Saturday, April 7, 2012

Wizards News (Updated X 2)

A few weeks ago I had mentioned that I hadn't heard much DnDNext news, especially concerning this weekends big gaming convention in Boston MA, PAX East, It turns out there will be several DnDNext playtest sessions, but with the same rule set that was used at DDXP at the end of January (here). There was also a scheduled seminar to provide further DnDNext news. Wizards has been keeping their cards held pretty close to their vests in regards to any real DnDNext announcements so I am not expecting a lot of news here, but it would be nice if they were announce a target date for general release of the playtest rules.

Wizards has also announced that the focus of their products for the rest of 2012 will be based on the Underdark and the Drow (Rise of the Underdark). The campaign includes upcoming game supplements (i.e., The Dungeon Survival Handbook, Menzoberranzan), the next DnD Encounters and Lair Assault sessions, upcoming novels, on-line game content, and merchandise as well. I suspect those attending Gencon will get to see the huge statue of Lolth as well.

From a marketing perspective I am glad to see that Hasbro and Wizards has been able to marshal all their resources into a coordinated release schedule. From a personal perspective I moderately like the overall Underdark theme, but the whole Drow thing is way overdone. A lot has been published on the Underdark over the past few years so maybe this will wrap that up.

Update: I haven't found a detailed recap of the DnDNext seminar that was held yesterday at PAX East, but ENWorld has a synopsis here. 40% done on their fourth iteration of the playtest rules ... I was positive we would see something so that playtest feedback could be gathered and processed before Gencon, now I am not so sure. Wizards hasn't publicly stipulated a target release date for any of this, so I guess we'll just have to wait and continue to start false rumors and throw around items of wild speculation.

Update #2: I still haven't come across a detailed recap, but if you want to watch the one hour video of the DnDNext seminar from Saturday at PAX East click here.

No comments:

Post a Comment