D&D 5E (2024) Unconfirmed Dark Sun World Book

[Parmandur]

They used to have huge productions to announce the product slate for next year prior to COVID, things like recreating waterdeep complete with the walking statues. Then after COVID they started doing online D&D directs. I feel we haven't had no knowledge of upcoming releases since like 2017 or earlier... and that is, unfortunately, a rather long time in the past.

You are misremembering the timeliness involved: the Waterdeep streaming event was in June 2018, for a September 2018 release, 3 months later. Call of the Netherdeep being announced on October 12 2021 was in fact the first time we had an announcement of a 6E product in a prior calendar year, and August 2022 was the first time they did a whole year's slate of announcements. Granted that right now is the first time since Aigist 2022 thst we have any uncertainty about what is coming next, but the general trend is announcements in the same calendar year, 3-5 months in advance.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

The SJ set was poorly done with a few good bits here and there; the PS set was better (not saying it was The Best), it didn't feel rushed and I don't think they copy+pasted text from 2e supplements for it like SJ
So if they give Dark Sun the Planescape treatment, that'll be decent enough. Maybe they'd do even better!

SJ and Planescape would be a lot better if done in the style of the recent Realms books. In that, a series of interesting locations and mini adventure outlines are a better fit.
Both suffer from the lack of interesting locations and reading an entire adventure for interesting location is a lot of work.

 

[Parmandur]

SJ and Planescape would be a lot better if done in the style of the recent Realms books. In that, a series of interesting locations and mini adventure outlines are a better fit.
Both suffer from the lack of interesting locations and reading an entire adventure for interesting location is a lot of work.

The material that Spelljammer got in a 320 page hardcover with just a bit more would be brilliant. It was the lack of material such as Chapter 4 in Ravnica or Wberron that did it in, IMO.

 

[GothmogIV]

Perhaps the 5e24 Dark Sun will deepdive into the sword and sorcery genre.

I hope there will be an optional section that allows a hopeful setting, with elemental-water restoration for environmental renewal plus advanced magic urban communities elsewhere on the planet. These might involve communities of Fey (Positive Material Planar) Avangions. The planetary restoration is a work in progress but the local successes inspire optimism.

If WotC produces something that is actually sword&sorcery vs. what you are describing--hopepunk, I guess?--I'll eat my hat.

 

[el-remmen]

Personally, I think WotC should drop books with no announcement, like Beyonce or Taylor Swift dropping secret albums.

 

[Lidgar]

Just give us a close approximation of Mad Max D&D please.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I'm honestly a little flabbergasted we're going into 2026 without publicly knowing the available book slate.

I think having to move the new Eberron book into a December release date screwed up their planned hype cycle.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My theory is it will be a post-apocalypse generic system with a chapter about the region of Tyr, like the article from Dungeon #110. At least it should be unlocked in DMGuild. Maybe even we could be sketchbooks by 3PP artists or books with only original art.

The metaplot will keep untouched, with some little retcons like the "Land-within-the-wind" (Athasian Feywill). New PC species could be the tari(ratfolk) and Athasian genasi (appeared in 4th Ed Dragon magazine).

 

[Parmandur]

I think having to move the new Eberron book into a December release date screwed up their planned hype cycle.

Not necessarily, historically they rarely release anything prior to Msrch or April, and usually announce that in January.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Not necessarily, historically they rarely release anything prior to Msrch or April, and usually announce that in January.

Yeah, but we'd probably have gotten an announcement of an announcement by now.