The New D&D Adventure Is - Tomb of Annihilation!

Tomb of Annihilation is in the Forgotten Realms set in the Lost Continent of Chult - Away from the Sword Coast (the hosts of the live stream are very interested with undead dinosaurs). Acererak is, as many predicted, the source of this plotline as the Archlich is more or less "eating" resurrection magic from the rest of the Forgotten Realms and causing a zombie apocalypse. Pendleton Ward from Adventure Time is a creative consultant on this adventure.

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More updates will be coming through the Dungeons & Dragons marathon live stream live on Twitch throughout the weekend.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

That is a stretch.

Probably. But I believe the reason this one was not really based on a previous adventure is because I hear this is the one adventure where they asked R.A. Salvatore for help (thus, there's are a couple of tie in novels). So he had a bunch of plot ideas that helped the adventure be something new.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Now I'm curious what the Drizzt book is as well Xandander Guide to Everything are.

The Drizzt book looks like an actual RPG product from the cover design, not a novel, but I could be wrong.

Pretty sure that's one of the collected "Legend of Drizzt" comics.....

 

[Jawsh Murdock]

Pendleton Ward, eh? I hope there's a lot of him in the final product.

I mean, not so that we get "The Tomb of Horrific Cosmic Saccharine Yet Poignant Whimsy".

Wait, no... that's exactly what I want.

I don't know what his involvement was in ToA, but I would guess it will be very unique!

 

[vecna00]

Pretty sure that's one of the collected "Legend of Drizzt" comics.....

Yeah, kind of looks like this one.

http://rzzy0b736k-flywheel.netdna-s.../2015/10/D-D-Drizzt-Exile-TPB-cover-9bc30.jpg

 

[GarrettKP]

Okay, my conspiracy theory:

Perkins is the AP guy, right? That's his job.
Except he wasn't involved at all with Tales from the Yawning Portal. That was Mearls and former WotC employee Kim Mohan, likely brought in as freelancer.

Making the storyline adventures takes a LOT of work. There's a reason Paizo has two teams that alternate APs. Plus, they have to start them a year in advance.
The summer/fall storyline is the big one. It involves the Neverwinter videogame and is tied to the minis. So that one's locked in well over a year in advance. They needed to start work on the concept art to send to Cryptic and WizKids in mid to early 2016. And 2016 was a busy, busy year for Perkins. He had Force Grey and AI: the Series and the three convention games (one more than 2015). Then the winter AI special. And he was doing Dice, Camera, Action all year. And he was involved in Volo's Guide to Monsters, helping with the lore and flavour there.

I suspect Perkins was going to blow his deadline for an adventure.

There was too much and Perkins couldn't handle the winter/spring storyline and the summer/fall one. So Mearls and Mohan stepped in and did Tales from the Yawning Portal at the last minute. Because changing that storyline didn't involve tweaking minis and video game plans. Which is why they went with reprints that could be quickly converted (or not at all for Dead in Thay). And why a third of the maps are reprinted (all the Against the Giants ones). And why they put that adventure out when it overlaps so very, very much with the adventure immediately before and after.
They rushed TftYP out the door while letting Perkins double down on his work for Tomb of Annihilation.

So Artus and the ring of winter storyline got bumped. Back burnered to winter/spring 2018. Or later.
Which sucks… but is understandable. Because Perkins is human and I don't want him burning out. And it means Tomb of Annihilation is a better product. And Tales from the Yawning Portal made a heck of a lot of people happy, so win-win.

This is mostly correct. But I think that Tomb of Annihilation will be the story that includes Artus and the Ring of Winter.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Yeah, kind of looks like this one.

http://rzzy0b736k-flywheel.netdna-s.../2015/10/D-D-Drizzt-Exile-TPB-cover-9bc30.jpg

Yup, that's the one I was thinking of. Always catches my eye at the comic shop because I think it's a game book based on how it looks.

 

[Prakriti]

The Drizzt book looks like an actual RPG product from the cover design, not a novel, but I could be wrong.

