D&D 5E 2020 Release Speculation Thread

[darjr]

I remember Greg Tito recently talking about a show they were planning but the pandemic put a stop to it. I think normally that announcement would have happened by now.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I remember Greg Tito recently talking about a show they were planning but the pandemic put a stop to it. I think normally that announcement would have happened by now.

Would you be able to find where he said that?

 

[darjr]

Oh, it’s in one of the D&D podcasts....

 

[Jester David]

I'm curious to something else; when do y'all think the next Adventure book will be announced?

I think they held off announcing D&D Live 2020 to see what was happening.

Their regular late announcements for the live events pissed me off in December/ January—as I wanted to buy airfare and hotel early—but now seems like a smart move: you don't need to cancel an event that hasn't been announced.
I expect we'll hear something in a couple weeks.

I doubt they'll do a big online event. For a company as big as D&D those are a pain. Instead they might just do a few streamed games, such as the premiere of TORCH.
If they even do that. They might just do a low key press release like they did for Theroes and Wildmounte.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Oh, it’s in one of the D&D podcasts....

darjr, you changed your profile photo... AGAIN!

 

[darjr]

Help? I have a problem?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The next week or two the US is basically in a big limbo with the coronavirus, with some states being able to get sort of back to normal sooner than others. I think Washington state, where WotC is based, is one that could start lifting restrictions sooner, rather than later, because all this started there first and they have had more time to get it under control. So WotC could easily be able to go in and work in their offices a couple of weeks from now and, while still needing to socially distance, put together another big reveal event that just won't have a live audience or a large number of people physically there. That would mean any of their celebrity games would be done from home, instead of in person. Going by the dates from the previous years, we could easily get the big presentation at the end of May or start of June. But I doubt they will start teasing anything til they know what Washington's governor decides to do.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The next week or two the US is basically in a big limbo with the coronavirus, with some states being able to get sort of back to normal sooner than others. I think Washington state, where WotC is based, is one that could start lifting restrictions sooner, rather than later, because all this started there first and they have had more time to get it under control. So WotC could easily be able to go in and work in their offices a couple of weeks from now and, while still needing to socially distance, put together another big reveal event that just won't have a live audience or a large number of people physically there. That would mean any of their celebrity games would be done from home, instead of in person. Going by the dates from the previous years, we could easily get the big presentation at the end of May or start of June. But I doubt they will start teasing anything til they know what Washington's governor decides to do.

As someone who lives in WA state myself, it does look for now that restrictions will lift May 4. However, many of the businesses who are able to keep their business running while having people work at home have said they plan to maintain their policy for a month past loosening actually starts.

I suspect WotC will maintain social distancing into June, following the lead of companies like Microsoft/Amazon. So they may push their event in that month if things open up next week.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Well, sorry for reviving the thread, but I'd like to input my ideas for this year's upcoming books.
(Also, I live in Washington State as well, and it is past May 4th, and the restrictions are still in place, and will remain so for awhile.)

First, I do think that there will be at least 2 more books this year. The first one will be an adventure. Someone mentioned aberration themed, and I do think that is likely, as we don't have a good Mind Flayer adventure yet. Another option could be possibly but unlikely an Eberron adventure or a Feywild adventure.

Second, the last book of the year will be Xanathar's 2.0/Planescape. I think it will be both a campaign setting book and a player options book. A lot of the recent UA subclasses have been planescape themed (Noble Genie Warlock, Astral Self Monk, Fey Wanderer Ranger, Watchers Paladin, and many others.)
Additionally, there are the new Summoning Spells UA that are also Planescape themed.
This leads me to believe that all of these subclasses and spells will be in a Xanathar's 2.0 book that is either themed like Planescape (so narrated by a planar creature, like Xanathar commented on XGtE), or it is a planescape campaign setting guide that has a large chapter for player options.

Now, at first it seems unlikely that they'd make a player option book also be a campaign setting book, but it could work. Recent 5e books have been much longer in page quantity (Rising from the Last War was 320 pages, Wildemount was 308). Xanathar's was one of the shortest books in 5e, with only 192 pages.
Only 53 pages of Xanathar's Guide to Everything were dedicated to subclasses, along with 3 pages for Feats, and 24 pages for spells. If this hybrid Xanathar's 2.0/Planescape book were to be similar in options to XGtE, it could have about 80 pages dedicated to subclasses, feats, and spells. Additionally, about 12 pages for the Class Feature Variants as well, making the Player Option section of the book around 92 pages. If they included the Artificer, it will be closer to 100 pages. That's about one-third of the book being player options if they were to do this.

