Why Dungeons & Dragons Isn't Putting Out a Campaign Book in 2025

Wizards of the Coast is not putting out a Dungeons & Dragons campaign book in 2025. Despite adding two more books to its D&D release schedule, there are no plans to release a new full-length campaign book. During a press event at Wizards' headquarters, EN World asked about why the D&D design team had chosen to skip over a campaign book for first time in a decade. "

"This year we have focused on providing, rather than one large adventure, many adventure options because you'll actually see there are more sort of discrete adventure options than we typically do in a year," said Jeremy Crawford, lead rules designer for Dungeons & Dragons. "So you're going to have not only the 10 adventures in Dragon Delves with three possible campaigns, you also have the adventure options in Eberron, you have the adventure options in the Starter Set, and you have a bunch of adventure options in the Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide. So in many ways, we are flooding you with adventure options."

Crawford added that the D&D design team is always experimenting with their releases and that yearly campaign releases didn't always allow players to finish up the previous campaign. "So we're looking at tempos that map to how people actually play," Crawford said. "And we find that often, especially with DMs who like to create their own adventure material, they often have a greater need for sort of micro material that they can swap around. They can build things the way they like. That's what we're doing this year."

Finally, Crawford noted that one of the advantages to continuing Fifth Edition rather than launching a brand new edition meant that players could continue to use existing campaigns. "We have a whole library of epic campaigns that people can play, including last year's Vecna: Eve of Ruin, and those are all playable with the new core books," Crawford said. "And so we've embraced that for 2025, that there's a whole bookshelf of these epic campaigns that people can pick up and play, and we know there are among those campaigns surely one or two that even the most dedicated 5e group hasn't played yet."

However, Crawford noted that the D&D team wasn't moving away from campaigns forever. "For the life of 5th edition, we've never believed in there's like only one way to do it and that's how we do it every year," Crawford said. "Just because there isn't a campaign book this year doesn't mean we're not doing them."

 

[Yaarel]

Despite my snark, while adventure compilations like Quests from the Infinite Staircase and Tales from the Yawning Portal are really useful because you can lift small chunks for a night or three's gaming, it's still a hit to the pocketbook to be buying a book that you might only use 1 out of 5 adventures. I would really like to see the old single adventure paperbacks make a return in some form - maybe one a quarter or two a year.

Heh, to be fair, those old school "modules" were ridiculously expensive for something comparable to a magazine.

 

[J.M]

Why not a series of adventures you can run separately but that also link to form a campaign, don't you get the best of both worlds that way? (maybe that's what this year's releases are, not sure). Bonus points if you can run them out of order based on player moves, so it's not a railroad.

 

[Cergorach]

They just don't have room in the schedule, they need to rehash all the content from the last decade asap...

I have nothing against the campaign books, but I hope they publish they less and give more attention to it. I would rather have a Curse of Strahd every two years than an Eve of Ruin every year.

But the reality is that you got a Curse of Strahd once in eleven years and an Vecna: Eve of Ruin once in eleven years... Even if they move to a biannual campaign release schedule, there is NO guarantee it will improve quality. The campaigns are very hit or miss, maybe more miss then hit to be honest...

What people seem to forget is that 25 years ago we got the OGL because releasing adventures and campaigns just wasn't all that profitable for WotC. The reason why they outsourced Dragon & Dungeon to Paizo. I suspect that they finally realized that so many adventures/adventures per year is cannibalizing their own sales.

2024 adventure anthologies/campaigns:

• Quests from the Infinite Staircase
• Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Even if you play every week, that's more material you can get through in a year (with some exceptions), many people don't even play every week. So adventures/campaigns are not as profitable in the first place, but a necessity to support the main product (rulebooks). People can't run every adventure anthology or campaign your produce, so besides the collectors, your losing sales. If you can only produce one such a product, which to choose? Either a single campaign? Where people either love it or hate it. OR do you produce an anthology where people have 6-10 adventures to fall in love with? More chances for a sale.

Products for 2025:

• New Monster Manual (2025)
• Dragon Anthology
• DnD Starter Set
• Forgotten Realms Player Guide
• Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

Sales wise, the strongest here is probably the new Monster Manual, the weakest the Dragon Anthology.

WotC/Hasbro is just following the almighty buck while trying to lower costs. WotC is in decline, the BG3 license fees propped them up a bit, but with those sales already having peaked, they are making less money, less profit, etc. Patching 5e with 5.5e is a LOT cheaper then a complete 6e development cylce. Regurgitating the Forgotten Realms for the umpteenth time with two source books is also a guaranteed moneymaker. A 5.5e starter set seems like an evergreen product (until the next edition/revision) as well (just like the MM).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I thought the Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide was going to be a campaign book.

The Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide will contain deep dives on five different parts of the Forgotten Realms

Each area will have short adventures for DMs to run or help launch a campaign.

So, an anthology of five(+?) short adventures. I smell a policy shift.

 

[SteveC]

It seems to me that they don't have the staff and resources available to do a big adventure path while still doing what they're releasing this year. It may also be a subtle way of acknowledging that recent big adventure books just weren't that great.

A lot of this also depends on when the VTT finally drops: I know that I only pick up books that I can play via VTT since that's how I'm playing right now. It makes sense to have smaller, more modular content and have it be virtual only, since short adventure books really don't make the money that WotC needs them to.

 

[Stormonu]

What people seem to forget is that 25 years ago we got the OGL because releasing adventures and campaigns just wasn't all that profitable for WotC. The reason why they outsourced Dragon & Dungeon to Paizo. I suspect that they finally realized that so many adventures/adventures per year is cannibalizing their own sales.

I think this is the biggest point here, and something they mentioned in recent videos. The big reason the short adventures stopped being profitable was that so many were being pumped out in rapid succession. People didn't have time to breathe or run a module before the next three were being pushed out. If they put out one, maybe two a year (and keep them in print - perhaps only phasing out the ones that do poorly over time), they'll stand out more and there will be more word of mouth about the quality (or lack thereof..) because of more shared experiences due to the smaller pool to choose from. It's one of the reasons that the likes of the 1E modules are so well remembered - there was a limited pool of experience to draw from, and they could be mixed and matched fairly easily.

 

[mamba]

I long for the days when we could get an ENTIRE campaign starting at 1st level and going all the way up to 20th level. Otherwise, why have these levels if we never use them. I long for the days of Shackled City, Savage Tide, and Age of Worms. Well written, tons of maps, lots of fun.

eh, I am perfectly fine with getting rid of the top third to top half of levels. Focus on the rest and throw the unbalanced baggage overboard

 

[mamba]

Even if you play every week, that's more material you can get through in a year

it’s not like every group plays every adventure either, might as well offer some options instead of having only one a year

 

[Parmandur]

As a home campaign DM I only really have use for books with content I can crib for my own use. Much harder to do that with full length adventures, much easier with short form adventures. That said, the DM I rotate with only uses the big books, so each form has appeal to certain styles.

How dare you have such a nuanced and balanced take, in clear defiance of all our cherished traditions.

 

[Parmandur]

So, an anthology of five(+?) short adventures. I smell a policy shift.

At least for the Ebwrron and Dagon Delves book, we know they are talking about Adve tures and Campaigns outlined loosely in the style of the Greyhawk material in the DMG. So, yeah, I expect to have material to run a Level 1-whathever Campaign in the Forgotten Realms book...seems more likely to be a similar few.pages of outline notes to flesh out.

Still, yes, definitely a product lime shift.