D&D 5E Announcement Next Week--What Hints For Upcoming D&D Books?

WotC uses Unearthed Arcana to playtest D&D material which often ends up in a later hardcover book. Mages of Strixhaven was in Unearthed Arcana in June 2021, and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos was published in December 2021. Draconic Options was in Unearthed Arcana in April 2021, and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons came out in October. The same applied to Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and other books--the lead time appears to typically be somewhere around 6 months. So what have we had recently which might give us an insight into upcoming books?

WotC is holding a press event this coming Friday, with an embargo for March 22nd (which is Tuesday next week), meaning that an announcement is around the corner.

Unearthed Arcana has slowed in the last year or so, but there have been two notable articles:

• August 2021 -- Travelers of the Multiverse. 6 months after this was February, so if the 6-month lead time theory holds true, a multiverse-themed book would be imminent. The amount of speculative chatter about Spelljammer, Planescape, and 'Planejammer' is at a high.
• March 2022 -- Heroes of Krynn. This UA was released last week; six months would put a Dragonlance hardcover roughly about September, around the same time that Weis & Hickman's new Dragonlance novel releases.

So these two appear the most likely--some kind of multiverse book, and a Dragonlance book.

We know that a new starter set--Dragons of Stormwreck Isle--is on its way this year. WotC has spoken about two brand new settings, and two classic settings in 2022 (which fits the theory!)

They also spoke about a 'brand new format' for the 2 classic settings--WotC's Ray Winninger said in June last year that ""Each of these products is pursuing a different format you've never seen before. And neither is "digital only;" these are new print formats."

As I've mentioned on a couple of occasions, there are two more products that revive "classic" settings in production right now.

The manuscript for the first, overseen by [Chris Perkins], is nearly complete. Work on the second, led by [F. Wesley Schneider] with an assist from [Ari Levitch], is just ramping up in earnest. Both are targeting 2022 and formats you've never seen before.

In addition to these two titles, we have two brand new [D&D] settings in early development, as well as a return to a setting we've already covered. (No, these are not M:tG worlds.)

As I mentioned in the dev blog, we develop more material than we publish, so it's possible one or more of these last three won't reach production. But as of right now, they're all looking great.

 

[Wolfram stout]

Could new format be a standard adventure but with a companion app that you can download?

 

[Remathilis]

Nah it’ll be NFTs, they’re the new hotness

Nothing would make me switch to Pathfinder faster.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm pretty sure by "formats" they're referring to the types of publications they already do: Adventures, Campaign Settings, Bestiaries.
My interpretation of the statemt about a "format we haven't seen before" wasn't that it's a wholly new format, but that the settings in question had not previously been released in that specific format. An example might be a revival of Spelljammer, but published as a book that's primarily adventure compilation--the focus being less on the systems and worlds of wildspace, and more on the kinds of adventures you could have--or a revival of Dark Sun, but published as a book of hazards and environmental affects--communicating the setting not as a specific place or history, but as a high concept of "here's ways the environment might try to kill you, imagine for yourself what kind of world might have all these".

Something like this would be really smart. It would expand and update the setting, while leaving the original material useful for further depth if one wanted to pick it up on DriveThruRPG.

I hope your wrong.

 

[Parmandur]

Rather than put it at he beginning, the Table of Contents is spread throughout the book.

I meant like how Ravernloft and Strixhaven mixed up the formula from older 5E books: like that, not like "what if we published it as a hat?"

 

[Weiley31]

Yes, but what about the new format?

AND the rum!

 

[vecna00]

Nah it’ll be NFTs, they’re the new hotness

Oh no...

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

What anything about electronic? Not a CD, but a figure or card with a pendrive with PDFs, or something like the NFC (near field communication) figures.

 

[Ibrandul]

I'm pretty sure by "formats" they're referring to the types of publications they already do: Adventures, Campaign Settings, Bestiaries.
My interpretation of the statemt about a "format we haven't seen before" wasn't that it's a wholly new format, but that the settings in question had not previously been released in that specific format.

Nope.

In the Nov. 3, 2021, Dragon Talk podcast linked earlier in this thread, it's clear that cohosts Shelly Mazzanoble and Greg Tito, and Director of Product Management Liz Schuh, are all thinking about one or more specific upcoming physical products they can't yet discuss publicly, when they say:

Shelly: You are always thinking about ways in which we present our products....Sometimes it's in a box, the way that the Essentials Kit or the Starter Set might be, and sometimes it's a book....I'm sure that you've got other tricks up your sleeve that you can't reveal now—

Greg: (laughs)

Shelley: —but you and Ray in the "Future of D&D" panels have alluded to exploring other options and formats.

Liz: Yeah. So that's one of the really fun parts of the job, looking at: What are different components that we can put together that will enhance people's play experience, really enhance the fun that people have at the table? And we have been exploring some fun new ideas. In 2022 I think you'll see some interesting new components that we've never released before.

(transcript edited for clarity by removing ums, repeated words, etc.)

 

[Professor Murder]

New Theory: The 90s are all the rage, so...

 

[Remathilis]

New Theory: The 90s are all the rage, so...

View attachment 153636

Ohh. A CD? That's retro!