Limited Edition D&D Next pre-1st Printing to Be Avalable At GenCon

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**Ahtman**

Article

A year ago today, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast launched a public playtest of a new edition of the classic fantasy role-playing game. Codenamed D&D Next, the rules are an ambitious redesign meant to unify four decades and five editions’ worth of players under one single system –and now fans will get to see them in print for the very first time.

To celebrate the playtest’s anniversary, Wizards of the Coast announced today that it will release a limited-edition commemorative book containing the most up-to-date D&D Next rules. Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle will be available exclusively at Gen Con 2013, the annual gaming convention held August 15-18 in Indianapolis; printed in softcover and priced at $29.99, it is available for pre-order now via the online hobby shop Gale Force Nine.

In addition to selling a limited number of online pre-orders, Gale Force Nine will handle sales of the book at Gen Con; a set number of copies will be put up for sale each morning of the event, and once they’re sold, that’s it.
Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle will contain a preview version of the D&D Next rule set, as well as four all-new adventures written by Wizards of the Coast designer Chris Perkins and the rest of the D&D design team, for players ranging from first to tenth level.

“The idea is for this to be a keepsake,” says Mike Mearls, senior manager of research and design for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast. “It’s not just a book of rules; it’s really meant to be like a campaign you can play with your friends while you’re at Gen Con. It’s also got a lot of elements that allow you to turn into a real memento, places for your players or the designers to sign the book. We wanted this to be a product where if your house burst into flames, this is the book you’d want to save.”

The D&D Next rules described in the book will reflect the current state of the game’s play test, not a final version of the new edition, so they’ll be limited in scope. “There’s going to be the four core classes –what people are going to see is the entry level into the role playing game. It’s the core expression of the fighter, the rogue, the wizard and the cleric,” says Mearls. “But even though there is still play testing going on, this material is rock solid.”

**Yonan**

While I'm glad 4E is on the way out,

The D&D Next rules described in the book will reflect the current state of the game’s play test, not a final version of the new edition, so they’ll be limited in scope.

makes this a pretty silly purchase? It's only $30 I guess, but you tend to pay people to test your games, or at least let them do it for free.

**Ahtman**

Yonan wrote:
makes this a pretty silly purchase?

Most collector editions are. The playtest materials are free and you can get them from the WotC, but they aren't printed, bound, and have original art that will only be in this proto-edition.

**outriderhobbies**

But this is not unheard of at all.

Paizo did it with Pathfinder. TWICE! An Alpha set and a Beta.

FFG did it with Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.

In the case of FFG, and probably DnD Next, it was full color, not much art, but still full color, and a pretty hefty tome. So $30 to cover the printing costs, in this case for GF9 to handle the distribution to the players, and lets be honest, with everyone slowing down any 4e purchases due to WotC slowing production and the anticipation of DnD Next, this way they can bring some revenue in from a department that is currently "in the red" while doing R&D.

And like Ahtman said, you can get it for free if you don't want it printed or formatted, so it's really just a collector thing.

**Yonan**

I love collectors as much as the next nerd, it just seems strange to release a collectors for an incomplete and light edition. A collectors edition that adds on to the full release sure. A collectors edition that is superseded by the full release in short order? Strange ; p I guess if the campaign in it is substantial and unique it could be worth it.

**Ahtman**

It is not a Collector's Edition, it is a collectors edition. There will still be a $100 version of the Players Handbook when the final version comes out, I have no doubt. It isn't a CE in the sense that it is gold embossed, kangaroo leather bound, and written in the blood taken from the innocent. It is a collectors item in that it is a limited printing, will only be available for a limited window, and is only of interest to a small handful of gamers. It will be a window into the evolution of the new edition, and a stepping stone in the overall evolution of the brand.

**outriderhobbies**

Looking at the GF9 site, it looks like it comes with a resin figure as well. So that may bump the value somewhat...

**Kroothawk**

Yonan wrote:
makes this a pretty silly purchase? It's only $30 I guess, but you tend to pay people to test your games, or at least let them do it for free.

This book is not part of the playtesting process, but a souvenir of this process.

**BaronIveagh**

Trust Not WotC with their honey'd words
Lest ye be pained and weeping nerds
for long ago their souls were sold
for lies and pain and Mammon's Gold.

They spurn the knifes, the spells, the swords
and on their distaff they will twist their words
believe them not, nor buy their ware,
they're Grazzat's brood, of them beware.

Heed them not, nor with them stay
for Great Gygax they did betray
for there once Dungeon mighty stood
alongside Dragon the great and good.

Now empty stands that blackest moor
the castle the ravens know no more
The modrons have marched their last
the time of lances and heroes passed.

