but this is my taste, not gospel written in stone).

What I'm trying to say is: "wotc, if it is ok for you, stick with FR until Armageddon, no problem. but please, let other authors to write stuff for other settings, ok? also because we know you'll stick with FR up to Armageddon so, which is the problem for you if someone writes stuff about settings you are not interested in and you gain dollars in the process?"

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So find a game that fits your genre. Nobody complains WoD should support more than Urban horror, or Shadowrun more than cyberpunk, or M&M more than superheroes, but D&D must support every genre of fantasy under the sun...

As it happens, I like the 5e rules. And I don't hate generic pseudo-medieval. It just gets stale. Time to do something different then go back to the generic.

Having said that, give me a Space Opera total conversion of 5e and you wouldn't see me for dust! (Starfinder is way too clunky).

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Jein. What you are describing seems to already exist, in one form or another, on DMs Guild within the realm, no pun intended, of Forgotten Realms. People are producing, for example, Kara-Tur content on DMs Guild. But in doing so, this would presumably also apply to the idea that this would cut into any potential IP sales. And there is likewise Ravenloft content that would potentially cut into future sales of WotC-produced content.

Except those Kara Tur books are still complimentary to the other FR books that WotC have produced. They work together because they are still in the same setting. Plus there aren't so many that it is completely unaffordable for your average player to keep up with, even if they also buy some DM's Guild FR PDFs.

Let's say WotC opened up Dragonlance for use in the DM's Guild. Players and DM's would then have a choice to either buy FR books (both WotC and DM's Guild), buying just Dragonlance books from DM's Guild or buying both FR and DM's Guild products.

While there are some that would buy both, it would likely cannibalise some of the FR sales, both WotC and DM's Guild. Even if the combined sales of both products did generate more profit for WotC, the potential increase in profit is likely not worth the potential downside risks for WotC. Plus they would then be under pressure from Dark Sun, Eberron, Greyhawk, Planescape, Birthright, Mystara, Spelljammer, etc. fans for their setting to also be released, leading to further fragmentation.

Or WotC could just keep the status quo, which they know for a fact is working well and not have to worry about any of those risks. Yes, they will get complaints from people that their favourite setting is not available, but they're going to get that anyway, unless they open up all their settings.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Is it so difficult to understand that I care nothing about wotc supporting old settings? They can stick with FR forever, for what I care (I'll not buy wotc books until they switch to something else, but this is my taste, not gospel written in stone).

What I'm trying to say is: "wotc, if it is ok for you, stick with FR until Armageddon, no problem. but please, let other authors to write stuff for other settings, ok? also because we know you'll stick with FR up to Armageddon so, which is the problem for you if someone writes stuff about settings you are not interested in and you gain dollars in the process?"

The problem is that the money that the DM's Guild would generate for WotC would be tiny in comparison to the money they would make on pretty much anything else, especially if all it does is cannibalise sales of their print books or other DM's Guild products. Given the potential risks, there is little incentive for WotC to open up those other settings.