WotC Sucks Wang: the Story of 2007

[User3]

(I really need to start signing in again.)

WotC recently announced its complete book release schedule for the year 2007, so I decided, being the Dungeons and Dragons fanboy that I am, to check it out.

January started off this illustrious year with Complete Scoundrel, a book reviewed just recently by josephbt. He hits the nail on the head, by the way - Complete Scoundrel is boring, frequently uninspired, and has character advice written by a complete scoundrel. Still, the skill tricks were a hit with people I know.

February continues with Dungeonscape, which - judging by the table of contents - is the sort of dungeon-building book that companies such as AEG printed five years ago. Plus, it adds a new base class called Factotum. Man, what's up with that? (Also appearing: Barrow of the Forgotten King, an adventure, and Secrets of Sarlona, an Eberron book that I'm actually looking forward to.)

The year proceeds on to March, wherein they release the Magic Item Compendium, which will thrill countless people with its cover price ($40) and its new, amazingly space-filling magic item format. But hey. Judging by Spell Compendium, it's bound to have neat stuff in it. Somewhere. (Also appearing: Cormyr: the Tearing of the Weave, an adventure.)

April is all adventures. Eyes of the Lich Queen, Fantastic Locations: City of Peril, and Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. As much as GDQ1-7 is a classic adventure, I somehow see Expedition to the Demonweb Pits being a letdown.

May is splatbook month! Complete Champion comes as the sequel to Complete Divine, and being as how it's for divine spellcasters, Complete Champion will be full of awesome stuff for the people who need it least. Complete Fanboy, on the other hand, is about the Drow. The Drow, with their gigantic level adjustment, well and truly suck regardless of how many books you put out about them - maybe they'll do people who want to play Drow a favor and reprint the Lesser Drow from Player's Guide to Faerun.

June is a happy time for me, what with The Forge of War satisfying my Eberron fanboyism with information on the era immediately previous to the current setting, the Last War. It's accompanied by The Sinister Spire, an adventure, and The World's Largest Dun-- err, Expedition to Undermountain, yet another Expedition set in the largest dungeon in the Forgotten Realms.

Monster Manual V is the main announcement for July. "Ready-to-play variations of previously existing monsters" is a listed sales point for it. Yeah, screw this. Also ran: Shadowdale: the Scouring of the Land, an adventure that's also being marketed as a sourcebook to try and catch more purchases.

August is boring. Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk re?visits Castle Greyhawk, the most dodged-around and never-detailed dungeon of all time. That's it.

And, until today, that's all we'd heard from WotC by way of their 2007 catalogue. More after a short break - I need to go home, and Exemplars of Evil is making me nauseous.

[MrWaeseL]

You can say dick here.

[User3]

Where last I left off, WotC had only released their product catalogue for the first 2/3 of the year. Now, today, they have released (or are releasing - two new products appeared between the time I posted the last message and the time I am posting this one) the catalogue for the remainder of the year.

Exemplars of Evil is the main entry for September, and boy is it odious. Its main selling point is that it "(...) presents nine ready-to-play villains of various levels that can be easily incorporated into any D&D campaign. Each villainous entry provides complete statistics for the villain (or villains), as well as adventure seeds, campaign hooks, pregenerated minions, and a fully detailed lair." - which means it's a book of pregenerated crap. It could turn out good, but pigs could fly over Cania tomorrow. Also ran: Fortress of the Yuan-ti, an adventure, and this, which I can't really explain too well.

October is another splatbook month, though, with Dragons of Eberron - a book that I'd like to like, but am worried about because it reminds me of Dragons of Faerun, which had perhaps the lowest quality of any book ever printed by Wizards of the Coast. There's also the Dungeons and Dragons Rules Compendium, designed to collect and reprint the D&D rules as they have been changed by splatbooks and errata in one place, and the Dungeon Survival Guide, which shares a name with a very early D&D product... but other than that, I honestly cannot tell you what it's about at all!

November must be Forgotten Realms month or something. The only releases are the adventure Anauroch: The Sundering of the World, and the Grand History of the Realms, a Realmslore-only (i.e. no rules) book that's still marked at the full price of a splatbook.

The year 2007 ends with December and the truly lousy book Elder Evils, which is the exact same book as Exemplars of Evil, just aimed at higher-level players. A perfect wang-sucking capstone for a wang-sucking year.

(Anyone who wanted the actual Rules Compendium link, click here.)

[NineInchNall]

1170443437[/unixtime]] There's also the Dungeons and Dragons Rules Compendium, designed to collect and reprint the D&D rules as they have been changed by splatbooks and errata in one place, ...

The best part of that (aside from the obvious reference to the D&D Rules Cyclopedia) is the fact that this compendium of corrected and rebalanced and modified rules will inevitably require errata.

[shau]

Rules Compendium...?

*Feels so much rage*

[Cielingcat]

The Rules Compendium will be the most entertaining book ever. I predict no fewer than five places in which they will describe a rule, and then immediatly afterwards describe another rule that is completely contradictory. Unless they have the rules in some sort of order, in which case the contradictions may be no closer than within the same page.

[User3]

1170443437[/unixtime]], and this, which I can't really explain too well.

is it just me or does anyone else think that the title makes it sound like either an erotic novel or gossip book?

hell, i could be either from the description, too, or a piece of sensationalist crap....

or it could actually be good...
.
.
.
nah...

[Cielingcat]

From the description, it's apparantly D&D for Dummies, but written by a girl.

Obviously, it will be the best selling book ever.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Pssht.

The only people that want Women to play D&D are women, and they don't count.

[Cielingcat]

Oh, it won't be women buying the book. It will be bought because it's written by one.

[fbmf]

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The SPAM has been deleted. Let's keep it that way.
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