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!

​

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.

SaveSave​

 

[MNblockhead]

If it's some Tomb of Horrors sequel/ rehash I'll save my money and yet again not buy an AP.

I do thank WOTC for coming out with an endless stream of product I have no desire to buy. Really saving me money.

And I'm sure they are thankful for the great success and all the money they've been making selling things you are uninterested in to other people.

Rather than pissing on what you don't care for, it might be more constructive (and interesting) to state what you were hoping for.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I find it more likely that all the marketing for the event is drawn from this season (Tomb of Horrors being in the Tales from the Yawning Portal hardcover), but that the actual storyline will be something quite different. WotC is in a pattern of alternating nostalgia products (Curse of Strahd, TftYP) with original adventures (Out of the Abyss, Storm King's Thunder); if the pattern holds, then next story should be something unique. Probably still set in the Realms, but I'm still holding out hope for extraplanar crossovers. All rampant speculation, of course!

As long as it has a drunk human NPC pugilist named "Chokehold Chuck" it can't possibly fail.

 

[Mortellan]

Acererak. FR novel. Sure, why not? Well seeing as though anything ToH related sells I am not shocked. The sad thing is despite me being a hardcore Greyhawk fan, I don't cling to ToH that hard. There has already been a sequel adventure and a novel made by the way. I like that ToH is referenced in Ready Player One and I am happy with Yawning Portal too. But now, the possibility of a spin-off has me wondering, is the Tomb of Horrors overdone? I never thought I'd get tired of the Great Green Face.

 

[Mouseferatu]

There has already been a sequel adventure...

Two, actually. *cough*

 

[Ashran]

And I'm sure they are thankful for the great success and all the money they've been making selling things you are uninterested in to other people.

Rather than pissing on what you don't care for, it might be more constructive (and interesting) to state what you were hoping for.

ok, I'll bite

What i would personnaly see me buying is a campaign setting. Not an adventure yet again, coz between dmsguild, adventurer's league, other publishers we are pretty well cattered for already. Now, when I say a campaign setting, I am thinking either an old one (basically any old setting except birthright which I don't like), or a completely new one (with a marked preference on this). That's one product. We assume for the moment that there will be two big product untill the end of the year, as a choice for the second that would be the rumored add on product with UA content. (I personnaly don't think we'll see it this year, and I think the big adventure they have planned will be a two parter. I have no proof, of course just a feeling on this.)

 

[jamesjhaeck]

ok, I'll bite

What i would personnaly see me buying is a campaign setting. Not an adventure yet again, coz between dmsguild, adventurer's league, other publishers we are pretty well cattered for already. Now, when I say a campaign setting, I am thinking either an old one (basically any old setting except birthright which I don't like), or a completely new one (with a marked preference on this). That's one product. We assume for the moment that there will be two big product untill the end of the year, as a choice for the second that would be the rumored add on product with UA content. (I personnaly don't think we'll see it this year, and I think the big adventure they have planned will be a two parter. I have no proof, of course just a feeling on this.)

I won't say it won't happen, but I think WotC is well aware that splitting their base via too many campaign settings [is one of the things that] killed TSR. Their strategy makes sense; offer the old stuff as pdfs on the DMs Guild for the die-hard fans, and keep a unified setting in their main line releases. Getting greedy and creating a new glut of settings would be their downfall, like it was in the 90s.

 

[Ashran]

I won't say it won't happen, but I think WotC is well aware that splitting their base via too many campaign settings [is one of the things that] killed TSR. Their strategy makes sense; offer the old stuff as pdfs on the DMs Guild for the die-hard fans, and keep a unified setting in their main line releases. Getting greedy and creating a new glut of settings would be their downfall, like it was in the 90s.

I agree with the splitting of their base with too many settings, but I do think that there is still some margin between what they offer right now and what would be that too many settings

 

[AriochQ]

I just hope that if they keep rehashing enough of the Greyhawk content that we get Greyhawk opened up for DMsGuild just like we had Ravenloft opened up with Curse of Stradh.

I have been running in GH for over 30 years and recently started a grand Greyhawk project for DM's Guild if they ever open it up. It they haven't by the time I complete it, I will have to re-skin it, which would be a shame.

 

[Jer]

*Yes, "can't". I'll be generous and won't call them lazy and say that Tales of the Yawning Portal was a bunch of old maps and text because they are under staff. Not because they are lazy and take their customer base for granted. I'm nice like that.

For a long time retailers have been asking Wizards (and TSR before them) to update the older adventures to newer editions and put them back into print. This has been a long-standing "ask" from retailers since the 2nd edition days and the fact that both TSR and Wizards after them essentially just left money on the table was always mind-boggling. So the idea that throwing out a book of updated adventures is "laziness" rather than Wizards continuing on their trend of trying to figure out what their audience wants and giving it to them is strange to me. Especially because as far as I can tell TftYP has been selling very well.

 

[Mercule]

I agree with the splitting of their base with too many settings, but I do think that there is still some margin between what they offer right now and what would be that too many settings

This. I generally run homebrew, but I have no problem with looting other settings. I'll even run the occasional Eberron or Greyhawk game.

It would just be nice to have anything that wasn't the Realms. I know a lot of people really like the setting, but it hits something akin to the "uncanny valley" effect, for me. It's really, really close to good fantasy, but it misses the mark in difficult to describe ways. Greyhawk, Mystara, and Krynn are all pretty solid fantasy settings (though I'm partial to Greyhawk). Dark Sun and Eberron are clearly not traditional fantasy settings, but are really fascinating in their own way and very enjoyable. Planescape or Spelljammer aren't really my thing, but I can at least see why someone might like them.

The Realms, on the other hand, are so close to what I'd like out of D&D, but just wrong. They cause a visceral reaction along the "kill it, kill it with fire" line. Good for you, if you want the Realms. I'd just really like to be able to pick up a D&D book without having the creepy, Japanese, synth-bot secretary staring at me, so to speak.

Put another way, I'd like WotC to pick a side of the fence. Either go ahead and officially state that D&D and the Realms are pretty much synonymous or give us something else. If they're married, I'll pick another rules system (or, at least, stop waiting for future content) and move on with life. If something else is released, I'll happily throw money at it.