OK, now all the secrets are out. We know about Dust (Tomb of Annihilation) and Midway (Xanathar's Guide to Everything).
Way back in November 2014, Mike Mearls said:
Well, here we are, with releases revealed through the end of 2017. There are only one or two cats left in that original bag. It's never too early to speculate, so what are they?
I haven't heard any codenames. Possible clues:
Key quotes:
Anybody know of an existing adventure that the "crater left by a falling star" would refer to? The jungle almost sounds like Chult.(If vegepygmies and froghemoths feature in Tomb of Annihilation, that would certainly dilute the significance of this evidence.)
Update: It was confirmed in the announcement that froghemoths are featured in Tomb of Annihilation, so that's not necessarily a hint at an Expedition to Barrier Peaks-inspired adventure (unless their presence in Tomb of Annihilation is itself a hint).
Assuming two adventures per year, with 6 months of story writing per adventure, and lead times of 18 months, I would estimate that the next three adventures have been written already (drafted anyway), with work now in progress on the fourth, a late 2019 release. It must be very hard to keep track of.
If you know of any other hints in novels or elsewhere, let me know.
Way back in November 2014, Mike Mearls said:
We're looking at two storylines a year. Right now, we have plans laid down for stories up through 2018.
Well, here we are, with releases revealed through the end of 2017. There are only one or two cats left in that original bag. It's never too early to speculate, so what are they?
I haven't heard any codenames. Possible clues:
- In this interview, Chris Perkins says he has collaborated with outside people on upcoming adventures, specifically mentioning Charlie Sanders, a writer for Key & Peele. This Instagrammed lunch with Chris Perkins in November 2015 comes about 5 months after Pendleton Ward's collaboration in April 2015. If the lead time is similar (about 17 months from story collaboration to release), then the project with Sanders could be the next storyline, released around April 2018. Shortly afterwards, Charlie Sanders was featured on two podcasts (High & Mighty and The Tome Show) discussing D&D
—I have not listened to those yet.- Update: I have now listened to both podcasts. The experience doesn't come up in High & Mighty, but on The Tome Show (starting around 21:34), Charlie Sanders says he was in Seattle for three days, brainstorming for a few hours each morning:
It was a lot like being in a writers' room for a TV show, except we were talking about the next D&D module. And it was just riffing. Like I just sat down with the creative director of D&D, the main artist, and the main writer. And the four of us just hung out and threw ideas around of what could happen in the upcoming module and modules beyond that. It was totally fun. It was like a writers' room, but specific to D&D and even easier, because I didn't even bring a computer. You're just throwing ideas around, and they take what they will.
- Update: I have now listened to both podcasts. The experience doesn't come up in High & Mighty, but on The Tome Show (starting around 21:34), Charlie Sanders says he was in Seattle for three days, brainstorming for a few hours each morning:
- We've now had an adventure featuring Acererak (on the cover of the Dungeon Master's Guide), a book featuring the Xanathar (on the cover of the Monster Manual), and an adventure featuring the fire giant Snurre (on the cover of the Players Handbook)—though that was basically a reprint, we also had another new adventure centered on giants. So those covers may be exhausted for clues.
- Volo's Guide added several new dinosaurs, just in time to be used in Tomb of Annihilation. There are probably other clues to be found in the monsters that were chosen.
(My bet? The froghemoth and vegepygmys are clues about an upcoming adventure based on Expedition to Barrier Peaks.)
Key quotes:
A journal purportedly written long ago by the wizard Lum the Mad describes strange, cylindrical chambers of metal buried in the ground from which froghemoths emerged, but no reliable reports of the location of such places exist.
No one knows for sure where russet mold came from. One historical account tells of adventurers in a forbidding mountain range discovering russet mold and vegepygmies in a peculiar metal dungeon full of strange life. Another story says that explorers found russet mold in a crater left by a falling star, with vegepygmies infesting the dense jungle nearby.
Anybody know of an existing adventure that the "crater left by a falling star" would refer to? The jungle almost sounds like Chult.
Update: It was confirmed in the announcement that froghemoths are featured in Tomb of Annihilation, so that's not necessarily a hint at an Expedition to Barrier Peaks-inspired adventure (unless their presence in Tomb of Annihilation is itself a hint).
Assuming two adventures per year, with 6 months of story writing per adventure, and lead times of 18 months, I would estimate that the next three adventures have been written already (drafted anyway), with work now in progress on the fourth, a late 2019 release. It must be very hard to keep track of.
If you know of any other hints in novels or elsewhere, let me know.
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