"Stream of Many Eyes" -- WotC To Announce New Storyline In June

On June 1st, WotC will be hosting a three-day streaming event called the Stream of Many Eyes. Similar to previous events, it will feature comedians, actors, and streamers, as the new Dungeons & Dragons storyline is unveiled.

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Here's the full press release:

On June 1 – 3 2018, D&D will bring tons of Twitch streamers, actors, comedians and D&D luminaries to the Stream of Many Eyes, a three-day livestreamed extravaganza full of cosplay, crazy sets and amazing stories. During the Stream of Many Eyes – #SOMEDND - the D&D team will unveil the new adventure story coming this year and showcase extraordinary D&D live play entertainment, and it will all stream live on twitch.tv/dnd.

The Stream of Many Eyes starts at 4pm PT on Friday, June 1st, with a visual tour of the studio led by host Anna Prosser Robinson and a roundtable conversation with the D&D team on the new storyline and what makes it so exciting. Dungeons & Dragons will then present live D&D play sessions with Force Grey & Dice, Camera, Action.

On Saturday, June 2nd, the livestream kicks off at 10 AM PT with Sirens of the Realms. Saturday’s games will feature well-known D&D gaming group Girls, Guts, Glory as well newer groups Rivals of Waterdeep and Dark & Dicey, all previewing content from the new story. The entertainment will run all day, wrapping up at 7 PM PT.

Four groups will perform on Sunday, June 3rd, beginning at 11 AM PT and streaming until 8 PM PT. Games will include members of Critical Role, High Rollers, Force Grey and the entire cast of Dice, Camera, Action performing together in costume for the first time.

D&D fans around the world can watch all the excitement unfold on twitch.tv/dnd, and on Sunday only, fans in the Los Angeles area can buy tickets to watch one of the live games in person. The live ticketed experience includes a curated set tour, live performances from musicians, dancers and stunt-people, food trucks, a D&D pop-up store full of merch, and of course some of your favorite gaming groups.

Check out the full schedule and buy tickets at dnd.wizards.com/some. Tickets are limited – so if you’ll be in the L.A. area on June 3rd make sure to grab them quick! Check out the D&D website, follow D&D on Twitter or subscribe to the Dragon Talk podcast feed for all the latest updates and for interviews with our special #SOMEDND guests.

You can read more here.

 

[LordEntrails]

Note, according to a report in the Seattle Times, 50% of all D&D players started playing since 2014. So yea, this is all new for them.

And I agree, why would they want to go look up 'old' or 'classic' stuff? Why would they want to figure out what has changed since then? Why would they want blue line maps or other two color maps with nothing but room outlines? None of that should be acceptable to a new player.

 

[Jester David]

Actually, it started a good bit before that, when either Mearls or Crawford was talking about the two books coming up in the fall, as well as possibly one that he wasn't sure he was allowed to even mention yet.

I keep hearing about stuff like that, but no one ever produces a link or screen shot.
And given how often people here misinterpret and misquote WotC staff, I’m not one to take such statements at face value.

 

[Jester David]

Nothing in 5e would be different?!?!?

There is over 100 years of change between 2e and 5e, countless events like the Spellplague and Sundering, various wars, and so on. Nations have fallen, risen again, as have gods, most of the NPCs in it are dead.

It varies.
Some places, like Waterdeep, might not have changed much since 1e. And a place like Neverwinter is just like it was in 4e.

this is why I keep calling for a 5e FRCG, instead of this slow piece meal BS of APs slowly revealing the setting.

The catch being, they don’t know what half the places are like yet. Because nothing has been set there.
A book like a FRCS would require them to invent and reinvent half the world on a very short deadline, without knowing what they want or need for future storylines.

 

[Staffan]

I may have remembered wrong on Maztica because of the way my DM used it back in the day, but the Al-Qadim books and Zakhara were designed to be dropped into any existing world, though technically part of the Realms. The original books for Al-Qadim did not even say Forgotten Realms on the covers. So, to me, it was not really fully integrated into the Realms til later on.

I'm not super-familiar with Maztica, but I do have much of the the Al-Qadim stuff. The original products, Arabian Adventures and Land Of Fate essentially said "The official location of Zakhara is on Toril, but it could go anywhere." Land of Fate has a few specific ties to FR, but they're fairly small and easy to ignore - most of it comes from the Zakharans' understanding of Northern gods ("Gond is the god of making things, and so is Clang, which makes perfect sense to the dumb northerners because one is a human god and the other is dwarven." - paraphrased). I also distinctly recall that Huzuz was home to the mage Elfinster who got really angry if someone confused him with a certain similarly-named wizard, because he moved all the way to Huzuz in order to get away from that nonsense - but I think he was added in the City of Delights boxed set.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I keep hearing about stuff like that, but no one ever produces a link or screen shot.
And given how often people here misinterpret and misquote WotC staff, I’m not one to take such statements at face value.

https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/11/evidence-future-dnd-books-storylines/

Most of that information is of course hugely dated, but at the bottom it mentions the possible fourth book with a link to the podcast where Mearls has his slip-up, at last year's Gamehole Con...

