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]

I think both of them take about 1000% as many visual risks as D&D - though about 10% as many as MtG!

Re: Tieflings at least rules-wise the Variant Tiefling allows us to not be Twohorns Mcboringtail, and that happened earlier in 5E. I'm really hoping DND2024 reverts to Tieflings being varied, description-wise.

Yeah and ironically it has the exact opposite effect, because the style they chose is ultra-generic 2015+ bog-standard fantasy. I can tell if something is Pathfinder from looking at, but not D&D.

God yes. 2e tieflings were so much cooler and where are the Bariaur???

 

[Mecheon]

where are the Bariaur?

Never really were that popular. May come back in a Planescape sourcebook, but I reckon we'd see rogue modrons first up.

Tieflings always were popular, Githzerai got the big boost thanks to Dak'kon from Planescape Torment, but Bariaur never really had anything to them outside of 'i dunno they're goat centaurs'

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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.

I like current Ravenloft better the old Ravenloft. I can’t think of a single thing that makes it worse then the old version.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Tieflings always were popular, Githzerai got the big boost thanks to Dak'kon from Planescape Torment, but Bariaur never really had anything to them outside of 'i dunno they're goat centaurs'

I feel like with some good art, and maybe even just one sort of "iconic character", "They're goat centaurs" could be basically all you need to make Bariaurs cool, here in 2022, this post-ironic place.

So long as their racials weren't a disaster - but as they have a natural weapon, they will probably have godawful racials, I've never been able to work out what WotC are thinking there, and no WotC person has ever explained it. It seems like literally all WotC designers operate under the delusion that natural weapons are awesome (rather than trash-tier, which mechanically, they are). I dunno if at WotC all they do is play adventures where PCs are tied up and have their weapons taken away (would explain a lot about the Monk and certain Feats, too), but it's the only explanation I can come up with.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I like current Ravenloft better the old Ravenloft. I can’t think of a single thing that makes it worse then the old version.

Good for you.

 

[Remathilis]

I like current Ravenloft better the old Ravenloft. I can’t think of a single thing that makes it worse then the old version.

While I still harbor love for the old Ravenloft, I find playing the new one is far better, with a few exceptions (I'm not a fan of the new Darkon, preferring the post-Necropolis version). I never found the Core to be a necessity (in fact, in places it was a hindrance) and I generally like the domain lord changes. My biggest complaint was I'd have loved to see more of those "one paragraph" domains be fleshed out. I want to see what that new Souragne or Nova Vaasa looks like.

If SJ:AiS revises that setting like VRGR did to Ravenloft, I'll be happy. And the parts I'm not happy with, I'll use the old lore or make up my own.

The Real Trick will be if The Dragonlance module can make me care about Krynn...

 

[michaeljpastor]

Yeah, semantics. No Sigil? No walking from Heaven to Sigil to the Abyss? No Factions? No Modrons? Not Planejammer.

Astral Sea, yes. Direct sailing to outer planes,yes. No phlogiston or crystal spheres? Gith and Illithids, yes. planejammer

 

[JEB]

Astral Sea, yes. Direct sailing to outer planes,yes. No phlogiston or crystal spheres? Gith and Illithids, yes. planejammer

Based on the scant information we have, it does seem like a fair assumption that 5E Spelljammer has become the "Planejammer" that veteran Spelljammer fans feared it would become. (A model that would create additional setting and gameplay issues, from what I've read online.)

However, we need to remember that we don't know that much yet. So I would advise reserving judgment until we do. Winninger did say there were "nuances" to consider as regards the Phlogiston going away, for example, so perhaps it's not removed so much as reinterpreted.

 

[Seramus]

Apologies if someone else has already posted this about the Dragonlance material.

 

[Quickleaf]

God yes. 2e tieflings were so much cooler and where are the Bariaur???

Never really were that popular. May come back in a Planescape sourcebook, but I reckon we'd see rogue modrons first up.

Tieflings always were popular, Githzerai got the big boost thanks to Dak'kon from Planescape Torment, but Bariaur never really had anything to them outside of 'i dunno they're goat centaurs'

So... you're saying there's a barrier to their introduction in 5e?