From the Wizards "Future Releases" Board:
Originally posted by Mops&Buckets:
Just came back from my local gaming store and they had a bunch of Wizards of the Coast Septembre-December catalogues pilled up. So I picked one up and proceeded to read up on what WotC had planned for the end of the year. As it turns out, they have a lot of stuff coming out. Here's a summary with a little commentary on my part :
September:
D&D Basic Set : In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards is putting out this set containing 16 non-random minis, a set of dice, character cards (I guess you don't roll up new characters but play one of the iconics), rulebooks and 4 double-sided map boards. I guess they want to attract new players to the game and that's great. I remember the long hours I spent as a kid playing through Zenser's Dungeon and, looking back, it's still the purest gaming fun I ever had, everything was so new. I just hope WotC can capture that feeling and instill it in a new generation of players.
Monster Manual III : Coming in at 224 pages and, thanks to some hints dropped by one of the editors on this project, with each monster getting a full page writeup, I think the promised 90% new monsters contained therein are still gonna be too few to satisfy my taste in wicked baddies. I mean, with a monster per page, the obligatory "how to use this book" section, plus the index and tables at the end, where looking at what ? 100 monsters tops ? Still, if the cover art remains the same as the shot displayed and the interior artwork is good, this'll probably something I'll pick up.
Frostburn : Mastering the Perils of Ice and Snow
Wow, another hardcover that comes in at 224 pages. I don't know any of the book's authors (Wolfgang Baur, James Jacobs and George Strayton), but the content seems intelligent and complex while still handing out the requisite new feats, spells and PrCs plus new monsters of the icy realms. Cool looking book and, since my current campaign focuses on the northern part of a continent, one I'll probably pick up.
Eberron : Whispers of the Vampire's Blade
Attention all Ebies, the second adventure for WotCs new campaign setting for D&D is coming september 2004 and was written by David Noonan. This adventure is said to begin in Sharn and so ties in with the book Sharn : City of Towers that's coming out later this year. This soft-cover is comes in at 32 pages and costs under 10 US$. I'm not a big fan of pre-made adventures, but I'm sure it'll find a nice home amongst the fans of the setting.
PS : pretty funky name for an adventure, really pulpy ... at least I think so.
October 2004
Special Edition Player's Handbook : Part of the 30th D&D anniversary, this is a leatherbound cover, really fancy looking (I'm guessing here, no pictures were provided), etc. version of our standard PHB. It's mostly a geek collectors item and I won't buy it, besides my PHB is still holding together pretty well even after all the harsh treatment I've been giving it.
Libris Mortis The Book of Undead : Besides the argument that the name is in incorrect latin, I've nothing to say against this book apart that, at merely 192 pages (Draconomicon had 288), it feels a little short when you think this book is talking about a really complex group of critters (and those who would fight, become, befriend them). The book was written by Andy Collins and Bruce R. Cordell and appears to be in the vein of the draconomicon as far as artwork and content is concerned. A must have, in my humble opinion, for any campaign that deals predominantly with the undead
Shining South : The next in FR's series of region books. The way I see it, generic D&D will get generic environment books while FR'll get details about specific locales, regions, etc. This hardcover was scribed by Thomas M. Reid and clocks in at 192 pages. I haven't played in the Realms for a while now, and while I like the setting, I just don't feel this part of the world has a lot of stuff you can talk about. Time will tell ...
November 2004
Complete Arcane A Player's Guide to Arcane Magic for All Classes : This is the first book I saw when I cracked open the little catalogue and I was immediately drawn to the small print above the D&D logo on the cover. It said : "A Hero Spotlight for". I like this trend where WotC just throws a lot of little bits of text on the cover of a book, makes it seem less plain. Anyway, this Richard Baker penned 192 page hardcover contains all the info any player needs to add a little arcane flavor to his character, be it from a feat or a PrC which this book is sure to be full of. On my part, I'm just hoping for some content for Bards and Sorcerers (I like Wizards, I do, but I think they've got a big enough number of feats and PrCs and spells specific to them).
