WotC WotC Removes Release Dates From Promo Images For 2024

On Friday, WotC shared a bunch of images of 2024's D&D releases, which included release dates for each book.

• 2024 Core Rulebooks (May 21st)
• Vecna: Eve of Ruin (May 21st)
• Quests from the Infinite Staircase (July 16th)
• Making of D&D (June 18th)

The images were initially shared during a panel at PAX Unplugged, and were shortly after shared widely on the official D&D social media outlets.

However, a few hours later, all those images were removed from WotC's social media, and were later replaced by images without the release dates.

Additionally, the '2024 Core Rules' image was replaced with a caption saying '2024 Player's Handbook'.

It's not clear why they were removed, whether those release dates are incorrect, or if they simply weren't supposed to be shared yet. But since we shared those images too, we should note that it's possible the dates we shared might not be set in stone. More info if and when we have it!

 

[overgeeked]

And a lot more crap too.

Compared to WotC? No.

Seriously, a lot of TSR era stuff not good.

TSR wasn’t perfect by any means. They just put out better stuff than WotC ever has. Mid-tier TSR stuff is on par with the best WotC has ever done.

 

[Parmandur]

I am actively engaged in reading some of TSR era's best stuff lately, and...I really wouldn't say it is better than what WotC has been putting out in the past decade, pound for pound. There's a lot of great stuff across eras, but modern WotC has better quality control and playtesting, and are not lacking in creativity and design chops.

 

[Kurotowa]

I am actively engaged in reading some of TSR era's best stuff lately, and...I really wouldn't say it is better than what WotC has been putting out in the past decade, pound for pound. There's a lot of great stuff across eras, but modern WotC has better quality control and playtesting, and are not lacking in creativity and design chops.

You maybe don't get the moments of crazy creative brilliance. Certainly, 5e is still capitalizing on the explosion of 2e settings rather than blazing brand new ground, most of the time. And I still treasure my Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog. But at the same time, the lows aren't nearly as low. The utter cowcrap of the Complete Book of Elves? The pointlessness of the Complete Ninja's Handbook? I don't love every book in the 5e line, but compared to the old days the quality is remarkably consistent.

 

[Parmandur]

You maybe don't get the moments of crazy creative brilliance. Certainly, 5e is still capitalizing on the explosion of 2e settings rather than blazing brand new ground, most of the time. And I still treasure my Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog. But at the same time, the lows aren't nearly as low. The utter cowcrap of the Complete Book of Elves? The pointlessness of the Complete Ninja's Handbook? I don't love every book in the 5e line, but compared to the old days the quality is remarkably consistent.

Just in the products released this year, there are definite moments of crazy creative brilliance still. The besr bits from either wra can stand proud next to each other, IMO. And honestly, some of the "worst" 5E books are actually the ones that took big swing for the fences: Hoard of thebDragon Queen, Dragon Heist, Sterxhaven, and so on.

Still no 5E Forest Oracle.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Better products and writers.

This is all debatable. There was a fair amount of crap back then too.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Compared to WotC? No.

TSR wasn’t perfect by any means. They just put out better stuff than WotC ever has. Mid-tier TSR stuff is on par with the best WotC has ever done.

Ehh. There are gems, but I think this is just your nostalgia talking. What are in your opinions the best books released by TSR and WotC?

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Compared to WotC? No.

TSR wasn’t perfect by any means. They just put out better stuff than WotC ever has. Mid-tier TSR stuff is on par with the best WotC has ever done.

I disagree, but of course everyone has different metrics

 

[Superchunk77]

Ehh. There are gems, but I think this is just your nostalgia talking. What are in your opinions the best books released by TSR and WotC?

Mechanically, TSR books were all over the map. They were not balanced, but they didn't really care much about balance back then. Their strength was in the lore and fluff material. It was creative, well written, and was not infected by postmodernist nonsense.

From TSR, I loved the campaign settings (there were lots). The boxed set format full of books, maps, and other goodies had me hooked. In particular, Dark Sun and Birthright are two of my favorites. Both settings were well written and featured their own unique themes and mechanics. Dark Sun was such a unique world that it instantly stuck with me, while Birthright's domain system and bloodline mechanics combined to make a totally new game style for D&D.

From WotC, there are far fewer books that stand out to me. However, my favorite edition of D&D was 3.5e. Red Hand of Doom was awesome, the Core rulebooks, along with the Spell Compendium and some of the Monster Manuals are also faves. The 4e Dark Sun books were kinda cool, even though I didn't play 4e. None of their 5e material has resonated with me at all.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Compared to WotC? No.

TSR wasn’t perfect by any means. They just put out better stuff than WotC ever has. Mid-tier TSR stuff is on par with the best WotC has ever done.

As one who loved AD&D 2E and was there, I think this is a tough assertion to make. If anything, TSR's "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach saturated the market with crap, and the good stuff floated to the surface....and is what we remember. On the basis of volume, WotC has done fairly well compared to TSR before their collapse. But you know, ymmv and such.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As one who loved AD&D 2E and was there, I think this is a tough assertion to make. If anything, TSR's "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach saturated the market with crap, and the good stuff floated to the surface....and is what we remember. On the basis of volume, WotC has done fairly well compared to TSR before their collapse. But you know, ymmv and such.

Yeah, even leaving aside the adventures, which were of wildly variable quality, this list of 2E rulebooks really suggests that the quality level was all over the map, which I would say is comparable to the 3E era under WotC.

TSR went through 15 releases of loose leaf Monstrous Compendium appendices before they finally conceded it was a terrible idea, even if they weren't printing the monsters on the thinnest, most fragile pieces of paper they could find. And was it the Encyclopedia Magica or the Complete Wizard's Spell Compendium (each a multi-volume series of expensive deluxe books) that had the same copy and replace error repeated through every single volume without anyone at TSR catching it before the later volumes went out?

If anything, I'd say that 5E, even if individual products don't appeal (and I don't own 99% of the big adventure books or settings that WotC has produced for 5E, to be clear), are of much higher quality overall, most likely due to the fact that they're not trying to crank out books monthly.