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.

 

[Jester David]

She can go to the Outer planes, but Asmodeus is more or less sticking her in the job of a guard dog.

Which would be fine, but the adventures don't say that. Or even mention Asmodeus.
Instead, the mention Tiamat being "banished" to the Nine Hells and "imprisoned". It's pretty clear that "long ago" she was trapped in the Hells. But that totally doesn't mesh with her last past apperences, as recently as the 4e Scales of War adventure path.

 

[Mercule]

Sure, they could do that. But I don't know how that would go over....I mean they're using Acererak here, and some folks seem upset. Strahd, Mordenkainen, now Acererak....they are using IP from multiple settings.

Speaking for myself, the rub is that the IP is commingling in odd ways. In the case of the Realms, they're taking stuff that belongs in other settings and just dropping it into the Realms. But, throwing Mordenkainen into CoS was just weird -- despite being a fan of both Ravenloft and Greyhawk, that's something I decided to exclude from that adventure. In fairness, it didn't bother me like throwing in the Five Factions did, though.

I suppose I just don't see the hard division that most folks see between the settings. I use many of them, and I see them as all being connected anyway. This kind of cross-pollination has been something I've don for years, so I don't mind it at all.

For naming, I really don't give a rat's behind about dividing the settings. If they did Volo's Guide to Monsters, Van Richten's Guide to Monster Hunting, The Morgrave University's Handbook of Everything, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Arcane Lore, I think it'd be great and would be all over every one of them. It's the monotony of the Realms.

 

[JRedmond]

Don't forget about Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

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Speaking for myself, the rub is that the IP is commingling in odd ways. In the case of the Realms, they're taking stuff that belongs in other settings and just dropping it into the Realms. But, throwing Mordenkainen into CoS was just weird -- despite being a fan of both Ravenloft and Greyhawk, that's something I decided to exclude from that adventure. In fairness, it didn't bother me like throwing in the Five Factions did, though.


For naming, I really don't give a rat's behind about dividing the settings. If they did Volo's Guide to Monsters, Van Richten's Guide to Monster Hunting, The Morgrave University's Handbook of Everything, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Arcane Lore, I think it'd be great and would be all over every one of them. It's the monotony of the Realms.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Speaking for myself, the rub is that the IP is commingling in odd ways. In the case of the Realms, they're taking stuff that belongs in other settings and just dropping it into the Realms. But, throwing Mordenkainen into CoS was just weird -- despite being a fan of both Ravenloft and Greyhawk, that's something I decided to exclude from that adventure. In fairness, it didn't bother me like throwing in the Five Factions did, though.


For naming, I really don't give a rat's behind about dividing the settings. If they did Volo's Guide to Monsters, Van Richten's Guide to Monster Hunting, The Morgrave University's Handbook of Everything, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Arcane Lore, I think it'd be great and would be all over every one of them. It's the monotony of the Realms.

Gotcha. I would probably be just as interested, because ultimately, it's just a name on a book. It's a gimmick either way.

I mean, I don't want to say that I don't understand where the sentiment is coming from....I get it that people want the settings they like to be supported. But I also get the decision WotC has made to approach things as they currently are, and I know that I can actually take any of their products and place it in any world that I want, but that does require more effort on my part.

But I don't want to sidetrack the thread too much. There are already threads about FR and how it is the only setting and so on.

The way I look at it is that the adventure is about a mysterious jungle island where some evil lich is up to some major evil mojo....and that has me stoked.

 

[CM]

It has the D&D logo on it, so it leads me to believe it may be more than just interesting artwork.

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[vecna00]

For naming, I really don't give a rat's behind about dividing the settings. If they did Volo's Guide to Monsters, Van Richten's Guide to Monster Hunting, The Morgrave University's Handbook of Everything, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Arcane Lore, I think it'd be great and would be all over every one of them. It's the monotony of the Realms.

I'm on board for all of those. If you can make that happen, that would be fantastic!

 

[Jester David]

Hm. Two possibilities, I guess:

(1) This is "Midway," the new mechanical expansion. The cover is pretty different from all the other books, but I can imagine it being the "limited edition" version, like the in-store version of Volo's Guide.
(2) This is a prop for one of the stream games.

I wonder...

Ugh. I hope it's not another special cover. Once was a neat gimmick. Two gets annoying and stops being special.

As names go it's more blah. It doesn't really tell you what the book is about. It's very no descriptive. It doesn't seem like book you'd go to for more classes or traps.

Really, it sounds more like Dungeonology 2. Which, upon writing, is probably what it is. One of those other books that were spotted on Amazon...

 

[Osgood]

The adventure seems ok. The fact that is is set in the realms is disappointing, but hardly a surprise... though the entire concept (Indiana Jones with Dinosaurs) seems far more suited to Eberron, so maybe we'll at least get some conversion notes.

The Guide to Everything is interesting (even if, for me, Xanathar isn't). I assume this is the mechanics book, but it could be anything (except "everything"... that title screams over-promise!).

 

[Zaukrie]

Off topic, but isn't three months too long between hype and release?

 

[Mercule]

Don't forget about Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

That's actually the thing that indicates they're only tapping the Realms for titles. Assuming this is the "big book o crunch" and not just a Realms-oriented product, this makes me think that the D&D brand and the Realms brand are slowly, but surely, merging.

Also, that has to be one of the ugliest covers I've seen for a gaming product in a long time.

Hopefully, it was just a call-out to a cute wall decoration (I just hate it as a book cover, I'm indifferent to it as random art) and not a subtle product announcement.