It's definitely an RPG-sized book. And it has the same red-flame branding that all 5E books have. But the title and the design lead me to believe that it's a mock-up of some kind: perhaps a future product, or maybe just a hypothetical product that never made it past the design phase. Alternatively, it could be an in-house book of lore, just intended for office use. I know they were working on such a thing for Faerun, but maybe they did one for Drizzt as well.

EDIT: Ah, a comic-book collection. I'd never seen those before. That must be it. Disregard.

Okay, my conspiracy theory: ... Artus and the ring of winter storyline got bumped. Back burnered to winter/spring 2018. Or later.

It's a plausible theory, and I wouldn't mind if that were the case. I want better books, even if it means extended deadlines. If we don't hear anything about Artus by the end of this event, I hope someone will tweet Chris and ask him about Artus.

 

[jasper]

If it's a introductory/ fluff book (like Dungeonology or the old Practical Guide to … series it makes sense to keep that all in one world. For consistency. When you're introducing all the tropes of D&D you want it nice and generic and don't need to go all-in to the entire Multiverse. Plus, going with an iconic D&D monster (a beholder) for the title character makes sense.
(Plus, it could be the first in a theoretical series. The "____'s Guide to Everything" series. You can image a "Meepo's Guide to Everything" or the like.)

Don Meepo is not please with you with your disrespect, Mr. Jester. He feels connecting him to a beholder was unwise. Please accept this gift of boots of swimming with the fishes (a quikrete product).

 

[Jawsh Murdock]

Okay, my conspiracy theory:

Perkins is the AP guy, right? That's his job.
Except he wasn't involved at all with Tales from the Yawning Portal. That was Mearls and former WotC employee Kim Mohan, likely brought in as freelancer.

Making the storyline adventures takes a LOT of work. There's a reason Paizo has two teams that alternate APs. Plus, they have to start them a year in advance.
The summer/fall storyline is the big one. It involves the Neverwinter videogame and is tied to the minis. So that one's locked in well over a year in advance. They needed to start work on the concept art to send to Cryptic and WizKids in mid to early 2016. And 2016 was a busy, busy year for Perkins. He had Force Grey and AI: the Series and the three convention games (one more than 2015). Then the winter AI special. And he was doing Dice, Camera, Action all year. And he was involved in Volo's Guide to Monsters, helping with the lore and flavour there.

I suspect Perkins was going to blow his deadline for an adventure.

There was too much and Perkins couldn't handle the winter/spring storyline and the summer/fall one. So Mearls and Mohan stepped in and did Tales from the Yawning Portal at the last minute. Because changing that storyline didn't involve tweaking minis and video game plans. Which is why they went with reprints that could be quickly converted (or not at all for Dead in Thay). And why a third of the maps are reprinted (all the Against the Giants ones). And why they put that adventure out when it overlaps so very, very much with the adventure immediately before and after.
They rushed TftYP out the door while letting Perkins double down on his work for Tomb of Annihilation.

So Artus and the ring of winter storyline got bumped. Back burnered to winter/spring 2018. Or later.
Which sucks… but is understandable. Because Perkins is human and I don't want him burning out. And it means Tomb of Annihilation is a better product. And Tales from the Yawning Portal made a heck of a lot of people happy, so win-win.

From what I've heard the D&D 5e team have a tightly put together 5 year product release plan that has gone according to their schedule from the beginning. I seriously doubt that there was anytime crunch.

 

[Jester David]

From what I've heard the D&D 5e team have a tightly put together 5 year product release plan that has gone according to their schedule from the beginning. I seriously doubt that there was anytime crunch.

Chris definitely has a plan for Artus Cimber. Nothing in that story was "bumped." I can't tell you more, but you'll see.

Except that, repeatedly, in interviews, Crawford and Mearls have said they want to be reactive to the needs and desires of the audience.
Also, that doesn't mesh at all with the cancellation of the Adventurer's Handbook. (To say nothing of the Dungeonscape failure. Or taking 18 months to get the OGL out.)

I also highly doubt they'd plan out five years in advance when neither 3.0 or 4e managed to make it three years without an overhaul and massive change to the plans...