[UPDATED] Has ADVENTURER'S HANDBOOK Been Cancelled?

Today's official announcement about the Elemental Evil storyline mentioned Princes of the Apocalypse, a new DM screen, miniatures, video games... but not the Adventurer's Handbook! This could mean nothing, of course. The book was first announced last year, back in August; but the below screenshot from Edelweiss shows it as cancelled. The mystery deepens!

UPDATE: WotC's Mike Mearls answers "We can't cancel a book we never announced!" So that sounds like the Adventurer's Handbook will definitely not be appearing. WotC certainly wrote ad copy and designed a cover for the book (see below). Mike added "we've played things close to the vest is that it's a huge, open question on what support for the RPG should look like... we do a lot of stuff that may or may not end up as a released product. For instance, we now know that the high volume release schedule for 3e and 4e turned out to be bad for D&D. It wasn't too many settings that hurt TSR, but too many D&D books of any kind. lots of experiments ahead..."

Here's the cancellation screenshot. Now, that could mean a number of things - maybe it's been pushed back, maybe it's been renamed, or maybe it's just an admin error. Princes of the Apolocaypse has been pushed back from March 17 to April 7.

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What do we know about the book? We have a description from August 2014 and a more recent cover image. Right now, anything could be true; I haven't heard anything about a cancellation or a pushed back release date. If I do, I'll be sure to report it.

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Adventurer's Handbook (March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95) -- A Dungeons & Dragons Accessory. Create Heroic Characters to Conquer the Elements in this Accessory for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game​ Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook provides everything that players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil story arc, with skills, abilities, and spells meant to augment their play experience throughout the campaign. Additionally, valuable background and story information provides greater depth and immersion. An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign. Provides background and setting information critical to having the greatest chance of success. Accessory design and development by Sasquatch Game Studio LLC.​ ​

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[TDarien]

Whelp, that is a bit pedentic. Not very respectful to fans. Especially considering the cover for the book was shown to us not too long ago. We expected a splat book coming out with the adventure. There is nothing wrong with telling is that the 3PP bite more than it could chew. WotC has some problems with 5ereleases. DMG being pushed back and Morningstar also being cancelled are indicators of this. Maybe it will stabilize with time.

I do not buy (pun intended) the whole too many books are bad for the brand. Well, I understand and believe releasing too many books is not good for their bottomline, but they still need to release some books to make money.

There has been some backlash with the adventure being set in the Forgotten Realms and not everyone buys adventures. Not sure this is good for business.

But neither WotC, nor Sasquatch ever announced anything. Everything we saw was from leaked documents, meaning somebody probably broke an NDA. Stuff in development gets changed or scrapped all the time. How many projects do you think Google starts and scraps in a year that never see the public eye? How often do you see corporations declice to comment on product rumors? (Hint: it happens a lot) Everybody in the D&D fan community took those leaked documents as an official announcement from on high when it was nothing of the sort.


Yes, originally there were two planned publications, somewhere along the line that changed. WotC is under no obligation to tell us their internal release plans or fulfill every customer expectation based on rumor.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Whelp, that is a bit pedentic. Not very respectful to fans. Especially considering the cover for the book was shown to us not too long ago. We expected a splat book coming out with the adventure.

Everything we saw was from leaked documents, meaning somebody probably broke an NDA. Stuff in development gets changed or scrapped all the time.

Man, this, in a nutshell, is why WotC needs to play things so close to the chest.

Someone takes some leaked information and goes and gets their hopes up and then it's like that Christmas where you peaked in the closet and saw s bit of the presents and you were pretty sure you were getting an N64 and got really excited but it turns out to be, like, Mario underpants or something. And then you go to the Internet and complain about how your parents aren't very respectful of your wishes and that maybe your Dad bit off more than he could chew when he said that Christmas was going to be small this year because Momma lost her job at the bank 'cuz of her broken knee and how does that reflect on the brand loyalty your parents are trying to cultivate, anyway?

"Next year," Dad says, "You're getting coal."

 

[Morrus]

Man, this, in a nutshell, is why WotC needs to play things so close to the chest.

I disagree. All this discussion and speculation is good for WotC. It's exactly what any RPG company wants.

Imagine if nobody was talking about 2015 products. All that silence from the public. It'd be like they were just an ordinary RPG company!

Like I said before, many RPG companies would kill for fan passion like this!

And that info wasn't conjured prophetically out of the ether. It originated with WotC.

Even negative posts are better than no posts. Shows people care. There's nothing worse than no posts.

