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]

Man, Mordenkein's should have had some more quirky options for PCs, like Volo's did.

I know! That was one of my major complaints with Mordenkainen's. It's a great book, but it had barely any character options, lore on the things we didn't need a ton of lore for, IMHO, and no beasts or NPC options like Volo's had in the back of the book.

 

[Parmandur]

I know! That was one of my major complaints with Mordenkainen's. It's a great book, but it had barely any character options, lore on the things we didn't need a ton of lore for, IMHO, and no beasts or NPC options like Volo's had in the back of the book.

The Gith options were cool, and the new Elf Subraces. Just felt there could have been a few more things...

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Gith options were cool, and the new Elf Subraces. Just felt there could have been a few more things...

Dropped so many elf subraces. Only ended up with 3 new ones, right?
Gith are cool, but I would've liked more races.

 

[Parmandur]

Dropped so many elf subraces. Only ended up with 3 new ones, right?
Gith are cool, but I would've liked more races.

They tested Wild Elves, Aquatic, Acerial (bird Elves), and Eladrin. Eladrin and Aquatic Elves made it in the book (and Aquatic were reprinted in Wildemount).

 

[Demetrios1453]

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.

It's great for what it is. The sections on the gods and races of the setting are top-notch, for example.

It's just so short for the price. Expand it by a hundred or more pages, add some coverage to the rest of the continent, pilfer Volo's Waterdeeep Enchiridion from Dragon Heist for a city base, make a short adventure or two, add in a bestiary, slap on a special cover, rebrand it as "Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide Special Edition", and it would be just up there like Eberron or Ravnica as a setting guide.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

These books do everything a Volo's or Xanathar's would, and then some.

Is this a joke? Because no. Even between all three books we don't have as many Subclasses as Xanathars, let alone Feats, Magic Items, Spells, and useful rules. I strongly suspect we also don't have as many new monsters as Volo's.

But again, between the PHB and XGtE, they have hit most of the big archetypal options, per Crawford himself. They have to go further afield for.options, which means ...settings.

I never thought Crawford was in any way dumb, but if believes they have hit "most of the big archetypal options" already, when they don't even have any psionics, let alone a bunch of other stuff, he's a bit of a fool.

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

Not trying to dunk on your wife here, but one person liking a bad subclass doesn't magically make it not a bad subclass. I truly loved the 2E Mystic, right down to the ridiculous candles. But even I can accept it was a goddamn terrible class.

The issue with 5E is that the base classes for most classes (including 5E) are so well done, that even a godawful subclass can't ruin most of them. And Crown Oath is merely kinda bad, not godawful (hello Purple Dragon Knight).

This is the big problem with criticising subclasses in general. Most of them can be carried by their main class, and then people are like "Well the Warlock in my game didn't suck even though he chose [insert terrible patron and pact]!". And it's like yeah, of course he didn't he's a Warlock. He could just take EB and Agonizing Blast and y'know entirely forget about all his other abilities entirely and he still "wouldn't suck".

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Is this a joke? Because no. Even between all three books we don't have as many Subclasses as Xanathars, let alone Feats, Magic Items, Spells, and useful rules. I strongly suspect we also don't have as many new monsters as Volo's.

I agree. They don't contain near enough information to claim that they "do everything a Volo's or Xanathar's would, and then some". They have a bit of everything in order to make sure everyone can buy them and get something out of them.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I never thought Crawford was in any way dumb, but if believes they have hit "most of the big archetypal options" already, when they don't even have any psionics, let alone a bunch of other stuff, he's a bit of a fool.

Yeah. JC once said that we're not getting anymore classes after the Artificer, because any other class can be used to emulate the other classes from previous editions. I agree with a bit of this. Like, we definitely don't need a whole class for Samurai, as they can easily be a Fighter subclass, but Psionics definitely needs a new class IMHO.

 

[vpuigdoller]

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

Lol disagree big time on this, is one of the books I most have seen in use in other tables. Personally I have used it the most.

 

[Parmandur]

Is this a joke? Because no. Even between all three books we don't have as many Subclasses as Xanathars, let alone Feats, Magic Items, Spells, and useful rules. I strongly suspect we also don't have as many new monsters as Volo's.



I never thought Crawford was in any way dumb, but if believes they have hit "most of the big archetypal options" already, when they don't even have any psionics, let alone a bunch of other stuff, he's a bit of a fool.



Not trying to dunk on your wife here, but one person liking a bad subclass doesn't magically make it not a bad subclass. I truly loved the 2E Mystic, right down to the ridiculous candles. But even I can accept it was a goddamn terrible class.

The issue with 5E is that the base classes for most classes (including 5E) are so well done, that even a godawful subclass can't ruin most of them. And Crown Oath is merely kinda bad, not godawful (hello Purple Dragon Knight).

Focusing on the Monsters a second:

• Volo's Guide: ~127 stat blocks, 100 page bestiary (WPP is pretty consistent across 5E, from my spot checks)
• Mordenkein's Tome of Foes: 139 stat blocks, 138 page bestiary
• Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica: 73 page bestiary, would have to dig a bit to get the full Monster list count, but it is pretty sizeable.
• Eberron Rising from the Last War: a 37 page bestiary, quite dense as well
• Explorer's Guide to Wildemount: 30 page bestiary
• Mythic Odysseys of Theros: about 50 page bestiary

So about 190 pages of monsters for the last four Settings combined, versus 239 pages for Volo's plus Mordenkein's.

The combined four books only have 10 Subclasses, but they have Races and rule modules like Renkown, Group Patrons, Piety, and so on

Covers both categories, really. Double duty.