No Adventurer's Handbook for Elemental Evils

[archaeo]

According to EN World, the Adventurer's Handbook widely believed to be planned for release alongside the first book of the Elemental Evil adventure path has been "canceled," (http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2261-Has-ADVENTURER-S-HANDBOOK-Been-Cancelled#.VL_UulZ3bfI) though Mike Mearls apparently snarked back that "We can't cancel a book we never announced!"

So much for the splat treadmill getting started, huh?

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Edited to add: It is worth mentioning, of course, that a bunch of the player options that might have otherwise gone into that kind of handbook sound like they're just getting put online for free instead of spun out into a separate book, so maybe that's just the "splat" model they're planning on going for?

[silveralen]

I'm thinking this may have been the planned model, with them never actually wanting to to put out the sheer volume of products they previously did. It makes sense, though I do worry about the viability of such a plan in the longterm.

[DanyBallon]

Future will tell, but I believe that WOTC decided to set focus more on themes than on actual tabletop rpg product bloat. They first came up with Tyranny of the Dragons which seems to be the base for the NWN mmo, they got a comic book line ongoing, Adventure League season is around that theme, a miniatures line and a adventure path. Now the next theme will be Elemental Evil, which will be AL next season theme, new minis, a board game, a NWN mmo expansion and a big adventure. So offering free products to rpg players will not really impact their business model, since the rpg as per itself might not be their main source of profits.

[Person_Man]

Hmmm. Interesting. This could mean any or all of the following:

1) 5E isn't meeting Hasbro's sales projections, so they're pulling the plug on some supplements.

2) Somebody in house was doing it, and they're just way behind schedule on their writing.

3) Freelancers were doing it, but turning in copy that Mike wasn't happy with.

4) They've just decided to wait it out until 5E core book sales drop off entirely, and then they'll publish supplements, so as not to flood the market. (Mike's stated reason).

[Envyus]

According to Mike's twitter we are getting all the Material they made for the Handbook in the PDF and Adventure.

Also Princes of the Apocalypse is somewhere between 256 to 320 pages long.

[Inchoroi]

According to Mike's twitter we are getting all the Material they made for the Handbook in the PDF and Adventure.

Also Princes of the Apocalypse is somewhere between 256 to 320 pages long.

Hm. I wonder if this means that the entire adventure is in the book, or if its only part of it, like it was with Tyranny of Dragons?

[Envyus]

Also here are the villains for the Adventure the Four Elemental Prophets.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/3637a9ada12de9285e3fc716d9ad9bf1/tumblr_nihl57niOS1tyj78go1_1280.jpg


They look to be an Avariel, a Male Medusa, a teifling and I don't even know what water guy is.

[Maxilian]

Hm. I wonder if this means that the entire adventure is in the book, or if its only part of it, like it was with Tyranny of Dragons?

most likely the entire adventure, but still i am the only one that's a little amazed that the adventure is from lvl 1 to 15, i mean... that's a lot of time

[Gnomes2169]

most likely the entire adventure, but still i am the only one that's a little amazed that the adventure is from lvl 1 to 15, i mean... that's a lot of time

I'll admit, I'm a bit impressed by this one as well. That and the page count are sort of crazy for a simple non-tomb of horrors adventure path... I'm guessing that you get to travel to multiple elemental planes, and then the temple of elemental evil itself, which can take a rather long time all in all.

[ScrivenerofDoom]

Hmmm. Interesting. This could mean any or all of the following:

1) 5E isn't meeting Hasbro's sales projections, so they're pulling the plug on some supplements.

2) Somebody in house was doing it, and they're just way behind schedule on their writing.

3) Freelancers were doing it, but turning in copy that Mike wasn't happy with.

4) They've just decided to wait it out until 5E core book sales drop off entirely, and then they'll publish supplements, so as not to flood the market. (Mike's stated reason).

Try this:

5. Hasbro knows that TTRPGs don't make REAL money. Everybody knows this. (Remember, the talk of USD50 milliion is about turnover, not profit: that's basically a decent small business!) But the IP has value. So 5E is built around a small team of core people (that translates to lower fixed costs) producing just enough to keep the brand alive while they try and find ways - movies, in particular - to make REAL money. And, in the event that the hobby somehow turns back to the halcyon days of the 80s, there's a great pool of freelancers, some of whom are probably desperate for work, ready to take on work at piece rates.

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I think number 5 is the answer.

[Tehnar]

From the Enworld page Archaeo linked we know that Sasquatch Game studios has been producing both the Adventurer's handbook and the Elemental evils adventure, so that presumably eliminates Personman's 2).

