[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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[Kramodlog]

I don't think they've made a press release, but both Mearls and Perkins have said in interviews and on Twitter that 5e sales exceeding expectations by quite a bit.

EDIT:
Here's an interview from August about the release of the PHB and Starter set.

The bit about the online sells of older editions was very interesting. It is like good will toward fans.

Thanks.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Tabletop Roleplaying games like D&D are never going to get mainstream popularity, even if the brand of D&D is becoming more well known and popular (through movies and computer games etc.). Look at what happened to Marvel. Even though their movies are in almost every way a huge success and characters like Iron Man that no one knew 20 years ago are now widely popular and well known, but it hasn't translated in comic books becoming widely more popular too. In fact, looking at what critics say, the comic books are now more and more seen as just a way to advertise for the movies, since that is where the money is and the content and stories suffer due to that.

As a role-player and comic book reader I don't like this one bit, but this is how it is.

I suspect the reason that the Marvel movies haven't translated to a greater interest in the comics is because the comic books are nearly impenetrable to newcomers due to the overwhelming amount of content produced with no clear place to start.

The similarity to D&D in this regard is obvious. Earlier editions quickly developed an overwhelming catalog of books.

As an aside, I wonder what the adoption rate for the PHB has traditionally been among players. At the moment, fewer than half my players have one.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

This whole thing has considerably cooled off my enthusiasm for 5e. I enjoy the three books we've got, but I'm not interested in any adventure path or module and now I don't expect to buy anything more from Wizards. I guess Monte Cook will get my RPG money.

 

[Gecko85]

I don't think they have but as nearly everywhere sold out of PHB's sometime around October last year and has been desperate for the reprint which has only just arrived, I think that it has probably exceeded their expectations.

They've been killing it on Amazon, too. As of today, the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Games sales ranks have the DM Screen at #1, PHB #2, DMG #3, MM #4, and HotDQ #6. In overall Book sales (taking any and all books into account - novels of any genre, children's books, cookbooks, etc.), the PHB is #100, DMG #149, and MM is mid 200's (don't remember exactly what rank). Those are all very, very good numbers.

 

[gyor]

I don't understand the people who are complaining because they're getting AH for free. Okay there's no physical product, but your still getting it for free! Print it out if you want, three hole punch it, and use a ring binder. Hell add Basic DnD, the Hoard of Tiamat supplement and future online material to it, as well as notes and character sheets.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This whole thing has considerably cooled off my enthusiasm for 5e. I enjoy the three books we've got, but I'm not interested in any adventure path or module and now I don't expect to buy anything more from Wizards. I guess Monte Cook will get my RPG money.

Well, either you play D&D or you don't play D&D. Whether or not you spend money on it has nothing to do with it.

If you are playing D&D because you want to play D&D, then WotC is happy. There's nothing further you need to do or that WotC is expecting you to do. You're playing the game. That's all that matters.

But if you *only* play games of which you can continuously spend money on... then... okay? I personally do not understand that way of thinking... to me, if I want to play a game, I'll play a game, regardless of how much it cost me to get it... but if that's the only way a game matters to you that you can continually pay for it... then more power to you. But I would imagine that is not a way of thinking that WotC is currently trying to court or encourage in any way, shape, or form. So if you give up on 5E because you can't make compelling games out of the three books already in existence... and instead are going to play Numenera... then best of luck to you.

 

[dream66_]

As an aside, I wonder what the adoption rate for the PHB has traditionally been among players. At the moment, fewer than half my players have one.

I'm running a home game, and playing in AL in a story. In my home game I'm the only one that owns any books, I printed them a copy of the basic rules so they'd stop taking my PHB when I need it for enemy spellcasters

In the Adventure's Leauge game, I own a PHB and the DM does, and I loan him my MM, DMG and HotDQ. No one else has any books. They did at least start bringing dice after a few weeks though.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

I don't understand the people who are complaining because they're getting AH for free. Okay there's no physical product, but your still getting it for free! Print it out if you want, three hole punch it, and use a ring binder. Hell add Basic DnD, the Hoard of Tiamat supplement and future online material to it, as well as notes and character sheets.

I don't hole punch, I buy sleeves and put pages back to back, thus creating the illusion of a book. I did it with Basic D&D and keep it as a resource for new players that don't have the PHB.

 

[dream66_]

I don't hole punch, I buy sleeves and put pages back to back, thus creating the illusion of a book. I did it with Basic D&D and keep it as a resource for new players that don't have the PHB.

I took it to Staples, had it spiral bound with plastic covers.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm european and I can tell that MLP is not popular im Europe.

There's a documentary called "Bronies" - it shows that you're dead wrong.

Lots of things have small but stable fanbases that aren't readily visible, but exist right under the noses of people too arrogant to admit there might be a fanbase there. And growing those fanbases is the job of the marketing department.

Just like there were a lot of people who got pissed off when I told them (back in AD&D 2e days) that I wasn't buying splats, and if I didn't own a copy for myself, it wasn't in my D&D game. (I wound up with a complete run of complete ___'s handbooks because of that policy, and a much much much worse experience for everyone involved overall. I quit playing D&D except for running it for my FLGS, in the retail play program, from about '93 to '98.)