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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 7667765" data-attributes="member: 7635">Parsing the juicer bits..."We are story, story, story. The story drives everything. The need for new rules, the new races, new classes is just based on what’s going to really make this adventure, this story, this kind kind of theme happen." It seems everything going forward is going to be colored by the storylines. I figured this was the case. I'll discuss it more below, but this first part really doesn't say anything I wasn't expecting. In honesty, this is very akin to Paizo's APs. The current AP colors a lot of material, including the supplemental material released around it (Such as the Tech Guide and Iron Gods). Even Paizo's minis, dice, battle mats, and card games revolve around the power of their IP, so its little surprise."I wouldn’t be surprised if we do some books here and there that pick up things that the fanbase wants in between stories, because of the feedback we’re hearing. But by and large everything we’re delivering is supporting that annual story –and there’s zero plans for a Player’s Handbook 2 any time on the horizon."Translation: There will be books unrelated to APs, but don't expect many and almost none will be "Player Builder" material. Which is good, depending on what those "books here and there" are. I'm 100% convinced Psionics is the poster child for this expansion; its more complex than a power booster for players and too much for the back of an AP. I'm sure there might be other areas that such books are useful (color me surprised if we don't see another monster book). That said, there really isn't a lot needed. Character options (races, feats, spells, classes) are Player Companion fodder (yay free PDFs), Environmental/Genre books (Stormwrack, Heroes of Shadow) work with an appropriate AP. (Isle of Dread, Ravenloft). Not sure if it will work, but its a good start."we’re going to stay in the Forgotten Realms for the foreseeable future."Yeah, I figured. Neverwinter, SCL, the Adventurer's League all pointed to that. Realms is now WotC's Golarion. I suspect some settings might see support via a good AP: Al-Qadim and Kara Tur seem like easy pickings for expansion via an AP, and I'm sure a planar excursion AP can fill in a lot of Sigil/Planescape. And Ravenloft likewise has an "easy in" from the Realms to make perhaps an appearance. What ISN'T getting support is the strange prime worlds: Athas, Krynn, Eberron, anything that needs mechanics to make it work or doesn't have a connection to Toril. Those settings are probably going to see some form of UA support and perhaps an article, that's alll. "Dungeons and Dragons stopped [just] being a tabletop game years or decades ago." Inserting the missing word. Sure, D&D has had cartoons, movies, CDs, board games, T-shirts, and a variety of other material to coincide with the game. Nothing new here. "This is no secret for anyone here, but the big thing I want to see is just a triple-A RPG video game. I want to see Baldur’s Gate 3, I want to see a huge open-world RPG. I would love movies about Dungeons and Dragons, or better yet, serialized entertainment where we’re doing seasons of D&D stories and things like Forgotten Realms action figures… of course I’d love that, I’m the biggest geek there is. But at the end of the day, the game’s what we’re missing in the portfolio."If they can find good partners, I hope so too. D&D is ripe for use if Hasbro can see it, but despite its "geek cred" its not a strongly nostalgic commodity like Transformers is. A good solid product (AAA game, movie, TV show) could change that, but I'm not holding my breath. All in all, it re-iterates what we already knew. I wish it went into more details as to what kinds of books or APs we'll be expecting, but WotC isn't a big fan of "announcing" things until they're ready to ship these days.</blockquote>

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