D&D 5E Discussion

[Caim]

Eberron in 4e is batshit crazy, if only for the fact that you can play as a person made out of a mass of crystals (which they can move around at will) who chops their arm of and replaces it with a metal one including a rocket fist; and because of racial factions they can either be a murderhobo, an Autobot or an Immortal from highlander.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Just saw on Twitter that release dates for this have been announced, so I'm reposting it here for those who care.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...Product-Line-Release-Dates-and-Details-Update

Update 12:25 AM EST: Kobold Press has confirmed that they are the design studio behind the new adventures, and Wizards of the Coast will simply publish that material. In a joint statement, Dungeons & Dragons R&D member Mike Mearls said that Kobold Press writers Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter were "at the top of his list" for writing the new D&D adventures. "What I love about Hoard of the Dragon Queenand The Rise of Tiamat is how Wolfgang and Steve Winter have approached the traditional adventure format. While the episodic structure makes it easy for DMs to trace the campaign's humble beginnings to its epic conclusion, within those episodes is a level of flexibility and freedom for DMs and players that places this among the great D&D campaigns." From that information, it appears that the new adventures will have an episodic format within individual books, meaning that both adventures may include multiple mini-adventures within them.

Original Story: Wizards of the Coast has revealed the covers and release dates for not only the core books of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but the adventures and miniatures that will accompany the release later this year. In addition to the previously revealed dates for the Player's Handbook and Starter Set, we now have dates for the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide for a three month window after the release of thePlayer's Handbook in August. The covers, prices, and details were revealed via Wizards' website product listings, as well as on Amazon. Among the new reveals are two adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, both intended as part of Wizards' Tyranny of Dragons story event for D&D. Regarding the extended game launch window, Wizards of the Coast's Mike Mearls said that the development team wanted to ensure that each book was as high quality as possible.

Much of the same information as was announced by Wizards of the Coast has been posted to multiple listings on giant online retailer Amazon.com. Most of that information is duplicated, but it does include the details that the Adventures for the new D&D are designed by Kobold Press, a popular third party RPG publisher that makes material for a variety of fantasy roleplaying games.

The products announced are:

• Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (July 15, 2014); Fantasy Roleplaying Fundamentals; $19.99; Will include six dice, a 64-page rulebook with adventure, rules for characters levels 1-5, and 5 pregenerated characters.
• Player's Handbook (August 19, 2014); Core Rulebook; $49.95; Looks like the same book it has always been - learn the game's systems from it, but it includes only basic rules.
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen (August 19, 2014); Tyranny of Dragons Adventure; $29.95; The first of the Tyranny of Dragons adventures, looks like the kickoff of the big event at 96 pages. The Amazon listing says that this one was designed and developed by Kobold Press, a third party firm.
• Monster Manual (September 17, 2014); Core Rulebook $49.95; Bills its game statistics as "easy to use" and is supposedly full of "thrilling stories to feed your imagination" - same old, same old with a chance of increased game fluff.
• The Rise of Tiamat (October 21, 2014); Tyranny of Dragons Adventure $29.95; Looks like the battle against Tiamat will become "increasingly political" - which would be an interesting twist for a second game adventure. Also designed by Kobold Press.
• Dungeon Master's Guide (November 18, 2014); Core Rulebook $49.95; Full of "inspiration and guidance" as well as the optional rules modules we've been hearing so much about, as well as all the magic items - so not an optional book at all.
• Deluxe DM Screen (January 20, 2015); $14.95; This one is listed at Amazon without details and not yet listed by Wizards.

Dungeons & Dragons, to be released later this year, will be the fifth official edition of the fantasy roleplaying game. It went through an extensive public playtest in late 2012 and early 2013, and has been in private development ever since.

Posted alongside the releases were two new miniatures products which by the familiar look of the sculpts are part of the line of miniatures produced by WizKids that were previously announced:

• Icons of the Realms: Starter Set (July 14, 2014); Miniatures; $19.99; Described as a starter pack and clearly including figures intended as adventurers. Described as including "the dwarf cleric, human ranger, halfling rouge[sic], northlands fighter, elf wizard, and the famous drow ranger, Drizzt Do'Urden."
• Icons of the Realms: Booster (July, 2014); Miniatures; $15.99; A box of four blind miniatures "inspired by the Tyranny of Dragons storyline" and almost definitely catered to go alongside the starter set and first adventures including "dragons, kobold fighters, bugbears, wraiths, mind flayers, and many more iconic D&D characters."

Trevor Kidd, Wizards of the Coast's community manager, also posted a mockup of the book's spines.

 

[catfood]

Can't wait to not phisically remove them from an inventory.

Also what the hell is up with the staggered release? PHB and DMG 3 months apart? Really??

EDIT: I just realized they're charging $50 for each book.

 

[Caim]

Also what the hell is up with the staggered release? PHB and DMG 3 months apart? Really??

