Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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I see that logic, though the relationship between DMsGuild and WotC is not exactly third party. Moreover, it would be strange for a DMsGuild project to have a pretty well done map of Candlekeep, and 5e stats for Miirym (the ghost dragon), and Ed Greenwood's name credited as a designer on the dang book ... and then WotC producing an official product utilizing the same location with a conflicting map and ghost dragon stat ... released a few months later.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
DM's Guild is a weird space that has official sanction, but not necessarily endorsement, so *shrug*. I imagine the map will probably be the same, especially if it's based on prior ones. Ghost dragon...maybe? I could see WotC going either way on that one. My main gripe would be if they tried reprinting any of the adventures, or just ever so slightly tweaking them; now THAT would be shitty...
Yeah, fortunately there's only one adventure in Candlekeep Companion and it was an alternate (earlier draft take) on an event in Descent Into Avernus, so there isn't really adventure content to reproduce. I thought I read in a review somewhere that Candlekeep Companion had the first full map of Candlekeep, but not certain. As for the Ghost Dragon, the character is interesting, but stat block and creature features ... I wouldn't be opposed to seeing something different.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I know a lot of people are getting real grumpy, but I am super into everything about this new book, more after reading more (there's a great io9 interview that touches on more than the announcement or Beyond articles have) about it, I just went ahead and preordered the sucker.
on youtube? i don't find it when i search 'io9 D&D'
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
https://io9.gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-new-adventure-book-brings-fresh-voic-1846037449
Nail? Meet headache. Y'know, from being hit on the...never mind.
There is a difference between allowing something and promoting something. 5e allows homebrew (provided you're not trapped in the living Hell that is Adventurer's League). It does not really promote homebrew. It does not arm the DM to create their own content, outside of a handful of dubious charts, an even smaller handful of semi-helpful charts, and a few pithy guidelines that mostly amount to "try reflavoring other stuff instead of building new stuff". Many of the Rules of Homebrew are in material other than the books - if they're codified at all.
The 5e development team explicitly went out of its way to avoid telling players anything about how the guts of the system work, what assumptions the designers of the game made and predicated the system on, and how the underlying engine is supposed to function. One fantastic example? I don't think the words "action economy" appear in any D&D 5e book even once. People 'In The Know' are deeply familiar with action economy and the idea that More Actions = More Winning, but the DMG itself only says "be careful before letting characters do more things in a turn than we built them to do." It doesn't explain why that's so fraught and so liable to break your game, it just says "try not to do it" and moves on.
5e does not teach DMs how to homebrew. It barely teaches DMs how to DM. It doesn't even do a great job of teaching players how to play. We're a bunch of hungry people who've been given a few fish in the form of prebaked adventure books, and only the ambitious folks among us have taught ourselves how to fish. At no point in any official 5e book has Wizards made anything more than the most token attempt to teach their players how to fish, instead.
Possibly so they can, y'know, keep drip-feeding people fish in the form of big, flashy, costly Adventure Books instead of letting us build our own games.
Oh well.
Please do not contact or message me.
I got it. I gave the nail some aspirin.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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I was legitimately surprised by the announcement of an adventure, I thought a setting was more likely. I don't know, the book might be really nice, and I do like the shorter adventures. I don't think all of them will be good. Maybe one or two will be great, and some others will be OK. I did really like Tales from the Yawning Portal and Ghosts of Saltmarsh, so something along those lines is pretty cool. The fact that this is an adventure makes me think it will be 2 adventures and 2 settings this year, which kind of sucks. I hope some of the adventures are really good.
Please check out my homebrew and give me feedback!
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Am I seriously the only person who thought Ghosts of Saltmarsh was crushingly disappointing? I get the book, I start running a campaign based on the promises of ghosts, pirates, ghost pirates, and High Seas Rollicking Adventure(!!!). What I get is smugglers pulling a scam, swamp people, lizard politics, exactly one scene involving any sort of piratical adventure or seaborne fun, and exactly one scene involving any sort of ghosts.
Ugh. Screw that book.
Please do not contact or message me.
Very true. I really only use the ship rules and I think I did a one-shot of one of the adventures once. I did like TftYP though.
Please check out my homebrew and give me feedback!
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that article definitely did make it more appealing
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
It was my understanding that there've already been interviews implying (or outright stating? I've not read them) that there would be three campaign setting books this year, based on settings from older editions, and that those were separate from any M:tG crossover content, adventures, or sourcebooks. I'm not certain why so many people are convinced that A) We're only getting four books this year, or B) This book, put together by almost no Wizard staffers and not requiring the company's full attention, is "stealing" one of those book slots.
It seems that a lot of people's anger/frustration is based on some pretty wild assumptions.
Because Wizards has a firm policy, backed by their track record over the last few years, of only releasing four major books in a year. One of the biggest things that they got backlash'd over with older editions was pushing out too many books too quickly and swamping the market - the oh-so-dreaded problem of Book Bloat. They have since committed to a four-a-year schedule of book releases, which in turn allows each book plenty of space to generate its own sales without being crowded out of the market by another Wizards product.
