D&D (2024) D&D Mysteries of the Multiverse Reveal

The last segment of today's D&D Direct presentation featured Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford, both D&D game architects. They talked about what adventures to expect the rest of this year, what's coming next year, and beyond, all centered around the D&D Multiverse.

After a recap of the adventures to date, Perkins and Crawford showed some art from Bigby Presents: The Glory of the Giants, coming this year. Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk will explore the mysterious obelisks that have been appearing in adventures over the last nine years and connects to The Lost Mines of Phandelver.

That will be followed by Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, which will lay groundwork for a major adventure in 2024. Lastly for 2023, they'll delve into the chaos-causing Deck of Many Things, and the story behind the legendary item.

A major D&D villain will be making his return in 2024. Vecna's true cosmic horror will be unleashed in 2024 with a world-hopping adventure that will celebrate D&D's 50 year history and reveals deeper plots for years to come.

But Vecna is just one-part of D&D's interconnected storytelling. A lot more will be revealed in the next five years. For example, the Red Wizards of Thay will be featured in a 2025 adventure, and Venger from the D&D cartoon will return to be the main antagonist in another future adventure. The League of Malevolence, introduced in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, will seek power across the multiverse in stories to come.

All in all, Crawford and Perkins teased many more adventures to come, some of which will interconnect, building a big story that plays out throughout the D&D Multiverse.

 

[Parmandur]

I think that what they're describing is intended to be distinct from the mild and vague "waiting for us to decide what to do with them" stuff with the obelisks (which were truly meaningless).

As for "canonical results", I suspect what they'll do is at 45 degrees to that. Presumably all the adventures will assume the PCs "won" (a totally safe assumption), so there will be a canonical result in that sense. I don't think they'll rely on the details of the "win", and I suspect there will be an ongoing thing in the campaigns where the PCs can't actually do anything to derail the metaplot, because they're not getting to directly oppose it in any of the adventures. This is not that dissimilar to some '90s metaplots - White Wolf's ones frequently thought not always worked this way - whereas Rifts' one was something the PCs could influence, but one which Siembieda et al ignored in favour of their own canon, which was uh, a bit Nazi-apologist. Here's a hint game designers - don't make a faction look, sound, and act like the Nazis, then give them a redemption arc/excuses for their actions lol. Honestly surprised to see it from a Boomer like Siembieda, they tend to remember the Nazis sucked, it's more of a Gen-X vibe. But I digress!

It's even possible they'll do the potentially extremely irritating thing where, whatever the PCs do, that was actually part of Vecna's grand plan - i.e. you defeat the Tarrasque, well good, because Vecna wanted you to. I don't think any '90s metaplots did that, but it's been done before (mostly in videogames and cartoons).

Either way I'm certainly both concerned and intrigued by it.

The Obelisks are, for sure, vague hooks given to DMs for their own use, but I don't see anything in what they said that suggests a change in the strategy, of leaving the big campaigns in a cloud of permanent quantum possibilities with linkages. Indeed, more than "Metaplot" the more important element here is probavly "multiverse" now that Marvel has mainstreamed the idea so hard it's in academy award winning art films: providing an array of options with potential links, only actualized in a given universe by...a DM. Similar to what they have been doing, but maybe with more toy tie-ins.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Obelisks are, for sure, vague hooks given to DMs for their own use, but I don't see anything in what they said that suggests a change in the strategy, of leaving the big campaigns in a cloud of permanent quantum possibilities with linkages. Indeed, more than "Metaplot" the more important element here is probavly "multiverse" now that Marvel has mainstreamed the idea so hard it's in academy award winning art films: providing an array of options with potential links, only actualized in a given universe by...a DM. Similar to what they have been doing, but maybe with more toy tie-ins.

You don't?

I think the language is extremely suggestive:

"Even deeper plots for years to come"

"Just one of example of the interconnected storytelling"

"Every new product is a chance for us to build on an earlier work"

"Vecna is just the beginning. You're going to see so many more surprising connections emerge."

And so on. This is heavy-duty messaging. In terms of language chosen, this isn't how they've spoken about stuff before. Especially as they contextualize it with the "D&D multiverse".

So no, I don't think it will be similar to what they've done before, not based on the actual video. And I definitely do not believe they will "provide an array of options with potential links". Not only have WotC never done that before, it doesn't really make sense for them to. They've shown no particular commitment to the vision of individual DMs - indeed they notably don't really talk about DMs or parties or anything in that segment - rather they act like D&D is a shared media experience akin to a film or book multiverse.

 

[Parmandur]

You don't?

I think the language is extremely suggestive:

"Even deeper plots for years to come"

"Just one of example of the interconnected storytelling"

"Every new product is a chance for us to build on an earlier work"

"Vecna is just the beginning. You're going to see so many more surprising connections emerge."

And so on. This is heavy-duty messaging. In terms of language chosen, this isn't how they've spoken about stuff before. Especially as they contextualize it with the "D&D multiverse".

So no, I don't think it will be similar to what they've done before, not based on the actual video. And I definitely do not believe they will "provide an array of options with potential links". Not only have WotC never done that before, it doesn't really make sense for them to. They've shown no particular commitment to the vision of individual DMs - indeed they notably don't really talk about DMs or parties or anything in that segment - rather they act like D&D is a shared media experience akin to a film or book multiverse.