 

[Quickleaf]

I keep hearing about stuff like that, but no one ever produces a link or screen shot.
And given how often people here misinterpret and misquote WotC staff, I’m not one to take such statements at face value.

https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/11/evidence-future-dnd-books-storylines/

Most of that information is of course hugely dated, but at the bottom it mentions the possible fourth book with a link to the podcast where Mearls has his slip-up....

Mike Mearls at GameHole Con 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Go to 9:00 in this podcast: https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/11/the-state-of-dungeons-and-dragons-podcast/

Mike Mearls mentioned their 2018 products, and Chris Perkins responded: "Yes. There's one that's at editing/layout phase... one at playtesting phase... one that we have design turnovers for but haven't been developed yet."

And Mike Mearls cut in with: "And then there's...uh...well, I shouldn't say anything else."

And there you go!

 

[Jester David]

https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/11/evidence-future-dnd-books-storylines/

Most of that information is of course hugely dated, but at the bottom it mentions the possible fourth book with a link to the podcast where Mearls has his slip-up, at last year's Gamehole Con...

By “dated” I believe you mean mean “outright wrong”. There’s a whole lot of wild speculation on that page.

Yes, there is the podcast, which is a recording of a panel. With no time stamp of when this fabled “slip up” occurs.
More than likely, Mearls just stumbled over his thoughts in a live discussion.

 

[Jester David]

Mike Mearls at GameHole Con 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Go to 9:00 in this podcast: https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/11/the-state-of-dungeons-and-dragons-podcast/

Mike Mearls mentioned their 2018 products, and Chris Perkins responded: "Yes. There's one that's at editing/layout phase... one at playtesting phase... one that we have design turnovers for but haven't been developed yet."

And Mike Mearls cut in with: "And then there's...uh...well, I shouldn't say anything else."

And there you go!

Thanks.
Listened to that minute. They do mention “D&D Products” not “RPG hardcovers” so it could be a board game. Like they’ve done pretty much every other year.

Or Mearls could have been thinking of the spring 2019 product.

 

[Quickleaf]

I keep hearing about stuff like that, but no one ever produces a link or screen shot.
And given how often people here misinterpret and misquote WotC staff, I’m not one to take such statements at face value.

https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/11/evidence-future-dnd-books-storylines/

Most of that information is of course hugely dated, but at the bottom it mentions the possible fourth book with a link to the podcast where Mearls has his slip-up, at last year's Gamehole Con...

Thanks.
Listened to that minute. They do mention “D&D Products” not “RPG hardcovers” so it could be a board game. Like they’ve done pretty much every other year.

Or Mearls could have been thinking of the spring 2019 product.

Interpret as thou wilt.

 

[Jester David]

Interpret as thou wilt.

It just seems like such a stretch.

Even assuming Mearl’s didn’t flub and there’s four “D&D products” due in 2018... that’s not a stretch as we know of four. Tome of Foes, Broadway, Catacomb, and Broadway’s dice. We’ve known of all four since November since Amazon listings appear months and months in advance. We knew of “Catacomb” a year ahead of its release date.

Just like we knew the ISBNs and price points of several products last year, that turned out to be Dungeon Tiles, a blank folding map, and a new DM screen.
If there’s some secret fourth book due in 2018, what’s it’s release date, codename, and price point? Where is its Amazon entry or book store solicitation?

We saw Dragonfire, Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, and the Tomb of Annihilation board game in 2017. Assault of the Giants in early 2017/ late 2016. Rock, Paper, Wizard as well as Dice Masters and Tyrants of the Underdark in 2016. Temple of Elemental Evil in 2015.
They’ve done a new board game every year and an Adventure System game every other year.
It stands to reason they’ll do at least one game thematically tied to the summer storyline. Because that’s what they’ve done every other year. Which they will consider a “D&D product”.

Could they do four books in one year? Yeah, probably. Would they stack all four into a three month window? Not likely. The fourth would probably be closer to the spring book to evenly space out the workload. I doubt they’d want to get a book out in September, November, and December. Last time they did that, they had to let another game company cover their next year’s releases...