Why Is Chris Perkins Tweeting Page Snippets Of Mongrelfolk?

I didn't see that either. Do mongrelfolk appear in one of the adventures they've released, or is this a possible hint of the Monster Manual 2?

 

[spinozajack]

Is this something I missed? Chris Perkins tweeted it a coule of weeks ago. No other context.

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Mongrelmen existed as a playable PC race in 2nd edition's Complete Book of Humanoids.

I hope they come back as a playable race one day. In a book where you can play all sorts of playable races. Hopefully semi-balanced. With racial levels that you can improve abilities of your racial powers.

 

[Jiggawatts]

I could see them forgoing the "Monster Manual 2" name and instead calling it something like the "Monster Compendium". Just like if they ever do decide to do a splatbook it will be the Adventurers Handbook instead of the Players Handbook 2. I actually think this is smart marketing.

 

[Staffan]

It's been awesome not having splat books lined up. A 5E Fiend Folio would be old school and awesome. I would be fine with a MM2 as they had more monsters left over. If there is enough to make a solid second MM, go for it! After a second MM book, they start getting very watered down and silly, I look at Pathfinder as a reminder.

In 3e, I thought the post-3.5 monster books had a roughly equal overall level of quality, but in different areas. You are correct in that the monsters themselves became more and more weird and niche-oriented, but on the other hand the designers became much more skilled at the mechanics of monster building. The monsters in MM5 were really, really well done - just a shame that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel concept-wise.

 

[Herobizkit]

Yes, please get us a MM2! Weird, fantabulous monsters!

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Monster Manual 2, GenCon 2015 first release, available in stores Sept. 8th.

Man, if it IS a MM2, I doubt those dates are anywhere close to matching up with reality. September 8th is what, a hair more than four months away? They'd have announced it by now if that's the release date they were going to go with.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I don't really need a PH2. I never want to see another DMG2. I'm generally averse to splatbooks. I think the current pace of released adventures is fine. I'm actually quite happy with the relatively light flow of new printed materials from WotC.

But I need more monsters. Especially the non-standard stuff. Give me some Planescape monsters... Ravenloft monsters... Mystara monsters.

That's all I need. Everything else can be hand-waved, or re-used from previous editions. I don't need a new Ravenloft splatbook to tell me about Barovia, or how to roll fear checks, or to include a tarokka deck. I already have all those things. What I need is monsters.

So, if this is MM2, let it be soon. My wallet is ready.

It's been awesome not having splat books lined up. A 5E Fiend Folio would be old school and awesome. I would be fine with a MM2 as they had more monsters left over. If there is enough to make a solid second MM, go for it! After a second MM book, they start getting very watered down and silly, I look at Pathfinder as a reminder.

Yes, absolutely. There is a big difference between "splat-books/bloat" and monster compendiums. Monster Manuals/Fiend Folios/Big Bookes O' Monstairs are important for updating the Worlds of D&D to 5e.

I hope WotC realizes that there a probably quite a number of customers who aren't interested in a lot of splatbooks but *are* interested in another solid MM.

 

[Parmandur]

I could see them forgoing the "Monster Manual 2" name and instead calling it something like the "Monster Compendium". Just like if they ever do decide to do a splatbook it will be the Adventurers Handbook instead of the Players Handbook 2. I actually think this is smart marketing.

I agree, Creature Catalog and Fiend Folio seem to be likely names they would use instead.

 

[chibi graz'zt]

My hope for Fiend Folio.

 

[spinozajack]

I could see them forgoing the "Monster Manual 2" name and instead calling it something like the "Monster Compendium". Just like if they ever do decide to do a splatbook it will be the Adventurers Handbook instead of the Players Handbook 2. I actually think this is smart marketing.

Agreed.

PHB 2 is a pretty lame name for a book.

 

[MerricB]

Agreed.

PHB 2 is a pretty lame name for a book.

Especially if it contains monsters.

What?

Cheers!

 

[Kramodlog]

My money is on the next AP, that I'm sure is connected storywise with Sword Coast Legends. It fits the cross-branding strategy and the "we release only books related to the storyline" strategy.

I wonder if SCL will have some delays. It is still just announced for 2015. No exact release date. I was expecting the AP to come out around GenCon, but Nathan Stewart did say that WotC would make sure all partners are ready to release their products. If the video game is late, it might delay the rest of the products that are interconnected to it.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

My money is on the next AP, that I'm sure is connected storywise with Sword Coast Legends. It fits the cross-branding strategy and the "we release only books related to the storyline" strategy.

I wonder if SCL will have some delays. It is still just announced for 2015. No exact release date. I was expecting the AP to come out around GenCon, but Nathan Stewart did say that WotC would make sure all partners are ready to release their products. If the video game is late, it might delay the rest of the products that are interconnected to it.

When video games get delayed because of actual development taking longer than expected (as opposed to marketing or distribution concerns which might push the release date around by a few weeks), they're typically pushed back a full 6 months - sometimes more than once, if even the suits are convinced the game needs more work. Which sucks, but given how many rushed, buggy games end up getting released half-baked, delays are actually a good thing in my eye.

Of course if they're synchronizing the releases across all brands, that might mean the tabletop game and MMO don't see any new content in that second half of the year. So it becomes a cost-benefit analysis of deciding whether it's best to have one cross-branded release covering everything 6-12 months from now, or to get the content out now and aim for the the next cross-branded release to cover all bases.

