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.

 

[TheSword]

That sounds like appropriation and pigeonholing the concept of a Samurai into these very narrow tropes of kiai shouts etc. At best, you're playing The Last Samurai.

Why not just have the subclass be something that can encapsulate samurai or other noble knightly orders and use a term that doesn't reflect a single real world culture?

As I said above, just calling what is now the "Samurai" a Battle Master and giving the maneuvers to all Fighters as an option would do wonders to resolve this issue. There's a reason that Ninja, Wu Jen, and Shugenja don't appear in 5e D&D, despite having appeared in past editions in various forms dating back all the way to Oriental Adventurers. There's a reason we don't have an Oriental Adventures book for 5e. There's a reason we don't have a Kara-Tur or Kamigawa book. These are all white guy's appropriations and amalgamations of various Asian cultures, to great detriment. There's a reason that Monk continues to get blowback for even existing as a class.

You can still do that trope of a non-Japanese person becoming a Samurai without WotC enshrining it in the rules. Why can't a Champion or Battle Master or Cavalier or Banneret or Psi Warrior be Samurai? Why do we need a specific "Samurai" subclass? These are legitimate issues the game hasn't grappled with because they rushed a concept by "rule of cool" without giving fair consideration to the hurtful consequences.

I'm not saying there isn't a place for Wuxia or Martial Arts film or Samurai film or Tale of Genji / Romance of the Three Kingdoms courtly politics in D&D. There most definitely is. The point is that it has to be led with respect and inclusiveness without exoticism of the source material. The Samurai subclass is an exoticism. And it should be led best foot forward by empowering AAPI game creators and letting them tell the stories they want to bring to life.

Of course it really isn’t as simple as that. Cultural appropriation is a complicated subject and covers a large range of issues. Many of which are totally benign and even to be encouraged.

What you’re criticizing is cultural mis-appropriation. Where such ideas a misleading or dishonest. 30 years of large Japanese video game companies exporting the ideas of ninja and samurai to the western world has subsumed such ideas into the culture of every teenager that grew up with a play station.

If you actually look at 5e’s handling of the samurai subclass they have removed all the honour-to-the-point-of-self-destruction from the class, along with the caste system, the need to follow a lord, expectations over weapon use, codes of ethics, alignment restrictions, gender bias etc. The 5e subclass really isn’t exotic at all.

What is left is an educated fighter with a strong will. I’m struggling to see what the issue with that kind of subclass, as depicted in the 5e system. I would also see no issue with a rogue subclass that had a small amount of shadow magic and proficiency with additional tools, if it didn’t come with the expectation that they were the lowest of the low to be slain on sight. The 5e samurai can represent several different fighter tropes.

There is a world of difference between 5e’s treatment of samurai the 1e oriental adventures books. They are fundamentally different approaches.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Blimey...

It’s about dynamic range. You are correct...overcoming adversity is one of the keys to unlocking fun games. It’s about risk and reward too. D&D is also a class based game of teamwork with different skill sets working together to overcome the problems they face. I think some of that has been lost in an attempt to make ‘everyone awesome’.

As I mentioned dynamic range....In musical terms...5th Edition has compressed the dynamic range and made it safer and more compatible with poor quality speakers and made it appear to have a higher volume level to begin with...all the instruments sounding similar to each other. Like modern music....which for me...isn’t as much fun as the older stuff. Performances are perfected, auto-tuned, quantised and buffed up to a stunning shine....but they are less interesting because they lack the flaws which made them sound more organic and human...same with 5e.

I get that you really like it, I just think it has room for improvement.

I’ve made my point and I’m done. If you want to have the last word, go for it.

Have a good day and happy gaming

Huh. Part of my enjoyment of 5e is exactly that it is less polished and more open.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's not overthinking when it's a common complaint from the AAPI community that the Samurai subclass was a very bad idea. It was broadly panned.

I have literally never seen anyone complain about it before, here or anywhere else.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I have literally never seen anyone complain about it before, here or anywhere else.

I don't care much, but it is from a naming perspective pretty silly... Samurai is essentially just a Japanese word for Knight. They're largely the same thing, in different countries. Nobles who wear armor.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don't care much, but it is from a naming perspective pretty silly... Samurai is essentially just a Japanese word for Knight. They're largely the same thing, in different countries. Nobles who wear armor.

I think the similarity is overplayed, andthe significance of “different countries(cultures)” underplayed.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I think the similarity is overplayed, andthe significance of “different countries(cultures)” underplayed.

Obviously their different cultures and countries, and other differences, but a samurai really is a "Japanese Knight," and a knight really is a "European Samurai." Doesn't make much sense that they behave mechanically different.

 

[Scribe]

I have literally never seen anyone complain about it before, here or anywhere else.

Really? I've seen complaints here about Samurai.

My issue is, its simply way too tied to a specific nation's history.

"Knight"? You can apply that to many countries.
"Paladin"? Same thing. Its escaped its original definition.

Same with Bard.

Monk? Especially D&D Monk? That's at least transferable to several nationalities, histories, and cultures (depending how far back one goes).

Samurai, is from one place, and one place only in the greater 'consciousness', and thats Japan.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Obviously their different cultures and countries, and other differences, but a samurai really is a "Japanese Knight," and a knight really is a "European Samurai." Doesn't make much sense that they behave mechanically different.

But they really aren’t. They’re different. If you called the Samurai subclass “Knight” I’d be confused, while the Cavalier makes sense for the European Knight, but would be odd for the classic Samurai. Both get some extra social graces, but their mechanics reflect different priorities and tactics, and different cultural expectation of the classic iteration of the concept.

Like, go watch any Japanese movie about Samurai, and…there is a lot more difference between them and European knights than there is between English and Spanish Knights. It makes sense to make them different.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Really? I've seen complaints here about Samurai.

My issue is, its simply way too tied to a specific nation's history.

"Knight"? You can apply that to many countries.
"Paladin"? Same thing. Its escaped its original definition.

Same with Bard.

Monk? Especially D&D Monk? That's at least transferable to several nationalities, histories, and cultures (depending how far back one goes).

Samurai, is from one place, and one place only in the greater 'consciousness', and thats Japan.

Okay, why is that a problem? Some subclass concepts are more specific than others. This is a feature.

 

[Scribe]

Okay, why is that a problem? Some subclass concepts are more specific than others. This is a feature.

I simply don't think it's needed. My issue, nothing more.