Sharn : City of Towers
The little summary of the book given in the catalogue calls Sharn "the most important city in the Eberron setting". I'm not sure if that's accurate, but from what i can read, it looks rather cool. It seems this book is akin to a FR region book centered around just one huge city (perhaps they'll do this for Waterdeep), there are monsters and adversaries typical in the city, detailed maps and descriptions of every part of the city. No wonder it took Keith Baker and James Wyatt 192 pages to give us all that info. Sadly, as cool as this book looks, I'm not gonna buy it. I just feel so strongly about the setting my campaign is in that I don't feel I could incorporate elements from this book into it without feeling like I'm lazy or stealing or something.
Races of the Wild : Again with the little text above the logo, I like it (for those interested, it's : "A Race Guide to"). I'm not a fan of Elves. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are tons of stuff that are cool about them, I just rarely if ever play one (the -2 Con really kills me). As for Halflings (the other PC race discussed in this book), while I like them, I never got used to playing a small character, it never felt right. Anyway, I'm sure this book'll contain stuff for the Elf lover, the Halfling lover or perhaps the "new-race-introduced-this-book" lover (from the look of it, it seems like an Avariel, but I could be wrong). This 192 pages hardcover book was written by Skip "The Sage" Williams.
Map Folio 3-D : 2-D is cool, 3-D is cooler. This soft-cover contains everything you need to create a small 3-D environment for your D&D game. All the fold-up models are printed on cardstock and seem to provide a small urban setting. I suck at making stuff manualy, but I might give this little book a try.
Woah, that was long ... and I only talked about D&D game products. I didn't even talk about the new D&D miniatures expansion (Aberrations) or the first Star Wars miniatures expansion (Clone Strike) or the ton of new novels, reeditions of classics or even my favorite product in the catalogue : "30 years of Adventure : A celebration of Dungeons & Dragons" (an essay book on what made/makes/will make our favorite hobby so great.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my (not so) little review of what's to come.
Originally posted by Mops&Buckets:
Just came back from my local gaming store and they had a bunch of Wizards of the Coast Septembre-December catalogues pilled up. So I picked one up and proceeded to read up on what WotC had planned for the end of the year. As it turns out, they have a lot of stuff coming out. Here's a summary with a little commentary on my part :
September:
D&D Basic Set : In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards is putting out this set containing 16 non-random minis, a set of dice, character cards (I guess you don't roll up new characters but play one of the iconics), rulebooks and 4 double-sided map boards. I guess they want to attract new players to the game and that's great. I remember the long hours I spent as a kid playing through Zenser's Dungeon and, looking back, it's still the purest gaming fun I ever had, everything was so new. I just hope WotC can capture that feeling and instill it in a new generation of players.
Monster Manual III : Coming in at 224 pages and, thanks to some hints dropped by one of the editors on this project, with each monster getting a full page writeup, I think the promised 90% new monsters contained therein are still gonna be too few to satisfy my taste in wicked baddies. I mean, with a monster per page, the obligatory "how to use this book" section, plus the index and tables at the end, where looking at what ? 100 monsters tops ? Still, if the cover art remains the same as the shot displayed and the interior artwork is good, this'll probably something I'll pick up.
Frostburn : Mastering the Perils of Ice and Snow
Wow, another hardcover that comes in at 224 pages. I don't know any of the book's authors (Wolfgang Baur, James Jacobs and George Strayton), but the content seems intelligent and complex while still handing out the requisite new feats, spells and PrCs plus new monsters of the icy realms. Cool looking book and, since my current campaign focuses on the northern part of a continent, one I'll probably pick up.
Eberron : Whispers of the Vampire's Blade
Attention all Ebies, the second adventure for WotCs new campaign setting for D&D is coming september 2004 and was written by David Noonan. This adventure is said to begin in Sharn and so ties in with the book Sharn : City of Towers that's coming out later this year. This soft-cover is comes in at 32 pages and costs under 10 US$. I'm not a big fan of pre-made adventures, but I'm sure it'll find a nice home amongst the fans of the setting.