 

[spinozajack]

Especially if it contains monsters.

What?

Cheers!

Monsters R ppl too, ya know

Ever see Monsters Inc?

The anti-monster agenda has to stop! Can't we all just get along?

 

[SilverfireSage]

Man, if it IS a MM2, I doubt those dates are anywhere close to matching up with reality. September 8th is what, a hair more than four months away? They'd have announced it by now if that's the release date they were going to go with.

I dunno. Wasn't it only about a month between the announcement of Princes of the Apocalypse and its release? We knew it was coming ahead of time due to leaks, but there wasn't actually an official announcement until very very close to release.

 

[Kramodlog]

I dunno. Wasn't it only about a month between the announcement of Princes of the Apocalypse and its release?

About 10 weeks.

So if anything is to be released at GenCon, expect an announcement around June.

 

[Kramodlog]

When video games get delayed because of actual development taking longer than expected (as opposed to marketing or distribution concerns which might push the release date around by a few weeks), they're typically pushed back a full 6 months - sometimes more than once, if even the suits are convinced the game needs more work. Which sucks, but given how many rushed, buggy games end up getting released half-baked, delays are actually a good thing in my eye.

Of course if they're synchronizing the releases across all brands, that might mean the tabletop game and MMO don't see any new content in that second half of the year. So it becomes a cost-benefit analysis of deciding whether it's best to have one cross-branded release covering everything 6-12 months from now, or to get the content out now and aim for the the next cross-branded release to cover all bases.

So, would you say that if nothing is announced by GenCon, that we should expect the tabletop and the video game to come out in 2016?

 

[DEFCON 1]

My money is on the next AP, that I'm sure is connected storywise with Sword Coast Legends. It fits the cross-branding strategy and the "we release only books related to the storyline" strategy.

I wonder if SCL will have some delays. It is still just announced for 2015. No exact release date. I was expecting the AP to come out around GenCon, but Nathan Stewart did say that WotC would make sure all partners are ready to release their products. If the video game is late, it might delay the rest of the products that are interconnected to it.

This is definitely a possibility... although I also wouldn't be surprised if Sword Coast Legends wasn't tied directly to an AP to begin with or it's tied to the AP that follows this upcoming one after PoA. Especially for a completely new game (rather than expansions on a game that already exists), the possibility of delays is always greater as you say, and I really couldn't see WotC holding off the release of their next AP to let SCL catch up.

If they design SCL to have "generic" 5E Realms quests to start with, they can release the game when the game is ready... and can then after that point start in on designing the expansion content with whichever AP is lined up next on WotC's docket. That seems to be a safer plan of attack than WotC hoping against hope the team making SCL gets everything done exactly right and on time for the third AP's release.

 

[lkj]

Chris Perkins commented on it again in response to a question on twitter:

"Glad you picked up on it. I was beginning to think no one would notice! It's some text I got from the future. "

No new information there really, but it sort of confirms it was a tease of a potential future project.

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[Kramodlog]

Especially for a completely new game (rather than expansions on a game that already exists), the possibility of delays is always greater as you say, and I really couldn't see WotC holding off the release of their next AP to let SCL catch up.

So far all the APs have happened on the Sword Coast, if I am not mistaken. I think the APs are ancillary to the video game and that WotC won't pass an opportunity to cross-brand. They won't release a book (the AP) just to release one, to paraphrase Nathan Stewart and Perkins.

If they design SCL to have "generic" 5E Realms quests to start with,

I do not see it more or less generic than PotA or Tiamat's fun adventure. Right now we know that that a Balor named Belaphoss will play a central role in the video game. Probably what looks like a Drow caster too. From the monsters we saw lots of undead. Something called an Ashen Priest is a mini boss. So maybe Lolth or Orcus could be part of the AP. Kill Belaphoss in the video game, kill Orcus, Belaphoss' master, in the AP. Or something. No different than PCs facing Tiamat or some Elemental Prince of Evil.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I do not see it more or less generic than PotA or Tiamat's fun adventure. Right now we know that that a Balor named Belaphoss will play a central role in the video game. Probably what looks like a Drow caster too. From the monsters we saw lots of undead. Something called an Ashen Priest is a mini boss. So maybe Lolth or Orcus could be part of the AP. Kill Belaphoss in the video game, kill Orcus, Belaphoss' master, in the AP. Or something. No different than PCs facing Tiamat or some Elemental Prince of Evil.

True enough. So the question then comes down to whether the theme of all these bosses from the game are connected to the upcoming AP, the AP after that (if WotC wanted to give a bit more cushion for development), or just as-is in order to get the base game released (before adding in the AP stuff as part of the first DLC). No idea how it's gonna go. Although if it's me and the AP, MMO, board game and wiz kids minis are all on schedule but SCL was iffy (and we're talking possibly 6 to 12 month delay)... I dunno I'd want to either hold back all the RPG stuff to wait for the computer game, or tie the computer game so close to the RPG story that you had to release it without that necesary 6 to 12 month delay just for the synergy.

But perhaps SCL is so far along and polished that they already know they don't need to delay it? If they are that strong on the release, then perhaps a day-and-date with the next AP for the RPG is going to work fine? I'll be curious to see.