D&D General Dungeons & Dragons Sneak Peek at Gameholecon: 50th Anniversary Adventure, Rod of Seven Parts, The Endless Stair, Tsojcanth, Barrier Peaks?

I was leaving a panel at GameHoleCon when Chris Perkins walked in and then Justice and Bill and then quite a few other WotC folk! So I stayed.

I'm glad I did because what started as a very funny trivia game challenge to the WotC folk and some of the audience soon turned into a discussion about things they are working on. Cool things. Oh and some of those questions were by Jon Peterson and were hard! I pride myself in getting a couple correct! Iron Rations for the win! Chris Lindsay talked about the DMSGuild too, and strongly hinted to me about the Manual of the Planes. I just wasn't on the same plane.

Anyway they discussed things that have already been covered, but I think with a bit more detail on particular things. This was more of a conversation than a presentation after all.

• Ron Lundeen discussed the internal playtests and that he liked it when he would see similar things discussed in the same ways in both public and private testing.
• Bill Benham discussed Jaquaysing the maps and adventures and how they are taking that more to heart. I think she was on everyone's mind at the panel, see this thread if you would, she could use our help.
• Ron also dicussed how he learned that scrolls are a secret magic item table of power and rarity for magic items generally. That's a nice hint I'll have to take a closer look at.

And then Chris talked about how their adventures take this fine line of between having too much and overwhelming new people yet also having to satisfy old hats like myself.

• The new core books will have an update to format and art like the more recent books.
• Gateway to new players was a term they kept using for the new PHB and even the DMG.
• Oh and they mentioned Tasha’s Bubbling Cauldron as a new spell, which Hollie will be delighted with.
• All three books will have mostly new art from new artists too, like from two concept artists from Obi Wan and the Avatar shows.

Then they went on to the DMG and how it'll talk about what a DM does, what are the parts of the game, the books and even how to use the DM Screen in play.

• It'll have handouts and tools to help you organize and build your notes and show you a campaign setting designed to be customized as a tutorial to make it your own and eventually build one from scratch.
• There will be new magic items to fill in more rarity niches and more cool common ones too.
• And finally we'll get the 1980 cartoon series magic items, something Chris seemed almost giddy about.

The Monster Manual will have more high level creatures and they noted things they'll put in stat blocks that were missing before, like proficiency bonus.

'Romp around the multiverse', I don't think that's a new book title, but it's a new kind of anthology book that revisits all the things they've done in D&D, a '50th anniversary book'. Chris Perkins actually ran the Ravenloft adventure at the convention, I wish I'd captured the events he ran because I'm guessing the title and a few details are in that entry. Anyone here play in his games? Care to share?

And then Chris started to display cool secrets. I'm not sure if any of these are separate books or part of the above mentioned book, but I think they are separate books the way Chris was hinting. I must also offer an apology. There was no way I could get all of these images. I was caught off guard and in a bit of awe. The last one especially is just killing me, it was wonderful and Chris refused to show me after the panel with that wry smile of his.

So here is the only clear image I got. What do you see? Give me your guesses and I'll later give you what the jokes were they made. I even got a laugh out of the crew with one!

However the missing last image was my biggest regret. It was a cute fluffy bunny on a stump...... Oh the agony! I got a selfie with Chris as a consolation prize!

OK I’ll spill more. I’m not sure but they indeed seemed to be talking about multiple books and this new book for the 50th. I think they intentionally obfuscated things.

• The key to me is that the 50th book is a visit to all the 5e adventures and the stuff that isn’t from those are either for the story to tie them together or are from other books
• The bunny was undead, a Sheep in Wolfs clothing. It was a brand new painting and I didn’t recognize the artist.
• My joke was that the Rod would fall apart way to easily, as they tried to hint what it was.

So from what they were taking about I think.

• A D&D 50th Anniversary book
• An Endless Stair book
• A Rod of Seven parts book
• And Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• Oh and Tsojcanth

Please note those are all guesses by me. Oh and Tsojcanth.

Chris did say that the D&D 50th book had been announced but I can’t find anything on it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've never really followed Greyhawk, but based on your description, it sounds like a perfect framework for creating a diverse setting written by a diverse group of authors. The way you describe it, it sounds like Gygax created a world with both European and non-European influences, then left all the non-European areas undefined so future authors with non-European sensibilities and perspectives could fill in all the details.

