WotC D&D Direct—Video Event From WotC Coming Next Week

WotC has just announced D&D Direct, a 30-minute video presentation of upcoming plans for D&D.

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The Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards of the Coast is excited to announce that D&D Direct is scheduled for Tuesday, March 28 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

Tune in to watch a jam-packed 30-minute video presentation to see exclusive reveals from Wizards of the Coast and its partners, including the latest about the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game along with entertainment tie-ins with the upcoming release of Paramount's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, video game reveals, and more, guided by hosts Gina Darling (@MissGinaDarling) and Ify Nwadiwe (@IfyNwadiwe).

D&D Direct will broadcast on the D&D YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/DNDWizards) and Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/dnd) channels.

 

[CommodoreKong]

The VTT will run on potato PCs?

The VTT is running in UE5 and will have 3D models and particle effects so it will likely require a better GPU than web browser based VTTs. I imagine WotC will want it to run on as many computers as possible though.

Edit: Lol I realized you were probably more referencing the potatoes in the video and making a joke about that then really asking a question.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmmm, isn't Target's new product shelf day typically Tuesdays?

Are they going to stealth release a movie tie-in on the day of Direct?

Coming back to this: A stealth Target release would get around the problem of getting it into Diamond and other distribution chains and would be why retailers like @FitzTheRuke wouldn't know about any such tie-in.

So it's possible. How probable it is, I don't know.

Let's say, for whatever reason, Hasbro/WotC didn't pay attention to how well the movie was testing (apparently as early as last fall) until very late in the process and had to jump into action to create a movie tie-in here. (I would pretend that me ranting and raving about this tipped the scales, but if I had that power, gnomes would be the featured players of D&D.)

Something the size of Stormwreck Isle, especially if they're just including those same navy blue dice again, can probably be done pretty quickly. Get some of their all-star writers to do something structured very similarly to previous boxed sets (mandatory encounter, home base and player choice encounters, mandatory encounter to wrap it all up) in a setting or situation that ties into the movie in some fashion (maybe Neverwinter, maybe another setting visited in the film, maybe make it star side characters with pregen stats), and then get the art created and printed up and distributed to Targets by next Tuesday.

I am not a games publisher, but that feels like a doable but very lean timetable, based on how long developing other products takes. The writing and art could probably get done in that time frame, but as I know from an OMG number of Kickstarters I back (and I have only backed one failed campaign, so these are the successful ones), there are tons of problems that can come up at the printing and distribution stages.

That said, the printing and distribution issues go away if it's released first on D&D Beyond and then shows up in stores when the physical product issues are taken care of.

So ... maybe? I don't know what else they could be talking about regarding the movie, otherwise, other than "hey, you should all go see this movie," which would be the least surprising thing they could possibly say.

 

[dave2008]

It feels a little silly to make references to it at this point, then.

Why is that? Other than that "easter eggs" are silly in general.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why is that? Other than that "easter eggs" are silly in general.

The game should be "did you spot and understand this clue" rather than "ha ha, you didn't see the movie yet." It changes the clue from an inclusive game to one of exclusion. It's a bad marketing move, but WotC sometimes steps on their own toes this way, so this isn't terribly surprising.

 

[dave2008]

The game should be "did you spot and understand this clue" rather than "ha ha, you didn't see the movie yet." It changes the clue from an inclusive game to one of exclusion. It's a bad marketing move, but WotC sometimes steps on their own toes this way, so this isn't terribly surprising.

I much prefer: "ha ha, you didn't see the movie yet."

 

[Oofta]

The game should be "did you spot and understand this clue" rather than "ha ha, you didn't see the movie yet." It changes the clue from an inclusive game to one of exclusion. It's a bad marketing move, but WotC sometimes steps on their own toes this way, so this isn't terribly surprising.

Or it's just an easter egg you won't understand until you see the movie.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I imagine we learn about Giants, the Phandelver campaign and Planescape. There will be some teasers about the VTT and new digital features coming. I imagine they will also release the next playtest packet and pimp that a bit. Finally they will have a tease of a surprise being unveiled at Gen-Con or some such about anniversary plans.
I do not think we will see any Greyhawk or Blackmoor products next year.

I'm guessing that we'll get some decent info and likely covers for the Giants book, and maybe some general info for the summer releases. I'm thinking anything Planescape will be a teaser at the most.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

More prominent bit in the teaser: the hatching egg. That doesn't seem to match up to giants, Phandalin, the Deck of Many Things or Planescape.

Is it another movie reference? Is that the start of them introducing a 50th anniversary golden dragon mascot? Something else?

 

[darjr]

So a bit of a mash of it?

 

[bedir than]

Something the size of Stormwreck Isle, especially if they're just including those same navy blue dice again, can probably be done pretty quickly. Get some of their all-star writers to do something structured very similarly to previous boxed sets (mandatory encounter, home base and player choice encounters, mandatory encounter to wrap it all up) in a setting or situation that ties into the movie in some fashion (maybe Neverwinter, maybe another setting visited in the film, maybe make it star side characters with pregen stats), and then get the art created and printed up and distributed to Targets by next Tuesday.

The third party from the maze trap would make sense