with Shelly Mazzanoble of Wizards of the Coast
The following interview was conducted at Gen Con 2012 and we are speaking to Shelly Mazzanoble of Wizards of the Coast in regards to the Rise of the Underdark project for Dungeons & Dragons. The interview was conducted by Editor-in-Chief Aaron T. Huss and guest UK correspondent Martin Tideswell denoted by the prefix RPC. Shelly Mazzanoble is denoted by the prefix SM.
RPC: The first question is, why Rise of the Underdark?
SM: Why not? The drow… What we learned last year from our Neverwinter campaign is that we had this ongoing story that was connected through all these various expressions to D&D. We had the comic books, video games, novels and it worked really well. D&D is essentially story driven, and people really enjoy being immersed in the story of D&D. We’re doing that with Rise of the Underdark, and of course the drow are one of our most exciting races ever. The story began with Lolth, who doesn’t love Lolth, and she has designs on taking over Mystra’s vacancy as Goddess of Magic. She has her drow minions go out and do her dirty work, essentially they’re trying to go out to collect all these ancient, magical artifacts to help her gain control of the seat. Should she succeed, the surface world becomes involved in everlasting darkness. That’s her ultimate goal.
The way the story truly plays out is through D&D Encounters. You’re not only going to hear the story but you get to be part of the story as you’re going to be playing it. It started in March with the surface-dwellers going into the underdark. I personally haven’t had that much experience in the underdark in my D&D games, so when we were playing this at work, it was crazy. I’ve never had games where we were all almost near death and nobody could do a thing about it. We were like “it’s dark again, but I have a torch” and the DM would say “it’s not that kind of dark, you can’t see anything.” That season was awesome, the season that’s coming up, Council of Spiders, is next week [from when the interview was given] and this will be our most exciting season because you get to play a drow. Not only do you get to play one but we’re encouraging you to play a drow, which is counter to how most people have played D&D. It’s not necessarily collaborative, you’re not working as a team. You’re actually back-stabbing and devious and you have your own agenda.
RPC: It’s the anti-hero.
SM: It is, and it’s exciting. I have never gotten to do that in a D&D game and now we’re actually encouraging it and giving you all sorts of resources on how to do it [play a drow] like Menzobarranzan, it’s an awesome book.
RPC: Considering this series is all about the drow, and that the drow exist in the Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, the Essentials book, are you bringing about more character-driven options and the drow in the other books?
SM: This is the main staple for playing a drow [pointing to the Menzobarranzan book]. [It contains] all the different campaign hooks, the different houses you can associate with, and the different benefits you’ll get by associating with those houses. This is a book that is good for players and the Dungeon Masters and anyone that has a slight interest in the drow culture. It’s a drow bible. It will be good for DMs because a lot of people haven’t had experience running a campaign like this while also [being] really fun for the players. We also have Fortune Cards, that are pretty much drow treachery; they also come out this month. I think they’re hysterical. Regardless of you have ever used Fortune Cards in your game, these ones have you doing things to other players.
RPC: Are these Fortune Cards for the organized play only?
SM: No you can play them in your home game too. The in-store program, D&D Lair Assaults, that is highly tactical, very strategic, higher level play and we encourage people to use them [referring to the Fortune Cards] because you need every benefit you can get. Fortune Cards are really just a way to enhance what is happening in your games, you can use them or not use them. Our treachery ones, I think, are really fun.
RPC: How does Rise of the Underdark fit with, or doesn’t it, D&D Next and your plans for 5th Edition?
SM: Actually it’s totally separate.
RPC: This will be in fourth [Edition] and once D&D Next happens, this [referring to Rise of the Underdark] will be gone unless you tell me differently.
SM: Menzo[barranzan] is actually edition agnostic. You can use it with every edition. That content in that book will work regardless of what edition you’re playing.
RPC: What about things like Dungeon Command? How does that fit into the overall picture?
SM: This is our Sting of Lolth faction pack [pointing to the Dungeon Command box]. Dungeon Command is new, it’s our miniatures skirmish board game. Have you had a chance to play it yet?
RPC: Not yet. This fits together with the other D&D board games?
SM: Yeah, you can use the dungeon tiles that are in here, you can use the miniatures on your tabletop role-playing games. It’s a really fun and quick D&D experience. A lot of people are saying “I just play this at lunch in our office” because you may not have time to do a full D&D campaign, but you can start here.
RPC: The books tie-in with everything [referring to the Neverwinter novels]?
SM: We have lots of novels that tie-in with the Rise of the Underdark campaign. If you’re just interested in fiction, we’ve got four eBook exclusives that are coming out throughout the year that center on the drow story and RA Salvatore’s Charon’s Claw, which is the third book in the Neverwinter saga. He’s definitely very drow focused… We have Dungeon Tiles that are underdark focused, we have map packs that are underdark focused, Dungeons & Dragons online is actually entering the Forgotten Realms for the first time and [is] the third part of the whole drow campaign.
RPC: That’s just a plug-in to the online game?
SM: Yeah, and the comic books. There’s a little bit of everything no matter what you’re interest is in fantasy. We’ve got you covered.
RPC: How many of the RPG books are included? You came out with The Dungeon Survival Handook [Into the Unknown] and that touches base on the underdark, not the drow as much as the underdark, then this one [referring to Menzobarranzan], and that’s just more like a setting guide.
SM: The city, yes. It’s quite massive.
RPC: Are there any others?
SM: For this year?
RPC: Any year.
SM: We’ll have more faction packs for Dungeon Command coming out.
RPC: What’s the release schedules for Dungeon Command? Is this now its own, separate entity?
SM: Yeah.
RPC: Because it came out with two, the heroes and the drow…
SM: The heroes and the drow, and then next month we have goblins, which everybody is gunning for. I had no idea people were so excited about goblins. November we have the undead, so that will round out the year. And then we have more coming out.
RPC: How many, do you know? Eight, twelve, or is this just an ongoing…
SM: We hope that it’s ongoing because it’s done really well.
RPC: Is there going to be more organized play, tournament play?
SM: For Dungeon Command?
RPC: Yeah.
SM: Possibly. We had the game day, that was actually last month, July. We had a game day that centered on the release of this product [referring to Dungeon Command]. It was really successful.
RPC: How long is the release schedule [referring to Rise of the Underdark]? When you guys [referring to Wizards of the Coast] look at these from a project stand-point, so this project is Rise of the Underdark, does it cover one year, does it cover two years?
SM: Usually it’s one year.
RPC: What comes next?
SM: I don’t know. That’s a good question, but whatever it is, it’s going to be awesome!
RPC: Where can you find the character options [for the drow] outside of the Essentials [line]?
SM: Throughout the various sourcebooks throughout the year. The Essentials [line] are actually a great resource… and also Dragons and Dungeon magazine.
We’d like to thank Shelly Mazzanoble and Wizards of the Coast for taking some time to speak with us regarding Rise of the Underdark and the drow campaign.
