D&D 5E 5E Product Chart - Updated 4/21/22

Not to run on too long, but a bit more...

One of the biggest questions in my mind, as far as the future release schedule is concerned, is how they are going to fit in all of the hypothetical settings they might publish without going beyond two a year. If I were to guess, I could categorize them like so:

Huge likelihood/almost definite:
A new setting
More Magic settings
Planescape/Sigil/something planar

Significant possibility:
Dark Sun
Forgotten Realms setting book
Exandria expansion
Another new setting

Some possibility:
Greyhawk

I consider everything else--Mystara, Birthright, etc--as being somewhat possible, but not before the above.

Meaning, even ignoring Greyhawk, that's six or or more settings -- more if you consider multiple Magic and new settings. Even if we slot in two a year, we get through six by 2025, but that doesn't account for multiples, and I see them publishing at least one new Magic setting every other year, and possibly more than one new setting in that time-span. If so, that would be eight settings in three years.

Could they eventually--perhaps as soon as next year--publish three settings in a year? That seems possible, especially if they go with the "new format" and adventure-setting hybrid approaches, like we're seeing with SJ and DL.
If they are doing game book board game Rossiter, Birthright may have just seen it's stock grow.
 

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Not to run on too long, but a bit more...

One of the biggest questions in my mind, as far as the future release schedule is concerned, is how they are going to fit in all of the hypothetical settings they might publish without going beyond two a year. If I were to guess, I could categorize them like so:

Huge likelihood/almost definite:
A new setting
More Magic settings
Planescape/Sigil/something planar

Significant possibility:
Dark Sun
Forgotten Realms setting book
Exandria expansion
Another new setting

Some possibility:
Greyhawk

I consider everything else--Mystara, Birthright, etc--as being somewhat possible, but not before the above.

Meaning, even ignoring Greyhawk, that's six or or more settings -- more if you consider multiple Magic and new settings. Even if we slot in two a year, we get through six by 2025, but that doesn't account for multiples, and I see them publishing at least one new Magic setting every other year, and possibly more than one new setting in that time-span. If so, that would be eight settings in three years.

Could they eventually--perhaps as soon as next year--publish three settings in a year? That seems possible, especially if they go with the "new format" and adventure-setting hybrid approaches, like we're seeing with SJ and DL.

I think some easy guesses are;
  • 2 adventures (normal size or compilations)
  • 2 settings
  • 1 general rules supplement/monster book

And then (if there is) a six book can be anything. A third setting in a year seems high to me, but who knows.
 

Significant possibility:
Dark Sun
Do you think so? Sure, it isn't impossible, but as someone who loved both Dark Sun and Planescape back in the 90s - I think it would be relatively easy to do a Planescape 5e that was both true to the original 2e setting and to the general milieu of 5e. Making a 5e version of Dark Sun that achieves both seems dramatically more challenging to do - but I would have put Dragonlance on that list as well, and here we are.
 

I think a Magic Setting book this year just got much more likely: we have 3 Adventure books, and a Setting slipcase. Kamigawa or New Capena also have, like, no crossover conceptual space with Spelljammer or Dragonlance.

As to the current spread, look at it like this, because things how WotC sees it and reports it to their corporate side:

  • Call of the Netherdeep: Winter or Fiscal Q1
  • Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel: Spring or Fiscal Q2
  • Spelljammer: Summer or Fiscal Q3
  • Dragonlance: Fall or Fiscal Q4

A major tent pole for the TTRPG in every Season and Fiscal Quarter. Monsters of the Multiverse is a 2021 delayed book of reprints, and the Starter Set is more an Evergreen intro product.
I will admit that of all the candidates, a Magic setting is the most likely - especially because it is the type of thing that can just be slipped in, and they have a history of being secretive about them.

And I think what you say is key: that DL is "technically" and adventure book, and SJ is a hybrid - so in a way, there's no true setting book this year.

Hmm...
 

I think some easy guesses are;
  • 2 adventures (normal size or compilations)
  • 2 settings
  • 1 general rules supplement/monster book

And then (if there is) a six book can be anything. A third setting in a year seems high to me, but who knows.
Well, but Dragonlance isn't getting a "Setting book" as such, but an Adventure with some Setting elements. The first Adventure book to have Subclasses, admittedly, but they billed it as an Adventure in the trailer.
 

Do you think so? Sure, it isn't impossible, but as someone who loved both Dark Sun and Planescape back in the 90s - I think it would be relatively easy to do a Planescape 5e that was both true to the original 2e setting and to the general milieu of 5e. Making a 5e version of Dark Sun that achieves both seems dramatically more challenging to do - but I would have put Dragonlance on that list as well, and here we are.
Yeah, I hear you. Dark Sun is a bit of a litmus test for WotC in terms of their target demographic, or to what degree they are emphasizing a younger audience (and also, how much they're willing to sacrifice of the "soul" of a setting to fit current sensibilities).

That said, post-apocalyptic stories are plentiful these days, and it would be surprising if WotC didn't eventually dive into those waters. It might not be DS, but we'll see something - possibly a new setting.
 

I will admit that of all the candidates, a Magic setting is the most likely - especially because it is the type of thing that can just be slipped in, and they have a history of being secretive about them.

And I think what you say is key: that DL is "technically" and adventure book, and SJ is a hybrid - so in a way, there's no true setting book this year.

Hmm...
I think Spelljammer doesn't look that different in type of content from prior full Setting books, just in format.
 



I think Spelljammer doesn't look that different in type of content from prior full Setting books, just in format.
From SOME. Others are more "classic" - e.g. Eberron and Ravenloft.

But I think the presentation is key: as a slip-case with three books of each of the three main product types (splat, setting, adventure), it is loudly declaring, "This is a hybrid product!" It is less ambiguous about it than, say, Strixhaven.
 

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