[UPDATED] Has ADVENTURER'S HANDBOOK Been Cancelled?

Today's official announcement about the Elemental Evil storyline mentioned Princes of the Apocalypse, a new DM screen, miniatures, video games... but not the Adventurer's Handbook! This could mean nothing, of course. The book was first announced last year, back in August; but the below screenshot from Edelweiss shows it as cancelled. The mystery deepens!

UPDATE: WotC's Mike Mearls answers "We can't cancel a book we never announced!" So that sounds like the Adventurer's Handbook will definitely not be appearing. WotC certainly wrote ad copy and designed a cover for the book (see below). Mike added "we've played things close to the vest is that it's a huge, open question on what support for the RPG should look like... we do a lot of stuff that may or may not end up as a released product. For instance, we now know that the high volume release schedule for 3e and 4e turned out to be bad for D&D. It wasn't too many settings that hurt TSR, but too many D&D books of any kind. lots of experiments ahead..."

Here's the cancellation screenshot. Now, that could mean a number of things - maybe it's been pushed back, maybe it's been renamed, or maybe it's just an admin error. Princes of the Apolocaypse has been pushed back from March 17 to April 7.

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What do we know about the book? We have a description from August 2014 and a more recent cover image. Right now, anything could be true; I haven't heard anything about a cancellation or a pushed back release date. If I do, I'll be sure to report it.

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Adventurer's Handbook (March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95) -- A Dungeons & Dragons Accessory. Create Heroic Characters to Conquer the Elements in this Accessory for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game​ Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook provides everything that players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil story arc, with skills, abilities, and spells meant to augment their play experience throughout the campaign. Additionally, valuable background and story information provides greater depth and immersion. An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign. Provides background and setting information critical to having the greatest chance of success. Accessory design and development by Sasquatch Game Studio LLC.​ ​

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[Kramodlog]

How did Morrus get his hands on this in August anyway?

Adventurer's Handbook (March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95) -- A Dungeons & Dragons Accessory.

Create Heroic Characters to Conquer the Elements in this Accessory for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game

Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook provides everything that players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil story arc, with skills, abilities, and spells meant to augment their play experience throughout the campaign. Additionally, valuable background and story information provides greater depth and immersion.

An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign.

Provides background and setting information critical to having the greatest chance of success.

Accessory design and development by Sasquatch Game Studio LLC.

If it didn't come from WotC directly, it seems WotC gave that this part the info. I mean who could invent all that and the sells price? I wouldn't call those rumors or leaks.

 

[pukunui]

How did Morrus get his hands on this in August anyway?

It was a scoop from [MENTION=43548]kettite[/MENTION]. I asked him where he got it and this is what he said:

Back alley, very shady. Mugged a guy, stole his Hachette catalogue listings.

Where, as fate would have it, the Adventurer's Handbook status is showing as cancelled: http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.c...roupID=0&catalogID=407200&org=&sku=0786965770

Don't quite know how that squares with the recent showing of the cover, but there it is. Go figure. I hope this news doesn't set the community into a tizzy of over-reactions and raging.

 

[guachi]

I wonder why we couldn't have gotten, say, 64 pages of saddle-stitched material. That'd probably be cheap enough to produce. Price it at $10-15 or something.

It'd give players something to have without it costing an arm and a leg.

 

[SkidAce]

Or it was leaked on purposed to create a buzz. It is a common marketing strategy.

I'm not saying they have an obligation. That is just a strawman. I'm just saying we aren't being respected with the line "we didn't announced anything so nothing is cancelled". We knew there was a splat book coming out. Expectations were created. The book is cancelled. People are disappointed. Now were told this disappointement is our fault cause nothing was announced. Please.

This tells us how communications from WotC haven't imprived that much. It also tells us other stuff.

This cancellation, the push back of the release date of the adventure (from mach 17 to april the 7th), the push back of the DMG and the cancellation of Morningstar are indicaters of how things are going with the management of the D&D brand.