Here's the thing though, they've been saying all that same stuff about the campaigns since Hoard of the Dragon Queen: hence why I expect what it will boil down to is "similar to what they have been doing."

Now, same as with the Sword Coast Advebtures, I'm sure the next set of campaigns will be designed to be used together if desired, like giant LEGO sets for DMs. That's Perkins MOm

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Here's the thing though, they've been saying all that same stuff about the campaigns since Hoard of the Dragon Queen: hence why I expect what it will boil down to is "similar to what they have been doing."

Now, same as with the Sword Coast Advebtures, I'm sure the next set of campaigns will be designed to be used together if desired, like giant LEGO sets for DMs. That's Perkins MOm

I guess I'm taking them at their word when they're clearly emphasizing that they're doing more than previously (see quotes above). We shall see of course. But I don't think they'd have done a whole long bit on this if they were just planning "more of the same", because no-one thought otherwise.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The metaplot is a double edged sword. It changed with the arrival of internet. Then you can't avoid the spoilers.

And creating new adventures is not so easy for DM when the rest of players know those spoilers from a module published years ago.

Other point is the metaplot like the events in the superheroes comics, if you publish too much, the emotion could be lost.

* If there is a new Venger, this will be not the same one from the cartoon continuity.

* Now I suspect there are "echos" not only dragons, but also special characters. For example there is a Serlock Holme and Van Helsing in Gothic Earth (Mask of the Red Death) but also "variants" or "döpplegangers" in the different D&D worlds, even in Athas/Dark Sun.

 

[Parmandur]

I guess I'm taking them at their word when they're clearly emphasizing that they're doing more than previously (see quotes above). We shall see of course. But I don't think they'd have done a whole long bit on this if they were just planning "more of the same", because no-one thought otherwise.

For me, I'm judging based on what Perkins and Crawford gave said and done before. I expect the approach to "metaplot" to be about the same, with maybe a slight modicum more in the way of cameos and Easter Eggs (like having members of the League of 80's Actuon Figure Bad Guys show up occasionally like they did in Witchlight, giving DMs a thread to build a plot around).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

For me, I'm judging based on what Perkins and Crawford gave said and done before. I expect the approach to "metaplot" to be about the same, with maybe a slight modicum more in the way of cameos and Easter Eggs (like having members of the League of 80's Actuon Figure Bad Guys show up occasionally like they did in Witchlight, giving DMs a thread to build a plot around).

I mean, I guess the difference is you're going "Actions speak louder than words", and I'm going "When someone tells you who they are, listen", and I think both are valid but we'll see what the reality is.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, I guess the difference is you're going "Actions speak louder than words", and I'm going "When someone tells you who they are, listen", and I think both are valid but we'll see what the reality is.

I have no doubt that Vecna, the Red Wozards, Venger and the League of Tough Melanie's will show up, even between campaigns. But they've already done that in 5E, with connecting hooks between all the Adventures. I just expect they will do what they did last time they said the same words about story. Which has been a constant drumbeat from Perkins for ten years, so I don't see much difference other than a promise of particular marketable characters.

I also really, really suspect they have a He-Man/She-Ra style reboot of the 80's cartoon in the works, considering how incessantly the official social media channels keep posting cartoon memes, the characters showed up in the movie, the lmrecent Little Golden Book, etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For me, I'm judging based on what Perkins and Crawford gave said and done before. I expect the approach to "metaplot" to be about the same, with maybe a slight modicum more in the way of cameos and Easter Eggs (like having members of the League of 80's Actuon Figure Bad Guys show up occasionally like they did in Witchlight, giving DMs a thread to build a plot around).

Given that the pillars that have shown up in previous 5E books that are now taking center stage with the Phandelver book have made zero impression on me, I'm guessing the metaplot is going to be a very light touch, especially compared to the height of RPG metaplot in the 1990s, the oWoD metaplot, where nothing your player characters did mattered, because Justin Achilli's characters were the real stars of the show.

EDIT: In other words, the whole conversation that you two just had above, that I hadn't seen before posting.

 

[Parmandur]

Given that the pillars that have shown up in previous 5E books that are now taking center stage with the Phandelver book have made zero impression on me, I'm guessing the metaplot is going to be a very light touch, especially compared to the height of RPG metaplot in the 1990s, the oWoD metaplot, where nothing your player characters did mattered, because Justin Achilli's characters were the real stars of the show.

EDIT: In other words, the whole conversation that you two just had above, that I hadn't seen before posting.

So, for the Sword Coast Adventures over the past 9 years, I'd say the overriding "metaplot" as far as there us one is SKT: it details how to hook every prior campaign into it, and every subsequent book has obvious hooks to plug back into SKT (such as the Frost Giants aviking in Chult for the Ring of Winter). It's very easy to use it as an organizing framework that encompasses all the Sword Coast material. But there is no canonical resolution to the Ordening shakeup and Giant conflict, or canonical fate for the big movers and shakers.

So, that's about what I expect: the Evil Action Figure Society of America will show up a bunch of times, like they did in Witchlight, culminating in an Adventure that can tie into Witchlight and other stuff they appear...without necessitating the link, or nailing down an official resolution.