 

[Kramodlog]

But neither WotC, nor Sasquatch ever announced anything. Everything we saw was from leaked documents, meaning somebody probably broke an NDA.

Or it was leaked on purposed to create a buzz. It is a common marketing strategy.

Yes, originally there were two planned publications, somewhere along the line that changed. WotC is under no obligation to tell us their internal release plans or fulfill every customer expectation based on rumor.

I'm not saying they have an obligation. That is just a strawman. I'm just saying we aren't being respected with the line "we didn't announced anything so nothing is cancelled". We knew there was a splat book coming out. Expectations were created. The book is cancelled. People are disappointed. Now were told this disappointement is our fault cause nothing was announced. Please.

This tells us how communications from WotC haven't imprived that much. It also tells us other stuff.

This cancellation, the push back of the release date of the adventure (from mach 17 to april the 7th), the push back of the DMG and the cancellation of Morningstar are indicaters of how things are going with the management of the D&D brand.

 

[Zaukrie]

What 2015 products?

 

[Loki-lie-Smith]

it seems a bit funny, but people who dislike digital stuff will have no option to buy a dead tree version...

No, we just have to print it. If we feel risqué we may even get a fancy cover and nice binding using Lulu or other such service.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I disagree. All this discussion and speculation is good for WotC. It's exactly what any RPG company wants.

I can see the logic there, but the other side of the coin is when one gets a "reputation" (earned or otherwise) for not delivering. Who's gonna talk about the Next Hotness when there's no telling when or if or how that Next Hotness will even materialize? Negative posts may be better than no posts, but it's a tough balancing act, because negative posts can turn into no posts in a hurry (people don't tend to do things that make them feel bad, and if getting excited for new products makes them feel bad repeatedly....)

PLUS MY CHRISTMAS WAS REALLY HARD, OKAY MAN?!

 

[soulcatcher78]

The material that was going to be sold in a hardback book for $40.00 is now going to be included in the adventure materials it was designed to support and/or available online free of charge. Nothing less is being released. The only difference now is that if you buy the adventure you will get more for your money. How does that suck?

Because if you were giving away free money ($100) someone would complain that you didn't give it to them in their preferred denomination ("why does it have to be a single $100 bill?")

 

[AmerginLiath]

Publishing projects being cancelled before any announcement – or changed from printed books into online materials with a change of formatting – is de rigeur, regardless of the industry. Some of that comes from the author's end in terms of how material is written or compiled, while some comes from market research in how sales or use is expected. Now, I'm accustomed to it from a textbook perspective from work (probably a quarter of my illustrator work in some years is either prospective work for cancelled projects or else work held over to be rolled into later combined books/online supplements, given how paper costs have risen), but roleplaying books are surprisingly textbook-like in their production and use (compared to, say, novel publishing).

I'd guess that the costs involved needed a 160-page hardcover and they realized they couldn't put together as mechanically-complete a 160-pager on an Elemental theme that would be worth the price for the consumer. Therefore, releasing the core material within the adventure path and online allows them get what they want out there out there (expanding the game resources) while letting them take what's remaining and rework/expand it for future use. I've said before that there are certain timeframes that a publisher wants a book or books to exist in their current state in (before new editions are released, or in this case before new physical splatbooks that appear at least pseudo-core are released). Given the sense that 5e has of bringing in new players or bringing back lapsed players, having a longer period of less non-adventure books on the shelf (even with more material accessible online for those who wish to download it) makes for less "buy-in" for a project that already has a three-book base. It's the same reason that more of the textbook projects that I'm seeing are becoming smaller but with online or CD/DVD supplements so as to appear more easily accessible for a purchasing agent...

 

[Mark CMG]

UPDATE: WotC's Mike Mearls answers "We can't cancel a book we never announced!" So that sounds like the Adventurer's Handbook will definitely not be appearing. WotC certainly wrote ad copy and designed a cover for the book (see below). Mike added "we've played things close to the vest is that it's a huge, open question on what support for the RPG should look like... we do a lot of stuff that may or may not end up as a released product. For instance, we now know that the high volume release schedule for 3e and 4e turned out to be bad for D&D. It wasn't too many settings that hurt TSR, but too many D&D books of any kind. lots of experiments ahead..."

That makes it sounds like the OGL is and has always been a non-starter in WotC's opinion, unless their research of 3E and 4E support trends was done just in the last couple weeks. I'd have to guess that the lack of an OGL plan, limited WotC releases, and limited licencing to some select 3PPs has been their plan all along judging by that quote.