EnWorld, Dyver's Blog and G+ have been awash with the official announcement by WotC as to the release dates of the various D&D 5e products. Yes, even I will partake of the latest edition.
Here's the items and their dates:
Starter Set 7/15
Players Handbook 8/19
Hoard of the Dragon Queen Adventure 8/19
Monster Manual 9/30
The Rise of Tiamat Adventure 10/21
Dungeon Master's Guide 11/19
Deluxe DM Screen 1/20/15
All nicely linked by fjw70 from EnWorld. Here's the Amazon links.
A few comments:
- The Starter Set covers levels 1-5. Not a bad range of levels.
- Six weeks between releases of the core books, not three months as inferred earlier from the lack of a leaked release date for the Monster Manual
- How can a DM Screen be "deluxe" if there is no regular version
- Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamet were written by Kobold Press. They are also the first 2 adventures for the new ruleset. Well, the finalized new ruleset:
…Kobold Press, working as a design studio for Wizards of the Coast, has designed two adventures to support the upcoming Tyranny of Dragons storyline—Hoard of the Dragon Queen (out in August) and The Rise of Tiamat (October). These adventures are the first to work with the new rules set.Interesting how WotC is farming out adventure design, at least in the early releases. I have some hope that the initial adventures may be fairly good now with Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter doing the writing.
Now, I thought the initial adventures were going to include a self contained version of the rules - that now longer seems to be the case:
The first of two adventures in the Tyranny of Dragons™ story arc, Hoard of the Dragon Queen provides everything a Dungeon Master needs to create an exciting and memorable adventure experience.Or I could be reading it wrong. Wouldn't be the first time ;)
Interesting. I will grab the starter and see how deep I want to go with this version. The staggered release makes this easy to buy with random game cash each month or so.
ReplyDeleteIt is kind of weird to see an RPG company releasing a D&D product without Kickstarter. WTF is the world coming to.
Side note - The Deluxe screens in WOTC parlance are the ones printed on game board thickness sheets. Very nice and durable. Guess they just decided to drop the cardstock screen and go deluxe right from the start.
tells you how long it's been since i bought a DM Screen ;)
DeleteThe DM Screen for 4e was a good reference tool, but the Baldur's Gate one they sent out as incentive for the FR Encounters campaign was good for any adventure in the Gate, as it was setting neutral and used for bringing the city to life(city encounters, random gen table, locations, etc), Hopefully they continue the trend with 5e.
DeleteWould be a nice touch if they included B2 with the starter set. Sort of the rosetta stone for versions.
ReplyDeleteI'd hope and expect that the adventures have whatever you need to run them, which might include pretty substantial monsters, magic items, and etc. Both drop before the DMG.
ReplyDeleteYES. Also I approve of the new logo.
DeleteAre these the final covers? The art is nice, but why the hell are they trying so hard to HIDE the name "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS?" Maybe some branding genius decided that "Deeandee" is cooler and should be reinforced?
ReplyDelete: (
You know, I'm very happy to see a good number of OSR-leaning blogs being so positive and excited for 5E. What does that say to me? I think it says that, despite all the grousing and complaining during the playtest, we're all still excited by a game that is officially D&D.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me it'd be better to release it all at once so folks can start playing. But I'm not their audience and won't be buying, so what do I know!
ReplyDeleteMike Mearls said that character creation rules would be in the starter set on twitter this morning.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/468395320045752320
You know the only person i've ever seen make Tiamat and drow interesting is Zak S. Perhaps WOTC should consider having him work on this Tiamat thing, though frankly I suspect it wouldn't turn out as kid friendly as WOTC undoubtedly would like.
ReplyDeleteSo will the Starter Set be like the Red Box of 5th edition? Will there be 2014 Starter Set purists who won't play Next?
ReplyDeleteI kind of like the Starter Set artwork, but not really into the other covers I've seen on amazon. Color me cautiously optimistic... like a thief in the Temple of Elemental Evil cautious.
God, I hope they re-design the box cover. The illo is fine (if a little garish), but the header is just awful; amateurish even.
ReplyDeleteI hope the game does well. I will of course pick it up and try it. Stiff competition right now between PF and all the original 1E, B/X and Whitebox.
I'm passing on buying 5th but will happily play in someone else's game. As for "Dungeons and Dragons", I think this edition is going to be the end of the brand as a tabletop RPG. At this point, yet another new version just further dilutes it. If sells aren't stellar because it doesn't pull in us grognards and the Pathfinderites, Hasbro will shelve it.
ReplyDelete