The Next Dungeons & Dragons Storyline Will Be...

And the new storyline for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is...

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Waterdeep: Dragon Heist! The plot will focus on an urban treasure hunt and a focus on urban and city-based adventures with special rules for running games in that environment. The adventure itself will have variable goals and antagonists similar to the original I6: Ravenloft module, where the DM chooses what "villain" will be the secret villain of the campaign, which will change outcomes of various events. The adventure itself will also have downtime built into the adventure along with the ability to own property in Waterdeep. The adventure for Level 1-5 will be released on September 18, 2018, with an MSRP of $49.95.

A second announcement is anticipated later this weekend, as the product codenamed "Catacombs" has a release date of November 20 and is also a 256-page hardcover book. This would make Waterdeep: Dragon Heist the codename "Broadway" (which also had a custom dice release announced for solicitation last year with the other products, including "Marathon" which turned out to be Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes).

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Wizards of the coast made the announcement as part of a weekend-long live streaming event on their Twitch channel, "Stream of Many Eyes". Other products announced during the live stream include updates to the Neverwinter MMO and its Barovia expansion, a new official history artbook about Dungeons & Dragons with images throughout the history of the game, and a new series of boxed sets with props and handouts for published adventures released so far as well as for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

This article will be updated with more information as the Wizards of the Coast live stream continues.

 

[Jester David]

Since the level range is 1-5, I wonder what the chances are this book is actually the first of two adventures similar to the Tiamat books? It'd be neat if this is followed up by an Undermountain one.

Edit: Somehow missed this prediction already being made up-thread. Let's cross our fingers!

Not that I would be disappointed if not, because the Dragon Heist book itself sounds really fun.

I had my doubts that they'd do two back-to-back adventures so close, but the low level range & larger pool of freelancers does make it seem more likely. And trying to do a Waterdeep and Undermountain adventure in a single book would be hard. But pairing them would be cool, while also allowing for two very different adventures.

No announcement yet. And ya, possible it isn’t today. I think think the announcement happens this weekend. Maybe tomorrow since it’s only 4 Games so time slots are more open.

Those would be the ticketed events. People watching those would miss an announcement held elsewhere. And they actually overlap in time, so fewer gaps for an announcement.
They might have a surprise at the end of the day, but I'd prepare myself for disappointment.

 

[Abstruse]

Schedule updated from the Twitter account:

SirensoftRealms RIGHT NOW!


Off The Table #1 - 11:30am PT


RivalsOfWaterdeep - 12:30pm PT


Off The Table #2 - 2:00pm PT


girlsgutsglory - 3:00pm PT


Off The Table #3 - 4:30pm PT


DarkandDicey - 5:30pm PT

 

[Patrick McGill]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">FYI for you <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoStoneUnturned?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoStoneUnturned</a> players who are coming to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SoMEDnD?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SoMEDnD</a> on Sunday: One of the shirts has the ARG glyphs on the back! <a href="https://t.co/EicUsbobYw">pic.twitter.com/EicUsbobYw</a></p>&mdash; Emmett Furey #SoMEDnD (@emmettfurey) <a href="https://twitter.com/emmettfurey/status/1002849477936365568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

These are apparently the clues uncovered from the No Stone Unturned ARG? Undermountain is right there on the bottom.

 

[JohnnyZemo]

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I love how they took feedback from the past set and included a second d20 for when you have advantage. And a hit point tracker.
Sadly, no tin from the looks of things.

That's a strange picture. Check out the d10s. They're both numbered "00, 10, 20, 30..." whereas the actual set will presumably have one that's numbered "0, 1, 2, 3..."

And is one of the d20s actually significantly larger than the other, or is that some weird perspective trick? I'm confused.

 

[Abstruse]

That's a strange picture. Check out the d10s. They're both numbered "00, 10, 20, 30..." whereas the actual set will presumably have one that's numbered "0, 1, 2, 3..."

And is one of the d20s actually significantly larger than the other, or is that some weird perspective trick? I'm confused.

The two d% seems to be an error, but the one-larger one-smaller is presumably because of Advantage/Disadvantage. I can't think of any situation off the top of my head where you'd need to keep track of which die is which out of 2d20 (since it's always "take the higher" or "take the lower"), but it's possible I'm forgetting something since I haven't finished my coffee and trying to follow a live stream of the season finale of a campaign I don't watch while a barely-moderated Twitch chat is going on...

 

[gyor]

"The book is equal parts adventure and "city-based adventure guide". "

I suspect around half of the book will be taken up with the city based adventure guide aspect, which is part of the reason why it only goes to levels 1-5, the other part being 5 different seasons/villians.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Appearntly there is a part 2 to this. Which is Undermountain.

 

[AmerginLiath]

I really don't get the push for replayability? It's my understanding that most tables can't keep up with even the current release schedule, let alone want to play the same adventure twice?

This is definitely a different flavor of adventure which is nice, but I'm curious the see the details. I imagine it'll take some masterful DMing to keep the NPCs distinct and interesting.

My guess is that, given how it would define the city and set up connections for the characters, allowing for replayability is largely a matter of letting the campaign remain based out of Waterdeep afterwards, whether playing whichever Undermountain adventure we all expect to see announced next or simply doing the campaign’s own thing.

 

[Prakriti]

Appearntly there is a part 2 to this. Which is Undermountain.

Source?

 

[gyor]

Appearntly there is a part 2 to this. Which is Undermountain.

That makes sense, book one deals with Waterdeep, the local culture, surface and harbour adventures and resources, levels 1-5, and book two deals with Undermountain and naybe Skullport.

You'll likely want SCAG, WH, and Undermountian for this book plus core and any player and monster resources that players or DM wants for this one.

I hope W: DH has advice on using the races from the SCAG, VGTM, and MTOFs in Waterdeep.