WotC release schedule thru 2005

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most places of worship I know of never mention a deity.

Most Catholic churches do (if you count saints as something more than mortal), as do many evangelical churches. Jesus is specifically mentioned in the name of at least a dozen churches in a mile of my house.

United Methodist Church for example just includes the name of the group that worships there. So you come up with a nice background for the group of drow, perhaps a group cut off from their nation by duergar invasion. Over time, they migrated to a new place in the underdark and their leader fell under the command of a mind flayer named Ulsensis. Over time, he began a new faith worshiping the mind flayer as a chosen disciple of their gods (complete with thorough mythology of what the illithid did for their people). The temple was aptly named the Throne of Ulsensis. The drow followers the Ulsensine. The product could be called the Ulsensine Chamber, referring to the large cavern that contains the temple.

I came up with this in five minutes. Imagine what a group of professional designers could do with weeks of brainstorming.

Leaving aside the strange collision of Methodists and the drow, why on Earth would WotC bother creating a generic drow temple that explicitly worshipped something not-Lolth/Lloth? A truly generic product is going to need to support the usage most purchasers will want it for: spider-loving, matriarchal, Dominant/submissive drow.

If your objection is to the name of the accessory and location still, your best bet is "The (interesting noun) of Lolth," methinks.

 

[reanjr]

Most Catholic churches do (if you count saints as something more than mortal), as do many evangelical churches. Jesus is specifically mentioned in the name of at least a dozen churches in a mile of my house.


Leaving aside the strange collision of Methodists and the drow, why on Earth would WotC bother creating a generic drow temple that explicitly worshipped something not-Lolth/Lloth? A truly generic product is going to need to support the usage most purchasers will want it for: spider-loving, matriarchal, Dominant/submissive drow.

If your objection is to the name of the accessory and location still, your best bet is "The (interesting noun) of Lolth," methinks.

Well, spider-loving, dominant-submissive Lolth worshippers pretty much cuts out Eberron drow, so you have made it setting specific by making those assumptions.

The only assumptions the core rules make are that they are subterranean, depraved, have white hair, and coat their arrows in poison. I'd say my example follows pretty closely.

 

[Stone Dog]

Well, WotC have gone and done it again. They've changed another upcoming product's name. What was Maelstrom is now called Stormwrack.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndacc/178670000

Silly WotC, why can't they just leave well enough alone.

KF72

Because somebody already has an RPG called Maelstrom. Why pay settlement fees or whatever when you can just change the name a bit?

 

[BobROE]

What are the priest and fighter books, i.e "Master of Chains" and such?

If there what I think you're refering to, they're FR novels. The first 2 of the priest series have already been released.

 

[The Shaman]

Looks like a great year for my wallet!

Or at least a good year for third-party publishers.

I was going to buy d20 Past, but after seeing what was done with it I'm going to use whatever they put into the MSRD, or not - I'm very disappointed. :\

I will definitely get Sandstorm and Stormwrack, just because stuff like this meshes well with my GM style.

I'll take a look at d20 Critical Locations - if it's anything like the "Global Positioning" maps from Polyhedron, I'll be on my FLGS' doorstep the day it's released.

I thumbed through Complete Adventurer and Races of the Wild the other day: the first didn't do anything for me, but I really like the fey-race in the second - that's not enough for me to justify spending the money, however. I will also take a look at the aberrations book - I have an idea for a new direction in our tabletop Modern game...

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm disappointed not to see any more environment or monster series books. Surely the good ideas aren't all exhausted. I'd pay for big books of mountains, jungles, giants, fey, elemental/genies, goblinoids and more.

I don't know how many chances we have, but you can still hope for Q1 2006...

IIRC Draconomicon came out in Q3 2003, Libris Mortis in Q3 2004 (1 year later) and Lords of Madness in Q1 2005 (half year later); Frostburn in Q3 2004, Sandstorm in Q1 2005, Stormwrack in Q2/Q3 2005... Many series seem to accelerate when they're at their end (Complete X, Races of X, 3.0 splatbooks... didn't their last ones all come out quite soon?), so it's possible there's no more books planned in the environmental and "monster in prestige format" series. But at least the second series could have a lot more space...

 

[Gez]

Edit: I was going to say that this [grafts & symbionts] was the closest guess so far, but that's misleading, because really none of the guesses, including this one, have been close. All I can say is, the Magic of Incarnum is very cool.

I co-authored the book. I really don't think I'm allowed to say any more until it appears in the WOTC catalog, but... well, like I said, the book rocks! I personally can't wait until it's released and I can use it in my home game.

Let the speculation begin!

Me, I'd say it's about growing vat-creatures.

 

[Felon]

Edit: I was going to say that this was the closest guess so far, but that's misleading, because really none of the guesses, including this one, have been close. All I can say is, the Magic of Incarnum is very cool.

I co-authored the book. I really don't think I'm allowed to say any more until it appears in the WOTC catalog, but... well, like I said, the book rocks! I personally can't wait until it's released and I can use it in my home game.

Hmm. You were saying implants and grafts arre close, so I'd wager from the word "incarnum" it's some sort of book on innate magical abilities. Closer to the mark? Aw, you can't say. Phooey on you.

 

[Felon]

Leaving aside the strange collision of Methodists and the drow, why on Earth would WotC bother creating a generic drow temple that explicitly worshipped something not-Lolth/Lloth? A truly generic product is going to need to support the usage most purchasers will want it for: spider-loving, matriarchal, Dominant/submissive drow. If your objection is to the name of the accessory and location still, your best bet is "The (interesting noun) of Lolth," methinks.

On a purely tangential note, can anyone tell me is the whole "silence of Lolth" bit officially over, or will drow-related products continue to have to deal with Lolth clerics not receiving spells? Did we ever find out what the deal with that was, or is it still playing out?

 

[MerricB]

On a purely tangential note, can anyone tell me is the whole "silence of Lolth" bit officially over, or will drow-related products continue to have to deal with Lolth clerics not receiving spells? Did we ever find out what the deal with that was, or is it still playing out?

I haven't been paying attention to the War of the Spider Queen series of novels, which is about to finish, I think. That might have some of the answers. Anyone read them?

Cheers!