Lost are the realms, to Mammon's hand
from the Dale to Menzoberranzan,
and took Volo's laugh and Bhaal's hate
from Candlekeep and Baldur's Gate.

The City gone, it's many doors
It's factols now will feud no more
In empty scuppers the waters drain
and alone, again, is the Lady of Pain.

The mists will now release their hold
on many a horror and hero bold
the lich will smile, the hunter weep
as even Stahd they fail to keep.

The stars stand empty, cold and bare
Knight and warrior gone from there
the hoopak lost, the staff grows dim
the blackest rose will fade again.

The dragon slain, the dungeon dead
the writers of yore long have fled
Gone to find a path that's true
and gone along has minstrel too.

RIP
Dragon 1976 - 2007
'Never Forgive, Never Forget'

Gary Gygax 1938-2008
Dave Arneson 1947-2009

**Rozgarth**

Cool post and all (how long did that take?) but Dragon magazine is still alive; it's simply no longer in print. It is now a monthly e-mag. You can subscribe on WotC's site.

**BaronIveagh**

Rozgarth wrote:
Cool post and all (how long did that take?) but Dragon magazine is still alive; it's simply no longer in print. It is now a monthly e-mag. You can subscribe on WotC's site.

That is not Dragon.

This post was revised several times due to not meeting Dakka's standards for posting for the following reasons: Profanity, Rudeness, lewd suggestions involving household implements in conjunction with improbable sexual positions, implications of satanic practices, defamation, encouraging people to commit serious crimes, and 'other'.

**Ahtman**

BaronIveagh wrote:
That is not Dragon.

Here is what I got from both your posts.

More proof that you can't even post a simple announcement without someone wanting to turn any mention of D&D into an edition war, where we let others know they are having wrongbadfun. That being said, the poem still made me laugh.

**BaronIveagh**

Ahtman wrote:

More proof that you can't even post a simple announcement without someone wanting to turn any mention of D&D into an edition war, where we let others know they are having wrongbadfun. That being said, the poem still made me laugh.

Actually it wasn't about edition so much as all the stuff WotC killed. Planescape, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and their horrible mangling of Forgotten Realms for 4e. (to quote one reviewer 'a facelift so extreme that it made Elminster look like Joan Rivers').

I left for Pathfinder at that point because frankly, I'd rather support a company that gives half a damn.

**Ahtman**

BaronIveagh wrote:
Ahtman wrote:

More proof that you can't even post a simple announcement without someone wanting to turn any mention of D&D into an edition war, where we let others know they are having wrongbadfun. That being said, the poem still made me laugh.

Actually it wasn't about edition so much as all the stuff WotC killed. Planescape, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and their horrible mangling of Forgotten Realms for 4e. (to quote one reviewer 'a facelift so extreme that it made Elminster look like Joan Rivers').

I left for Pathfinder at that point because frankly, I'd rather support a company that gives half a damn.

Again, wrongbadfun, and didn't keep doing what was your idea of what it was supposed to be. Paizo gives a damn about making money off gamers arrested development, at least as much as WotC cares about making money off the D&D brand. It isn't as if they are a charity, doing it just to make people happy.

WotC has nothing to do with Dragonlance, it is entirely Hickman and Weiss on what is done with that property.

If you want to have an edition war, there is a separate folder for that*. This is just for the news about this book being at GenCon.

*I think you'll find most of the people there are sick and tired of this intersystem fighting and 'not real D&D' sort of discussion.

**BaronIveagh**

Ahtman wrote:

WotC has nothing to do with Dragonlance, it is entirely Hickman and Weiss on what is done with that property.

Tracy Hickman wrote:
How much control do you have over the world?

None. Zip. Zilch. Dragonlance(r) is a trademark of TSR, Inc. (Now Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, Inc.) and is used here without their permission. They own it.

Actually I could care less about 'edition' I just don't like what they did with the settings (particularly the ones they just killed off and/or retconned out of existence).

I do however have a burning hatred for Wizards of the Coast since about the time Scott Rouse was D&D Brand Manager and he is the reason that I leapt directly down a (somewhat undeserving) FFG mouthpeice's throat when they decided to announce after submissions were in that they were the property of GW.

If the above is an example of their continuing business practices, I can see that not much has changed.

And I've met some of the guys at Paizo. As opposed ot WotC, I did not have the urge to brutally murder a single one of them.

**Ahtman**

BaronIveagh wrote:
Actually I could care less about 'edition' I just don't like what they did with the settings (particularly the ones they just killed off and/or retconned out of existence).

Sure, it just happens to perfectly line up with a change in editions.

BaronIveagh wrote:
If the above is an example of their continuing business practices, I can see that not much has changed.

