D&D (2024) "The Future of D&D" (New Core Books in 2024!)

The online D&D Celebration event, which has been running all weekend, comes to a close with The Future of D&D, a panel featuring WotC's Ray Winninger, Liz Schuh, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford, hosted by Elle Osili-Wood.

D&D is exploring the multiverse
Revisiting classic settings. 1st of 3 settings (Ravenloft) released this year. Next year, the other two major classic D&D settings come out. Both in formats they've never published products before.

Plus a "little peek" at a third classic D&D setting - a cameo.

In 2023, yet another classic setting is coming out.

Evolving D&D
Because of new players, they're always listening. Exploring new styles of play (like no combat needed in Wild Beyond the Witchlight). Also presentation of monsters and spells. New product formats. More adventure anthologies.

Making products easier to use. Ways to create the best experience. Experimenting and looking into technology.

Approaches to Design
Wild Beyond the Witchlight has interior design and tools to make running the adventure easier. Story tracker, guidance.

Beyond the books, they want to make different and varied products - packaging and form factor. Things different to hardcovers and boxed sets.

A blog post is coming soon detailing some of the changes, with more to come in future posts.

50th Anniversary in 2024
They've begun work on new versions of the core rulebooks. Recent surveys tie into that. They're still making plans, but expect more surveys. More will be said next year.

They will be completely compatible!

New experiences in the digital arena.

January Gift Set
Rules Expansion Gift Set -- Xanathar, Tasha, and a new book: Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. All in a slipcase. Was intended for the Holidays, but global production issues mean January instead. There's also an alternate cover version.

D&D 5E - A Closer Look At January's D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set

WotC earlier announced a D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set for January, which includes three books - Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and the new Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. These were intended for the holidays, but the global production issues...

www.enworld.org

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse
A treasure trove of creature related material from previous products compiled into one book and updated.

Opportunity to update material with a feel for how the 50th Anniversary books will be.

Improvements based on feedback, rebalancing, new and old art.

Over 250 monsters, and 30 playable races. All of the setting agnostic races that have been published outside the Player's Handbook.

Some content from Witchlight, Fizban's, and Strixhaven was influenced by Mordenkainen's.

Available first in the gift set, but separately later in the year.

Monsters alphabetized throughout rather than using subsections.

D&D 5E - Zooming In On Monsters of the Multiverse [UPDATED!]

Earlier, WotC announced Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse, a new D&D compilation of monster material from previous products updated to a new format. These screen grabs are as good as I could get them. They're not terribly clear, but you can make more out than in the original...

www.enworld.org

Stat block changes --

Spellcasting trait is gone. Spellcasting action, slimmed down. Spellcasting monsters need less prep.

Spell slots are gone for NPCs. Regular actions that would have once been spells.

It was too easy for a DM to use spells which result in the monster having a too low effective CR.

Monsters can be friends or foes, and some magic will help rather than hinder PCs.

Where are we going?
More adventure anthologies. Another classic setting fairly soon.

Two all-new settings. Completely new. In development stage, an 'exploration' phase, testing the viability of them. They might not see the light of day.

Retooling nostalgia and blending it with new concepts. A blend of things that you know, and things that they have never done before.

In the short term -- more news next month about a new product for 2022 which goes into a new scary place we've never been before.

Boo the miniature giant space hamster
Below is an sketch from Hydro74's alt cover, which features Boo the miniature giant space hamster.

 

[OB1]

I'm wondering if MotM means that Volos and Mordenkanins monster books will not see any more reprints, and if so, how that may relate to the 50AE.

If the goal is to refresh the Core rules primarily as a shift in the way new players are introduced to the game, I'd guess we see 50AE released as a limited edition 'collectors' set at the same time they stop printing the old version of the Core, then sometime later in 2024 or 2025 they start printing those new versions of the Core under their regular titles of PHB, MM and DMG.

 

[Aldarc]

Are the transformers movies actually good? Or do they simply make money?

I don't think that they'll have the lasting impact on people's childhoods (and subsequent therapy) the way that Transformers the Movie did.

Spoiler

It wasn't Prime's death that hurt the worst, it was watching my favorite character die in the opening parts.

(And then watching him die again in Transformers: Animated and again in Transformers Cyberverse.)

 

[Iamoutofhere]

Right... The Lego Movie! Is a good, fun film. I liked it

My point was that D&D 5th Edition has become a game where everybody is awesome....in life, adversity builds character and the same might be said about roleplaying games like D&D. If everybody is awesome then there is less room for character development and the game becomes less interesting.

YMMV

 

[lingual]

I feel privileged being able to enjoy both high and low culture. It all depend on mood and energy. As to movies, sometimes I want Peter Greenway or Tarkovsky, sometimes I want popcorn and Transformers style explosions.

