UA to Become Weekly! Pendleton Ward Helped On New AP!

WotC is currently at Gamehole Con, a convention in the US Midwest. According to a GameholeCon attendee at one of WotC's D&D panels, featuring Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, and Mike Mearls, Unearthed Arcana (Mike Mearl's monthly rules column) is going to become a weekly column. Not only that, Sage Advice will be pausing for a while while Jeremy Crawford joins Mearls on the UA columns. There will be a new Unearthed Arcana every Monday, with the next being three new barbarian options.

WotC's Chris Perkins also said that "The next D&D story is *not* based on Adventure Time. However, Pendleton Ward did help us create it." Ward is, of course, the creator of the US cartoon Adventure Time.

Photo courtesy of @BasementofDeath
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[Henry]

No, from players who like their pets to act like creatures, not remote controlled stupid automatons.

If you care so much more about avoiding overpoweredness, there is always the Beastmaster ranger in the PHB.

So why don't you use that and let the rest of us play with the new one, the one that is actually any fun, okay?

How incredibly passive-aggressive. Nobody is stopping you from doing anything in your game. But if you like dominating the game with obviously overpowered classes, then I would suggest that maybe it's not exactly conducive to fun play for everyone else at the table.

Ladies and/or Gents, can we agree to disagree? It's not conducive to good discussion to get nasty with one another, rather just better to disagree and move on to other topics.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yep, the success of the American Revolution - proof of Time Travelling Agents.

I'd play that.

Reminds me of Assassin's Creed 3, where the success of the American Revolution depends on one Mohawk kid.

 

[Mistwell]

Ugh!

I can't stand Adventure Time so Pendleton Ward doesn't really hold my interest. I don't really care who they got to write the next AP because I am sick of AP's period. There does come a time when you "run it into the ground" and I think Wizards is on their way.

Amazing how they seem to ignore that part of the survey that said most people tend to create their own campaigns instead of use AP's.

Aw CT, it always seems to be raining on you with this edition. Bummer mang. Sorry they're not making stuff you like with this edition.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Now imagine that these men were in the same room, with access to firearms, and it's a miracle the country ever got off the ground.

Don't have to imagine. We have Madison's transcript of the Constitutional Convention.

Although admittedly Jefferson wasn't there.

Luckily they were all really, really smart, and most of them were extremely driven. And Washington, for all his egregious faults, was a damn good leader.

And miraculously, none of them were personally ambitious enough to go Napoleon. The one guy who might have been ruined his reputation and his chances when he shot Hamilton. Everyone else seems to have had a steadfast and genuine conviction in the rule of law. Mind-blowing.

 

[tuxgeo]

< snip > . . .
And miraculously, none of them were personally ambitious enough to go Napoleon. The one guy who might have been ruined his reputation and his chances when he shot Hamilton. Everyone else seems to have had a steadfast and genuine conviction in the rule of law. Mind-blowing.

[Bolding added.]
The Founders' version of the rule of law, strangely, was to write a Constitution that would "forever" prevent the federal government from enacting too many intrusive laws. (They had seen the British model of an elite Parliament enacting laws enabling the government to control the populace in minute detail, and the Founders didn't like that tendency at all. They used the Greek-derived word "tyranny" to describe it.)

 

[clavejones]

If UA is going weekly, something is afoot. This is nice news. Wild speculation: they are preparing content for a 2017 release of "Volo's Guide to Heroes", which will be new class options and character lore.

 

[Patrick McGill]

My completely baseless presumption is that Volo isn't going to be a repeated thing. I think that was to make that volume unique, and they'll seek other ways to make future books unique when it comes to it.

I could be completely wrong. I just don't feel like Volo's Guide to Monsters is the start of a line.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Yeah, Volo does not plane travel and previous editions by Volo always focused on FR, so maybe we will get an Elminster's Guide to the Planes, with a focus on Sigil and the "Labyrinth" of doorways and passages to and from all the planes of existence.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My completely baseless presumption is that Volo isn't going to be a repeated thing. I think that was to make that volume unique, and they'll seek other ways to make future books unique when it comes to it.

I could be completely wrong. I just don't feel like Volo's Guide to Monsters is the start of a line.

agreed. And I hope we are right. If there is a book of magic related things, call it Mordenkainen's Lost Grimoire, or something, IMO.

A book of weapon user options, like new mundane subclasses, feats, fighting styles, etc, give it a name that evokes the old European fighting manuals.

No "Complete Warrior", no "Player's Handbook 3", just names athat fit the theme of the type of product.

 

[clavejones]

My completely baseless presumption is that Volo isn't going to be a repeated thing. I think that was to make that volume unique, and they'll seek other ways to make future books unique when it comes to it.

I could be completely wrong. I just don't feel like Volo's Guide to Monsters is the start of a line.

I cant disagree with you there. In fact, you and I are thinking along the same lines, in that there is a feeling that the next book will take a more creative approach than simply "Player's Handbook 2." I'm excited, as I like this new approach to books.

 

[GreenTengu]

I know they wrote a while ago about what the upcoming APs would be...

If I recall, the next one is going to be a trippy Alice in Wonderland like adventure. I think Peddleton Ward is a good choice to help shape such a concept.

The one after that, if I recall, is going to be the mystery one that will likely take place in one of the Ebberon cities.

