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 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.

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

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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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

SCAG is a very successful book, that still sells actively. It is not the most beloved book among the enfranchised player base, but it is not a failure by any measure. SCAG has been in print as long as the 3.5 Core rulebooks, and is still selling! That's success in this world.

Anyone who has read the book will tell you that it sucks. The subclasses are mostly broken, and is routinely forgotten.

 

[darjr]

We've reached the end of the road for testing for the Fall book by now. They aren't doing a new UA this month, and the book's contents are likely set as of the final survey results.

That seems really ambitious

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

We've reached the end of the road for testing for the Fall book by now. They aren't doing a new UA this month, and the book's contents are likely set as of the final survey results.

We'll see. If there's no UA by the end of the week, they're probably done playtesting for this book.

 

[Parmandur]

They did not playtest the first giant group of subclasses last year for Theros. There were way too many, and they would have to have dropped way too many of them. This can be debated forever, but the fact that you believe that since we haven't received a new UA version for a lot of those subclasses means that they are dropped is a fallacy. Many UA for XGtE were dropped. Many UA for XGtE were never put in UA twice and still made their way into the book.

The fact we haven't seen them twice proves nothing, even if you insist that they were meant for Theros (which they weren't)

Yet everything tested specifically for Xanathar's that made it in was tested within 12 months of final release at most (though a few older UA options made it in, because they changed the threshold from 90% approval to 70% approval, such as the Inquisitive Rogue).

There is no particular reason to believe the first batch of 12 Subclasses was tested for anything other than Theros: the contents of that book would have been determined by the results of the UA testing, and the flavor is pretty obviously for Theros in that batch in retrospect.

Time will tell, but the unspoken 7 remaining options for from that period are not positioned well.

 

[Parmandur]

We'll see. If there's no UA by the end of the week, they're probably done playtesting for this book.

They already put out the Survey, said it would be open for two weeks, and said on Twitter they had nothing to test for the time being.

 

[Parmandur]

That seems really ambitious

The last UA for XGtE was at the start of June, the only thing they tested later than that for Ravnica was Races, and Eberron was all locked in by this time. No way Crawford is expanding the options under consideration at this time, if there is going to be a book this Fall it needs to be finalized soon.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There is no particular reason to believe the first batch of 12 Subclasses was tested for anything other than Theros: the contents of that book would have been determined by the results of the UA testing, and the flavor is pretty obviously for Theros in that batch in retrospect.

The flavor is just as easily obvious for Planescape. The reason to believe that they wouldn't playtest 12 subclasses for Theros is because they've never playtested that much for one book before. For Ravnica, they playtested a handful of subclasses, and revised them until they were good enough to put into the book.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

said on Twitter they had nothing to test for the time being.

I very much would like to see proof of this.

 

[Parmandur]

Anyone who has read the book will tell you that it sucks. The subclasses are mostly broken, and is routinely forgotten.

Proveably false, I've read the book and used and loved it for five years.

Five.

Years.

Not a failure. My wife's favorite character was a Crown Oath Paladin. Forum chatter ≠ accurate assessment of success.

 

[Parmandur]

I very much would like to see proof of this.

They didn't say much, bit based on the following and the publication schedule, I'd say that's it for a while: