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.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

With the caveat that the only source I have is a Facebook post in a Planescape group, another GameholeCon goer claims that they hinted at books based around the Rod of Seven Parts and the Infinite Staircase for 2024.

 

[Parmandur]

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?

I have suspected that we would see an anthology next year: we know about the Core books and a big Vecna plot book, but they have gotten very consistent about low-key non plot heavy anthologies of smaller Adventures...and the 50th anniversary would be a grand time for another Tales from the Yawning Portal or Ghosts of Saltmarsh style book going into some further Greatest Hits

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!

Isn't that Tasha's daughter from Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth?

 

[Parmandur]

With the caveat that the only source I have is a Facebook post in a Planescape group, another GameholeCon goer claims that they hinted at books based around the Rod of Seven Parts and the Infinite Staircase for 2024.

Ooooh....oh. nice.

 

[Alzrius]

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!

View attachment 315736​

The woman on the lower-right is Drelnza, Iggwilv's daughter from S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, as I recall.

 

[Parmandur]

With the caveat that the only source I have is a Facebook post in a Planescape group, another GameholeCon goer claims that they hinted at books based around the Rod of Seven Parts and the Infinite Staircase for 2024.

So try thisnon for size:

- Tales from the Infinite Staircase: an anthology of.classic D&D Adventures (modules or magazine articles), maybe some new ones, from a variety of Settigns around the multiverse

- Rod of Seven Parts: a smorgasbord supplement with odds and ends like the De k of Many Things, that can serve as ingredients in a homebrewed epic quest or one shots with ties tongreater lore...?

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

- Tales from the Infinite Staircase: an anthology of.classic D&D Adventures (modules or magazine articles), maybe some new ones, from a variety of Settigns around the multiverse

There was a 2e Planescape "Tales from the Infinite Staircase" book that was a (loosely-tied together) collection of short adventures, so something along those lines wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Sacrosanct]

The woman on the lower-right is Drelnza, Iggwilv's daughter from S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, as I recall.

Yep. That was my instant recognition.

 

[Weird Dave]

Dang. The downside of playing and running games at a cool con like Gamehole Con - you miss out on the cool panels!

 

[Sacrosanct]

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.

Things like this have been done by homebrewers and Indie publishers like myself for years. It will interesting how the official WotC statblocks will resemble some of the formats we (indie publishers and homebreweres) have been doing that are hits with players (like the image size comparison icon, lore checks, and a pronunciation guide).