Candlekeep may not have involved a lot of Wizards dev time, but it's still an official Wizards book, and as such it occupies one of the four yearly books Wizards will be willing to release in 2021. One can hope that Wizards breaks its promise and its years-old pattern, but I don't see that happening any time soon. More likely, if Candlekeep was as resource-light as people say it was (I have my doubts; even if other people wrote it, Wizards still had to edit, curate, and assemble it), that resource windfall would've simply been pushed into making another of the books in the normal pipeline a bit fatter. Or, hell, it already did - Explorer's Guide to Wildemount was a much thiccer book than Wizards is normally willing to release, maybe Candlekeep is the other end of that since they had to sink more resources than they usually do into Wildemount.
Please do not contact or message me.
As Yurei said about their usual release schedule over the last few years. It also tends to be March/June/September/November (though it might not be Sept I forget). The fact that this book comes out in mid-March makes it seem even more unlikely that they'll cram 4 other books in.
And I think we'll most likely have another adventure (probably September) with the full campaign thing that they do every year, just because they've done that every year since the release of 5e.
And the other two will probably be settings because it ties in with UA and just other theories. I don't really think we'll have a sourcebook, really because of the lack of UA material. Maybe we'll get a monster book next year or in November, but I really, really doubt (and hope) that we don't get a subclass book until they've thoroughly playtested it.
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I wouldn't expect to see a new subclasses/player options book until 2022 at the earliest.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The statement was three settings in development, release dates were not stated.
You can always wait for the reviews if you're not sure. Just sit back a while and let other people playtest it for you.
It would be nice if they added a regular 5th book of smaller, actually modular adventures. It wouldn’t really complete with a new Setting, Campaign,* Folio, or “Everything” book. As a collection of short modules it would really just complement all of those. It won’t have any player options, so it would be a DMs’ product. Some short Modules, and a handful of magic items and monsters is not going to compete with a campaign like CoS for sales to DMs, and if you want a folio of monsters this won’t compete with something like Mordenkinen’s. Without player options, it won’t compete with settings or everything books either, or even a book like Volo’s.
*(“Adventure” whatever, I don’t care what they call it. If it takes you from levels 1-11+, it’s a campaign.)
It would have some traps and puzzles and maps for the DM looking for stuff to cannibalizes for homebrew, and if we get two or three books like that it would be enough for any DM to mix and match their own string of adventures tied together with their own narratives, and still have untouched material to do it again. That’s exactly why I still use my old 1e/2e modules instead of WotC publish adventures. They’re like apps.
I don’t buy the Adventures, they’re too big, too long, and too inflexible for my needs. I get that people love them, but for me, a collection of short adventures is way more appealing. This is the first thing I’ve actually considered preordering, and I haven’t actually read any of the articles yet.
For players who don’t have a library of old modules to use, this could be a super useful book to have.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
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I posted that article too a few pages back while the chat tempo was still geared on 4e mechanics as a way to save mystery play for some reason. It's a good write up (though recognizing we're reading transcripted hype from a virtual press conference), and confirmed / reinforced my understanding of the product. I thought the new designers talking about the challenges of designing a short adventure was interesting, and I like the idea that the adventures themselves are very different in tempo, theme etc. I'd argue that a book like this, even if you don't run most of it might be useful for inspiration or hooks to change up an existing campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnUr14aQX4w
That's the video where the three classic settings _and a bunch of other stuff_ is broached. It's an interesting vid if you're interested in "the business of dungeons and dragons" as it's not from the perspective of creators but the business management behind the brand.
What I remember being said was that there were three classic settings being revisited that might all be rolled out between 2021 and 2022. There would also be MtG tie ins. They also spoke of anthology works that would bring a more diverse array of writers than the present "regulars" producing D&D content, a lot of writers who would be new to professional game design. Candlekeep Mysteries is definitely that last thing. A desire to push how D&D is played and some products were in the pipeline speaking to that was also brought up, this pending release could also be under that umbrella.
I think the setting presumption was largely predicated by some fans reading of when prior books were released and some thought that meant a setting would be released this quarter. Add to that WotC D&D annual surveys kept asking participants about what settings they play in (which included legacy worlds yet to be supported in 5e) while not usually asking what sort o adventures they play in, I can see the expectation and maybe the disappointment. How that disappointment is expressed on the internet is something I won't try to explain unless I'm provided billable hours.
But back to not expecting the anthology / new writers / maybe a different play style showing up as a hardcover, which surprised me, that gets to what Sposta's at:
Agreed, when I returned to 5e I was surprised how much WotC invested in tentpole campaign books ... when I saw how a lot of AL activity and even a lot of DMsGuild (particular Guild Adepts) stuff was also in support of those campaign books, I figured these sorts of "event" books were sort of a business practice conflating the logic of "event" releases in other franchise entertainment (like Marvel movies or World of Warcraft world shaping releases).
Hardcovers as the driving core product are probably established to stay for the lifespan of 5e. Given that, I share Sposta's optimism that maybe Candlekeep Mysteries is a step toward providing DMs and groups who don't want to marry to full length campaigns a tool kit useful for wherever and however they play. I know there's a lot of quibbling on the quality, but I'd say D&D has done good work in provided player options, and monster options, but could use to diversify it's "adventure options" and I think this book sounds like a productive step in that direction.
My dream, supported by the "other products" tease in the vid, would be for there to someday be even more "background" products for world and adventure building rather than tie in dice set and screen packages at high price points.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.