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.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Nope, it has never happened in history -- not even once. If you believe Venezuela was doing great before Maduro then your definition of great must have a really, really low bar. But if you are in love with Venezuela pick Cuba or North Korea instead as examples. Or African examples such as Zimbabwe -- pick your poison really. Even the Soviet Union looked good for a while (at least to those that never looked to hard).

But beside that, there are better fantasy Africa sources to provide inspiration and still maintain the feel of a pre-colonial version of Africa.

But one has to go quite a bit back in history to find that. The difficulty with Africa is really finding a time in which indigenous cultures were not dramatically influenced by outside civilizations. Even going back to Pharaonic Egypt they were involved in sub-Saharan Africa.

Now there are a lot of people that are silly enough to make this about "race" -- it isn't. There are simple geographic factors that can been seen in many other locales that dramatically influence how civilizations develop.

The problem with trying to create a cultures that just are analogs to real world cultures is that they tend to ignore the climate, geography, flora, and fauna that influences the culture development. One of the biggest factors ignored by fantasy works such as D&D is the difficulty of obtaining food.

Finally if you want Wakanda in D&D you have to look no further than Halruaa in the Forgotten Realms.

Hey, bud, political discussion isn’t allowed here.

Also, making it about race when no one else is, is weird and awkward. Stop it.

 

[SkidAce]

Because it ain’t. It’s all silly nonsense we do for fun. Elves and wizards aren’t any less silly than Black Panther and Storm.

View attachment 104001


...hehe...

 

[JPL]

Hey, I think I'm on to something with that India / Tibet / Nepal psionics book, which is going to be another 5th edition setting + crunch combo book. Write that down, people. We shall go their in our new boats.

 

[Quickleaf]

Huh. I must have missed all that. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I was under the impression that it had been well-received.

I felt that ToA was told very much from the perspective of the colonial powers, rather than native cultures, which where barely fleshed out. Personally, I didn't have a problem with that, but I can see why some might.

Well said. I'm enjoying ToA too, but there is a lot of lore hinted at / implied in ToA, and to get at it you have to closely read between the lines and do your own research into products from past editions.

For example: the concept of "matumbe" (a forbidden magic involving possession/warlock-like pacts) was referenced in past products, actually plays a very significant role in ToA, but never is called out as such nor is it mentioned how the native cultures view it. Another example: how do the Chultan people view dreams in light of the presence of 3 night hags for the last century? Another example: how is Omu viewed by the peoples of Chult? Another example: where are the survivors of the Eshowe tribe or are there none, and what befell Eshowdow? Another example: have all the human tribes in the jungles gone extinct, or do some remain, and what are their cultures like?

If you compare ToA to another 5e module of similar length – Storm King's Thunder – in SKT there's about 4-and-a-half pages devoted to giant culture, King Hekaton's story, and the current giant leaders. I really think ToA is missing something like this for Chultan culture.

The intro to ToA is much more condensed...and generally, that's an aesthetic value I appreciate...to dive right into the adventure. However, when dealing a setting gamers are less familiar with than "bog standard pseudo-Western European fantasy" – and I'd argue a pseudo-pan-African inspired setting qualifies – then you really do need some pages devoted to that culture so the DM can give a verisimilitudinous presentation of the setting. With a bit of editing, I could easily see 3-4 pages on Chultan culture being included without changing the book's overall page count.

 

[Parmandur]

Well said. I'm enjoying ToA too, but there is a lot of lore hinted at / implied in ToA, and to get at it you have to closely read between the lines and do your own research into products from past editions.

For example: the concept of "matumbe" (a forbidden magic involving possession/warlock-like pacts) was referenced in past products, actually plays a very significant role in ToA, but never is called out as such nor is it mentioned how the native cultures view it. Another example: how do the Chultan people view dreams in light of the presence of 3 night hags for the last century? Another example: how is Omu viewed by the peoples of Chult? Another example: where are the survivors of the Eshowe tribe or are there none, and what befell Eshowdow? Another example: have all the human tribes in the jungles gone extinct, or do some remain, and what are their cultures like?