What I don't enjoy is cultural snobbism and people judging others from their cultural consumption.

Yes! Sometimes I have cravings for Del Taco. (No offense to Del Taco).

 

[lingual]

I'll be a jerk here and proclaim that nothing Michael Bay does is "good". Can still enjoy it though. And Marvel movies are "cinema".

 

[Bolares]

Right... The Lego Movie! Is a good, fun film. I liked it

My point was that D&D 5th Edition has become a game where everybody is awesome....in life, adversity builds character and the same might be said about roleplaying games like D&D. If everybody is awesome then there is less room for character development and the game becomes less interesting.

YMMV

So... player characters shouldn't be awesome?

 

[Neonchameleon]

Right... The Lego Movie! Is a good, fun film. I liked it

My point was that D&D 5th Edition has become a game where everybody is awesome....in life, adversity builds character and the same might be said about roleplaying games like D&D. If everybody is awesome then there is less room for character development and the game becomes less interesting.

YMMV

What do you mean "has become a game where everybody is awesome?" Right from oD&D player characters have been awesome at level 1. The fighting man was more powerful than your ordinary warrior. The magic user could cast spells. And the cleric got divine power at level 2. D&D has always been a power fantasy about princes of the universe, fighting for survival against the darkest power. And who are inherently going to get ridiculously powerful. Adversity has always been provided by either overwhelming numbers or larger than life bad guys.

If I want to start off as an actual peasant and at risk of serious injury I break out something like WFRP; it is not and has never been something that D&D focused on.

 

[Remathilis]

Right... The Lego Movie! Is a good, fun film. I liked it

My point was that D&D 5th Edition has become a game where everybody is awesome....in life, adversity builds character and the same might be said about roleplaying games like D&D. If everybody is awesome then there is less room for character development and the game becomes less interesting.

YMMV

As I once said in a different thread...

If your PC isn't trying to kill giant rats with a rusty dagger and then dying of disease 1d6 hours later, are you REALLY playing D&D?

 

[Chronos96]

Spelljammer would also be pretty low on that priority list because historically it didn't sell. Boo is not a SPelljammer character, he is a Baldur's Gate, thus FR, character so it more strongly hints at FR than Spelljammer. Boo never appeared in a SPelljammer product, post-dating Spelljammer byt a handful of years. So a Spelljammer may appear in an adventure with Minsc & Boo as characters the PC's encounter, fulfilling the cameo.

Planescape, more than SPelljammer, is a certainty, in the vein of Ravenloft. Most likely as a book on Sigil with the core planes as examples and rules on making new planes of existence. That seems to be the model with something like this that they are going to explore.

Even with all that I would still say Spelljammer is more likely to release first than Planescape. The reason being all of the planes not counting fringe planes like the plane of lighting are already in 5e's cosmology along with the Shadowfell, Feywild, and inner and outer planes. That was the whole appeal of going to different planes, sure they can reintroduce sigil but it's not really needed. People can make their own multiversal hub, not that I don't think it won't happen but if I had to make a list in terms of the likelihood of being published

1. Spelljammer
2. Darksun
3. 5E FR full campaign setting
4. Planescape/Dragonlance
5. Greyhawk

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Ready access to a computer vs. not and playing with a DM who encourages it vs. not wouldn't possibly be associated with different levels of knowledge as to what's out there, years of experience playing, or different playstyles?

Not enough so to cast any serious doubt on the data, no.

Increased sample size decreases variability, not bias. (You can take as big of a sample of _____ news channel watchers as you want. Doesn't make your results apply to the country as a whole very well).

It feels like they'd also want to adjust for how many different characters each player had (it feels like those who play in lots of campaigns regularly could be different than those who don't)

The content is purchased a la carte, and often by the DM. So how much paid content do you want them to have access to before counting it.

In any case, this ties back into the above. You've now restricted your sample to players on DnD Beyond who buy at least a certain amount of paid content. This would make your sample even more different from the population of all players.

Not really, because within a campaign, content can be shared, so it’s not “users who have spent money on the game” but rather “users who have spent money or who are in a campaign where someone has spent money on content”.

so unless you can make a compelling argument that people who want to use ddb are different in playstyle from people who don’t, rather than play styles being varied in the same ways amongst ddb users as amongst VVT users and amongst non digital tool users, there is no reason to doubt the data provided as largely representative.

Especially since wizards has often backed up the specific thing in question, ie that the majority of players don’t take feats (and if they do it’s late in a campaign), don’t choose options for optimization value, and tend to choose the classic and simple options over more complex stuff.