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​

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

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.

2E had "Return to the Keep on the Borderlands", "Return to White Plume Mountain", and "Against the Giants, the Liberation of Geoff", just off the top of my head. Oh and the "Return to the Tomb of Horrors" boxed set too.

3E had "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" and some official conversions of material like White Plume Mountain to 3E available for download. Then there were the Expeditions to Castle Ravenloft, to the Ruins of Greyhawk, to Undermountain, and to the Demonweb Pits.

4E had a new "Tomb of Horrors", "Revenge of the Giants", A series of adventures in Dungeon involving the keep on the borderlands, a 4e Undermountain book, and a DM reward module that was "Village of Hommlett" for 4E.

They've published updates/rehashes of older adventures in every edition since the first. Presumably they sold well enough to keep doing it. I don't see them leaving money on the table here really at all.

They've even made the original editions available as PDF's at a fairly low price so anyone who wants to can convert their own to their favorite edition!

I'd say in contrast that if you want to run old adventures for a new generation it's easier to do now than it ever has been.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So... can we stop complaining that it's a FR-based AP, until we actually know that's the case? For all we know, Chult and Acererak may only be involved in the adventure in minor ways, or it may be the speculation has been totally wrong and it's something entirely different that doesn't involve either at all...

 

[murquhart72]

Old Losers! F**k You. That includes Perkins? He's my age. Grow up. Yes FR is the default, but to tell it's creator Gygax (Greyhawk) and others that they are irrelevant, you forget the roots and ages of these pioneers. Without them, you would be playing Monopoly and Risk only!

I'll have you know I'm one of the oldest of those losers Mate! Gary's work will never be irrelevant to me, but WotC? Just a name-drop for them. I loved the Realms when they first came out, but now it's like a favorite song that's been played to death. Not only has it absorbed Kara-Tur, but now it's sucking all the best ideas/dungeons/villains from ever other world to be a bloated monster of Mary Sue infested potpourri.
As for growing up; You'll not see me growing past '84 or so. My phone has a cord attached to the wall and if I want video games, I turn the 'tube' to channel 3 and that's the way I like it!
The things written by Gary for Gary's world should take place in Gary' s World (as far as "official" stuff goes). May not be a popular opinion, but it's this old stogies line of thought

 

[Zaukrie]

Look, another thread that is a realms thread. Sigh.

 

[Manalishi66]

That's the problem exactly! Wotc just uses other realms lifesblood a throws in FR because they got some hard-on for it. I've been a DM for 40 years and I played in Greyhawk (the little Greyhawk book with OD&D) all those years and many in Forgotten Realm, and others. I'm only dissing those who think FR is all that and if it was not for those before, these uninformed "Squeekers" think D&D began with 5th and was created by high school kids. Nothing against you, just, as you implied Wotc often doesn't know its ass from a hole in the ground a lot of the time. Cheers to you, just venting because of the hypocrisy of some, not all!

PS. Wotc needs to throw Gary a bone other than a couple of adventures in a book. Greyhawk and others deserve a 5e Guide Book too! Especially its creator!

 

[Remathilis]

I'm constantly told everyone who plays Greyhawk ignores From the Ashes on and only uses the '84 folio anyway, so why do we need yet another GH book the "purists" will raise their noses at with distain?

 

[murquhart72]

That's the problem exactly! Wotc just uses other realms lifesblood a throws in FR because they got some hard-on for it. I've been a DM for 40 years and I played in Greyhawk (the little Greyhawk book with OD&D) all those years and many in Forgotten Realm, and others. I'm only dissing those who think FR is all that and if it was not for those before, these uninformed "Squeekers" think D&D began with 5th and was created by high school kids. Nothing against you, just, as you implied Wotc often doesn't know its ass from a hole in the ground a lot of the time. Cheers to you, just venting because of the hypocrisy of some, not all!

PS. Wotc needs to throw Gary a bone other than a couple of adventures in a book. Greyhawk and others deserve a 5e Guide Book too! Especially its creator!

Booyeah! Hear hear! Huzzah! In other words, I agree whole-heartedly

 

[Azzy]

Great. Greyhawk has become the hipster setting.

 

[Manalishi66]

I'm constantly told everyone who plays Greyhawk ignores From the Ashes on and only uses the '84 folio anyway, so why do we need yet another GH book the "purists" will raise their noses at with distain?

I would not buy it, and yes From the Ashes is garbage (I don't use it). However, those new to D&D need to see that there is more than just FR and Wotc needs to give Gary his props as the creator of this great game!

 

[Mercurius]

Sometimes I wonder if there are maybe a dozen or fewer conversations that happen on EN World, with just endless variations and starting points, yet all threads eventually morph into of the (Un)Holy Twelve (or whatever number it is).

That aside, I really don't get the Realms hatred. I mean, I get that Elminster is annoyingly smarmy, Drizzt's kewl factor peaks at age 12 and declines steadily from there (and at an increasing rate of decline once one gets laid for the first time), and that there are many other great settings in the D&D canon. But the hate? It seems so unnecessary.

I also don't get the cries of "bring back Greyhawk!" These folks are, quite frankly, living in the past. There is a reason that WotC has put their chips behind the Realms and not Greyhawk, and it probably has something to do with the difference between the words "Verbobonc" and "Sembia." I have many fond memories of Greyhawk, in a similar way that I have fond memories of Galaga, acid-washed jean shorts, and fanny packs (OK, not really the latter two). They were fun at the time, but aren't coming back. For whatever reason, the Realms feels less anachronistic, more timeless, and perhaps a bit more palatable to a wider number of folks. This isn't saying that one is better than the other in some kind of absolute way, but that one is better than the other for the purposes of WotC. In other words, it makes perfect sense why WotC sets their story arcs in the Realms, and it is also rather easy to adjust them to your homebrew setting, or another D&D world.

To be clear, I don't run in either world. I haven't played much D&D in recent years, but when I do DM, I always homebrew, because I probably like world-building and playing with ideas as much or more than actually playing. But I like setting books; in fact, they're my favorite type of RPG product - whether for mining (stealing) ideas, reading of far-off places, or just scanning demographics of cities and wondering why Calimshan had two million people in one edition, and 200,000 in the next. And you know what? I'd buy either a FR or GH setting book, or any setting book WotC publishes. But what I'd like to see more than anything is a new setting. Bring something new to life, even if it is just going back to Nerath and properly developing it, or digging up the runner-up in the setting contest from bygone ages or (preferably) building something fresh.

I doubt it will happen, but I can see valid reasons why it would be a good idea. In fact, I'd love to see them publish something like the "Tales from the World Serpent" mentioned up-thread, and a massive story arc to bring them all together, then put all those older worlds on the back-burner, and focus on creating something new. Why do we always need to go back and re-hash the past? This is a cultural trend, and I get why it is done - it is safer to re-introduce Captain Kirk again, than give Jenna Blazethorn and the Cosmic Wayfarers a movie. But it is, well, creative cowardice. Why not explore new worlds?