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!

 

[briggart]

An amusing anecdote aside though, I don't think there is a huge amount of evidence you can get something as big as a Spelljammer into Sigil, at least reliably. Portals are rarely bigger than doors, there are no docks or similar places to put one, and the fact the place is called "The Cage" is to imply it isn't exactly easy to get to. Heck, there is a similar quote in another book about riding out of Sigil being difficult because you'd first have to find a horse and then a portal big enough to fit it.

I think keep Sigil separate from Spelljamming and as an alternative to using a ship to move around.

Sure. I'm not actually advocating for regular Spelljammer access to Sigil (also, I'm not a particular fan of SJ), but I like the idea that everything you can imagine is available there, for the right price.

 

[teitan]

Digital painting is very advanced, and even there is special algoritms to paint imitating certain style. Tony Diterlizzi could draw the white&black sketch, and other would be the colorist. There software where your drawning becomes paints.

It would remove all the life from a TD piece. Besides he can do things with a brush and gouache that digital artists can not replicate.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Digital painting is very advanced, and even there is special algoritms to paint imitating certain style. Tony Diterlizzi could draw the white&black sketch, and other would be the colorist. There software where your drawning becomes paints.

This sounds awful, actually.

I have no qualms about digital art (it's becoming the norm for concept art, comics, and more), but I also don't think there is any need to be using "algorithms" or other software to mimic styles or anything.

I also wouldn't let someone make a B&W and then another color unless they were working closely together (so close it'd just be better having one person do both). Treating art like an assembly line seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[teitan]

This sounds awful, actually.

I have no qualms about digital art (it's becoming the norm for concept art, comics, and more), but I also don't think there is any need to be using "algorithms" or other software to mimic styles or anything.

I also wouldn't let someone make a B&W and then another color unless they were working closely together (so close it'd just be better having one person do both). Treating art like an assembly line seems like a recipe for disaster.

Unless it's comics, then it has to be assembly line for my monthly floppy paper crack habit to show up on time.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I just had an interesting thought - with the Spelljammer ships be in the setting book, or in the bestiary? There's arguments to be made either way here, especially since the ships have stats, and moving them to the bestiary will free up more space for pure setting stuff in the setting book...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I just had an interesting thought - with the Spelljammer ships be in the setting book, or in the bestiary? There's arguments to be made either way here, especially since the ships have stats, and moving them to the bestiary will free up more space for pure setting stuff in the setting book...

That's a good question.

 

[Parmandur]

I just had an interesting thought - with the Spelljammer ships be in the setting book, or in the bestiary? There's arguments to be made either way here, especially since the ships have stats, and moving them to the bestiary will free up more space for pure setting stuff in the setting book...

My guess would be the Adventurers Guide, since vehicle rules are player info, but we'll see.

 

[overgeeked]

I just had an interesting thought - with the Spelljammer ships be in the setting book, or in the bestiary? There's arguments to be made either way here, especially since the ships have stats, and moving them to the bestiary will free up more space for pure setting stuff in the setting book...

According to the product page on the D&D website, they'll be in the player's book.

"The Astral Adventurer’s Guide, a 64-page hardcover book for players and Dungeon Masters that presents the Astral Plane as a campaign setting and includes space-based character options, spells and magic items, deck plans and descriptions for spelljamming ships, and more"

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore the starlit Astral Plane with this set of three books + components! Spelljammer: Adventures in Space gives you guides, stats, a poster, a DM screen, and more!

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Parmandur]

According to the product page on the D&D website, they'll be in the player's book.

"The Astral Adventurer’s Guide, a 64-page hardcover book for players and Dungeon Masters that presents the Astral Plane as a campaign setting and includes space-based character options, spells and magic items, deck plans and descriptions for spelljamming ships, and more"

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore the starlit Astral Plane with this set of three books + components! Spelljammer: Adventures in Space gives you guides, stats, a poster, a DM screen, and more!

dnd.wizards.com

It seems like the big Appendix from Ghoats of Saltmarsh.

 

[overgeeked]

It seems like the big Appendix from Ghoats of Saltmarsh.

Yeah. That's 17 pages long. They'll need 7-8 pages for the races. I'm hoping they'll include a few Spelljammer specific backgrounds, but the text is vague. But they'll also have all the lore, setting info, magic items, and spells fighting for that 64 pages. I'm really jazzed about Spelljammer, but the longer I think about the format, the more it looks like they just want to have people buy the old stuff from DM's Guild for the setting info and deep lore. Or just make it up themselves.