It is, but the question is whether it'd be more worthwhile commercially to revive Greyhawk for this rather than to flesh out the Radiant Citadel settings or just start with something from scratch. Especially when launching a full-scale product from a publicly traded company, it's going to be necessary to make sure it pencils out.

 

[Parmandur]

The way to bet is on none of them, but I think, if it were revived, it would be like every other 5E setting revival -- it's a brand new continuity, bringing forward whatever they liked from previous versions, but otherwise remaking things that they think need to be changed. (There is no "continuity" connecting the 5E Planescape to the 2E version -- it's its own thing that picks and chooses, which is something WotC has been explicit about in the last few years.)

Notably, WotC already did this (relatively) recently, in Ghosts of Saltmarsh.

They don't really make a lot of sense, though. If anything, a stronger argument could be made that all or most of the locations are on a single new prime world. A bunch of the settings share culture and history with the others, but don't have -- as written -- any connections with other worlds.

Oh, for sure, the suggestions for both Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms are super perfunctory...but they work, and indicate what WotC is willing to do on that front, namely not be beholden to Holy Canon form prior Editions.

 

[Parmandur]

It is, but the question is whether it'd be more worthwhile commercially to revive Greyhawk for this rather than to flesh out the Radiant Citadel settings or just start with something from scratch. Especially when launching a full-scale product from a publicly traded company, it's going to be necessary to make sure it pencils out.

They should definitely develop some of the Settings from Radiant Citadel further.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Except from what been described to me most of the details in Oerth take place in the Flanaess, which is where I assume the Indigenous North American resembling Flan come from. So the Flanaess would be like North America, with Scandinavians (Suel), Turks/Arabs (Baklunish) and Mongols?/Scythians? (Oeridians) migrating there too.

The Oeridians are more like the late ancient/early medieval German tribes.

And of course the rest of Oerik has some very transparent versions of other real-life states (Erypt, anyone?)

 

[darjr]

Well. A couple of shoutouts. Nice of them!

 

[Azzy]

The Oeridians are more like the late ancient/early medieval German tribes.

Agreed, with the Great Kingdom of Aerdy feels like it was inspired by the Holy Roman Empire.

And of course the rest of Oerik has some very transparent versions of other real-life states (Erypt, anyone?)

Ah, yes, from the accursed Dragon Magazine map of Oerth. IM(NS)HO, that should be ignored altogether.

 

[Parmandur]

The Oeridians are more like the late ancient/early medieval German tribes.

And of course the rest of Oerik has some very transparent versions of other real-life states (Erypt, anyone?)

Juat going off of names and such, the proto-Oerdians seem to have been Hellenic/Italic analogs. The sort of "Common" Medeival Anglo-Romance mox.of the Central Flannaess seems to be from the Oerdian-Suel mix...like English. The Great Kingdom is very Byzantine, tropally speaking.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Juat going off of names and such, the proto-Oerdians seem to have been Hellenic/Italic analogs. The sort of "Common" Medeival Anglo-Romance mox.of the Central Flannaess seems to be from the Oerdian-Suel mix...like English. The Great Kingdom is very Byzantine, tropally speaking.

It's structurally, like @Azzy said, like the early modern Holy Roman Empire, with nominal control of most of the continent, but with parts having become independent or independent in all but name. That's why there are independent duchies and the like (which would be impossible in a true feudal system, but are possible one that system breaks down), much like post-Vienna Europe.

What passes for its central government is very much like a dark version of the Byzantines, true.

 

[Parmandur]

It's structurally, like @Azzy said, like the early modern Holy Roman Empire, with nominal control of most of the continent, but with parts having become independent or independent in all but name. That's why there are independent duchies and the like (which would be impossible in a true feudal system, but are possible one that system breaks down), much like post-Vienna Europe.

What passes for its central government is very much like a dark version of the Byzantines, true.

Bit of a creative mix at work.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

The Oeridians are more like the late ancient/early medieval German tribes.

And of course the rest of Oerik has some very transparent versions of other real-life states (Erypt, anyone?)

Gygax basically set up a situation where the ethnic mix might resemble modern North America. (His Flan/Oerdian/Baklunish were not directly analogous to real-world ethnicities). Fitting for a world which is pretty much a fantasy Great-lakes region, complete with Greyhawk/Chicago.