Dungeons & Dragons Unveils Full Product Line, Release Dates, and Details - Update

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
1,157
0
0
Dungeons & Dragons Unveils Full Product Line, Release Dates, and Details - Update

Update 9/15/2014: The Dungeon Master's Guide has been delayed. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137446-Dungeons-and-Dragons-5th-edition-dungeon-master-guide-delayed]

Update: Details continue to emerge, with information about some of the rulebook being free. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134677-Dungeons-Dragons-Details-New-Organized-Play-Program]

Update 1:55 PM EST: Wizards of the Coast has released a set of images to accompany the game, including the new logo:



Release dates for the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, and various adventures unveiled.

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 [http://www.koboldpress.com/k/front-page18037.php#.U3ov3PldXUN], 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 Queen and 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 high quality as possible. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132589-Dungeons-Dragons-Next-Release-Date-New-Product-Leak-Update]

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 [http://www.koboldquarterly.com/], 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 [http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Screen-Accessory-Wizards-Team/dp/0786965630/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400504093&sr=1-1] without details and not yet listed by Wizards.


[gallery=2507]

Dungeons & Dragons, to be released later this year, will be the fifth official edition [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9292-The-Ghosts-of-D-D-Past] 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 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132102-WizKids-to-Produce-New-Dungeons-Dragons-Miniatures] 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. [http://ow.ly/i/5ClRM]

The products are listed on the Wizards of the Coast website. [http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Catalog.aspx]

What does all of this mean? Check out our article on whether or not D&D's release plan is botched or brilliant. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/tabletop/11484-The-New-Dungeons-Dragons-Mistakes-and-Masterstrokes]

Permalink
 

Rangarig

Dragon in disguise
Apr 19, 2010
74
0
0
A three-months window between the Player's guide and the DM's guide? Why? What sense does that make? Enough time to play the Starter Set to death?
 

velcthulhu

New member
Feb 14, 2009
220
0
0
...I can't just buy a bundle of all three, like I did for every other edition that came out during my lifetime? Why?
 

Basement Cat

Keeping the Peace is Relaxing
Jul 26, 2012
2,379
0
0
Does anyone know if the 3rd edition archetype characters--Lidda the halfling thief, Mialee the elven wizard, etc--are making a comeback? I have to admit that I've got a soft spot for them.

I even read the entire fictional series by "T.H. Lain" (which was actually the front name for several different authors). Granted I only enjoyed 2 or 3 of the books enough to consider them worth re-reading...but still...
 

Midniqht

Beer Quaffer
Jul 10, 2009
523
0
0
Really digging the art on these. I'm excited to get my hands on official stuff instead of just the playtest packet.
 

craddoke

New member
Mar 18, 2010
418
0
0
It will be interesting to see what makes it into the official edition from the play-testing materials (which were alright in comparison to other recent rule-sets; a handful of decent ideas that one could salvage). Personally, I'm still satisfied with first edition AD&D and the books I picked up twenty-odd years ago, but I've found inspiration for new house rules in much weirder places and might pick these up somewhere down the line if heavily discounted.
 

fletch_talon

New member
Nov 6, 2008
1,461
0
0
Rangarig said:
A three-months window between the Player's guide and the DM's guide? Why? What sense does that make? Enough time to play the Starter Set to death?
Could be like pathfinder where the Player's guide gives enough info to GM and the GM guide is just supplemental with hints, tips, advice, tables etc.

Though with the monster manual coming out a month after the Player's guide, I think its probably just a big money grab to force early adopters to buy and play the premade adventures since they can't make original encounters without it.
 

ffronw

I am a meat popsicle
Oct 24, 2013
2,804
0
0
I'll be honest - This staggered release is really disappointing. I don't know if someone in marketing told them this would be a good idea, or they just decided that they wanted to have at least one of the books ready for sale on the floor at GenCon, and I don't care. Why do I need to buy the PHB, wait a month to grab the Monster Manual, and then wait two more months to get the DMG?

I'm probably overreacting a bit, but it's frustrating to people who don't want to play the pre-written adventures to find out that we can't even acquire all the basic tools until 3 months after the game launches.
 