If you compare ToA to another 5e module of similar length – Storm King's Thunder – in SKT there's about 4-and-a-half pages devoted to giant culture, King Hekaton's story, and the current giant leaders. I really think ToA is missing something like this for Chultan culture.

The intro to ToA is much more condensed...and generally, that's an aesthetic value I appreciate...to dive right into the adventure. However, when dealing a setting gamers are less familiar with than "bog standard pseudo-Western European fantasy" – and I'd argue a pseudo-pan-African inspired setting qualifies – then you really do need some pages devoted to that culture so the DM can give a verisimilitudinous presentation of the setting. With a bit of editing, I could easily see 3-4 pages on Chultan culture being included without changing the book's overall page count.

I was kind of surprised that there was zero support for the concept that maybe then PCs would be Chultans investigating the situation themselves: only outsiders need apply.

 

[Quickleaf]

I was kind of surprised that there was zero support for the concept that maybe then PCs would be Chultans investigating the situation themselves: only outsiders need apply.

Indeed. I had about 1 month of prepping ToA before we started the campaign and that was a glaring issue I also noticed. I addressed this by putting together a player primer PDF which presented the option to choose between being a traveler/outsider (differentiated more by background) vs. a native of Chult (differentiated more by race). My players mostly chose to be natives.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Perhaps you should have induced enough of a ratiocination to realize that some may be ignorant to your sources before utilizing caustic rudeness.

Considering the regular threads here about each issue of Dragon+ and considering the initial announcement of the ship model back in August was discussed in a thread here also, maybe you are the ignorant one.

 

[Bitbrain]

Well said. I'm enjoying ToA too, but there is a lot of lore hinted at / implied in ToA, and to get at it you have to closely read between the lines and do your own research into products from past editions.

For example: the concept of "matumbe" (a forbidden magic involving possession/warlock-like pacts) was referenced in past products, actually plays a very significant role in ToA, but never is called out as such nor is it mentioned how the native cultures view it. Another example: how do the Chultan people view dreams in light of the presence of 3 night hags for the last century? Another example: how is Omu viewed by the peoples of Chult? Another example: where are the survivors of the Eshowe tribe or are there none, and what befell Eshowdow? Another example: have all the human tribes in the jungles gone extinct, or do some remain, and what are their cultures like?

If you compare ToA to another 5e module of similar length – Storm King's Thunder – in SKT there's about 4-and-a-half pages devoted to giant culture, King Hekaton's story, and the current giant leaders. I really think ToA is missing something like this for Chultan culture.

The intro to ToA is much more condensed...and generally, that's an aesthetic value I appreciate...to dive right into the adventure. However, when dealing a setting gamers are less familiar with than "bog standard pseudo-Western European fantasy" – and I'd argue a pseudo-pan-African inspired setting qualifies – then you really do need some pages devoted to that culture so the DM can give a verisimilitudinous presentation of the setting. With a bit of editing, I could easily see 3-4 pages on Chultan culture being included without changing the book's overall page count.

This is exactly why, when given the opportunity to buy either SKT or ToA, I bought SKT.

The information on the cities, tribes, cultural quirks, and locations within the SKT was MUCH easier to find and understand, as the authors took their time and explored the different cultures located within the Savage Frontier.

Meanwhile, within ToA that same kind of information was divided up and scattered throughout, making it much harder to get a good picture in my head of what the cultures in Chult are actually like.

Fortunately, they seem to have gone back to the SKT model, at least in the two Waterdeep adventures.

 

[generic]

Considering the regular threads here about each issue of Dragon+ and considering the initial announcement of the ship model back in August was discussed in a thread here also, maybe you are the ignorant one.

Perhaps. I apologize for my fiery response. I wrote it when I was rather tired, after spending too long on the forums.

 

[vpuigdoller]

I was kind of surprised that there was zero support for the concept that maybe then PCs would be Chultans investigating the situation themselves: only outsiders need apply.

I was surprised by this as well, one of my latest ToA players asked to be a local chultan out of the bat. I allowed it and gave him proficiency in history (with the intent to be used for chultan history if it comes up, specially those related to the myths and Ubtao). In addition he was working for the Harbor Master at Port Nyanzaru so he knew of some of the NPCs in the city.