EDIT: I just realized they're charging $50 for each book.

And now you know. Easier to trick people into spending $150 over several months rather than in one go.

 

[catfood]

Yep.

 

[felipepepe]

The covers look... cheap. Looks like those 3rd rate inde RPGs, not fucking D&D.

 

[Dorateen]

Agreed. I want the glossy jewel-encrusted covers of third edition. These books should be designed to look like valuable tomes!

 

[Caim]

And they could make super-special expensive collector's editions out of them made from real metal and (fake glass) gems.

Make some work out of it, damnit!

 

[J1M]

The covers look... cheap. Looks like those 3rd rate inde RPGs, not fucking D&D.

The artwork looks quite good, but I agree about the layout. They should be designed to look like tomes, not album covers.

 

[Night Goat]

It's going to take a lot to redeem the D&D brand after the 4E fiasco, and I don't think this is going to do it. If you want to play Next without the stupid metaplot bullshit, you need to wait until November and drop 150 kwabucks. Instead, you could be playing Pathfinder for free...and even if you want to buy the books, you'll be spending a lot less. I have a feeling the new D&D will be DOA.

 

[J1M]

The official reason for the staggered release is so that they can avoid the long errata list in 4th edition; saying that editing 3 large books at the same time leads to mistakes.

The price complaints seem pretty silly. You can get each book for $40 if you order from Amazon, which costs less than a group of friends seeing one movie.
http://www.amazon.com/Players-Handbook-Core-Rulebook-Wizards/dp/0786965606
EDIT: $36 in Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0786965622/

If you can't afford any entertainment in your life, then you can always download the pdfs before making the decision to rob your local liquor store to buy the dungeon master's guide.

 

[Grunker]

That art is a helluva lot better than 4E's, but that's not saying much.

 

[Misconnected]

The artwork looks quite good, but I agree about the layout. They should be designed to look like tomes, not album covers.

No they shouldn't. They should learn that nice, clean, blank minimalist covers are inoffensive to everyone, and distracting for no one. They're neither props nor posters, they're handbooks.

... Not that I care how gaudy the 5e books are, really. It's not like I'm a customer. But I wish RPGs in general would drop that shit. The less attention an RPG cover tries to demand, the better.

 

[Grunker]

The less attention an RPG cover tries to demand, the better.

After 4 years in a gaming shop, I can tell you that that philosophy doesn't really hold up when people go shopping.

 

[J1M]

BTW, if anyone finds any concrete details about 5e and the OGL please add them to this thread.

 

[Brzęczyszczykiewicz]

WTF? 150$ for Player Handbook, Monster Manual and DM Guide?

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't mind the art but I hate the font layover and colours for the D&D logo and book title. I normally don't care about that stuff, but I think these books look like ass because of it. Hopefully the content is good, but I hate the covers.

 

[Alchemist]

Here are some bigger versions of the core book covers:

Spoiler

I think the minimal layout design is part of their "back to basics" initiative to court old grognards back into the fold. The 1st edition core books had a similar design. I'm not sure it entirely succeeds. I don't like the weird red banner at the bottom left, for one thing. And that shade of red is eye-burning. The D&D logo design is decent though, just wish it wasn't neon red.

As for the artwork - well it's definitely competent and I like the move toward a more realistic style. But it follows the current trend of over the top "dynamics and extreme!" which I'm finding is getting tiresome. Everyone is always screaming and flying through the air nowadays in mainstream fantasy art. What ever happened to subtlety? I guess I just miss the classical feel of Easley, Elmore, Parkinson and Caldwell. I understand that this style appeals more to the younger audience though.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'm still staying with Pathfinder.

 

[Gozma]

The best cover anything D&D has ever had was probably the Elmore red dragon Red Box cover and it's pretty actiony.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Those covers reek of trying too hard. Fuck D&D.

Spoiler

First day purchase!

Spoiler

No, I changed my mind. D&D is dead.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Scrooge homebrew is the only thing that can save the franchise.

 

[Scroo]

Scrooge homebrew is the only thing that can save the franchise.

You are probably right :/ Too bad though. How could they fuck it all up like this

 

[LeStryfe79]

I got this awesome cottage with a kerosene heater that begs for good dnd. Don't know if central Illinois can make a difference, but fuck it. In my head I'm a good DM and will lead the children of destiny to battle the forces of shit. Storyfag.........

 

[Xor]

I haven't been keeping up with this, are they using OGL and releasing an SRD again? Because that was one of the biggest "fuck you" decisions of 4E. The staggered release schedule seems silly, errata or no. You basically won't be able to play with anything except modules (or 'Adventures' as they're apparently called now) until all 3 books are out anyway, so staggering the releases just seems like a dick move to bilk impatient people into buying the pre-built crap so they'll have something to play. WotC gonna WotC I guess.


Also, I remember paying $35 for the 3.5 core books back in 2003. You'll probably be able to find these for $40, which isn't much of a stretch.