The New D&D Adventure Storyline Will Be Announced On June 2nd-3rd

WotC is holding an event, which they're calling the Stream of Annihilation, on June 2nd and 3rd to announce the new D&D storyline. Various D&D Twitch steamers have been invited to participate in the upcoming campaign, which will be live streamed along with interviews, and so on. "We’ll have folks from Misscliks, Maze Arcana, Critical Role, and Dice, Camera, Action! with Chris Perkins, not to mention international gaming groups like Yogscast's HighRollers (U.K.) and Dragon Friends (Australia)." You'll be able to watch it all live on Twitch at the time. Is this where we'll discover the identity of the mysterious Dust and Midway? Speculate away!

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Here's the announcement in full. There's more info about the hosts and the guests here.

Dungeons & Dragons loves the amazing video streams produced by our fans. This community-generated live-play highlights what’s fantastic about D&D—sitting down together with your friends to tell a grand story!


To celebrate, we’ve invited a bunch of D&D streamers and luminaries to Seattle, Washington to hang out and roll some dice on June 2nd and 3rd! This two-day event is called the Stream of Annihilation and it’s two full days of streaming that D&D fans won’t want to miss. We’ll have folks from Misscliks, Maze Arcana, Critical Role, and Dice, Camera, Action! with Chris Perkins, not to mention international gaming groups like Yogscast's HighRollers (U.K.) and Dragon Friends (Australia).
[h=3]PROGRAMMING[/h]Kicking off at 10am on both June 2nd and 3rd, hosts Anna Prosser Robinson and Kelly Link will talk to the Wizards of the Coast D&D team and learn all about our next exciting storyline coming in September. Then each group of streamers will play or share a sample of what to expect from the campaigns they’ll be running over the summer that preview the new D&D story. There will be multiple live games, interviews, new product unveils and improvised hilarity each day, starting at 10am PT and ending at 10pm each night. You’ll get introduced to the High Rollers crew delving into uncharted territory DMed by Mark Hulmes, a new Misscliks show investigating rumors called Risen, two weekly groups from our friends Satine Phoenix and Ruty Rutenberg at Maze Arcana, a new group of L.A. actors called Girls Guts Glory, and more!


Throughout the Stream of Annihilation, we’ll drop details on our expanded D&D Twitch programming, new accessories fans have been clamoring for coming later this year, and amazing board games and products from our partners. You’ll hear from Cryptic Studios about plans for Neverwinter, Curse Media for D&D Beyond, as well as WizKids, Gale Force 9, Fantasy Grounds, Roll20, and more. Plus, like any Dungeon Master worth their salt, we have a few exciting surprises to pull from our bags of holding!
[h=3]FURTHER DETAILS[/h]You’ll have to watch the Stream of Annihilation to catch it all live! Follow twitch.tv/DnD to get all the updates, then mark your calendars for Friday, June 2nd and Saturday, June 3rd to make sure you don’t miss a thing!


A full schedule, group bios and some more of the celebrities attending the Stream of Annihilation will be announced over the next few weeks. We’ll also be talking about the event on our official Twitter account (@Wizards_DnD) as well as interviewing some of the groups this month on Dragon Talk, the official D&D podcast.

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[FitzTheRuke]

[MENTION=37579]Jester David[/MENTION] Speaking as a retailer, I disagree that "no one will buy all '10' books". Some people certainly will. But your point stands, that it would split the market across the books in a way we wouldn't want.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[Jester David]

Someone has never had to run a party that has had a serious portal/gate mishap where half of the party ends up in one setting and the other half in another I see...

That's a pretty rare situation.
And when that does happen, you often try to return home. It's a visit that doesn't so much need a full campaign setting but 30 seconds on a wiki.
And it's unlikely to happen 8 times to require all the books...

[MENTION=37579]Jester David[/MENTION] Speaking as a retailer, I disagree that "no one will buy all '10' books". Some people certainly will. But your point stands, that it would split the market across the books in a way we wouldn't want.

I don't think WotC can bank on the "collectors" that buy everything. They're an anomaly. Not the baseline for determine what to release. And really, I think after five or six campaign settings, even the collectors might hesitate.

I think the "Disney Vault" approach of one setting each year didn't work so well in 4e. Dark Sun seemed to land with a 'thud" despite being one of the most popular worlds.

 

[Demetrios1453]

That's a pretty rare situation.
And when that does happen, you often try to return home. It's a visit that doesn't so much need a full campaign setting but 30 seconds on a wiki.
And it's unlikely to happen 8 times to require all the both

*Is now inspired to run a campaign where the party is purposely split, half on one setting and half on the other, in communication, but having to remain separate to coordinate actions on the two worlds at the same time. Maybe characters are randomly swapped between settings after each major action...*



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[FitzTheRuke]

I don't think WotC can bank on the "collectors" that buy everything. They're an anomaly. Not the baseline for determine what to release. And really, I think after five or six campaign settings, even the collectors might hesitate.

I think the "Disney Vault" approach of one setting each year didn't work so well in 4e. Dark Sun seemed to land with a 'thud" despite being one of the most popular worlds.

Absolutely. The release schedule of 5e is certainly working by comparison.

 

[Jester David]

*Is now inspired to run a campaign where the party is purposely split, half on one setting and half on the other, in communication, but having to remain separate to coordinate actions on the two worlds at the same time. Maybe characters are randomly swapped between settings after each major action...*

Or a Planescape campaign like Sliders where the party bounces between Prime Material worlds every other adventure.

 

[gyor]

Absolutely. The release schedule of 5e is certainly working by comparison.

We will have to agree to disagree on that, at least in the case of they should have released a FRCG by now.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

We will have to agree to disagree on that, at least in the case of they should have released a FRCG by now.

I meant working to promote sales. Not working to make certain people happy.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[Shasarak]

The context of my statement was a response to the claim that WotC needed to produce new settings otherwise new players would only be familiar with the Realms, potentially not realising they have options in settings.

One of the example settings you gave was Westeros which, in my opinion, is a terrible DnD setting. I mean sure not as horrible as Middle Earth but otherwise just a really really bad fit for DnD especially compared to any other DnD setting.

So why should WotC do the heavy lifting? Well for a start they own the settings and those settings are specifically designed for DnD even the bad settings like Dark Sun. For a second, another company selling settings will not do anything to solve the WotC "no one buys anything except Forgotten Realms" issue. All of their data will still indicate that fact. And for a third, many of those other settings that are available are just incredibly niche products that probably would not even show up on the "What setting do you play" questionnaires. I mean take arguably the second most popular DnD setting of Golarion - it does not even show up on the Sly Flourish questionnaire and it gets amazing levels of support.

So that is why WotC needs to do the heavy lifting but you are correct that they are not capable of doing it as it is a "losing strategy".

 

[Shasarak]

[MENTION=37579]Jester David[/MENTION] Speaking as a retailer, I disagree that "no one will buy all '10' books". Some people certainly will. But your point stands, that it would split the market across the books in a way we wouldn't want.

I guess in the samy way as Toyota selling two different types of Cars splits the market.

I mean just like playing campaign settings you can not drive two cars at the same time, can you?

 

[Jester David]

I guess in the samy way as Toyota selling two different types of Cars splits the market.

I mean just like playing campaign settings you can not drive two cars at the same time, can you?

1) People can own more than one car. It can be one car per person, not group.
2) There *might* be more car owners than D&D players. So even with people only buying a new car ever 2-5 years there's a range.
3) Car companies stay in buisness by selling new cars , not accessories and expansions for one model of car.
4) You can use a 25yo campaign setting without any issue, printing the PDF at home. You can't make a car at home or use a decade old one without problems.