Spelljammer D&D Direct Live Report: 9am PDT (5pm BST) SPELLJAMMER CONFIRMED! DRAGONLANCE!

D&D Direct, WotC's new video-format announcement show launches today at 9am PDT (5pm BST). If you aren't able to watch it, I'll be updating this article live. Feel free to comment below! Once it launches, you will need to refresh this page when you want to see new updates. The video is expected to last about 30 minutes.

If you CAN watch it, you'll find it on YouTube or Twitch at the above times. Otherwise, follow along below!

• 45 mins to go. Live updates incoming!
• 30 mins to go!
• 5 minutes to go!
• Here we go! Opens with a sea shanty.
• Forgive typos. They talk fast and I can't type.

• Spelljammer is confirmed!
• They talk REALLY FAST!
• Spelljammer Adventures in Space, project lead Chris Perkins, Trystan Falcone graphic designer
• Cities built on asteroids, dead gods floating in the ether
• 6 races---astral elves, autognomes, hedozi(?), gif, plasmoids, thri-kreen
• 3 hardcovers in a slipcase: Astral Adventurers Guide, Boo's Astral Menagerie, Light of Xaryxis adventure
• Prequel adventure in July
• Wizkids miniatures

Other stuff also discussed!

• Baldur's Gate 3 CRPG preview video (game is in 2023)
• Journeys Through Radiant Citadel intro video -- 3 of the adventures are: Wages of Vice (5th level), Caribbean; Orchids of the Invisible Mountain (14th level), feywild, far realm, Whistler new monster; Fiend of Hollow Mind (4th level), skeletons and spirits

• "Campaign Cases" -- Creature tokens! Terrain tiles! July!

D&D Movie directors now onscreen. The movie in March 2023 is called HONOR AMONG THIEVES.

• New D&D starter set. Comes with 'digital onboarding'. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. We knew about that one.
• D&D digital monstrous compendium. Available to those with WoTC or D&D Beyond Accounts. Volume 1 has an eldritch lich and the 10 legged asteroid spider. And the starlancer. Might have misheard some of that!

• MMO Neverwinter video. Dragonslayer begins June 2022. (I wonder if they'll need a dragonance for that?)
• New D&D actual play video, Legends of the Multiverse. Lots of 80s cartoon style soft rock music. Boo is in it.

WIzKids skirmish game D&D Onslaught. October

Finally -- DRAGONLANCE WARRIORS OF KRYNN! SHADOW OF THE DRAGON QUEEN!

 

[teitan]

How is $20 not fair for a 64 page book?

Well Paizo publishes 192 page books for 35-40 and just did a 400 page Absalom book for 40. Their core books are 60 and monster books are 40. Their starters sets are… $40? This doesn’t NEED to be hardcover. In fact such thin hardcovers tend to look kitschy.

 

[teitan]

Caught up. So… I keep seeing the DM screen being included as a justification for the cost increase as a “bonus” but since all the DM screens are basically the same with different art… how many screens do you need and since they literally include a DM screen in every slipcase and box set is it really value added? Especially if the two already available slipcases include a DM screen already? Does the new one include ship to ship rules? Wel that’s a limited use screen and is some value added if it is the case but if it is just the same old charts repeated from the other screens?

the gift sets are big sellers. The core books and the new expansion set are value sets that are great for new players. So other than thematic art the screen is nothing to write home about. Instead it could have been a collection of ship tokens for ship to ship combat with a box to keep them in that can fit in the slip case as well. No it’s the least imaginative value add they could do. I have 6 fifth edition DM screens, two of them being the same as the expansion gift set is just the Essentials Kit screen on the better boards, the Rick & Morty Screen, Stranger Things, Starter Set screen, Reincarnated Screen. So chances are DMs buying this already have a screen.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

how many screens do you need

I only have one DM screen, so I'm perfectly fine with buying another. Most DMs that I know only have one DM screen (at least, per edition). How normal is it for people to have a ton of DM screens for one edition?

