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.

 

[Zaukrie]

Hopefully this doesn't turn into another ten pages, like all threads, about how FR is the worst. We've read it already. I really hope we get to talk about this product....

 

[timbannock]

My initial thought is: just sounds like WotC is desperate for material. Rather than developing something new and exciting, let's just through in a re-hashed Tomb of Horrors. But wait- dinosaurs! Yeah, dinosaurs. Kids love dinosaurs. Oy vay.

What some see as desperate for material others see as a way to leverage existing material to create something that 1) hits the nostalgia buttons to draw in the existing crowd, and 2) has enough of a twist that new folks can jump in without having to read an encyclopedia's worth of background material...but if they enjoy doing that research, it's still there.

FR sells; we know this. Classic adventures sell; we know this. Wizards multimedia take on their yearly storylines appears to optimize how their entire business is setup; we're fairly sure of this based on recent earnings calls and chatter from Wizards' team. Nobody in a marketing department and few people playing in a game where planehopping and spelljamming are as common as they want it to be are going to care about separation of D&D canon elements when ignoring said canon leads to sales and content that people largely appear to be enjoying.

And in 30+ years, what's "new and exciting" is hardly something that doesn't include dungeons and wilderness exploration when it comes to D&D ;-P

 

[DEFCON 1]

Im with ya.

And a.Zombie Apocalypse. How original. I guess they want to capitalize on that mainstream lameness.

They are not even trying anymore.

Has there been an adventure they've done for 5E thus far where you thought they were trying?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Its almost like Hollywood at this point.

 

[vpuigdoller]

Have they mentioned the lvl range of the AP?

 

[Patrick McGill]

I like that it's going to be a big sandbox that players can explore. That sounds exciting.

 

[darjr]

Think Tomb Raider too. Jungles and weird stances on all that is D&D.

 

[Prakriti]

According to Mearls the book will be like a Gazetteer of Chult with an adventure on top. This is an interesting approach!

Based on this, I think my plane-hopping prediction was wrong. With that much information on Chult, there's not going to be any space left over for the planes. But like other posters, I'd like at least a nominal explanation for how Acererak traversed the multiverse.

Hopefully this doesn't turn into another ten pages, like all threads, about how FR is the worst. We've read it already. I really hope we get to talk about this product....

Yep. I wish this forum's rules against edition warring extended to setting warring as well. Like, we get it, some people don't like FR. Good for them. But 5E is the current edition and FR is the current default setting. Kvetching doesn't help.

 

[JeffB]

Has there been an adventure they've done for 5E thus far where you thought they were trying?

phandelver was a fun sandbox.

Everything else has been a re-hash/fluff up of something Gary or Tracey came up with, jammed into the FR with a "twist".

 

[Istbor]

Sounds interesting enough that I will check it out. Please note that I hate zombie Apocalypse stories. They are so done to death. (Pun possibly intended)

I will keep my eyes on this one. Seems like there is already a fair bit of excitement for it.