What? Releasing a printed playtest of the game like Paizo has done? You should stop playing Paizo, obliviously.

BaronIveagh wrote:
And I've met some of the guys at Paizo. As opposed ot WotC, I did not have the urge to brutally murder a single one of them.

I've met guys (and gals!) from Paizo, WotC, and even Wiess, Hickman, Gygax and Arneson, and I never wanted to 'brutally murder' any of them. Still seems like you have a wrongbadfun problem, and maybe some rage issues.

As for Dragonlance, "Wizards of the Coast also turned over all responsibility for maintaining the Dragonlance setting in the 3rd edition to Margaret Weis's home company, Sovereign Press." From 3rd on it wasn't up to WotC.

**Buzzsaw**

BaronIveagh wrote:
Ahtman wrote:

WotC has nothing to do with Dragonlance, it is entirely Hickman and Weiss on what is done with that property.

Tracy Hickman wrote:
How much control do you have over the world?

None. Zip. Zilch. Dragonlance(r) is a trademark of TSR, Inc. (Now Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, Inc.) and is used here without their permission. They own it.

Actually I could care less about 'edition' I just don't like what they did with the settings (particularly the ones they just killed off and/or retconned out of existence).

I do however have a burning hatred for Wizards of the Coast since about the time Scott Rouse was D&D Brand Manager and he is the reason that I leapt directly down a (somewhat undeserving) FFG mouthpeice's throat when they decided to announce after submissions were in that they were the property of GW.

If the above is an example of their continuing business practices, I can see that not much has changed.

And I've met some of the guys at Paizo. As opposed ot WotC, I did not have the urge to brutally murder a single one of them.

Heh, it's funny, I'd fallen out of paying attention to D&D around the launch of 3.5 only to come back in 4e and love it (I also really like the Essentials line, so YMMV). Thus far the signature feature of 5e seems to be an almost uncanny ability to piss off the fans of every previous edition at once.

**BaronIveagh**

Ahtman wrote:

As for Dragonlance, "Wizards of the Coast also turned over all responsibility for maintaining the Dragonlance setting in the 3rd edition to Margaret Weis's home company, Sovereign Press." From 3rd on it wasn't up to WotC.

It's nice to be accused of editionism by someone who doesn't even get their facts straight: They didn't 'turn over' anything: Sovereign Press licensed Dragonlance from WotC in 2003 and in 2007 they refused to renew it. So, yes, for 3e Weiss and Dom Perrin had it, and then WotC took it back and canned it.

Did it happen around the release of 4e? Yes, because WotC refused to renew everyone's licenses at that time. Those of us who enjoyed those publications and settings (most of which had further development canned) then found other places to spend our money. As far as I'm concerned they could have kept 3.5e running and I still would have left after that.

And, no, not the print play test, but rather the 'limited edition' print playtest is what I was referring to.

**pretre**

Yay, a nice announcement of a new product turns into a D&D bitchfest. This is unprecedented!

In other news, anyone going to Gen-Con want to pick one up for me?

**Ahtman**

BaronIveagh wrote:
It's nice to be accused of editionism

Walking like a duck and talking like a duck and looking like a duck is oddly enough going to make people think you are a duck. If you don't want people to think you are duck, stop acting like a silly duck.

BaronIveagh wrote:
by someone who doesn't even get their facts straight: They didn't 'turn over' anything: Sovereign Press licensed Dragonlance from WotC in 2003 and in 2007 they refused to renew it. So, yes, for 3e Weiss and Dom Perrin had it, and then WotC took it back and canned it.

I didn't make up the line that I quoted, and I still don't think your interpretation of what happened is accurate either, but I doubt we'll ever really know what went on behind closed doors. I've seen information that goes both ways on who is to blame for the languishing of the brand.

BaronIveagh wrote:
And, no, not the print play test, but rather the 'limited edition' print playtest is what I was referring to.

But Paizo also had a limited run printing of beta playtest rules; this isn't any more limited then that was.

When 4e came out, everybody was still all up 3.5's butt, and really we are still too close to it all to have much perspective, historically speaking. AD&D? Sure. But people's opinions of products that came after it are still affected by lingering edition-war bias. Success does not equal quality, especially when you consider that marketing and other non-rules-related business decisions weigh heavily on success. Fourth Edition was undercut by the popularity of 3e/3.5, and the way it got that popularity. Not only were there tons of people who were attached to the way things were (the knee-jerk reaction against things that are unfamiliar and different is seen throughout human history), but the OGL meant that Paizo could essentially continue the old edition in competition to the new one (something the more restrictive licensing for 4e encouraged them to do... but that's the business end). Also, there was the murder/suicide thing that killed the online aspect of 4e, crippling their business model. And, of course, the suits were measuring business success by what 3e did, when D&D had long been languishing before it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

pretre wrote:
Yay, a nice announcement of a new product turns into a D&D bitchfest. This is unprecedented!

