One of my purchases at GenCon this past year was a new D&D book, Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue. I got it because I'm a sucker for fantasy cities. I've picked up two Pathfinder adventures just because one took place in a drow city and the other was set in the City of Brass (the latter being a bit of a disappointment; almost all of the adventure takes place in a single palace of the city). I have that DRAGON magazine that features more detailed write-ups for Vault of the Drow's Erelhei-Cinlu. So picking up a 4e book about Menzoberranzan wasn't much of a stretch for me. I figured I'd mine it for ideas to use in my own campaigns.
Imagine my shock when I dug it out of my stack of GenCon stuff the other day to discover that it's not a 4e book.
This is not an old book. It's brand new: August 2012. And, printed on the back, the last sentence of the cover blurb is: “This product is compatible with all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game...”
Curious, I went back to see what's come out for 4e this last year. The most recent book appears to be The Dungeon Survival Handbook published in May. What's slated for 2013? Well, clearly the 2e core books. What else?
The first RPG publication for 2013 is a reprint of 1e's Unearthed Arcana . After that comes hardbound collections of the S-series dungeons (Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth) followed by a hardbound collection of the A-series (the Slave Lord adventures) plus a new low-level adventure that, 'sets the stage for events that unfold throughout the remainder of the "A" series.'
And, as far as RPG products goes, that's it. So the future of D&D, at least for the first half of 2013, is its past.
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6 comments:
Interesting observation. However, I'll reserve the carwheels for when I seethe aesthetic change.
Hooray for the past!
kiltedyaksman: I wouldn't hold my breath for anything dramatic before the launch of 5e. Until then, it's going to be "stay the course," I'm sure.
Scott: Agreed! I picked up a new copy of the 1e PHB and I'm quite happy with the quality of it. I'll almost certainly do the same for the 2e Monstrous Manual.
What are the odds that 50%+ of the 'new' content in the Menzoberranzan book is a straight reprint of stuff from the old 2E box of similar name?
"Original content is HAAAAAAAAARD." - WOTC Game Designer Barbie
What issue of Dragon has the Erelhei Cinlu writeup?
Chris Hogan: I have no idea, not having the old 2e box set.
frijoles junior: It's #298, which you can get from Paizo as a PDF for US $5.
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