However one must ask the question what are Mearls et al. doing? Other then the Elemental evils adventure, nothing seems to be announced. I seriously doubt we will see any new DnD brand video games in the next year or so, and the same thing goes for movies. Heck, I'm actually pretty dubious at this point you can make a good DnD movie, and the last real game we have seen is Neverwinter Nights: Storm of Zehyr.

Now compare that to a like IP, Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K and Fantasy settings. Not only is the quality and popularity of games under that IP a order greater then anything DnD has done since Baldur's Gate, it releases games much more often then the DnD IP.

[Tarrab]

From the Enworld page Archaeo linked we know that Sasquatch Game studios has been producing both the Adventurer's handbook and the Elemental evils adventure, so that presumably eliminates Personman's 2).

However one must ask the question what are Mearls et al. doing? Other then the Elemental evils adventure, nothing seems to be announced. I seriously doubt we will see any new DnD brand video games in the next year or so, and the same thing goes for movies. Heck, I'm actually pretty dubious at this point you can make a good DnD movie, and the last real game we have seen is Neverwinter Nights: Storm of Zehyr.

Now compare that to a like IP, Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K and Fantasy settings. Not only is the quality and popularity of games under that IP a order greater then anything DnD has done since Baldur's Gate, it releases games much more often then the DnD IP.

The time has come for someone to step up and Mod NWN2 to 5th edition rules! Modders, assemble!!!

[Human Paragon 3]

Just popped in to say I first read this title as "Temple of Elemental Elvis" and now I really want to in play that game.

Example: https://wiki.erfworld.com/images/thumb/d/d4/Titans_FormingMountain.png/301px-Titans_FormingMountain.png

http://i5.tinypic.com/343nq51.jpg

[Envyus]

I'll admit, I'm a bit impressed by this one as well. That and the page count are sort of crazy for a simple non-tomb of horrors adventure path... I'm guessing that you get to travel to multiple elemental planes, and then the temple of elemental evil itself, which can take a rather long time all in all.


Might as tell everyone that there is no Temple of Elemental Evil.

There are four Elemental Temples across the Sword coast. This is not a remake of Temple of Elemental evil.

[Person_Man]

Might as tell everyone that there is no Temple of Elemental Evil.

There are four Elemental Temples across the Sword coast. This is not a remake of Temple of Elemental evil.

They'd be absolutely insane not to do a 5E re-print of Temple of Elemental Evil. Its literally the second most popular and played D&D adventure of all time. (Right behind Tomb of Horrors). It had its own video game. Its a right a passage that old DMs inflict on new players. Publishing it would basically be printing a million dollars, but with very little actual writing required, since all they'd have to do is update the encounters and add some new treasure and whatnot.

[Envyus]

They'd be absolutely insane not to do a 5E re-print of Temple of Elemental Evil. Its literally the second most popular and played D&D adventure of all time. (Right behind Tomb of Horrors). It had its own video game. Its a right a passage that old DMs inflict on new players. Publishing it would basically be printing a million dollars, but with very little actual writing required, since all they'd have to do is update the encounters and add some new treasure and whatnot.

Oh I agree. This adventure is not Temple of Elemental Evil. But I do hope they do a 5e remake of it. That would be sweet as I have wanted to run Temple of Elemental Evil for a while now.

[Jlooney]

Id put aZure bonds on that list. I've never played either of the other two. My Dms prefer homebrew games.

[silveralen]

The time has come for someone to step up and Mod NWN2 to 5th edition rules! Modders, assemble!!!

It'd probably be easier to build something using a different engine tbh. Then again, I didn't care for the psuedo real time aspect in 3.5 and think it would be worse for 5e, though it worked great for 2e when people had fewer activated abilities. I always thought ToEE did a much better job with 3.5's system, if not the other aspects (and it is a pain to try and mod).

Honestly, something like a total conversion for the new divinity or shadowrun would work better, though I don't know if the modding tools for either are as robust as they were for NWN 1/2.

[Tarrab]

It'd probably be easier to build something using a different engine tbh. Then again, I didn't care for the psuedo real time aspect in 3.5 and think it would be worse for 5e, though it worked great for 2e when people had fewer activated abilities. I always thought ToEE did a much better job with 3.5's system, if not the other aspects (and it is a pain to try and mod).

Honestly, something like a total conversion for the new divinity or shadowrun would work better, though I don't know if the modding tools for either are as robust as they were for NWN 1/2.

Well, new rules require a new game. Should we get the Kickstarter goin´?

[Jeraa]

1) 5E isn't meeting Hasbro's sales projections, so they're pulling the plug on some supplements.

Hasbro doesn't care about the D&D RPG at all. No D&D material is shown on their website (aside from some Lego-knockoff stuff). It is unlikely Hasbro has anything to do with it at all.

They do care about Magic: The Gathering. You can find that on their site.