D&D 5E D&D Head Talks Future Plans (Sort Of)

WotC has launched a new design blog. The first edition is written by D&D head Ray Winninger, and he talks a little about future plans.

"Later in the year, Chris will return with our big summer adventure, James Wyatt will deliver a substantially improved version of a concept that I initiated myself, and Amanda Hamon will close us out with a project that was jointly conceived by herself and several other studio members. As usual, Jeremy Crawford is working with all of our leads, overseeing mechanical content and rules development.

In addition to these five major products, look for a couple of additional surprises we’ll unveil in the months ahead."

You can read the full blog here:

Who We Are & What We Do | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

The first of many design blogs, direct from your friends at the Dungeons & Dragons Studio!

dnd.wizards.com

He also mentions that a D&D book takes 12-14 months to make, and half the projects developed don't make it to market. Winninger describes the structure of WotC's 'D&D Studio':

"The D&D Studio itself is organized into four departments: Game Design, Art, Production, and Product Management, each led by a department head. Game Design is responsible for the developing game mechanics and stories. Art establishes the “look and feel” of Dungeons & Dragons by creating visual concepts, directing our freelance illustrators, and creating innovative graphic designs. The Production department manages our project schedules, interfaces with manufacturing experts, and generally handles administrative matters for the studio. The Product Management department interfaces with sales, marketing, and market research. They also own our long-term product roadmap and look after the D&D business."

The studio has five Product Leads: Jeremy Crawford, Amanda Hamon, Chris Perkins, Wes Schneider, and James Wyatt.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

2024 is mentioned because it's the 50th anniversary of D&D and it seems very, very unlikely that WotC would miss that opportunity to make All The Money. And the easiest way to do that is a new edition, even if it's only a lightly cleaned up 5E.

Yup you could do a ton of clean-up and improvement without making adventures non-playable, just requiring minimal conversion, and that's always the big bar - people are willing to accept they'll need to buy a new PHB etc. but adventures? Ooooh, that's going too far - esp. as they're often 3PP.

 

[Faolyn]

Can we just get another straight-up Monster Manual?

(Probably not; it'll probably be dragon-themed; but...I really just want MM2)

IMO, a lot of the earlier-edition MMs were really... unfocused, with a lot of monsters being thrown in, apparently, just to fill space. Personally, as much as I love monsters, I prefer to have fewer of them if it means more ecology and history to each one.

 

[Zaukrie]

I really don't need WotC to do more monsters. Kobold Press, the Scarred Lands monster book, Iron Kingdoms monster book, and the deep dives by Nord Games, not to mention the stuff on Drivethru and DMsGuild are great. Frankly, other than the common experience, I'm not sure what I need WotC to do at this point.

 

[Parmandur]

That said, I suppose making "Anniversary" versions of the 3 core rulebooks with edits and some additions, but not really changing the overall design much, makes a tad bit of sense. I wouldn't really call this 5.5 though, and definitely not 6E.

I think this is what they will do, and I think it will say "Sixth Edition" in the credits...but maintain full compatibility. Focusing on it as a 50th anniversary revamp of the core books, so they can retool things like the whole Race...situation...but let people keep their Adventures and existing books.

 

[jayoungr]

The Monster Manual Expanded books from DMs Guild, which has a (pricy) print on demand option, are probably your best bets in the meantime.

Or the Kobold Press monster collections--Tome of Beasts, Tome of Beasts 2, and Creature Codex.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That said, I suppose making "Anniversary" versions of the 3 core rulebooks with edits and some additions, but not really changing the overall design much, makes a tad bit of sense. I wouldn't really call this 5.5 though, and definitely not 6E.

An anniversary edition that incorporates Tasha's changes into the core books, along with errata, more art and an extra limited edition with fancy cover treatments, all being released along with a major mainstream media blitz, seems really, really likely.

The hardcore folks will argue about whether it's 5E, 5.5E, 6E or whatever. WotC will just refer to it as the "anniversary edition" and downplay the edition war stuff.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or the Kobold Press monster collections--Tome of Beasts, Tome of Beasts 2, and Creature Codex.

If you're specifically looking for older edition monsters, Monster Manual Expanded and Tome of Horrors are your best bet. The Kobold Press stuff is new monsters.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I really don't need WotC to do more monsters. Kobold Press, the Scarred Lands monster book, Iron Kingdoms monster book, and the deep dives by Nord Games, not to mention the stuff on Drivethru and DMsGuild are great. Frankly, other than the common experience, I'm not sure what I need WotC to do at this point.

I'm with you, but a lot of folks -- who still grouse about the quality of the WotC books, interestingly -- will only use a D&D book that has the "official" pixie dust sprinkled all over it.

 

[dave2008]

That's not the same really - it is still needlessly keeping the concept of "Spell Slots".

An unnecessary step. And making a straightforward spell point system overly complicated.

Not really though. Read the text again:

"You expend a number of spell points to create a spell slot of a given level, and then use that slot to cast a spell."

That is functionally the same as you spend the spell points need to cast the spell. It is no different mechanically. It is just fluff.

Spending 13 points to create a 9th level spell slot and then casting the spell is the same as spending 13 spell points to cast a 9th level spell. The only difference comes in a limitation on the # of slots, which you can simply ignore (which we would). Now I would keep the restriction on the highest level of spell you can cast (regardless of your spell point total).

My point is there is a perfectly good framework in the books now.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I think this is what they will do, and I think it will say "Sixth Edition" in the credits...but maintain full compatibility. Focusing on it as a 50th anniversary revamp of the core books, so they can retool things like the whole Race...situation...but let people keep their Adventures and existing books.

An anniversary edition that incorporates Tasha's changes into the core books, along with errata, more art and an extra limited edition with fancy cover treatments, all being released along with a major mainstream media blitz, seems really, really likely.

The hardcore folks will argue about whether it's 5E, 5.5E, 6E or whatever. WotC will just refer to it as the "anniversary edition" and downplay the edition war stuff.

I'm with @Whizbang Dustyboots here in that I seriously doubt that 6E will be in the credits. I'm fairly certain WotC is totally unwilling to create "edition confusion" by drawing a line in the sand (even if it's only by name) by saying "6E starts here." Maybe they'll update things in a way that it is still backwards compatible, that makes sense to me. But actually calling it 6E? No way.

I guess they could call it 5.5 if it's still backwards compatible (hey, 3.5 essentially was that). But I still find it more likely that they won't call it anything other that "Anniversary Rulebooks" or something else meaningless, and then the playerbase is the one who actually refer to it as 5.5.