In a private press panel earlier this week, D&D Principal Story Designer Chris Perkins sat down with Greg Tito and three authors on Candlekeep Mysteries, the first new D&D book of 2021, to talk about some of the cool new adventures we’ll see within its pages. For more information on Candlekeep Mysteries, see Candlekeep Mysteries Unveiled! Everything We Know About the New D&D Book.
Jen Kretchmer is one of the authors of the 17 new one-shot adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries. She’s known for her role on popular D&D livestreams such as Beyond Heroes, and for being an outspoken advocate for accessibility in gaming. Her adventure is titled “The Canopic Being.” Here’s everything we know about her thrilling adventure!
Short and Snappy
Like all of the adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries, “The Canopic Being” is a short adventure about 10 to 12 pages long, and designed to be played in just a single session. This one-shot format is great for throwing together a casual weeknight game session, for playing at conventions (whenever those return, once we’re all vaccinated against COVID), or for adapting into the ongoing story of your current campaign.
A Journey beyond the Sword Coast
Longtime fans of fifth edition D&D will be thrilled to learn that Kretchmer’s adventure, along with presumably several others, will take your characters beyond the well-trod shores of the Sword Coast. This adventure leads the characters far into Faerûn’s Shining South to the realm of Tashalar. This sunny land is sandwiched between the jungles of Chult to the west and the magocracy of Halruaa to the east, and is known across the Realms for its splendid vineyards.
This realm is a land of many mercantile city-states, the foremost of which, Tashluta, is the setting of this one-shot adventure. Tashluta is built into the caldera of a great volcano—presumably dormant, though you never know what could happen if you anger the wrong fire elemental!
It All Starts in Candlekeep
Also like other adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries, Kretchmer’s adventure starts in the hallowed halls of Candlekeep, the greatest library in the Sword Coast, or perhaps all of Faerûn. Knowledge of all sorts can be found here, and finding a book with a clue in it is the starting point of the mystery of “The Canopic Being.”
Down into the Dungeon!
Though Tashalar is known for its sun, its gorgeous sun-tanned people, and its shining blue waves, the mystery of “The Canopic Being” takes us where the sun holds no say: deep beneath the earth. The exact details of this dungeon are unknown, but Kretchmer was clear that she went to great lengths to imagine a functioning, 3-D version of her dungeon so everything fit together properly. Why go to so much detail?
As an ambulatory wheelchair user, Kretchmer says that is was important to her that her dungeon was a place that she could explore. As such, it’s filled with fantasy elevators (whether they functioned by pulley or by magic, she didn’t say), and ledges are accessible by ramps rather than by stairs. If you have a player in your gaming group who wants to play a wheelchair-using character, this is a great adventure to borrow dungeon design ideas from. After all, it is a fantasy world. If it’s a player’s fantasy to kick ass in a wheelchair, why not? And think about it—if we didn’t mention that the dungeon was fully accessible here, would you have even noticed that there were ramps instead of stairs?
You can preorder Candlekeep Mysteries on the D&D Beyond Marketplace today! You’ll get special goodies for preording, and instantly get access to the book when it releases on March 16th, 2021.
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James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
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Posted Jan 15, 2021What’s funny is that this came out before any other Candlekeep Mysteries articles.
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Posted Jan 15, 2021Little bit of column A a little bit of column B. lol
But seriously, I do hope this does well so they will have a financial incentive to expand on this. I used to play Vampire: The Masquerade a decade or so ago and we had some players that played wheelchair bound characters. It was a lot of fun. But that setting lends itself to making those kinds of characters.
I just hope this isn’t simply a pat on the back for good PR but gets expanded on. I’d love to see some official content with real lore behind it that becomes part of the D&D over all lore. Well known characters, settings, locations, character traits, etc.
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Posted Jan 15, 2021The key thing is to separate out all the different types of challenges a hero, and in turn the player, could face and then decide which ones add to the fun of the game and which ones detract from it. A dungeon that's inaccessible to wheelchairs would be a stark reminder of the real life accessibility issues a wheelchair user faces. It's not mandatory to include such challenges in a game of D&D, the designer nor DM is beholden to 'logic' when making something fun.
It's a bit like how including word or number puzzles might be exclusionary to players with dyslexia or dyscalculia; just because it makes sense for the villain to do something, it doesn't mean that it has to be done at the cost of fun. You can resolve this from the top down; work back from the assumption 'The dungeon is wheelchair accessible' and then come up with the why. Maybe it's as simple as the villain having a dungeon built that required wheeling around supplies in wagons? Maybe the villain didn't build the dungeon and it was always like that. Maybe the villain simply didn't think to make the dungeon specifically inaccessible to wheelchair using heroes? Why single them out, why not make it physically inaccessible to all heroes.
Basically, any 'logic' against a wheelchair accessible dungeon can either be explained away, disproved as non-vital to the narrative, or just straight up thrown out the window.
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Posted Jan 18, 2021I want to see Jen's 3D model! Lets get a render of that to use for battlemaps!
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Posted Jan 21, 2021Again?
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Posted Jan 21, 2021Here’s everything we know about her thrilling adventure!
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So you know nothing about the adventure, beyond it show casing the combat wheelchair.
Canopic Jar... Used to hold the viscera of mummies in ancient Egypt.
"The term canopic reflects the mistaken association by early Egyptologists with the Greek legend of Canopus – the boat captain of Menelaus on the voyage to Troy – "who was buried at Canopus in the Delta where he was worshipped in the form of a jar".[3]
So, has something to do with Egypt or Canopus then??? We going to get Accent Egyptian fantasy tropes?
I don't know - as this teaser told us less than nothing.
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Posted Feb 18, 2021It is representing a group that is not actually a niche and, be honest with yourself. Disabled people deserve to be represented just as much. Some people like the extra challege as playing as a disabled person. Also, I do think there is a intention to build on this.
EDIT: I saw your above comment about the question, and agree with Juan_Seattle