WotC D&D Direct--Learn About Upcoming D&D On April 21st!

D&D Direct is a 30-minute video which WotC will be releasing on April 21st at 9am Pacific Time (5pm BST, if I have my time zones correct). They'll be using it to reveal stuff about upcoming D&D projects (including video games and entertainment). The video will be presented by Anna Prosser and B. Dave Walters.

This is being billed in an emailed announcement entitled "Learn Everything That’s Happening This Year for Dungeons & Dragons" as the "first ever D&D Direct", so presumably there are more planned.

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The D&D Team at Wizards of the Coast is excited to debut D&D Direct, a jam-packed thirty-minute video presentation on April 21 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

Tune in to see exclusive reveals from the world's greatest roleplaying game, including video games, entertainment, and more, guided by hosts Anna Prosser and B. Dave Walters.

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

To find out more on D&D Direct go to dnd.wizards.com and follow the official D&D social media accounts for more updates.

See you on April 21 at 9:00 AM PT for the first-ever D&D Direct!

 

[bedir than]

That's true: and if we assume that Hamon, Wyatt, and Crawford are leading a project each, and we know ow that they are...

Though Crawford may just be preparing the next evolution and providing support.

And their other designers may level up to lead level soon

 

[Parmandur]

I suppose so. I would have thought of a ‘summer adventure’ as “here’s a new book for you and your friends to play through while you’re home from school on break”, is all - not “here’s a new book when the fall semester is getting under way”.

On the contrary, "start a new game this Fall Semester" is the explicit product strategy they laid out at the start of 5E. The books are designed to be playable in a single academic year at the pace that high school and College students manage on the weekends. That's the core target audience for D&D books.

 

[Parmandur]

And their other designers may level up to lead level soon

True, we won't know until we know.

 

[Mercurius]

Oh hey, our own @Parmandur quoted them here on enworld back in March:

edit: I still don't fully understand why they always refer to Aug/Sept releases as their 'Summer' release.

Well, technically all of August and most of September is summer.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

WotC publishing its own graphic novel. Do you notice what it means? It could be only the first step, the begining, not only publishing comics about D&D but also other licenced franchises. The could test craziest ideas, for example an isekai version of Jem and the Hologram with a tone of fantasy comedy. Starting with one-shots and miniseries, 4,6 or 12 numbers. Ravenloft is perfect for horror comics with little touch of indie.

Maybe WotC dares to publish again no-FR novels.

 

[teitan]

Oh, I know about that part of his viewpoint. But the Mattel angle has been brought up multiple times, and we know that Hasbro has the Star Wars toy license (at least) for the next 8 - 10 years last I heard.

Cheers

Nah Mattel did the Grogu doll.

 

[Rabulias]

I still don't fully understand why they always refer to Aug/Sept releases as their 'Summer' release.

While technically August and most of September is summer, it is the end of summer, which seems wrong to some people. When vendors told us about software releases in my career, and said a new release would be out in, say, Q3, the way the salespeople talked about it, the release date was July 1, but the developers' idea of a release date was September 30. So I guess we are getting developer dates instead of salespeople dates.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Maybe, but unless the "new format" involves a hybrid adventure/setting, and/or they expand to five books, they've still got two classic settings to unroll, and I don't think we've heard anything about pushing one back to 2023. But I haven't been following very closely.

I personally believe the classic setting returning (Spelljammer) and the summer adventure are the same thing. I don't know if that qualifies as a new format or whether that's something else, but I do feel confident that the Spelljammer and Dragonlance books (both likely this year) will not share the same format to one another.

I could see Spelljammer being a hybrid setting/adventure like Witchlight or Strixhaven, or I could see Dragonlance having a reprint of some of the DL modules included.

 

[ersatzphil]

I could see Spelljammer being a hybrid setting/adventure like Witchlight or Strixhaven, or I could see Dragonlance having a reprint of some of the DL modules included.

It’s nothing but wild-eyed speculation on my part, but my theory is the Dragonlance is going to get its own slipcase of campaign setting + a ‘War of the Lance’ adventure book for the holiday shopping season. It’d be a new format, at least.

Joe Mangianello keeps referring to Dragonlance as ‘the Star Wars of D&D’, and I’m sure that’s music to Hasbro’s ears.

 

[Omand]

Nah Mattel did the Grogu doll.

I had to look this one up.

It appears that both Hasbro and Mattel released Grogu plush toys.

Mattel Version 1

Mattel Version 2

Hasbro Version

Did not know that until now. Seems Disney really wanted to cash in on "The Child"

You learn something every day.

Cheers

Edit: Spelling is hard.