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.

 

[ChapolimX]

It makes sense from a design perspective. They can look at each region and what makes it cool at a slower pace, and if they decide to do a larger book much of that updating will be done. Rather than having to do it all on a deadline, likely spending an afternoon on each region.

That sound like a solid plan to me! Hope they keep that way for long enough (if that's really the plan) to cover all the map. Wish they could intercalate these releases with other settings wich need less to none fixes.

 

[Jester David]

OK. That would be a really cute way to package/name the DM screen.

I'd still like to see more settings' IP used in naming (Ashardalon's Guide to Everything?), but I would completely withdraw all my criticism about it, as a DM Screen -- especially if one of the other products pulls a name from a different setting.

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.)

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

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...

Personally, I really hope that is is another special cover. I think that's an awesome way to handle the mechanical expansions and I love the general style. Also, because my special cover of Volo's Guide to Monsters will get lonely all by itself.

 

[gyor]

So, they're looting both Isle of Dread and Tomb of Horrors? Cool:

They should call it: The Lost Island Tomb of Dreadful Horrors. By the time LITDH made it out of anyone's mouth, it'd sound like "Hey, we're gonna play LICH, tonight."

And the Jungles of Chult, so maybe call it The Chult's Lost Island Tomb of Dreadful Jungle Horrors.

 

[Jawsh Murdock]

Give this one a shot.

 

[gyor]

Agreed. It gets so tiresome. We get it... let it go!

I really hope there is some sort of nod to Dwellers of the Forbidden City (the first published module I ever purchased). Judging by the exposure that the Yuan Ti got in Volo's Guide, I wouldn't discount the possibility!

The jungles of chult have plenty of Yuan Ti and Lizardfolk.

 

[Benji]

It certainly has some elements of Queen of the Demonweb Pits (drow, demon princes, underdark)

That is a stretch. But it does kind of point to the fact that maybe whatever they produce, we are going to be able to point to another product and go 'it's a bit like that one'. That's due to the fact that D&D is buiolt on familiar terms. They tried to do an entirely different take on D&D with a shook up monster manual, it was called 4th ed. None of us liked it, so we can't really blame them for going back to the touchstones they know. 'Originality' is only synonymous with 'good' if several other factors are in play. The flip of this is that 'Similarity' doesn't equal 'bad' or even 'actually a copy of'.

(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.)

"Tasslehoff's Guide to Everything Else".

 

[Mallus]

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.

 

[gyor]

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.

 

[Jester David]

Keep in mind, Chris Perkins tweeted that Artus and the Ring would feature in a 2017 product. So the long-game can only go on for so long.

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.