Then, they could have a chapter for descriptions on the planes of existence, and there are probably around 20 planes of existence that they should give detailed descriptions on. If we're assuming that the book is 320 pages (the same length as Eberron and the 3 core rulebooks) then 100 pages are dedicated to player options, and they would have around 200 pages for plane descriptions. This would be around 10 pages per plane, with a small map of each one, and descriptions of the regions, unique rules, and possible adventure hooks. They could then have 20 pages for a small bestiary, similar to the ones from Eberron, Ravnica and Wildemount, and have the book be the same size as the core rulebooks and have both enough room for player options and plane descriptions, and be a feasible book to put together.

Any thoughts on this theory? Again, I'm not sure if they are going to do this, it's just speculation, but it seems fairly likely that either the Xanathar's 2.0 book will be planescape-themed, or be a planescape rulebook. Any ideas on why they wouldn't do this, or the book wouldn't work?

 

[Parmandur]

Well, sorry for reviving the thread, but I'd like to input my ideas for this year's upcoming books.
(Also, I live in Washington State as well, and it is past May 4th, and the restrictions are still in place, and will remain so for awhile.)

First, I do think that there will be at least 2 more books this year. The first one will be an adventure. Someone mentioned aberration themed, and I do think that is likely, as we don't have a good Mind Flayer adventure yet. Another option could be possibly but unlikely an Eberron adventure or a Feywild adventure.

Second, the last book of the year will be Xanathar's 2.0/Planescape. I think it will be both a campaign setting book and a player options book. A lot of the recent UA subclasses have been planescape themed (Noble Genie Warlock, Astral Self Monk, Fey Wanderer Ranger, Watchers Paladin, and many others.)
Additionally, there are the new Summoning Spells UA that are also Planescape themed.
This leads me to believe that all of these subclasses and spells will be in a Xanathar's 2.0 book that is either themed like Planescape (so narrated by a planar creature, like Xanathar commented on XGtE), or it is a planescape campaign setting guide that has a large chapter for player options.

Now, at first it seems unlikely that they'd make a player option book also be a campaign setting book, but it could work. Recent 5e books have been much longer in page quantity (Rising from the Last War was 320 pages, Wildemount was 308). Xanathar's was one of the shortest books in 5e, with only 192 pages.
Only 53 pages of Xanathar's Guide to Everything were dedicated to subclasses, along with 3 pages for Feats, and 24 pages for spells. If this hybrid Xanathar's 2.0/Planescape book were to be similar in options to XGtE, it could have about 80 pages dedicated to subclasses, feats, and spells. Additionally, about 12 pages for the Class Feature Variants as well, making the Player Option section of the book around 92 pages. If they included the Artificer, it will be closer to 100 pages. That's about one-third of the book being player options if they were to do this.

Then, they could have a chapter for descriptions on the planes of existence, and there are probably around 20 planes of existence that they should give detailed descriptions on. If we're assuming that the book is 320 pages (the same length as Eberron and the 3 core rulebooks) then 100 pages are dedicated to player options, and they would have around 200 pages for plane descriptions. This would be around 10 pages per plane, with a small map of each one, and descriptions of the regions, unique rules, and possible adventure hooks. They could then have 20 pages for a small bestiary, similar to the ones from Eberron, Ravnica and Wildemount, and have the book be the same size as the core rulebooks and have both enough room for player options and plane descriptions, and be a feasible book to put together.

Any thoughts on this theory? Again, I'm not sure if they are going to do this, it's just speculation, but it seems fairly likely that either the Xanathar's 2.0 book will be planescape-themed, or be a planescape rulebook. Any ideas on why they wouldn't do this, or the book wouldn't work?

I think this is spot-on. We now have multiple 5E Setting books in play: I'd say that the in-house ones (Ravnica, Eberron and Theros from what we know so far) already are basically Xanathars Guide & Volo's Guide follow-ups with Gazateer information:

• Chapter 1: Player options, Races, Classes, Backgrounds, Guild stuff, Group Patrons, Supernatural Blessings, etc.
• Chapter 2: General Setting info and big picture Gazateer material
• Chapter 3: A campaign central location, such as District Ten, Sharon and for your idea, Sigil
• Chapter 4: Adventure generation tools
• Chapter 5: Magic loot
• Chapter 6: Monsters

I feel that something like this for Planescape would fit what they are laying down very well, and fit your theory.