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.

 

[Weiley31]

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.

Ya. I have a Battlemaster and I renamed/reflavoured it "Warblade" due to the maneuvers.

 

[Weiley31]

You don't buy SCAG for the fluff. You buy it for the Crunch. Just like how if you don't decide to go Greek via Theros or Wildemount if your not a Critter, then ya still get em for Crunch options.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Psionic powers need a class, and I miss some classes from previous editons, like the martial adepts and the game mechanic of the binder and the pacts with the vestiges. Each vestige was like a mini-prestige class you could change everyday.

My theory is the martial adepts (Tome of Batle: Book of Nine Swords) will come back with Kara-Tur, because it fits with the wuxia tone.

 

[Envisioner]

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.

Which is blatantly false. Even leaving aside things like Psionics and Incarnum, the Marshal class alone (renamed the Warlord in 4E) was an immensely valuable archetype, the Charisma-based battlefield commander who buffs other fighters without magic rather than fighting himself. You can make a Battle Master fighter function a little like that, and the Paladin also has a little in common with it, but you can't make a character who's anywhere near having Marshal/Warlord as his actual identify, and functioning optimally as the lead-from-behind tactical mastermind of a battle, using only the 5E rules as presented. And that's just the most immediately obvious of a dozen more archetypes I could come up with from 3E that remain impossible in 5E (at least as far as I know; I haven't obsessively studied SCAG and Xanathar's).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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

I mean, it's like a pretty minor idea to me. 4E was incredible for reskinning. You could literally take powers from another monster, and the DDI would autocalibrate them and do all the math for you and stuff, and you could level creatures up and down really easily, and change abilities really easily, and the whole monster editor (and the mechanics, post-fix) meant that re-skinning something in a useful and pointful way was really trivial and amazing.

5E doesn't have that. Generally, it's either tedious, in that you have to manually calculate a bunch of stuff, only to find WotC themselves were deviating from the formula for no apparent reason, or you just say "X is Y", as simple as that, because that's all you can do. Obviously you can describe something as something else and sometimes the mechanics support it, but it's not a particularly cool form of reskinning for my money. A lot of stuff, you might as well just make up a monster from scratch, because it won't take any less long, too.

 

[Parmandur]

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

No, that's what the UA test is for: the Setting suggests a possible option, and WotC sees if people want that.

 

[Parmandur]

You don't buy SCAG for the fluff. You buy it for the Crunch. Just like how if you don't decide to go Greek via Theros or Wildemount if your not a Critter, then ya still get em for Crunch options.

I buy the books for fluff as much as crunch.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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.

This thread is really giving my faith in JC quite a battering. That is just an awful and silly thing to say, and if he meant that it way, it speaks incredible volumes that he thought the Artificer was necessary (it isn't) but Psion and Warlord aren't (they're certainly more "necessary" than Artificer as a class).

Yeah, I don't grok the argument that reskinning is complicated in 5E. I haven't found it to be so at all.

Who said it was "more complicated"? It's more tedious and more often pointless is what I said. If I meant complicated or hard, I'd have said it. One day someone will complain about one of my posts based on something I actually said, not a bizarro-world take on what I said! I believe!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Red Mana, in both cases. The Barbarian does very specifically tie into Theros Minotaurs, in retrospect.

Barbarian Berserker: red mana
War Domain Cleric: red mana
Wild Magic Sorcerer: red mana

etc.

The concepts of chaos, war and fire are far from exclusive to MtG. And the same is true of all the traits associated with the mana colours. They are just generic fantasy concepts that can be found in many D&D subclasses. Just look at wizards: Abjuration (white), Illusion (blue), Necromancy (black) etc. Look wizard is clearly based on MtG!!!

 

[dave2008]

Why which part?

Why do you: "...strongly disagree with all of this." Why do you care if an otyugh appears in Ravnica or a Orzhov wizard can cast fireball? Or if someone wants to play D&D in Ravnica? More importantly, is this something you don't want personally for your game or do you think no one should be able to play this way?