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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm sorry if it wasn't clear that I was thinking of the recent spate of Setting books in block (the timeframe between Ravnica and There's is the same as between Volo and MToF, for what that is worth. But looking at just Everton, Wildemount, and Theros they are comparable to a whole Volo's Guide of monster options.

I was only comparing the bestiary sections, not the whole books. I like Volo and MToF quite a bit, but the lore in those books is not particularly less specific for porting into a homebrew than what is provided by Wildemount or Eberron.

I notice you don't mention Ravnica. Wildemount makes sense as it's generic fantasy, but I don't trust the quality of content in it, so I haven't purchased it, and the subclasses are ultra-setting-specific.

I don't feel that the combined quality of monsters in Eberron (I presume this is Everton, not that the English football club suddenly put out an official WotC setting book!), and Theros, even assuming Wildemount has good ones makes it genuinely the equal of the truly excellent Volos, and combined with the low quality overall of classes and other rules, if this is the new approach, I guess I'll have to "vote with my wallet", as it were, and not buy anything more after Theros. Of course if they release Dark Sun and Planescape stuff I will be unable resist it's siren lure.

 

[Bolares]

And yet they used art from a White card for the Paladin in the final books.

We'll see if any of those other options make it into a book. I doubt it.

There isn't much room for archetypes, that aren't highly specific.

Sure they use art from the cards, but because the art represents what they are trying to doo, not because it's white mana. James Wyatt himself said in a Dragontalk episode when the Ravnica book was being marketed that the idea of colored mana is not represented in the setting books.

 

[Parmandur]

I notice you don't mention Ravnica. Wildemount makes sense as it's generic fantasy, but I don't trust the quality of content in it, so I haven't purchased it, and the subclasses are ultra-setting-specific.

I don't feel that the combined quality of monsters in Eberron (I presume this is Everton, not that the English football club suddenly put out an official WotC setting book!), and Theros, even assuming Wildemount has good ones makes it genuinely the equal of the truly excellent Volos, and combined with the low quality overall of classes and other rules, if this is the new approach, I guess I'll have to "vote with my wallet", as it were, and not buy anything more after Theros. Of course if they release Dark Sun and Planescape stuff I will be unable resist it's siren lure.

So if WotC releases Dark Sun and Planescape, their strategy is validated?

Stat blocks is stat blocks, and the quality of the monsters, at a minimum, is quite good across the books. WotC has testing those down quite well at this point, and some of the Theros monsters are great fun and something new.

 

[Parmandur]

Sure they use art from the cards, but because the art represents what they are trying to doo, not because it's white mana. James Wyatt himself said in a Dragontalk episode when the Ravnica book was being marketed that the idea of colored mana is not represented in the setting books.

Not explicitly, but it's in the metaphysical background.

 

[Bolares]

I don't feel that the combined quality of monsters in Eberron (I presume this is Everton, not that the English football club suddenly put out an official WotC setting book!), and Theros, even assuming Wildemount has good ones makes it genuinely the equal of the truly excellent Volos, and combined with the low quality overall of classes and other rules, if this is the new approach, I guess I'll have to "vote with my wallet", as it were, and not buy anything more after Theros. Of course if they release Dark Sun and Planescape stuff I will be unable resist it's siren lure.

To me all of them have quality in terms of monsters, but Volo's and Mornenkainen's also has a large quantity of good monsters, and is more free to explore monsters from a multitude of places, not having to worry about representing the main monsters that are exclusive to a setting. Variety and freedom are a big plus in the more generic books, and a thing I find hard for setting books to emulate.

 

[Bolares]

Not explicitly, but it's in the metaphysical background.

The metaphysical background is not enough to justify a subclass being in a book because it's "red mana" though.

 

[dave2008]

I would strongly disagree with all of this. The Ravnica book dropped the ball significantly by not even considering the I'm not cool with having a D&D game that's actually set on Ravnica, but where an Orzhov wizard can cast Fireball if he wants to, where the Simic Mutant is a specific race instead of a combination of multiple races, or where the DM is free to include a classic MTG monster such as an Otyugh without in any way considering how that would impact the Ravnican ecology.

Why?

 

[Envisioner]

Why?

Why which part?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That said, the biggest clue might simply be the lack of a planes product, and the near-fact that a planes product is an inevitability. WotC has touched upon most of the major tropes of D&D history, with the glaring omissions being the planes and psionics. Given the problems with psionic playtests, it is logical to think that the planes are up first, so...

I think the most we can say with some degree of confidence is that we're going to see a planes product of some kind, at some point relatively soon - and almost certainly before we see psionics. But what "some kind" and "relatively soon" mean...well, we don't know. It could be November 2020, or it could be 2022. I personally think 2021 is the most likely. It could be Xanathar 2 with planar rules, or it could be a true MotP (probably by a different name), or it could be a setting-theme sourcebook like Shemeska's Guide to Sigil and the Planes.

All of this, yes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Given that re-skinning in 5E is tedious and frequently pointless (unlike in 4E, where it was easy and highly effective)

Wait, what now? This is a pretty big idea you're just blowing past.