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.

 

[Scribe]

Count me in on that sentiment too.
I already own each book... twice. I don't need a third copy to get one book.

Yeah, I could justify it for a one stop shop for Monsters and PC options, but if it's not even that? I don't care for Tasha's and I have the rest.

A lot of money just for 1 book of updated monsters and an incomplete list of PC races...

 

[Marandahir]

Two issues with your train of thought:

They used the term setting agnostic when describing these races. That means, they could appear in Faerun, Oerth, Eberron or other D&D worlds with minimal fuss. So a race like Warforged isn't agnostic as it's story is tightly tied to Eberron. Similarly, I still feel WotC doesn't want to cross the streams too much for MtG races, so I don't expect any race that didn't already have a D&D version before will appear.

Also, I completely believe several subraces will be redone as separate races, inflating the count. Snirfneblin and duergar could easily be redone as a full race sharing patent race traits but but using the subrace system, and the four genasi and two gith races shared nothing in common but ASI and languages anyway (both of which are flexible post Tasha), so making them separate is trivial.

Warforged are critical to Eberron, but not exclusive. They have story roles in Nerath and the Realms and not as Eberronian Planeswalkers. Check out the back issues of Dragon Magazine and the 4E Monster Manuals.

I DID however, miss Gith in my count above, so at least one other lineage is getting the cut. Unsure which, though if I had to go cutting it would be Leonin (thematic overlap with Tabaxi, though they’re also in Mirrordin), Warforged (as you said), or Loxodons (very much a MtG people, though again, they’re also from Mirrordin if we ever get Mirrordin/New Phyrexia).

And again, from the language of the video, it really doesn’t sound like sublineages are making it in. They experimented with reprinting the core lineage mechanics of Gnomes for the Svirfneblin back in 2015’s Elemental Evil Player Companion and it just led to a host of confusion. Are these Gnomes? They’re certainly called Deep Gnomes in the text. WotC want to reduce confusion. They’re not going to count sublineages.

 

[Marandahir]

Count me in on that sentiment too.
I already own each book... twice. I don't need a third copy to get one book.

The content might be reprints but they’ll be erratad and rebalanced, like we saw in the previews they gave in the video announcement. I don’t know if they plan to release errata stat blocks for all these updates. Probably not.

 

[Zaukrie]

Some rule books feel almost necessary.....some don't. This sounds like, if you own the rest of them (esp. on DnDBeyond), it is a one you don't need all that much. The updated monsters might be interesting.....but I'll 100% have to see this one before deciding.

 

[Scribe]

Yeah, from what you've been saying, I don't know you will like the direction D&D is going...

Oh I don't, but I've got solutions for most of it.

I'm certainly not going to buy another incomplete book though, when I own 3 (xanathar, volo, MToF) and actively don't want Tasha's.

If the new Monster book isn't even complete? Annoying.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Monsters are undertuned, PCs are overtuned, PC hit points are high and fully regenerate after a long rest, PC damage is high, monster hit points are low, monster damage is low, spells and spell slots are given out like candy, PCs can cast multiple spells in a round, and death is elusive unless the DM really wants a character dead. Skills are plentiful, expertise is easy to get, and skill DCs are low. There are basically no limitations PCs have to deal with short of the DM using house rules or variant rules. 5E is power fantasy superheroes with chainmail replacing spandex. To do anything approaching challenging, the DM has to throw 6-8 deadly encounters at the PCs a day, somehow prevent a long rest, and do it all again the next day...then somewhere near the end of the second day the PCs will be sweating. That’s where they’re challenged.

OMG praise!

 

[Cadence]

I find myself looking forward to this book less and less then.

I'm actually ok with this book since I only have copies of the main three (and I wish it was already on DnD beyond before I bought a bunch of random race sections ad-hoc).

My son on the other hand has all of the various books and so I'm not sure this will be one for him.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Warforged are critical to Eberron, but not exclusive. They have story roles in Nerath and the Realms and not as Eberronian Planeswalkers. Check out the back issues of Dragon Magazine and the 4E Monster Manuals.

I DID however, miss Gith in my count above, so at least one other lineage is getting the cut. Unsure which, though if I had to go cutting it would be Leonin (thematic overlap with Tabaxi, though they’re also in Mirrordin), Warforged (as you said), or Loxodons (very much a MtG people, though again, they’re also from Mirrordin if we ever get Mirrordin/New Phyrexia).

And again, from the language of the video, it really doesn’t sound like sublineages are making it in. They experimented with reprinting the core lineage mechanics of Gnomes for the Svirfneblin back in 2015’s Elemental Evil Player Companion and it just led to a host of confusion. Are these Gnomes? They’re certainly called Deep Gnomes in the text. WotC want to reduce confusion. They’re not going to count sublineages.

There are a group of elephant people in the Forgotten Realms called loxo which were playable in previous editions, and they weren't particularly different from loxodon, so the latter do have some multi-word possibilities...

 

[Marandahir]

There are a group of elephant people in the Forgotten Realms called loxo which were playable in previous editions, and they weren't particularly different from loxodon, so the latter do have some multi-word possibilities...

Great.

So that really leaves us with a 31* lineages that are multiworld and no clear answer of which one to cut.

*I say 31 though I maybe have been a bit too harsh on Changeling in comparison to Warforged. In any case, Shifters are very much multiworld, just specially focused on in Eberron. I guess the cut will likely be Warforged, which is a shame for all the Warforged of the Realms and Nerath out there…

it could also mean they intend to do another Eberron book or a companion book of CS-specific peoples…

 

[Remathilis]

There are a group of elephant people in the Forgotten Realms called loxo which were playable in previous editions, and they weren't particularly different from loxodon, so the latter do have some multi-word possibilities...

Well, except for the fact they were large sized and had two trunks, of course.