 

[teitan]

I only have one DM screen, so I'm perfectly fine with buying another. Most DMs that I know only have one DM screen (at least, per edition). How normal is it for people to have a ton of DM screens for one edition?

Usually I only have 1 but it seems with 5e that WOTC puts them in everything.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Usually I only have 1 but it seems with 5e that WOTC puts them in everything.

By "everything," you just mean the box and book sets, right? Because the only book set that I've bought was the 3 Core Rulebooks, which is how I got my 5e DM screen. And there have only been two book sets in 5e (not counting the limited art versions of the core rulebooks and rule expansion book set).

Also, I have the Stranger Things box set, and I'm pretty sure it didn't come with a DM screen, even though the two Starter Sets do.

 

[teitan]

By "everything," you just mean the box and book sets, right? Because the only book set that I've bought was the 3 Core Rulebooks, which is how I got my 5e DM screen. And there have only been two book sets in 5e (not counting the limited art versions of the core rulebooks and rule expansion book set).

Also, I have the Stranger Things box set, and I'm pretty sure it didn't come with a DM screen, even though the two Starter Sets do.

I’ll need to double check Stranger Things later but I swear it has one too.

 

[Mezuka]

64 is too thin for hardcover. It's not cost-efficient and it will look silly imho.

As for 64 pages, from my experience with printing magazines, it could mean 64 pages (a multiple of 8) + 4 pages for the cover. So 68 total.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

64 is too thin for hardcover. It's not cost-efficient and it will look silly imho.

As for 64 pages, from my experience with printing magazines, it could mean 64 pages (a multiple of 8) + 4 pages for the cover. So 68 total.

My 1981 Doctor Who annual is hardcover and only has 62 pages. 64 if you count the covers. It cost £1.95.

 

[Echohawk]

I have 6 fifth edition DM screens

Congratulations, you now have 20% of the 5th Edition screens!

Spoiler: 5th Edition screens

Wizards of the Coast screens (10)
Dungeon Master’s Screen (2015)
Dungeon Master’s Screen, Reincarnated (2017)
Core Rules Gift Set, Special Edition (2018)
Essentials Kit (2019)
Dungeons & Dragons vs. Rick and Morty (2019)
Curse of Strahd Revamped (2020)
Dungeon Master's Screen: Wilderness Kit (2020)
Dungeon Master’s Screen: Dungeon Kit (2021)
Rules Expansion Gift Set (2022)
Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (2022) [upcoming]

Gale Force Nine screens (13)
Tyranny of Dragons (2014)
Elemental Evil (2015)
Rage of Demons (2015)
Curse of Strahd (2016)
Storm King’s Thunder (2016)
Tomb of Annihilation (2017)
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018)
Waterdeeo: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2018)
Of Ships and the Sea (2019)
Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019)
Eberron, Rising from the Last War (2019)
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)
The Witchlight Carnival (2021)

Beadle & Grimm's screens (7)
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018)
Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)
Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (2019)
Eberron Rising from the Last War (2020)
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020)
Curse of Strahd (2020)
The Witchlight Carnival (2021)

 

[michaeljpastor]

Man I am in a time loop. I've said REPEATEDLY how the new format is ridiculous as it includes a bunch of things I don't need, including the DMs Screen and the slipcase (not including the map, so many books have these included already).

If this is one release version, and you could just pick up a normal Spelljammer book for $60, great! No complaints from me. When Curse of Strahd Ravamped was announced, I didn't complain; I can get normal Curse of Strahd within my budget.

But locking consumers into nick-nacks they don't need to getting more $ out of them is NOT something I'm happy about, and breaking down the price isn't going to convince me to shell out more of my wallet.

When asked if any of the Spelljammer books in the slipcase will be available for individual sale Perkins said that they're only talking about the bundle package at this time. “But it's safe to say that we'll have some mechanism for breaking up the material into smaller pieces later,” said Perkins.

So can we all stop griping already? It seems obvious to me that this was the plan all along.