Dungeons & Dragons Will Announce New Products at Gen Con, Modules Returning to Game

Wizards of the Coast plans to use Gen Con as a launching point for future products. During a press briefing at Gary Con on Thursday, Head of D&D Franchise Dan Ayoub said that they would be announcing the product tied to the Season of Champions at Gen Con this year. Additionally, starting at Gen Con in 2026, D&D will also announce the roadmap for the upcoming year at the convention, which will include announcements of upcoming Seasons, announcement of new products, and other "stuff" tied to the season.

Ayoub told the press briefing that early feedback for the seasons have been "fantastic," so it appears that this will be the standard moving forward.

Later in the press briefing, Ayoub noted that the lengthy delay in announcements was due to a combination of internal reorganization for the D&D team and a shift in which products would be released in 2026. He also said that adventure modules will be returning to Dungeons & Dragons as part of the new Season models, although it's unclear whether this will be through the D&D Encounters program, Adventurer's League, or through some other kind of unannounced product.

 

[Parmandur]

My only contention is that the customer base is bigger and yet we do not see bigger release schedules or more diverse products. Why?

They do release a number of diverse books every year. The mlre focused release schedule compared to earlier editions seems more likely to be part of the sauce of 5E success than a weird mystery.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It is pretty explicable as being low on the to do list. The 5E conversion document for materials from older editions, suchh as it was, took two years to release.

Yeah, it’s expensive (legal knowledge required) and takes time. And has no direct revenue stream. The only reason to do it at all is reputational.

 

[mamba]

It is pretty explicable as being low on the to do list. The 5E conversion document for materials from older editions, suchh as it was, took two years to release.

low on the to-do list is one thing, but given that you already have the SRD it should take little effort to release it under CC. The 5e document was something they had to create first (not that this should have taken two years…)

 

[Lanefan]

If one wonders why most of of WotC adventures are set in Forgotten Realms, and now a bit more in Greyhawk, it's because the company sees both IPs on a spectrum of vanilla fantasy. Fans of both settings may get their feathers ruffled hearing that

They'll doubtless get ruffled further when I say that I've always seen FR, Greyhawk, and Mystara as being pretty much interchangeable in terms of what one can run in them. Just gotta change a lot of names, is all.

but from the outside looking in, one could run several FR or GW adventures by changing location names and dialing a thing or two back or forward (or maybe not at all.)

Indeed.

That is part of the secret sauce for WotC. They get a built in IP audience and they also bank that for many GMs either setting is "close enough" for a module to be dropped into their home brews.

Exactly. Not so simple for Planescape modules, or Dark Sun, or Eberron, though; as there's often considerably more to convert in order to make in run in Homebrew Setting X (unless, of course, one's homebrew hews quite cose to one of those).

 

[Lanefan]

Why is that?

1. So I can support the local game store (i.e. local jobs) when buying a module.
2. So I can glance through it firsthand before deciding whether to buy it.
3. So that when I buy it, I have it in my hands right now rather than having to wait for it to arrive.
4. So I don't have to use my printer ink and paper just to produce a substandard result compared with a professionally-printed and bound module.

 

[Parmandur]

low on the to-do list is one thing, but given that you already have the SRD it should take little effort to release it under CC. The 5e document was something they had to create first (not that this should have taken two years…)

That assumes thst all they had planned is to just put out 3.x in the CC, when it really seems their plans were more ambitious than that...jjst not a to priority.

They spent a lot of time here talking about OD&D, AD&D, Basic, and even 4E.

 

[mamba]

That assumes thst all they had planned is to just put out 3.x in the CC, when it really seems their plans were more ambitious than that...jjst not a to priority.

I believe that it was more ambitious when I see it. Until then I assume that it is a read-through to make sure they remove stuff they do not want included in the CC that were in the OGL SRD.

 

[Parmandur]

I believe that it was more ambitious when I see it. Until then I assume that it is a read-through to make sure they remove stuff they do not want included in the CC that were in the OGL SRD.

That could have been done by now. Thst it has taken this lot, and specifically what they were skipping around at this panel about the history and legacy of older editions well before anyone asked about CC...

 

[mamba]

That could have been done by now. Thst it has taken this lot, and specifically what they were skipping around at this panel about the history and legacy of older editions well before anyone asked about CC...

Of course it could have been done by now. My expectation simply is that they just do not prioritize this in any way, not that they actually want to go beyond that. I am open to being positively surprised by WotC for a change, I am just not expecting it

 

[Parmandur]

Of course it could have been done by now. My expectation simply is that they just do not prioritize this in any way, not that they actually want to go beyond that. I am open to being positively surprised by WotC for a change, I am just not expecting it

I don't know what to expect exactly, but merely 3.x CC ain't it.

If they were smart, they would find a way to monetize he idler editions too, on Beyond or at least DMsGuild.