D&D 5E The March D&D Book Will Be Announced Next Tuesday

As has become standard these days, the upcoming D&D book has appeared -- in an anonymous, secretive guise -- on various bookstores in advance of an announcement. In this case, Amazon, Penguin Random House, and Barnes & Noble, all of whom confirm that the book will be announced next Tuesday on January 12th, and released on March 16th.

The book will cost $49.99. B&N has its dimensions as being 6.5 x 9.5 inches, which is smaller than a standard D&D hardcover (but that information could just be a placeholder). B&N also indicates that the authors are Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson, but they also say that for Tasha's Cauldron and other WotC books, so that also looks like it's just their boilerplate for WotC. There's also an ISBN number: 978-0786967223.

This is almost an exact mirror of this time last year, almost down to the dates (last year it appeared on stores on Jan 6th, was announced as Explorer's Guide to Wildemount on Jan 9th, and released March 17th).

There's been plenty of speculation recently. Last year WotC said that three classic settings were getting active attention, and that the coming years would have a greater emphasis on settings, as well as more anthologies and Magic: The Gathering collaborations. And, of course, WotC has recently been involved in a Dragonlance lawsuit, which was voluntarily dismissed in December with Margaret Weis tweeting that there was exciting news in the weeks to come.

 

[whimsychris123]

I seem to remember someone calling it for Candlekeep. I can’t remember if it was this thread or another. At any rate, good job, whoever it was! I guess I’ll wait for a Dragonlance setting in the second quarter!

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It'll be interesting to see if it really does support higher level mysteries. A mystery when the PCs can just check with their God for answers can be a tricky thing to make a Mystery. Just saying, "The God does not answer you" diminishes the heroes, but getting the answer often ruins the mystery.

Just say "Your god wants you to learn and progress on your own. You won't amount to anything if I solve all of your problems all of the time". Works like a charm.

(Learned this from the Percy Jackson series. Gods can be harsh. Even the "good" ones.)

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Yawning Portal is in the FR and yet most of the Adventures in Tales are from other settings.

It does give blurbs for how to put them in other settings (like the FR), though. However, I could see it going either way for this book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is 5E we're talking about here: It was too much to hope and expect it would've been something like that.

The Sword Coast, Ravnica, Eberron, Wildemount, Theros.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Yawning Portal is in the FR and yet most of the Adventures in Tales are from other settings.

WotC's insistence on shoehorning Greyhawk content into the Forgotten Realms isn't necessarily a precedent that suggests a lot of efforts to make this content work elsewhere. It'd be nice if they put some energy into making it work in Eberron, at least, as that's a setting where mysteries are a natural sort of adventure (and one where you're a lot less likely to just get a mystery solved by waiting for a phenomenally powerful archmage to wander by on their lunch break).

 

[OB1]

17 adventures? How short are those? Tales from the Yawning Portal and Ghosts of Saltmarsh only had 7 adventures.

DotMM had 23 levels, each of which is a complete adventure on it's own, so 17 doesn't seem too far a stretch.

Love that they are going with a huge collection of shorter pieces that can be dropped in to a larger campaign, hoping we see a wide range of Tiers supported in it. Also hope at least a few of them are Feywild related.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

DotMM had 23 levels, each of which is a complete adventure on it's own, so 17 doesn't seem too far a stretch.

Yeah, but that was an adventure book. It was kind of in its own category as a Megadungeon without much plot keeping the campaign going, but it still fit into that category. This is a book with a bunch of adventures complied together, like GoS and TftYP, so it would normally be expected to follow that same format.

 

[Alzrius]

Just say "Your god wants you to learn and progress on your own. You won't amount to anything if I solve all of your problems all of the time". Works like a charm.

(Learned this from the Percy Jackson series. Gods can be harsh. Even the "good" ones.)

The problem I've always run into with this is that clerics and other religious (i.e. divine spellcaster) characters are typically on a mission to further their god's interests, with failure meaning a setback for their god's overall goals (albeit in a small way). Saying that your god wants you to figure it out on your own is like a field agent calling back to headquarters for some intelligence and being told "look, the top brass is really invested in this mission and all, but they want you to figure it out on your own."

 

[OB1]

Yeah, but that was an adventure book. It was kind of in its own category as a Megadungeon without much plot keeping the campaign going, but it still fit into that category. This is a book with a bunch of adventures complied together, like GoS and TftYP, so it would normally be expected to follow that same format.

Perhaps this is a new format specifically designed to be used to run as one shots in 3-5 hours each? Seems like that is one thing that is really missing from the 5e lineup and would be helpful for bringing in both new players and new DMs to help expand the player base.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The problem I've always run into with this is that clerics and other religious (i.e. divine spellcaster) characters are typically on a mission to further their god's interests, with failure meaning a setback for their god's overall goals (albeit in a small way). Saying that your god wants you to figure it out on your own is like a field agent calling back to headquarters for some intelligence and being told "look, the top brass is really invested in this mission and all, but they want you to figure it out on your own."

I've seen that done well. If you need some explanation, say the god is distracted by something more important at the moment (potential side quest as a bonus if you use this), and give them some Charm (from the DMG's supernatual gifts) as a "this is all I can give you right now, go figure it out".

The key is to be helpful but not problem-solving, present but also with a feeling of being distant, and trusting of the players to succeed while also providing them with a Plan B or minor buff in case they need to use it.