say I wanted to set ToA in Exandria where would you recommend?Visa Isle replacement? 😉
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) September 12, 2017
@matthewmercer Out of curiosity, any stand ins for Chult you recommend for Exandria?
— Brett (@brettanderson96) September 14, 2017
Either you can set it within the Rifenmist Jungle, or perhaps place the mysterious land southwest in the Ozmit Sea! https://t.co/ElzR9EUQwv
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) September 14, 2017
In my first draft of Tomb of Annihilation, the final chamber – Cradle of the Death God – was a bit plain. Chris Perkins asked for something more interesting, so I worked up the final design you see in the book. I love how many dioramas this little room has spawned! pic.twitter.com/SrnhkhVjAA
— Will Doyle (@BeholderPie) August 15, 2021
That was an amazing encounter. Great work!
— Shawn Merwin (@shawnmerwin) August 15, 2021
Nice love the lighting!!
— Will Doyle (@BeholderPie) August 15, 2021
It’s amazing how much better we get at designing when someone asks us to deliver more. To dig deeper. I have two questions I constantly ask myself when writing now. “Is this cool?” and, if so, “How can it be even cooler?” Truth!
— Will Doyle (@BeholderPie) August 16, 2021
This Official document corrects and clarifies some text in Tomb of Annihilation
@TheEdVerse Roughly how long would it take to sail from Waterdeep to Port Nyanzaru?
— Jonathan Longstaff (@pukunui81) August 5, 2020
1)
Depends on the weather, strength of prevailing winds and currents (which vary by time of year AND weather elsewhere), and what you’re sailing (sail area, hull drag; caravel faster than cog or nao, costal raker faster still). 2)
But on average, a newish, fast large cargo caravel could make a clear-weather but never becalmed voyage in 21 days. So that’s “best case;” add on days to that total for ports of call along the way, detours for pirate or storm…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 5, 2020
Looking at maps, it seems to me like the most obvious route would be to sail from Waterdeep past Mintarn to the Moonshaes, then straight down to Chult (to bypass the pirate-infested Nelanther Isles and the Tethyr Peninsula).
Does that seem reasonable?
— Jonathan Longstaff (@pukunui81) August 6, 2020
1)
Certainly, but you’re now in the very decision-making position that most seacaptains find themselves in: do you make the faster run, closer at all times to land and in calmer, less stormy waters, but risking pirates and… 2)
…running aground on shoals or being driven ashore by storms because you’re nearer to land?
If you take the “outer run” you’ve described, sailing times increase from best-case south/outbound 21 days and best-case…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 7, 2020
3)
…north/return/inbound 26 days to: best-case south 26 days and best case north 31 days, with about a 30 percent greater chance of storms bad enough to blow you well off course (almost always east towards the coast), and around… 4)
…a 55 percent chance of heavy weather bad enough to shred a sail and cost you some lines [rigging ropes].
Sailors must make these life-and-death, profit-and-loss choices all the time. Which is why many carry extra masts and…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 7, 2020
5)
…complete extra sets of sails (costing them profits by taking up cargo space).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 7, 2020
Hi, me again.
The Chultan Peninsula was sunk during the Spellplague; and is restored to a peninsula after the Second Sundering. What do you think the current state of the Mhair Jungle, Thindol/Tashalar, and Samarch is? I am SO tempted to say "wet." ;}
Seriously, the hot wet jungles of Mhair, and the Mediterranean-like verdant climate of the Tashalar, are back to what they were before, due to prevailing winds and currents, and the temperature ranges of their latitudes.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 31, 2019
You have the same sense of humor as me! I made that joke elsewhere 🙂
Thank you!
Do you think it would be fair to say that, even though its mostly like it was, that the Spellplague was not without its scars on the area? New magical beasts, that sort of thing? Yes. "Living spells" wander the landscape, new beasts galore (oddities like gibbering mouthers, jellies, oozes, and tentacled things, and beings (including wild humans) who now have "wild talents" (e.g. can telekinese things, have true sight, blink, produce flame).#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) November 1, 2019
Literally something I brought up about Chult and Port Nyanzaru in #ToA. What are they trading? Where is coming from? What makes it desirable elsewhere? The whole picture is important, because things are connected and it makes for a better world build. #DnD https://t.co/7HN9rqxz6y
— PanzerLion 🇨🇦 (@POCGamer) June 29, 2019
1)
YES. Exactly. Back when Tim Brown was Creative Director of TSR, I tried to sell him on including a centerfold game in DRAGON where players were shipcaptains, moving cargoes (little cards saying things like: “3 arkren [1=2 tons] iron forgebars to Baldur’s Gate, .. 2)
…worth 120 points") up and down the Sword Coast and dealing with storms, pirates, sea monsters, and the like. Just a fun little game, but it would show everyone what was likely in the hold of the D&D ship their PCs were buying passage on.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 29, 2019
“Arkren, eh?” *scribbles furiously* Heh. I KNEW you'd pounce on that.
Most folks do the "coffer, strongchest, handkeg, cask, greatcask, shouldersack" measures, but there are bulk measures. My notes are fragmentary at best.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) June 29, 2019
I know, from conversations back then, that some folks in-house saw Chult as “the place to do Professor Challenger/Lost World” adventures, so that shaped the published depiction of it. It explains the sudden tonal and structural shifts between the few mentions of Chult and Chultans in 1e vs where they went in 2e.
— PanzerLion 🇨🇦 (@POCGamer) June 30, 2019
we have been running Tomb of Annihilation and I keep wondering why Elminster isn’t in it. The soul monger sure seems like something he would look into and a crazy multidimensional lich would probably have a rapport with the old rogue. Heh. Elminster is SO busy, with fingers in so many pies (thanks to Mystra and his centuries of building real-life friendships and obligations), that even he can't be everywhere at once.
Which, as Storm has commented darkly, more than once, "Is a GOOD thing."— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 15, 2018
does Port Nyanzaru have any high level clerics or casters that could possibly bring someone back from the dead aka a (True Ressurection)? 🙂 The answer should be yes, though I'm not sure how high a public profile such individuals would have or want. Up to you as DM.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 9, 2018
