Spring's D&D Release Will Be Ship-Themed

So they talked about it a little bit on today's Fireside Chat. They mentioned that the full reveal are coming at a later date, but it will be a ship based product. It's almost done, but cover and title are not yet finalized.

Not much else was mentioned except some joke titles!

Not too surprising, given the UA, the upcoming seafaring comic book, the ship mini set, etc.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Is that similar to being the least annoying Paladin?

The most Oscar-worthy Michael Bay movie?

The most subdued Nic Cage performance?

I love the FR but I applaud the brutality of this post.

I'm more exciting about the less-explored cultures than the boats, but boats ain't bad - there have actually been plenty in my 5E campaign and I kind of wished we had better rules for them.

 

[gyor]

For the record I don't think it's going to be an exclusively about the sea. What it might be is WotC's own Stronghold Book, after the success of Matt's book, which had Pirate ship stronghold, and Ma be they want a piece of that action.

 

[Parmandur]

For the record I don't think it's going to be an exclusively about the sea. What it might be is WotC's own Stronghold Book, after the success of Matt's book, which had Pirate ship stronghold, and Ma be they want a piece of that action.

The big theme actually seemed to be sea creatures: 2 of the 4 joke covers had a ship, but all four involved understand creatures.

It looks likely to be a Volo's Guide to Monsters style book, with some difference, such as expanded ship rules and maybe nautical PC options.

 

[Azzy]

What I'm expecting is a cross between XGtE and VGtM/MToF with a mix of Ravnica... While it will have the rules for ships (including skyships) and sailing, we'll probably see player options like races, subclasses, and maybe backgrounds and feats. The DM section will likely have a monster section as well as rules and guidance for sailing and undersea adventures, exploration, and downtime activities, plus some optional rules. There will probably be some lore to tie things to the existing settings. Possibly a mini adventure.

 

[vecna00]

Why can't it be both, like they did with Dragon Heist? Half the book or so about the ships and combat and sea monsters and half low-level adventures aboard ship.

It could totally be both! But, there won't be an adventure in the book, in my speculation. There could be adventure hooks and maybe even campaign hooks, but no actual adventure within the book.

 

[Parmandur]

It could totally be both! But, there won't be an adventure in the book, in my speculation. There could be adventure hooks and maybe even campaign hooks, but no actual adventure within the book.

Their discussion made it sound pretty supplement like, though they danced around any solid details.

 

[MNblockhead]

Not good. Now that there's a sizable 5E library, they need to transition to fewer releases per year. A lot of people are already suffering from official-release fatigue.

One big release a quarter is about right for me. So far the 5e books have at least been fun to read and enjoy the art even if I don't immediately put them to use in my game.

The only books I've skipped are the APs, but I've bought every one since Curse of Strahd, even though the only official AP I've run is Curse of Strahd.

As for the non-APs, I've found them all to be both enjoyable to read and useful as a DM. The only non-AP I didn't find very useful was Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, though I did enjoy reading through it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One big release a quarter is about right for me. So far the 5e books have at least been fun to read and enjoy the art even if I don't immediately put them to use in my game.

The only books I've skipped are the APs, but I've bought every one since Curse of Strahd, even though the only official AP I've run is Curse of Strahd.

As for the non-APs, I've found them all to be both enjoyable to read and useful as a DM. The only non-AP I didn't find very useful was Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, though I did enjoy reading through it.

SCAG has so little content, I let players count it as part of the PHB in the one PHB+1 game we did, but as a lore book it's fun.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'd expect the Sidekicks rules that were put out in UA will be in this book (ship officers?). Those rules have Jeremy Crawford's name on them, and he's told us that means they are probably going to be in an upcoming product (ones he isn't involved in are sometimes pure brainstorms from Mike Mearls or testing the waters). So we are getting Sidekick rules, my guess is that the probability is high for them being in the spring book, which means those of us like me with strong opinions who haven't yet done the feedback survey need to get on that survey.

 

[Parmandur]

I'd expect the Sidekicks rules that were put out in UA will be in this book (ship officers?). Those rules have Jeremy Crawford's name on them, and he's told us that means they are probably going to be in an upcoming product (ones he isn't involved in are sometimes pure brainstorms from Mike Mearls or testing the waters). So we are getting Sidekick rules, my guess is that the probability is high for them being in the spring book, which means those of us like me with strong opinions who haven't yet done the feedback survey need to get on that survey.

Since they are in final layout and editing, yup. If that is meant for this book, that would be the last chance.