D&D 5E WotC Announces An Impending Announcement: New Setting, Storyline

Early this week, WotC announced on Twitter that today there would be some kind of announcement on their Twitch channel. Those who heard that announcement and tuned in were treated to an announcement that the new storyline will be announced at a live event in June. The press release announcing the impending announcement also mentions a new setting, as well as the storyline, so it sounds like...

Early this week, WotC announced on Twitter that today there would be some kind of announcement on their Twitch channel. Those who heard that announcement and tuned in were treated to an announcement that the new storyline will be announced at a live event in June.

The press release announcing the impending announcement also mentions a new setting, as well as the storyline, so it sounds like it might not be set in the Forgotten Realms (or maybe is in a new region - to 5E - of the Realms, such as Icewind Dale). The adventure and the setting might be the same thing, or they might be completely different things. Recently, WotC has released a bunch of settings: Eberron, Ravnica, Wildemount, and the upcoming Theros.

Fans of D&D will learn all about the new setting and storyline

The new storyline specifically will be revealed at 12pm PST (8pm GMT) on Thursday, June 18th.

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The June event will raise money for Comic Relief, and will feature celebrities including Brandon Routh (Superman), and will preview the brand new storyline. It takes place June 18th-20th. Other names involved include Felicia Day, Deborah Ann Woll, Amy Acker, David Harbour, Matthew Lillard, and more.


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 PRESS RELEASE



RENTON, WA – May 21, 2020 – People all over the world continue to stay safe by staying home, but that doesn’t mean the adventuring has to stop. Dungeons & Dragons is more popular than ever because it allows people to weave compelling stories together even when they’re physically apart through online videoconferencing. Now, Wizards of the Coast brings the stars to this virtual table with D&D Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage. An amazing cast of characters led by expert storytellers preview the latest D&D storyline with live gaming sessions, all while raising money for Red Nose Day to help the most vulnerable children across the US and around the world, who have been so affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.The adventure begins 10:00am PT on June 18, 2020 and will run through June 20, 2020 at dungeonsanddragons.com.

D&D Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage features big personalities playing elves, wizards and fighters to accomplish quests using their imaginations. Funny people like Brian Posehn, Kevin Sussman and Thomas Middleditch will work together to solve problems or, more likely, cause some hilarious new ones. WWE ® Superstars Xavier Woods ®, Tyler Breeze ®, Ember Moon ®, Alexa Bliss ® and Dio Maddin ® will contend with beefcake destroyer Jeremy Crawford, a.k.a. Principal Rules Designer for D&D. Deborah Ann Woll will lead a group of actors in improvising a way to help people in a fantasy world not that different from ours. And principal D&D writer Chris Perkins takes players

Fans of D&D will learn all about the new setting and storyline as well as accompanying new products plus tons of unique gameplay available on June 18, 2020. D&D Adventurers League has four new short adventures everyone can enjoy. By donating a small amount to Red Nose Day, fans will have access to sign up for D&D sessions with players around the world! During #DnDLive2020, fans will also be able to choose the character best suited to help the region through Reality RP, a mashup of fantasy storytelling, community engagement, and reality television.


 

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Levistus's_Leviathan

5e Freelancer
Some quirky look behind their franchise plan curtain, yes.

They aren't bouncing from topic to topic haphazardly with the Adventures: per Chris Perkins many moons ago, they planned out five years of stories at the start of the edition, which we aren't quite at the end of yet since they went to one big storyline a year in 2017.
And no doubt they've planned out the next 5 by now.
 

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Parmandur

Book-Friend
Yeah but wasn't that all buildup to Baldur's Gate III, which has so far heavily featured mindflayers, githyanki, and a nautiloid.

Also worth noting again that last year, they had done several LYSK about the Hells, Devil's and Baldurs Gate well before they had announced anything about the Adventure, like over a month at least. Perkins actually laid out much of the backstory and context for the Storyline in those podcasts on the sly.

Then again, he also talked about Planescape, specifically the Rule of Three and the Lady of Pain, in the same timeframe. So not every segment is a hot preview. But no doubt some of them are.
 

Wouldn't the hostility be weird coming from Chris Perkins? He was hired when it was still TSR.

Yeah, unless he hated Dark Sun, which is possible. In 2E he only worked on Dragon/Dungeon AFAIK, rather than any settings.

Still I accept that it's more likely he was just bored of the question or the like.
 


Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
I don't want to speculate too much (OK, I do), but that list seems to imply a story arc set in the far North and Anauroch, with a strong Underdark theme, involving the mindflayers and setting the stage for...Planescape/Spelljammer in 2021.
Why would the 2020 campaign be necessary to "set the stage" for 2021?

And planar content is a lot more developed than the psionic content, which they're still making major changes to.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
I don't think they're release an adventure compilation this year. TftYP came out April of 2017, and Ghosts of Saltmarsh came out May 2019. If they continue this pattern, the next adventure compilation will be released Spring of 2021.
Two data points isn't much of a pattern. It may be they wanted to see how good long-term sales were on Yawning Portal before they figured out a similar product. It could very well be they intend to do them yearly now; we just don't have enough data to tell.
 



Gradine

The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
I don’t think they’d be working on player side psionics at all if they didn’t want to do darksun. Is player side psionics as important to anything else?

Rule of threes. That seems super important to Chris.

Not as important as in Dark Sun, but they definitely play a role in Eberron.
 

Levistus's_Leviathan

5e Freelancer
Two data points isn't much of a pattern. It may be they wanted to see how good long-term sales were on Yawning Portal before they figured out a similar product. It could very well be they intend to do them yearly now; we just don't have enough data to tell.
Yeah, it's not much of a pattern, but the same can be said for Volo's and Mordenkainen's. I don't think we're going to get another one of those books (mostly monster, a bit of player options, and lore books) until we get a "Xanathar's 2.0".
2 points of data isn't much, but I don't expect them to do one of those books every year.
 

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