Adeptus Aspartem

New member
Jul 25, 2011
843
0
0
Uhm, and where are the promised books for the current version? Like the Traps/Hazards books?

And a staggered release just means i'm not going to buy anything until i can have the PHB, Monsters + DMG because how on earth are you going to creat any own adventures without any guideline on how strong monsters/groups should be?
Of course you can just "do something" but chances that those enemies are either to weak or to strong are pretty high.

Seems like i can ignore the new version for a little longer :) It's not like there'd be any need to replace the 4th for my group anyway.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,759
0
0
The article spells "rogue" as "rouge." Unless we're getting a makeup mini. >.>

velcthulhu said:
...I can't just buy a bundle of all three, like I did for every other edition that came out during my lifetime? Why?
That is a little baffling. Why stagger the releases of the core books so much?

Adeptus Aspartem said:
Uhm, and where are the promised books for the current version? Like the Traps/Hazards books?
Apparently, not finishing your product isn't just for video games anymore.
 

ayvee

New member
Jan 29, 2010
107
0
0
Is it just me or do these covers look like they came from a Scholastic book fair.
 

spartandude

New member
Nov 24, 2009
2,721
0
0
This staggered release is pretty stupid, but i guess it prevents me from buying them until i hear the feedback from the community.
 

PiercedMonk

New member
Feb 26, 2010
31
0
0
ayvee said:
Is it just me or do these covers look like they came from a Scholastic book fair.
That was my thought as well. Obviously you can't judge a book by it's cover -- or a game system by it's art -- but if that's the tone they're intending to set, it doesn't inspire much confidence.

What really strikes me is the price tag; $50 isn't too much for an RPG core rulebook, if it contains an entire game. Three books at $50 each for the basic rules is really pushing it.
 

Ratty

New member
Jan 21, 2014
848
0
0
$150 just for the essential corebooks? In 2014? The same year that we have hundreds of cheap or even free and perfectly legal alternatives? Yeah no thanks.
 

thehorror2

New member
Jan 25, 2010
354
0
0
I'll definitely be picking up the starter box so I can run it for some of my friends over the summer, but what I've seen of the playtest material doesn't inspire much of a need to pick up the rest of the books. Maybe after they come down in- oh who am I kidding, this is WotC. Those books will still be in stores for $50 each five years from now.
 

Fasckira

Dice Tart
Oct 22, 2009
1,678
0
0
The Starter comes out on the same day as my birthday so thats pleasing.

Not fussed at all regarding the staggered release; cant see any players in my group getting beyond level 5 in a month before the Players Handbook arrives. If anything it gives me time to wrap my head around the basic rules before expanding on that knowledge when the PH arrives.
 

funksobeefy

New member
Mar 21, 2009
1,007
0
0
Im just curious about how important minis are to the game system. I want to just pick up a pen some paper and dice and just start up with my friends. not worry about setting up a map and makiing sure everybody likes their mini and all that extra baggage
 

Adeptus Aspartem

New member
Jul 25, 2011
843
0
0
funksobeefy said:
Im just curious about how important minis are to the game system. I want to just pick up a pen some paper and dice and just start up with my friends. not worry about setting up a map and makiing sure everybody likes their mini and all that extra baggage
If it's like the 4th it's like.. the core principle to work with a map for fights/dungeons, 'cause you're using a grid to move/fight.
Basically you can use whatever you like. We were WH40k players once so we're using all the WH40k minis to play D&D which is pretty funny :)

And i've to say i prefer it over the abstract fighting system of say Shadowrun. It feels more like a ongoing boardgame with added story/fluff than a pure P&P-RPG.
 

The Hungry Samurai

Hungry for Truth
Apr 1, 2004
453
0
0
As I said a few months ago when this price point was a rumor, $50 for the corebooks is a major fail.

Unless they have something amazing under their sleeve, I have a very grim outlook for the future of Dungeons & Dragons.
 

veloper

New member
Jan 20, 2009
4,597
0
0
Does this mean that WotC will now finally start working on D&D 6E, or are they going to wait for 5th edition DM manual to be published first?