D&D 5E WotC Delays New D&D Book Announcement

This from WotC — “Get the quasits out of our office! Our plan to make a D&D book announcement on Thursday has been changed. Adventurers, mark your calendars for Monday, January 13.”

The book was due to be announced on Thursday 9th January after a mysterious entry appeared on Amazon with a product title of "Dungeons & Dragons March Release Book (Title announced January 9th)" and a release date of March 17th, 2020. See the original news item here:

D&D 5E - March's D&D Book To Be Announced On January 9th

A mysterious entry has appeared on Amazon! With a product title of "Dungeons & Dragons March Release Book (Title announced January 9th)" and a release date of March 17th, 2020, this $49.95 hardcover release will be revealed in under a week! The description reads "Your first look at the next...

www.enworld.org

They haven't given a reason; back in November WotC delayed the launch of the sapphire D&D anniversary dice at the last minute, too.

D&D General - $300 D&D Dice Delayed

WotC has delayed the sale of the $300 dice. They haven’t said why.

www.enworld.org

 

[Burnside]

While that's a fair assessment, I just find the choice uninspired. Like you said, people watch CR because of the personalities involved, not because the setting is particularly interesting. I understand choosing Wildemount over, say, Dragonlance or Greyhawk, but it's disappointing that it was chosen over more unique settings like Dark Sun and Planescape, in my opinion.

Artistically disappointing, I agree, but for business reasons this far and away the stronger move, and if the goal is to grow the hobby this move makes much more sense than reviving Darksun or Planescape. I like those settings more; they are more interesting and more challenging. But they struggled at their peak and right now they have what amounts to a cult following in a game that is still niche. CR by contrast has a million viewers every week and brings new players into the game every week.

 

[Anoth]

Artistically disappointing, I agree, but for business reasons this far and away the stronger move, and if the goal is to grow the hobby this move makes much more sense than reviving Darksun or Planescape. I like those settings more; they are more interesting and more challenging. But they struggled at their peak and right now they have what amounts to a cult following in a game that is still niche. CR by contrast has a million viewers every week and brings new players into the game every week.

That’s just a cold hard reality.

Maybe WOTC needs to start their own streaming channel if they don’t have one already. Maybe that would help them build up hype for products.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

CR by contrast has a million viewers every week and brings new players into the game every week.

Agreed. This probably isn't really my cup of tea, but I'm looking at this as an educational opportunity to teach myself about the CR world, so maybe I can tap some of those new players getting sucked in every week.

 

[Burnside]

That’s just a cold hard reality.

Maybe WOTC needs to start their own streaming channel if they don’t have one already. Maybe that would help them build up hype for products.

They do, with multiple shows. None have caught on to the degree that Critical Role has (Dice Camera Action had a respectable, but still much smaller following than CR before it flamed out due to cast controversy last year). It goes to show that it’s not so easy to do what Mercer & company do in terms of capturing the imagination of an audience.

 

[ppaladin123]

Odd, the cost of the book changed too. It was$ 49.95 and is now $29.95. I wonder what that is about?

So between the price chance, the delayed announcement and the FR dice/map set that folks had assumed as tied to the release, is it possible they initially planned to announce a different product but decided it needed more work and switched the release order of it and this?

 

[Burnside]

So between the price chance, the delayed announcement and the FR dice/map set that folks had assumed as tied to the release, is it possible they initially planned to announce a different product but decided it needed more work and switched the release order of it and this?

CR airs on Thursday night. Maybe the plan was originally to announce this book on the show, but then they learned that due to other WoTC partner agreements they couldn’t do it that way.

 

[generic]

So between the price chance, the delayed announcement and the FR dice/map set that folks had assumed as tied to the release, is it possible they initially planned to announce a different product but decided it needed more work and switched the release order of it and this?

It seems likely to me, especially because the Silverhand die set would not be released without an AP or splatbook to go with it, and the Silverhand name is a Forgotten Realms innovation.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

A war brews on a continent that has withstood more than its fair share of conflict. The Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty are carving up the lands around them, and only the greatest heroes would dare stand between them. Somewhere in the far corners of this war-torn landscape are secrets that could end this conflict and usher in a new age of peace—or burn the world to a cinder.

Create a band of heroes and embark on a journey across the continent of Wildemount, the setting for Campaign 2 of the hit Dungeons & Dragons series Critical Role. Within this book, you’ll find new character options, a heroic chronicle to help you craft your character’s backstory, four different starting adventures, and everything a Dungeon Master needs to breathe life into a Wildemount-based D&D campaign…

· Delve through the first Dungeons & Dragons book to let players experience the game as played within the world of Critical Role, the world’s most popular livestreaming D&D show.

· Uncover a trove of options usable in any D&D game, featuring subclasses, spells, magic items, monsters, and more, rooted in the adventures of Exandria—such as Vestiges of Divergence and the possibility manipulating magic of Dunamancy.

· Start a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in any of Wildemount’s regions using a variety of introductory adventures, dozens of regional plot seeds, and the heroic chronicle system—a way to create character backstories rooted in Wildemount.

Explore every corner of Wildemount and discover mysteries revealed for the first time by Critical Role Dungeon Master, Matthew Mercer.

 

[generic]

A war brews on a continent that has withstood more than its fair share of conflict. The Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty are carving up the lands around them, and only the greatest heroes would dare stand between them. Somewhere in the far corners of this war-torn landscape are secrets that could end this conflict and usher in a new age of peace—or burn the world to a cinder.

Create a band of heroes and embark on a journey across the continent of Wildemount, the setting for Campaign 2 of the hit Dungeons & Dragons series Critical Role. Within this book, you’ll find new character options, a heroic chronicle to help you craft your character’s backstory, four different starting adventures, and everything a Dungeon Master needs to breathe life into a Wildemount-based D&D campaign…

· Delve through the first Dungeons & Dragons book to let players experience the game as played within the world of Critical Role, the world’s most popular livestreaming D&D show.

· Uncover a trove of options usable in any D&D game, featuring subclasses, spells, magic items, monsters, and more, rooted in the adventures of Exandria—such as Vestiges of Divergence and the possibility manipulating magic of Dunamancy.

· Start a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in any of Wildemount’s regions using a variety of introductory adventures, dozens of regional plot seeds, and the heroic chronicle system—a way to create character backstories rooted in Wildemount.

Explore every corner of Wildemount and discover mysteries revealed for the first time by Critical Role Dungeon Master, Matthew Mercer.

Given the book's description, I am inclined to think that WotC is trying to capitalize on the popularity which Critical Role has brought to Dungeons and Dragons in such copious quantities. This is definitely a product targeted towards fans of Critical Role, and, I suspect that WotC's market research shows more overlap between fans of Critical Role and book-buying D&D players than we, on ENWorld, see.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm getting a sense this book will be a lot like the Acq. Inc. book, as it really didn't require too much work from the staff of Wizard's and is almost entirely 3rd-party effort.

Since there are four adventures in this, I'm guessing this is also the module compilation with Deborah Ann Woll and Marisha Ray.

I don't think this book "steals" a spot from Dark Sun or Planescape, which require a lot more internal development than this... I still would have preferred Greyhawk though.

Depending on the quality of art and player's content (it will include things like new subclasses) I may pick it up, but probably not.