D&D 5E The New D&D Book: Candlekeep Mysteries: 17 Mystery Adventures [UPDATED!]

The cover of the upcoming D&D book has been revealed! Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of 17 mystery-themed adventures for character levels 1-16.

The image has appeared on Penguin Random House's product page for the book.

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UPDATE! Penguin's product page appears to have now vanished, but we now have the product description! Thanks to @Fezzwick for spotting that!

An anthology of seventeen mystery-themed adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Candlekeep attracts scholars like a flame attracts moths. Historians, sages, and others who crave knowledge flock to this library fortress to peruse its vast collection of books, scribbled into which are the answers to the mysteries that bedevil them. Many of these books contain their own mysteries ̶—each one a doorway to adventure. Dare you cross that threshold?

· 17 mystery-themed D&D adventures, each tied to a book discovered in the famed library fortress of Candlekeep
· Easy to run as stand-alone mini adventures or to drop into your home campaign
· Adventures span play from levels 1 to 16
· Includes a full poster map of Candlekeep, plus detailed descriptions of the various locations, characters, and creatures that reside within it
· Introduces a variety of Dungeons & Dragons monsters, items, and non-player characters (NPCs)

Candlekeep Mysteries is a collection of seventeen short, stand-alone D&D adventures designed for characters of levels 1–16. Each adventure begins with the discovery of a book, and each book is the key to a door behind which danger and glory await. These adventures can be run as one-shot games, plugged into an existing Forgotten Realms campaign, or adapted for other campaign settings. This book also includes a poster map of the library fortress and detailed descriptions of Candlekeep and its inhabitants.

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There have been mentions of an upcoming adventure anthology since 2019, with Kate Welch's name attached, along with other celebrity adventure writers including Critical Role's Marisha Ray, and actor Deborah Ann Woll. There were also suggestions that the authors might all be women. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

 

[tetrasodium]

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* Now FR is the most powerful D&D brand, and I guess because thanks those smash-hits videogames. We could bet if a no-FR videogame also is a superhit, then that world also will come back to the printers.

The video game line is missing the very important disregard for and lack of respect for other settings. Ddo was set in eberron but had a bunch of launch or near launch things like temple of elemental evil with no attempt to convert it to the setting and among many other lesser faerunizations like most of the different in eberron races only being portrayed as they are in fr eventually had a questline that literally involved lilith worshipping drow from fr opening a portal to invade complete with narration from eleminster rather than anyone from eberron. That's not an exhaustive list, just some of the most "you don't even need to know a thing about the setting to see the problem" glaring examples showing the general lack of respect for the setting

 

[Older Beholder]

The more I think about this the more I’m excited for it.
Among other things, I’m interested in the idea of some high level one shots.

 

[dave2008]

First, I think this a product some people of asked for, so I am happy for them. Not sure if it is for me, but I will look at it when I get a chance.

Now, I hat to be that guy, but in the cover art it appears that the warrior has a scar that runs through his hair?! I'm guessing it is actually supposed to be something else, but all I can see is mysteriously scared hair.

 

[aco175]

Sounding more like Dungeon Delve 4e with the 17 short adventures and levels 1-16. Like Dungeon Delve I found a few good adventures and a few I never used. Still hoping it has more I can use than not use.

Speculation seems to be all the adventures start in Candlekeep. I can see more fantastic elements coming is where things like a portal in a book brings you to a dungeons or far place you need to get back. Maybe these is a mystery with the dragon under the keep. Things like this that can be inserted along the campaign. I can see a campaign where you base it off Candlekeep and have the PCs keep coming back to solve a few of these between other adventures. Maybe even 2-3 campaigns get the use of this book if you have other developed material for the region.

 

[tetrasodium]

First, I think this a product some people of asked for, so I am happy for them. Not sure if it is for me, but I will look at it when I get a chance.

Now, I hat to be that guy, but in the cover art it appears that the warrior has a scar that runs through his hair?! I'm guessing it is actually supposed to be something else, but all I can see is mysteriously scared hair.

I think he's supposed to have dreads and two of those razor cuts through the side just above them that I don't know the name for but weirdly the cuts extend to the forehead. Google seems to think the term is a line-up or edge-up

 

[Burnside]

I'm glad it's new material. The content seems like something 5E doesn't yet have, which is good. I'm sure "mystery" is being used in a very broad sense, which is fine.

For those saying that this is the Kate Welch book - if this book had adventures by Deborah Ann Wohl and Marisha Ray in it, wouldn't that be front and center in the marketing copy?

 

[Backcountry164]

In my experience celebrity D&D is pretty hit and miss. I suspect the adventures in this book will be the same...

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

More interested in this...a series of one shots could be a nice resource to have in your back pocket.

 

[Delazar]

The way you handle magic in D&D mysteries is to turn the players expectations about magic against them.

Say the players use Speak with Dead on the corpse and the corpse tells them exactly who killed them. They can track down the murderer only to find that he's dead too. So they cast speak with dead on the new corpse and he tells them the first victim killed him (because Disguise Self is a first level spell).

Once the cleric of our party cast speak with dead on a victim, and when he asked "who killed you?" the corpse said "you". She was killed by a doppelganger that had taken the PC's semblance. City guard was present during the casting, so good times were had by all

 

[DEFCON 1]

I have seen a few comments that new players or younger players may have trouble with a 'mystery' adventure. Not all WotC publications are geared toward new players - 5E is entering year 7 (I think ... haven't finished my coffee yet). Nor should they be. Even WotC has said that level 5-10 is the sweet spot, so even experienced players start over at level 1 every now and again.

Saying "it's not good for the new players" is the universal go-to for posters trying to justify their opinion of why something should not have been made. As though it gives their side of the ledger more "weight".

Person doesn't like something for no other reason than personal opinion. But when pressed on the fact that it is just personal opinion, they try to make it seem more than that by throwing out the "But think of the children!" card. But whenever you hear or read that, you now know the legs they are standing on are just as wobbly as everyone else's and nowhere near as high above as they might think they should be.

And for me personally, it in fact just lessens my feelings of their side of the discussion and I'm reflexively inclined to think that side of the ledger is even worse than it probably actually is. That's how dumb I think throwing the "think of the children!" card is as a justification.