PS : pretty funky name for an adventure, really pulpy ... at least I think so.
October 2004
Special Edition Player's Handbook : Part of the 30th D&D anniversary, this is a leatherbound cover, really fancy looking (I'm guessing here, no pictures were provided), etc. version of our standard PHB. It's mostly a geek collectors item and I won't buy it, besides my PHB is still holding together pretty well even after all the harsh treatment I've been giving it.
Libris Mortis The Book of Undead : Besides the argument that the name is in incorrect latin, I've nothing to say against this book apart that, at merely 192 pages (Draconomicon had 288), it feels a little short when you think this book is talking about a really complex group of critters (and those who would fight, become, befriend them). The book was written by Andy Collins and Bruce R. Cordell and appears to be in the vein of the draconomicon as far as artwork and content is concerned. A must have, in my humble opinion, for any campaign that deals predominantly with the undead
Shining South : The next in FR's series of region books. The way I see it, generic D&D will get generic environment books while FR'll get details about specific locales, regions, etc. This hardcover was scribed by Thomas M. Reid and clocks in at 192 pages. I haven't played in the Realms for a while now, and while I like the setting, I just don't feel this part of the world has a lot of stuff you can talk about. Time will tell ...
November 2004
Complete Arcane A Player's Guide to Arcane Magic for All Classes : This is the first book I saw when I cracked open the little catalogue and I was immediately drawn to the small print above the D&D logo on the cover. It said : "A Hero Spotlight for". I like this trend where WotC just throws a lot of little bits of text on the cover of a book, makes it seem less plain. Anyway, this Richard Baker penned 192 page hardcover contains all the info any player needs to add a little arcane flavor to his character, be it from a feat or a PrC which this book is sure to be full of. On my part, I'm just hoping for some content for Bards and Sorcerers (I like Wizards, I do, but I think they've got a big enough number of feats and PrCs and spells specific to them).
Sharn : City of Towers
The little summary of the book given in the catalogue calls Sharn "the most important city in the Eberron setting". I'm not sure if that's accurate, but from what i can read, it looks rather cool. It seems this book is akin to a FR region book centered around just one huge city (perhaps they'll do this for Waterdeep), there are monsters and adversaries typical in the city, detailed maps and descriptions of every part of the city. No wonder it took Keith Baker and James Wyatt 192 pages to give us all that info. Sadly, as cool as this book looks, I'm not gonna buy it. I just feel so strongly about the setting my campaign is in that I don't feel I could incorporate elements from this book into it without feeling like I'm lazy or stealing or something.
Races of the Wild : Again with the little text above the logo, I like it (for those interested, it's : "A Race Guide to"). I'm not a fan of Elves. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are tons of stuff that are cool about them, I just rarely if ever play one (the -2 Con really kills me). As for Halflings (the other PC race discussed in this book), while I like them, I never got used to playing a small character, it never felt right. Anyway, I'm sure this book'll contain stuff for the Elf lover, the Halfling lover or perhaps the "new-race-introduced-this-book" lover (from the look of it, it seems like an Avariel, but I could be wrong). This 192 pages hardcover book was written by Skip "The Sage" Williams.
Map Folio 3-D : 2-D is cool, 3-D is cooler. This soft-cover contains everything you need to create a small 3-D environment for your D&D game. All the fold-up models are printed on cardstock and seem to provide a small urban setting. I suck at making stuff manualy, but I might give this little book a try.
Woah, that was long ... and I only talked about D&D game products. I didn't even talk about the new D&D miniatures expansion (Aberrations) or the first Star Wars miniatures expansion (Clone Strike) or the ton of new novels, reeditions of classics or even my favorite product in the catalogue : "30 years of Adventure : A celebration of Dungeons & Dragons" (an essay book on what made/makes/will make our favorite hobby so great.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my (not so) little review of what's to come.
