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

 

[Parmandur]

My advice? Buy the other CR book ASAP

It's worth the price of admission.

 

[gyor]

Maybe not, @gyor is a Critter, I believe, and this format could bode well for the future of the Forgotten Realms, frankly.

I'm not a critter (although I did back the cartoon kickstarter for $1), BUT I'm also not disappointed because I knew a critical role setting was coming since Exandia was mention in BG: DiA. I did not know it would be now, because WotC layed some misleading clues as to what this book was going to be, but I have said Exandia was coming. You all thought I was MAD because it was Tal Dorei was released by another company, but I was right!!! I win!!!

It does set up some weirdness as to what counts as D&D setting within Exandia and how it relates to Pillars of Eternity.

There does seems to be some interesting Player content potentially too.

Hey I wanted a Campaign Setting, I just wanted FR first. This could be interesting anyways.

It also explains why we did not see the Player content being UAed, it would have given the setting away and the designing was likely at least partly done by Critical Role not just WotC.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not a critter (although I did back the cartoon kickstarter for $1), BUT I'm also not disappointed because I knew a critical role setting was coming since Exandia was mention in BG: DiA. I did not know it would be now, because WotC layed some misleading clues as to what this book was going to be, but I have said Exandia was coming. You all thought I was MAD because it was Tal Dorei was released by another company, but I was right!!! I win!!!

It does set up some weirdness as to what counts as D&D setting within Exandia and how it relates to Pillars of Eternity.

There does seems to be some interesting Player content potentially too.

Hey I wanted a Campaign Setting, I just wanted FR first. This could be interesting anyways.

It also explains why we did not see the Player content being UAed, it would have given the setting away and the designing was likely at least partly done by Critical Role not just WotC.

Yeah, they were laying the hints down, particularly in the big marketing survey last year.

 

[Parmandur]

It also explains why we did not see the Player content being UAed, it would have given the setting away and the designing was likely at least partly done by Critical Role not just WotC.

Thinking on this, though: maybe we have gotten Exandria material in UA since September, after all? Maybe not all of it: they haven't finished collecting feedback on the last UA, but...it would be a quick turnaround for Class material, historically, but it's possible some of the weird Subclasses have been Dunamancy related all along, and the Class options would fit well in a book they can reasonably expect to sell so well as this.

The Gunslinger or Blood Hunter have been vetted for years, and could end up in here. Putting any fun related see tuff in this book would be a golden opportunity.

 

[gyor]

Yeah, they were laying the hints down, particularly in the big marketing survey last year.

Yeah they straight up mentioned Exandia as a setting while leaving off more traditional D&D Settings, and they mentioned the Bloodhunter. I don't know if the Bloodhunter made it into this book, the blurb didn't mention it, so it might now have sadly, but it's still possible it's in there. I hope so.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah they straight up mentioned Exandia as a setting while leaving off more traditional D&D Settings, and they mentioned the Bloodhunter. I don't know if the Bloodhunter made it into this book, the blurb didn't mention it, so it might now have sadly, but it's still possible it's in there. I hope so.

We'll find out details soon...

 

[Burnside]

I kinda feel like from an image perspective WoTC D&D doesn’t need to publish a class where you get magic powers from cutting yourself. Just my two cents.

 

[gyor]

I kinda feel like from an image perspective WoTC D&D doesn’t need to publish a class where you get magic powers from cutting yourself. Just my two cents.

I don't think a D&D class is going to encourage self mutiliation, that seems silly.

 

[Burnside]

I don't think a D&D class is going to encourage self mutiliation, that seems silly.

Of course it is. D&D also didn’t encourage devil worship either, but that didn’t stop a huge moral panic. If I’m Hasbro, I take a look at this class, take a look at the history of this game, and say, “No thank you.”

Aside from that, the mechanics of the version that Mercer put out previously are very bad. Bloodhunters are required to inflict damage on themselves to activate powers that are equivalent to what other classes can do with no such sacrifice.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Of course it is. D&D also didn’t encourage devil worship either, but that didn’t stop a huge moral panic. If I’m Hasbro, I take a look at this class, take a look at the history of this game, and say, “No thank you.”

Aside from that, the mechanics of the version that Mercer put out previously are very bad. Bloodhunters are required to inflict damage on themselves to activate powers that are equivalent to what other classes can do with no such sacrifice.

This. Mercer's designs are often off. The blood drain feature for a little more damage and the exploding guns of the gunslinger while doing less than a basic battlemaster are weird and overly punitive. There's also the cobalt soul that cost a boat load of ki points for thing other class can do for free. Most of them would benefit from being polished by the official design team.