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!

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Cool.

Just for reference, this is what I was referring to:

This cover looks freaking awesome. It might be my favorite 5e cover so far.

 

[Remathilis]

Cool. It doesn't really matter; I made a Level Up heritage and culture for them anyway.

You spend an awful lot of time criticizing things WotC does only to remind us you are using Level up so it really doesn't pertain to you anyway.

Methinks the poster doth protest too much.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, it's very early days. But it's not just the book material we've seen. If the Shou were prominent in the setting, we'd expect them to have some representation in the minis line too, and I just haven't seen that. There's no dragonship in the ship miniatures line as far as i can see for instance, and we've pretty much seen the whole of that range already.

No particular reason to worry one or the other at this point.

 

[teitan]

The planescape boxed sets were $30 at the time, which would be upwards of $50 now. Softcover books but with full color pages and poster maps. That said, it should be noted that the boxed set era drove TSR out of business...

I think the price for this spell jammer set is fine. Out of a table of 5, only one person (the dm) needs to purchase it. If they get 25 sessions out of it, that's a whole year of dnd for many groups.

I think it was collectible dice, card game misfires, yarn companies and questionable financial practices like using their random house contract as a loan instead of a distribution deal that created the hammer. The boxed sets could easily have been loss leaders on a line, but here they were just icing on a crap cake.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What artist they’ve used haven’t been indicative of what they’re releasing. They didn’t have Elmore work on Dragonlance or Easley working on Spelljammer and DiTerlizzi wasn’t exactly known for Forgotten Realms art when they contracted him for the Forgotten Realms set. The art style has been pretty generic across all the D&D products released for 5e and there is much stronger indications of Planescape than Dark Sun.

Failing to commission DiTerlizzi art for a new Planescape book, but employing him to do FR MtG stuff would be a great demonstration that current WotC management:

A) Don't give a single solitary... shake of a lamb's tail... about D&D art, which is something I've repeatedly asserted.

and

B) Particularly don't understand or care about Planescape, and would indicate that if they did do a 5E Planescape, it was purely a cash-grab.

So let's hope they're either not doing Planescape, or DiTerlizzi has also been employed for that, because otherwise we can probably expect a very very very very bad take on Planescape. Probably a variant on the Monte Cooke take on Planescape which is "Sigil is reduced to being basically a small city in the Midwest in terms of personality and function".

 

[EthanSental]

DiTerrilizi’s art quickly aged on me from all the 2e products and the Jim Henson Dark Crystal art style. I wouldn’t mind if he did the cover and some interior but doing all the potential monster art, or having the books art style be similar or inspired would be something I hope doesn’t happen.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Failing to commission DiTerlizzi art for a new Planescape book, but employing him to do FR MtG stuff would be a great demonstration that current WotC management:

A) Don't give a single solitary... shake of a lamb's tail... about D&D art, which is something I've repeatedly asserted.

and

B) Particularly don't understand or care about Planescape, and would indicate that if they did do a 5E Planescape, it was purely a cash-grab.

So let's hope they're either not doing Planescape, or DiTerlizzi has also been employed for that, because otherwise we can probably expect a very very very very bad take on Planescape. Probably a variant on the Monte Cooke take on Planescape which is "Sigil is reduced to being basically a small city in the Midwest in terms of personality and function".

I know this is heresy, but I really, really do not like Diterlizzi's style. At least, not the Planescape art of his that I've seen. I liked his Spiderwick and Wondla art, but I don't think that his style of Planescape art fits well with 5e's overall art style, and I just personally think that it doesn't . . . look as great as people always say it is.

If they did Planescape in 5e's overall art style, I would be happy with it. I liked the little bit of Sigil that we got to see in Tasha's. I'd even be happy with Diterlizzi doing it, if it fit into the rest of 5e's art style.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You spend an awful lot of time criticizing things WotC does only to remind us you are using Level up so it really doesn't pertain to you anyway.

Methinks the poster doth protest too much.

I'm still pretty bitter about the Ravenloft thing. Also having Level Up has led me to look at all the things it does better than 5e, and I really want it to succeed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I know this is heresy, but I really, really do not like Diterlizzi's style. At least, not the Planescape art of his that I've seen. I liked his Spiderwick and Wondla art, but I don't think that his style of Planescape art fits well with 5e's overall art style, and I just personally think that it doesn't . . . look as great as people always say it is.

If they did Planescape in 5e's overall art style, I would be happy with it. I liked the little bit of Sigil that we got to see in Tasha's. I'd even be happy with Diterlizzi doing it, if it fit into the rest of 5e's art style.

Art style is a very low priority to me usually, but Diterlizzi's Planescape work really worked for me.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Art style is a very low priority to me usually

Weren't you one of the people complaining about Radiant Citadel because of its cover art? Not that I don't think that art matters (I really didn't like how half of Eberron: Rising from the Last War's art was recycled from previous editions), but this statement just seems contrary to what you've said in recent threads.