What's This Mysterious D&D Book? [UPDATED!]

As long as it's not 5.5...

 

[Mercurius]

On a livestream yesterday they said that these alternate covers are coming out this holiday and are a product of their relationship with the artist that did the Volos Guide special edition hard cover. Also these are not intended as a money grab. They also said that the announcement of new setting products for 5e will be on the 23rd of this month and they will be releasing before 2019, possibly very soon. Other announcements will be on the 16th.

If that is true than they probably won't be actual physical products but probably PDFs. I could see shortish gazetteers that give basics and guidelines on how to run a game in the settings, and also opens the door for others to publish their own.

But who knows.

 

[Aaron L]

I had the same issue but sent an email and photo of the condition to Wizards and they sent a replacement out straight away - was very happy with the customer service.

Heck yeah. I'd had a chunk of about a good 60 pages falling out of the Spell section of my PHB since just a few months after I bought it in 2014, and just last month I sent in a help request to WotC with pix of the pages falling out. They sent me an email the very next day asking for a pic of the title page, I sent one in right away, and I got a brand new PHB with all the errata and fixes just one week later. I am extremely happy with WotC's customer support.

And if these special edition Core Books aren't ridiculously expensive, I'd love to have a set. Unfortunately I live on disability and am dirt poor, so I'm not able to spend much money on D&D books (I still need to get Volo's Guide, the Sword Coast AG, Mordenkainen's Tome... actually, all I have are the Core Books and Xanathar's Guide) so I hope I could have a chance to save up for them instead of them being all sold out right away to jerks who resell them on eBay for 5 times their original price. I flaming HATE that. I also don't have access to a Friendly Local Game Shoppe to pick any up since the nearest physical game store is the Comic Swap in State College an hour away by car but I can't drive and have no car, walking 60 miles there and back again simply isn't an option, and I live in the stix in Central Pennsylvania so there's no realistic option of taking public transportation.

Maybe if I find out when they'll be released I could call Comic Swap and reserve a copy, and then make arrangements with someone to drive me there on the day they're released to pick it up. (Sigh)

 

[gyor]

Honestly is it bad that I'm interested in the settings more to see what races and stuff FR can use from that setting, like Shifters exist (right in the 4e FRCG) and sort of Changelings (there was a Changeling half doppenger template or something in FR) and Kalaster with had a dragon article on using them in FR as spellplague victims (I'm certain I missed spelled that, my bad), and Artificers from Eberron.

 

[Salamandyr]

Apologies if it's already been mentioned, but are these just new covers or is there also new interior art?

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Note the word in the upper right corner of the updated photo: (CHRON)OMANCER

I've long advocated that WotC release not only a Planescape/Spelljammer meta-setting, but that Chronomancer also be included.

The reason: many of the classic D&D settings exist not only on another world, but in another time: the Age of Blackmoor (in Mystara's ancient past), the Arcane Age of Forgotten Realms, the many eras of Dragonlance (reachable through the River of Time), future Greyhawk 2000, and so forth.

https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/timeline
https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/d-d-realities

 

[gyor]

Note the word in the upper right corner of the updated photo: (CHRON)OMANCER

I've long advocated that WotC release not only a Planescape/Spelljammer meta-setting, but that Chronomancer also be included.

The reason: many of the classic D&D settings exist not only on another world, but in another time: the Age of Blackmoor (in Mystara's ancient past), the Arcane Age of Forgotten Realms, the many eras of Dragonlance (reachable through the River of Time), future Greyhawk 2000, and so forth.

https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/timeline
https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/d-d-realities

Nevermind Arcane Age FR, each edition of FR is in the different time period! I call the current one age of nostoligia.

 

[Blue]

The D&D edition with the best index is 13th Age, which combines the index with a glossary.

Preach it. 13th Age is hands down the most useful RPG reference I've ever used. Over half the time I don't even need to go to the page.

(Oh, and that they provided the PDF for free with purchase of the hardcover and the page numbers are links makes it even better.)