It is our fault. I have no problem saying I was taking what we knew too seriously. I should have waited for solid info before considering it a done deal.

 

[Jester David]

I wonder if the reason for the cancellation was the amount of material.
They were planning a $40 Adventurer's Handbook, which was potentially half fluff and a description of the elemental planes. But they might have realized that the page count was too high for what they wanted and instead moved the mechanics into the adventure itself, making that larger. At $50 it was pretty pricey sounding, so adding an extra 50 pages would be nice and make the product reasonable. And more people might buy the adventure if there was crunch included.

 

[pukunui]

I wonder why we couldn't have gotten, say, 64 pages of saddle-stitched material. That'd probably be cheap enough to produce. Price it at $10-15 or something.

It'd give players something to have without it costing an arm and a leg.

Instead we get it for free! And then some of it will be in a book you can buy if you want to have a dead tree version of it.

 

[Echohawk]

You forgot spellbook cards (also by gf9), which completely ignored concentration and omitted at least one spell that I'm aware of.

Just a note on this -- both the missing mislead spell and the lack of any concentration indicators were fixed in the second printing of these cards.

 

[Kramodlog]

It was a scoop from [MENTION=43548]kettite[/MENTION]. I asked him where he got it and this is what he said:

I was wondering about the info Morrus got in August of 2014. This one.

Adventurer's Handbook (March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95) -- A Dungeons & Dragons Accessory.

Create Heroic Characters to Conquer the Elements in this Accessory for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game

Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook provides everything that players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil story arc, with skills, abilities, and spells meant to augment their play experience throughout the campaign. Additionally, valuable background and story information provides greater depth and immersion.

An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign.

Provides background and setting information critical to having the greatest chance of success.

Accessory design and development by Sasquatch Game Studio LLC.

Sounds official. Like something WotC gives to retailers (price included). Not something a retailed makes up.

 

[Kramodlog]

It is our fault. I have no problem saying I was taking what we knew too seriously. I should have waited for solid info before considering it a done deal.

Oh please. They were making the book. They subcontracted Sasquatch Games to do it, we knew that, right? They ordered art for the books, we knew that, right? They sent this to retailers in august of 2014(!)

Adventurer's Handbook (March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95) -- A Dungeons & Dragons Accessory.

Create Heroic Characters to Conquer the Elements in this Accessory for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game

Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook provides everything that players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil story arc, with skills, abilities, and spells meant to augment their play experience throughout the campaign. Additionally, valuable background and story information provides greater depth and immersion.

An accessory that expands the number of options available for character creation for the Elemental Evil story arc, providing expanded backgrounds, class builds, and races meant specifically for this campaign.

Provides background and setting information critical to having the greatest chance of success.

Accessory design and development by Sasquatch Game Studio LLC.

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The book was teased if not essentially announced. It certainly wasn't denied. Mearls is playing on words. This approach to communication is not respectful of his clients' intelligence. Just say the two books were too much to handle. WotC isn't the big producer of RPGs it use to be. We know, no need to be keep it a secret.

 

[Oakfist]

Oh please. They were making the book. They subcontracted Sasquatch Games to do it, we knew that, right? They ordered art for the books, we knew that, right? They sent this to retailers in august of 2014(!) .

The book was teased if not essentially announced. It certainly wasn't denied. Mearls is playing on words. This approach to communication is not respectful of his clients' intelligence. Just say the two books were too much to handle. WotC isn't the big producer of RPGs it use to be. We know, no need to be keep it a secret.

I'm actually inclined to agree with the notion that someone scraped up some trade information that was floating around somewhere and we as a community just ran with it and speculated. Bottom line, we don't know why WotC decided to collapse everything into one book, but it seems like a better value (especially if they plan to release a portion of it for free) and the right thing to do. While I don't think WotC should be let off the hook when they mess up or outright lie to a community, I'm not seeing that happen here. Wonder why WotC holds things close to the vest? Posts like one quoted above. As an aside, I never see Paizo cast in such a negative light when they change release dates or cancel titles. Lighten up, Francis...