Wizards of the Coast reveals upcoming projects for ‘Dungeons & Dragons’
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Renton, Wash.-centered Wizards of the Coast held a pre-recorded livestream on Thursday morning to expose a number of big forthcoming initiatives for Dungeons & Dragons, together with the long-awaited return of the Spelljammer and Dragonlance configurations for D&D.
The livestream is the very first in what guarantees to be a collection of “D&D Directs,” in which Wizards specifically briefs its audience on its following projects.
The guide tale from the Immediate, or at minimum what was presented the most time in general, was the revival of Jeff Grubb’s 1989 D&D campaign location Spelljammer. A new three-guide hardcover set, Adventures in Area, is coming out on Aug. 16, which formally updates the setting to D&D‘s 5th version.
Spelljammer can be adquately described as “Dungeons & Dragons in house,” wherever players can sail in between worlds with the support of magically-pushed ships, and may perhaps be greatest-recognised to newer D&D players as the collection that gave the earth the giant space hamster.
In the first version of Spelljammer, its vision of space consisted of crystalline spheres separated by oceans of phlogiston. The remake replaces that cosmology with the Astral Plane, in which you can vacation among the worlds of D&D‘s individual multiverse.
Adventures in Space consists of The Astral Adventurer’s Information, which contains the facts required for Spelljammer as a 5e marketing campaign environment Boo’s Astral Menagerie, which introduces “over 60” new creatures that can be identified and fought in place and Light of Xaryxis, a new hardcover journey set in the Astral Plane for characters of degrees 5 to 8.
Notably, the new Spelljammer textbooks have procedures for six new playable races, which include the insectoid thri-kreen, astral elves, and a a little bit reimagined variation of the giff.
The unique run of Spelljammer had been discontinued by the time Wizards of the Coast purchased the rights to D&D in 1997, and outdoors of the occasional cameo, had nonetheless to be revisited. This would make Adventures in Area the initially new Spelljammer guides in about 25 several years, and the initially formal Spelljammer textbooks from Wizards.
According to undertaking direct Chris Perkins, he’s wanted to revisit Spelljammer for many years, but there were being other matters that experienced better precedence. Perkins formerly ran a Spelljammer marketing campaign for five many years, starting up in 1990.
The new Spelljammer will show up alongside a new established of Icons of the Realms minis from Wizkids, which will involve a huge place hamster.
Similarly, Wizards finished the Immediate by demonstrating a shorter animated trailer for an future new activity guide in the extensive-dormant Dragonlance placing, narrated by Shoreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse).
This does end a minimal short of a whole revival like Spelljammer received, nevertheless. Instead, late this year, Wizards designs to release Shadow of the Dragon Queen, an journey guide that is established early in Dragonlance continuity, in the course of the War of the Lance, as perfectly as a new wargame, Warriors of Krynn.
The back 50 % of 2022 is going to be massive for Dragonlance fans no matter. Dragonlance creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are returning to the location with a new trilogy of novels, commencing with Dragons of Deceit in August 2022. Their earlier lawsuit towards Wizards of the Coastline, which alleged breach of contract, was quietly settled in January 2021.
Wizards took the Immediate as an chance to release new formal numbers for the D&D franchise, which it promises celebrated its ninth consecutive calendar year of advancement in 2021. As D&D‘s fifth edition heads into its 10th calendar year of publication, Wizards described that “more than 80%” of D&D fans performed the recreation practically above the program of 2021, through platforms these kinds of as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and the not long ago-obtained D&D Over and above.
The 2021 sourcebook Fizban’s Treasury of Everything was Wizards’ ideal-providing D&D launch for the 12 months, while The Wild Further than the Witchlight is now the solitary swiftest-marketing pre-created experience in D&D historical past. By way of comparison, Wizards claims that Witchlight bought much more copies in the month of its release than 2016’s Curse of Strahd did for the 1st couple of many years it was out.
Other Dungeons & Dragons news from Wizards’ first Immediate bundled:
- Journeys Via the Radiant Citadel is scheduled for launch in June. This is an anthology of 13 stand-on your own adventures set in 16 brand name-new locations. According to the undertaking direct, Ajit George, Journeys is the to start with D&D ebook “conceived, created, and published entirely by PoCs [people of color],” so many of its areas are influenced by actual-globe cultures that beforehand didn’t have a ton of fictional parallels in the D&D multiverse. The incorporated adventure “Wages of Vice,” for case in point, is established in a new realm which is evocative of the Caribbean.
- Two new components termed Marketing campaign Scenarios will get there in merchants on July 19, aimed at Dungeon Masters who do a ton of gaming on the highway or at conventions. The two sets, Creatures and Terrain, supply easy and moveable ways to established up gaming boards and maps for your D&D game, featuring reusable plastic “clings” for your monster tokens and hexes.
- The Dungeons & Dragons motion picture, now formally titled Honor Amongst Thieves, is however on keep track of for release in March 2023. It stars Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, and Michelle Rodriguez in an journey established alongside the Sword Coastline in the Overlooked Realms.
- A new are living-play sequence is established to debut on April 27, by using the formal D&D YouTube and Twitch channels. Legends of the Multiverse will broadcast as a sequence of 1-hour pre-recorded episodes, starring Deborah Ann Woll, B. Dave Walters, Gina Darling, Meagan Kenreck, and Todd Kenreck. Every single story arc in the series characteristics a rotating series of Dungeon Masters, with visitor-stars that include things like Aabria Iyengar, Ginny Di, Anna Prosser, Travis McElroy, and Sungwon Cho.
- A new starter set for D&D, Dragons of Stomwreck Isle, was formerly unveiled as aspect of a Hasbro press launch in Feb. Though it doesn’t have a release date yet, it was briefly proven all through the Immediate, and has been confirmed to ship at an MSRP of $19.99. It will include things like a rulebook, dice, character sheets, and a pre-produced journey.
- Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, the newest sequel in the landmark series of D&D-based mostly computer game titles,will formally go away Early Accessibility on Steam and Google Stadia in 2023.
- Wizkids also announced a new board recreation, D&D Onslaught, which pits two rival adventuring get-togethers in opposition to 1 another and a ruined maintain complete of monsters. It is scheduled to arrive out in Oct, and will incorporate 21 thoroughly-painted miniatures.
