Back in October, I took a look at the next six months or so of releases from Wizards of the Coast, and posted some tentative opinions about them. Four months later, and with a good chunk of the 2009 catalogue announced, it looks like it’s time to revisit the upcoming releases. This post runs until the summer, so expect another post to crop up around July.
January – Open Grave
By dint of the fact that zombies and vampires are cool, WOTC have been whoring out Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead for the past couple of months. It’s quite understandable though – the numerous excerpts suggest that is one hell of a source book, that (in my opinion) every GM should own. Why? Because ripping hordes of shambling zombies apart is great fun, and helps to prepare your players for the oncoming Zombie Apocalypse.
Check out the excerpts at the WotC website and remember, nothing says “I’m trying to kill you” like an undead Beholder.
February – Dungeon Delves
This is probably a life saver for GMs who have little time to prepare a full game, but one which I’d be inclined to leave on the shelf. It contains 30 small, pre-made dungeons which can be inserted into larger adventures, or used as a one shot game. You can check out samples from the book in the December and January previews, with excerpts presumably coming in the next few weeks.
March – Player’s Handbook II, Power Cards
The second volume of the Player’s Handbook is probably one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2009, reintroducing various much lamented classes and races. 
The Avenger, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Invoker, Shaman, Sorcerer and Warden are all making a return to the D&D fold, along with the Devas (previously known as Aasimar), Gnomes, Goliaths, Half-Orcs and Shifters.
I suspect that many players who were not keen on 4E initially may well convert now that their favoured classes and races are once again available, especially with the extremely favourable previews that the Druid, Barbarian and other classes have been enjoying.
The release of Power Cards, sold by class and supplement book, is something that should really have been happened along with the PHB and DMB several months ago. At $10 a pack (or $70 if you just want the all powers from the PHB), these seem rather over priced compared to the third-party versions that have proliferated in the past months. Fellow RPG blog-site The Gamer Dome has a handy list of free or donation based alternatives, although I prefer to make my own using index cards.
April – Arcane Power, Player’s Handbook Miniatures Series
The Martial Power supplement was very highly reviewed at release, and I found the additional paths and powers pretty inspiring and fun looking. Hopefully, Arcane Power will manage to replicate this for the Wizard, Warlock, Sorcerer and Bard.
Never an essential purchase, but always an interesting one, and far cheaper then the 3.x Complete Class books.
Of more interest this month is the release of the Player’s Handbook miniatures. Unlike previous D&D Mini releases, these aren’t randomly selected and reflect the races and classes found in the PHB. Newbie DM has a wee preview of them up.
I’m not sure how well these will sell. It does pretty much depend on how much players want minis that might look a bit like how they imagine their character to look. Being the giant Paladin geek that I am, I may be tempted by the Devine set if they have a Dragonborn in it.
May – Monster Manual II, Monster Manual Miniatures
The Monster Manual squeals are an old stalwart of the WotC line-up, adding more pre-made monsters to the GM’s repertoire. Not much I can say about that.
Like the PHB Miniatures, the Monster Manual minis are apparently preselected, in clear packaging and featuring races from the Monster Manual.
June – Eberron Campaign Guide
Given how much exposure Eberron got in 3.x, I’m surprised that WotC are launching this so long after the initial 4E launch, but I suppose it’s to try and stimulate sales after the “Must upgrade/try out 4e” honeymoon is over.
I’ll be interesting to see if this does stimulate 4e sales overall. While Eberron is a popular setting, it just isn’t as good as some of the classic ones.
The Player Guide, which includes additional classes and races will be launching the next month.
July – Divine Power, Eberron Player Guide
Divine Power, like it’s two predecessors seeks to expand four of the classes. In this case; the Cleric, Paladin, Invoker and Avenger. As a big fan of Paladins and Clerics, this is a must buy for me.
Q3 & 4 2009
For the rest of the year, the biggest D&D related release is probably the Pathfinder RPG, which aims to ‘fix’ the 3.5 system. It’s been getting some very favourable reviews and will probably end up attracting a lot of people who were put off by the ‘dumbing-down’ in 4e.
From Wizards of the Coast, we have more PHB and Monster Manual minis, Power Cards to go with the class Power books and rather a lot of sequals: DM Guide II, Adventurer’s Vault II and Dracomonicon II: Metallic Dragons. Primal Power also comes out towards the end of the year, adding more options to the four Primal classes, introduced in PHBII.
Overall, I don’t think it’s a strong year for releases. The only books which leap out at me for purchase are Divine Power, Open Grave and Pathfinder, with a possible on the PHBII.
2008 was a return to D&D for me, but I can see 2009 being a year I put my money into other games.
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