Or do I have those backwards or forgot one that was going to be in between?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I know they wrote a while ago about what the upcoming APs would be...

If I recall, the next one is going to be a trippy Alice in Wonderland like adventure. I think Peddleton Ward is a good choice to help shape such a concept.

Out of the Abyss was the trippy Alice-like adventure, IIRC.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah, Volo does not plane travel and previous editions by Volo always focused on FR, so maybe we will get an Elminster's Guide to the Planes, with a focus on Sigil and the "Labyrinth" of doorways and passages to and from all the planes of existence.

Surely there must be a well known planeswalker of some kind? I just...really don't need more Elminster.

I mean, we already have his commentary in Volos and his guide to the realms. That's more than enough, for me.

 

[Demetrios1453]

My completely baseless presumption is that Volo isn't going to be a repeated thing. I think that was to make that volume unique, and they'll seek other ways to make future books unique when it comes to it.

I could be completely wrong. I just don't feel like Volo's Guide to Monsters is the start of a line.

I'm feeling just the opposite way, especially due to the release of the special edition cover, and the fact that the introduction to Chapter 1 states they plan to make more books of that type in the future. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a line of "Volo's Guides to..." with special covers so it all looks nice on the bookshelf. Presumably the second in the series will, like the first, do in-depth coverage of psionics and psionic monsters (and githyanki were specifically name-checked in that section of VGtM), give psionic player options, and give us stat blocks to psionic monsters (and miscellaneous monsters they want to throw in there to update). It may not just be this - another theme or two might get similar coverage to fill out the book...

 

[Zarithar]

I have always yearned for a D&D cartoon since the 80's; AT is probably the closest thing out there. I wonder if the 'Labyrinth' book that is for pre-order on amazon is the selfsame book reference here? The Dungeon Train is one of my faves, it really shows both the good and the bad, (its actually a curse) of dungeoneering.

Dungeon Train was a great episode, and a complete riff on MMOs like World of Warcraft etc. I think that was the intent, but it could also apply to munchkin style D&D.

 

[Zarithar]

Aw CT, it always seems to be raining on you with this edition. Bummer mang. Sorry they're not making stuff you like with this edition.

This response negates the need for me to respond in a similar fashion! Kudos sir

 

[Parmandur]

I'm feeling just the opposite way, especially due to the release of the special edition cover, and the fact that the introduction to Chapter 1 states they plan to make more books of that type in the future. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a line of "Volo's Guides to..." with special covers so it all looks nice on the bookshelf. Presumably the second in the series will, like the first, do in-depth coverage of psionics and psionic monsters (and githyanki were specifically name-checked in that section of VGtM), give psionic player options, and give us stat blocks to psionic monsters (and miscellaneous monsters they want to throw in there to update). It may not just be this - another theme or two might get similar coverage to fill out the book...

Feel pretty certain that the Mystic & such is going to be in the the big rules expansion book; my hypothesis is that we might see year and half year gaps between experimental books (SCAG, Volis) and any potential followup pending feedback. [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] got coy on Twitter recently at the possibility of a follow-up to SCAG, no plans "that we can talk about" sort of thing. So, I think we will see more Volos, but maybe not till 2018. While next year, we will see the Big Book of Crunch experiment, and maybe another setting book...

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Surely there must be a well known planeswalker of some kind? I just...really don't need more Elminster.

There's Tarsheva Longreach an Aasimar woman who narrated most of the Planewalker's Guide, there's plenty of more named narrators but the ones that stand out are Xanxost the Blue Slaadi and the mysterious writer who turned out to be the Arcanaloth Akin.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Feel pretty certain that the Mystic & such is going to be in the the big rules expansion book; my hypothesis is that we might see year and half year gaps between experimental books (SCAG, Volis) and any potential followup pending feedback. @mearls got coy on Twitter recently at the possibility of a follow-up to SCAG, no plans "that we can talk about" sort of thing. So, I think we will see more Volos, but maybe not till 2018. While next year, we will see the Big Book of Crunch experiment, and maybe another setting book...

Heh, it still could be "Volo's Guide to Adventuring" or something like that. I was thinking at first that even with other stuff, it might not be able to fill out 224 to 256 pages. But a full psionics system with 2 or more classes (and associated subtypes), and a description all the necessary powers, along with a few new playable races (thri-kreen will almost certainly be included here), 1 - 3 new subtypes for each PHB class (I'm hoping to see a few new extra cleric variants myself, say Protection and Darkness), probably a good number of new/updated spells, and likely some feats, well, that probably would fill up a book. At worst, there could be some new DM options and rules clarifications (a more detailed coverage of underwater combat/adventuring would be very useful) to fill in any remaining pagecount.

At worst, however, I still assume that any future "monster books" will be "Volo's Guide to..." (and perhaps even other fluff-heavy books like campaign settings and planar book) even if the other books aren't...

 

[Charles Rampant]

One benefit of not having a line of books called Volo's Guide to... is that it would be easier to distinguish them, on the shelf and in conversation. No store clerk is going to get confused between Volo's Guide to Monsters and Shemeshka's Guide to the Planes, for example. The counter argument would be that brand recognition is good; but a big fat D&D logo, and matching trade dress, might cover that.