In other news, anyone going to Gen-Con want to pick one up for me?

I have some friends I am going with that aren't getting it (they say that now), but if you really are interested we can probably find a way to make it happen.

**pretre**

If they pick one up, I'd pay for it and shipping.

**kronk**

pretre wrote:

In other news, anyone going to Gen-Con want to pick one up for me?

No. With a limited number available each day and the premiere name of D&D, I'm not going ANYWHERE near that booth when the dealer's room first opens. Not even if they had booth babes with a 10.0 rating on RateMyWife.com.

**Ahtman**

kronk wrote:
pretre wrote:

In other news, anyone going to Gen-Con want to pick one up for me?

No. With a limited number available each day and the premiere name of D&D, I'm not going ANYWHERE near that booth when the dealer's room first opens. Not even if they had booth babes with a 10.0 rating on RateMyWife.com.

Just remember they are at the Gale Force 9 booth, not the WotC booth.

**kronk**

Heh. Good point. I do like to browse the GF9 booth. They have cool terrain and templates.

Also, I meant to write "Sorry, but no thanks." Didn't mean for that to sound snarky, pretre. I'm just not interested.

**BaronIveagh**

Ahtman wrote:

Walking like a duck and talking like a duck and looking like a duck is oddly enough going to make people think you are a duck. If you don't want people to think you are duck, stop acting like a silly duck.

Yes, because accusing people of being a 'duck' makes it easier to attack them without having to deal with their actual position or force neurons to fire.

I mean, I could sit here, and, based on what you said, dismiss you out of hand as a corporate apoligist who doesn't have enough brain activity to walk and chew gum, but that doesn't really address your actual points, or the misinformation you seem to be possessed of.

Ahtman wrote:

I didn't make up the line that I quoted, and I still don't think your interpretation of what happened is accurate either, but I doubt we'll ever really know what went on behind closed doors. I've seen information that goes both ways on who is to blame for the languishing of the brand.

*shrug* There's little 'interpretation' to it. I stated the simple facts of the matter, wotc revoked all the licenses at that time, and killed the majority of them. I can't say 'well, it was so and so writer or other company's fault' because they did it across the board. WotC is fully the owner of the property in question, and can effectively do whatever they like with it. THey do, in all honesty, have quite a track record for doing just that, and the original creators be damned.

Ahtman wrote:

But Paizo also had a limited run printing of beta playtest rules; this isn't any more limited then that was.

News to me, and I was involved in that beta. Not saying it didn't happen, but never heard of that.

Ahtman wrote:

When 4e came out, everybody was still all up 3.5's butt, and really we are still too close to it all to have much perspective, historically speaking. AD&D? Sure. But people's opinions of products that came after it are still affected by lingering edition-war bias. Success does not equal quality, especially when you consider that marketing and other non-rules-related business decisions weigh heavily on success. Fourth Edition was undercut by the popularity of 3e/3.5, and the way it got that popularity. Not only were there tons of people who were attached to the way things were (the knee-jerk reaction against things that are unfamiliar and different is seen throughout human history), but the OGL meant that Paizo could essentially continue the old edition in competition to the new one (something the more restrictive licensing for 4e encouraged them to do... but that's the business end). Also, there was the murder/suicide thing that killed the online aspect of 4e, crippling their business model. And, of course, the suits were measuring business success by what 3e did, when D&D had long been languishing before it.

Well, killing Dragon and then tying killing Dragon to 4e made 4e much less popular that it would have been, and made Paizo martyrs. When Paizo offered Pathfinder, they had a ready made market that abandoned WotC in droves. It wasn't helped by the fact that they made a point to make it backward compatible with the massive amount of material, both WotC and 3rd party, that already existed. Toss in that 4e quickly gained a reputation for overt munchkinism and the rather bone headed idea of holding back core classes to sell volume after volume of the PHB and seeing why it failed isn't too hard.

Scott still has not made good on our bet at the time that Pathfinder would outlive 4e.

**Ahtman**

BaronIveagh wrote:
I mean, I could sit here, and, based on what you said, dismiss you out of hand as a corporate apoligist who doesn't have enough brain activity to walk and chew gum, but that doesn't really address your actual points, or the misinformation you seem to be possessed of.

Or you could find a way to make your argument without making it sound like your issue is 'wrongbadfun' and 'not D&D' as well as insulting the others involved in the conversation as having 'not having any neurons', but then you would have to be more articulate and not an ass, and if past history is the most likely indication of future actions, we can both agree you won't change either.

**reds8n**

Too much off topic.