Yesterday, the RPG community noticed a new book you could pre-order at Amazon. It was called Dungeons & Dragon’s March Release Book (Title announced January 9th).
What seems to have happened is that after D&D releases being ‘leaked’ ahead of time, again and again, by eagle-eyed fans noticing the books before Wizards of the Coast announcements, that the publisher changed their approach. For March, Wizards created this temporary but relatively official name for the book.
Clever? Yes, but only if Wizards of the Coast didn’t also give the name of the next official D&D book away by also giving retailers the name of the accompanying dice set.
Also releasing on March 17th is Laeral Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit. We knew that news yesterday before Wizards of the Coast announced it because eagle-eyed gamers spotted the listing on Amazon.
There are Waterdeep Dragon Heist Dice, Tomb of Annihilation Dice and Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica Dice. In other words, recent official D&D books have been accompanied by a dice set. It’s understandable that D&D fans quickly speculated that the unnamed March D&D book would be a Forgotten Realms’ Laeral Silverhand book!
Laeral Silverhand is one of The Seven Sisters. A mage of great power, Chosen of Mystra, and apparently immortal. She’s the Open Lord of Waterdeep.
Wizards of the Coast have confirmed the Explorer’s Kit is coming and tells us more about it. They’ve not said whether it is connected in any way to the March book.
The kit will have eleven dice; two d20s, one d12, two d10s, one d8, four d6s, one d4. It will come with twenty illustrated and double-sided cards that reveal Laeral’s insight on key characters, locations and lore in the Forgotten Realms, a double-sided map of the Sword Coast and Waterdeep and the box is felt-lined so you can use it as a dice tray.
What if…?
At this point, we still don’t know what the March book is. After going to all this effort to obscure the title, Wizards of the Coast are unlikely to reveal it before the 9th.
But what if March’s hardback is another Forgotten Realms book?
I’ve seen mixed reactions and speculation on internet communities. Some fans are just thrilled to have more D&D to play with, but others are hoping to go beyond the Forgotten Realms while others are wondering how many different Forgotten Realms books they will need to buy to have a full collection.
I spoke to Stephanie McAlea of the indie publisher Stygian Fox what they thought about the chance to get another Forgotten Realms book.
I have no problem with this as my D&D is Adventures in Middle-Earth and Forgotten Realms. I’d still like to see a massive FR world book. I’m not interested in getting it piecemeal from occasional books.
A Reddit thread on /r/DnDNext was quick to speculate and suggest that Laeral Silverhand’s hardback would be similar to Xanathar’s Guide and have new magic items. Laeral, after all, is known to make them.
McAlea, though, hoped for a different approach.
If it IS an equipment book (like the old whole realms catalog) I’d be interested as long as it was mundane items. I’m not interested in a magic weapon gatalog.
What do you think March’s secret book will be and if it turns out to be another Forgotten Realms book then what do you hope it contains?
