Dungeons and Dragons news: Dark Tower, Honour Among Thieves, Spelljammer, and some other thing

There were a number of announcements today concerning the near future of Dungeons and Dragons (5^th edition).

 

Among them: the title of the forthcoming D&D film. It’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. I actually like that title (despite the infelicitous removal of the “u” from “Honour”). I think a film focusing on thieves (and their associates) could be a lot of fun. Of course, as we all know, the first D&D film was a disaster (worryingly, I note that Courtney Solomon is one of the producers). And I don’t know anything about the other films. But perhaps this one will be decent? We’ll see. (Here is a recent brief description from the star Chris Pine.)

 

The Spelljammer setting is being “rebooted.” I’m happy for fans of the setting but I never got into it back in the day. That’s not a criticism – I wasn’t really engaged with AD&D during the 1990s. Later I got into Planescape a little bit (primarily thanks to the CRPG) but that’s about it for the 2^nd edition settings. Perhaps it was, and will be, great. I might check it out once it’s available. Anyhow, here’s the ENworld page with three “preview videos.”

 

Also being resurrected is Dragonlance. Again, I’m happy for the fans. But I’ll be passing on this, as Krynn is my least favourite D&D setting.

 

Of greater interest to me is Goodman Games’ plans for Dark Tower (announced a few days ago). I don’t know whether I’ll take part in the kickstarter but I expect that, barring personal financial collapse, I’ll get this once it’s available in gaming stores.

 

[New "Dark Tower" cover from Sanjulian]

Mythras News: Supes and Polynesia

There’s a new member of the Mythras RPG family: the superhero role-playing game Destined. It’s available now at the Design Mechanism’s new home store, and will become available at Lulu and DrivethruRPG on the 23^rd of April.

 

Also, another Mythic Earth setting book is in production: Mythic Polynesia. I don’t know when it’ll be available, but the cover looks rather cool:

 

 

I’ve probably played more Mythras (including its predecessors RQ6 and MRQII) than any other role-playing game over the past eleven years. (By coincidence, I vaguely recall meeting Loz in early spring 2011…) I’ve played in the Young Kingdoms (Elric’s world), Mythic Britain, the Luther Arkwright multiverse, and (currently) Mythic Babylon. Soon I’ll be taking part in a Mountains of Madness campaign (converted to Mythras). I can’t recommend the game highly enough!

No new Greyhawk setting book? Phew!

Every so often on the inter-tubes I encounter laments about the dearth of 5^th edition (D&D) material for settings other than the Forgotten Realms.

Fair enough, I guess. But personally, I’m fine with the limited amount of material that’s been produced for the World of Greyhawk. There’s Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which includes some helpful material on southern Keoland, but not much information on the larger world. And there are some converted 1^st edition (AD&D) adventures in the Tales from the Yawning Portal adventure collection. (The core “Saltmarsh” components, U1 – U3, of course, also are converted 1^st edition adventures set in the world of Greyhawk.) 

Overall, I'm kind of grateful for the lack of “official” Greyhawk material. It means that WotC can't wreck the setting (a la 4e FR) or smother it with too much "official" detail (a la FR – all editions).

I prefer Gary Gygax's version of Greyhawk to later versions. (The original Darlene map alone is inspiring.) So, I am relying on the 1983 box set as my “setting bible” for my current campaign, adding things from later editions to taste. And I’m filling in the “gaps” and modifying things as I see fit (e.g., my “Mage of the Vale” is loosely inspired by the version found in Gygax’s “Gord” novels, and hence is entirely different from the "official" version). 

The 5^th edition Greyhawk material that has been published has been quite easy to "plug in" directly, as are the 5^th edition updates and expansions from Goodman Games, namely, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and the Temple of Elemental Evil (the latter of which I’m using right now for my campaign). Of course, since most of that material was designed for 1^st AD&D, much of it by Gygax himself, it’s not surprising that it all meshes readily with classic Greyhawk.

With PDFs (and in many cases print-on-demand books) available for pretty much all the older material, as well as the Greyhawk Wiki (and this resource that draws upon Gygax’s “Gord” stories), I frankly have more Greyhawk material than I know what to do with. 

By Boccob, when it comes to the Oerth, I’m laughing with good old Zagyg.