D&D 5E (2024) Where Are All The New Books In 2026 (D&Dfans article)

[LuisCarlos17f]

If you go to WotC web this shows its videgames studios like subsidiaries. Maybe there are internal reforms to go from being a game publisher to becoming a franchise manager.

Another possibility is to secretly negotiate the adaptation of other companies' franchises, and therefore, the utmost discretion is required.
The online content doesn't need previous UA articles for feedback. If some error was found this could be fixed in an update. The good new is this should allow to test experimental new rule packs or special game mechanics, for example bloodlines for Birthright.
Could D&D appear in Fornite if this becomes a future videogame store app? This may be very important because Fortnite may be very valious for "product emplacement". Hasbro IPs should appear in Fortnite before that empty space to be full with franchises by other companies, for example isekai mangas. If Hasbro was talking with Epic Games then nobody says a word and the silence should be total, quiet like a tomb.

Or D&D settings could be linceced to other publisher, like Ravenloft in 3e. The risk is to keep the problem is maintaining consistency with continuity and the copyright ownership of new characters or monsters.

 

[Azzy]

I still don't entirely understand what "franchise model" means.

Corp-speak of some sort.

 

[Parmandur]

Corp-speak of some sort.

Well, no, in this case it is not just empty platitudes, the studio and franchise models are serious and different approaches to hierarchical organization that actually mean something. He is well out of the game, but this is what Mike Mearls had to say on these boards about WotC going back to the franchise model:

Franchise model is how things worked from 2014 to 2020 or so. One group steered D&D and worked with licensees to set up their content.

If you've played Baldur's Gate 3, you might notice that they lean heavily into lore from Volo's Guide to Monsters, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and the Baldur's Gate gazetteer from Descent into Avernus. That's the franchise model in action.

We literally wrote design guides for Larian and then inserted them into D&D products. The basic theory was that a DM and a narrative designer do the same job, just at a different scale. What's good for one works for the other.

As another example - the annual events like Tomb of Annihilation are 100% a byproduct of a franchise model. If you liked that era, this might be a signal that they want to go back to something like that.

 

[Cergorach]

Sure, sure... 'Evidence'...

If every management shakeup would collapse your plans for the complete next year, businesses would be in trouble and WotC would not have survived for so long. What's having a far bigger impact is probably the US tariff shenanigans, at the end of 2024 these were not yet relevant, now they are and people have had a whole year to NOT get used to them because they change all the time and are not implemented properly causing huge issues for US imports/exports. As a multinational business you can't make a detailed plan a year ahead in such an environment. While they will make a strategy, the time between announcements and release will be a lot shorter unless you want to confuse and anger your customer base with products you can't deliver on time or at all.

2026 is the 10 year anniversary of Curse of Strahd, one of the 'best' 5e adventures WotC released, one of the most played. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they made an updated/expanded release for 5e 2024. If they don't, that's imho a missed opportunity.

There's been some speculation about a Dark Sun release for 5e 2024, would be interesting, but i don't expect all that much from that.

And probably another adventure collection book. And I honestly don't expect much more then that physical product wise. Maybe another boxed set for some other IP that's been D&D-yfied (like Stranger Things)... I would love more stuff, like a Monster Manual II for example...

 

[Belen]

I still don't entirely understand what "franchise model" means.

It means that all decisions will be unified and work together. A product release will work across multiple media and not siloed.

It is a recipe for creative destruction.

Look at Star Wars novels when Disney forced them to adhere to the story group. They became boring and everything was on guard rails.

 

[bedir than]

It means that all decisions will be unified and work together. A product release will work across multiple media and not siloed.

It is a recipe for creative destruction.

Look at Star Wars novels when Disney forced them to adhere to the story group. They became boring and everything was on guard rails.

Was Baldur's Gate "creative destruction?"

Its development was done during the previous franchise model, but the shift away from franchise by the time it (and Honor Among Thieves) meant that there was no supporting TTRPG material.

 

[Belen]

Was Baldur's Gate "creative destruction?"

Its development was done during the previous franchise model, but the shift away from franchise by the time it (and Honor Among Thieves) meant that there was no supporting TTRPG material.

BG3 was in beta for 3 years and I do not remember a big push of supporting material although it was embraced after success.

Honor suffered heavily due to OGL backlash although it was an excellent movie.

The issue with franchise models is that they go the safe, focus group tested content.

BG3 did not take that route and was not the result of a franchise effort although WOTC dove in after it was a succcess.

 

[Charlaquin]

If every management shakeup would collapse your plans for the complete next year, businesses would be in trouble and WotC would not have survived for so long.

No one is suggesting it collapsed their plans for the whole year, that’s absurd. But it is a reasonable guess that, given in previous years they would have announced something by now, the management shakeups have something to do with them not having announced anything. Most likely due to a change in marketing strategy.

What's having a far bigger impact is probably the US tariff shenanigans, at the end of 2024 these were not yet relevant, now they are and people have had a whole year to NOT get used to them because they change all the time and are not implemented properly causing huge issues for US imports/exports. As a multinational business you can't make a detailed plan a year ahead in such an environment. While they will make a strategy, the time between announcements and release will be a lot shorter unless you want to confuse and anger your customer base with products you can't deliver on time or at all.

Yes, that’s another one of the hypotheses presented in this article; the one evidenced by the multiple recent product delays. These shipping and printing related delays would likely make them less inclined to announce products as far in advance, to avoid unexpected delays forcing them to change a previously announced timetable.

 

[bedir than]

BG3 was in beta for 3 years and I do not remember a big push of supporting material although it was embraced after success.

Honor suffered heavily due to OGL backlash although it was an excellent movie.

The issue with franchise models is that they go the safe, focus group tested content.

BG3 did not take that route and was not the result of a franchise effort although WOTC dove in after it was a succcess.

per the people who worked at WotC and advised BG3 at the time, D&D was in the franchise model during its early development. Mearls talks about the use of monsters and elements from several late 20-teens D&D books for example.

The quotes are provided earlier in this very post.

The lack of tie-ins was due to the length of development and leadership change (basically when Cocks left Wizards to leave Hasbro).

 

[Reynard]

Honor suffered heavily due to OGL backlash although it was an excellent movie.

There is no way that there were enough people that knew about, much less cared about, the OGL debacle to significantly impact the box office success of HAT.

HAT failed at the box office because as big as D&D is relatively speaking, it is still niche compared to things like the MCU, Star Wars or even Godzilla.