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.

​

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!

 

[teitan]

So they're leveraging Mangianello's star power? Of course he's a (late) Gen-Xer and presumably played/read Dragonlance as a kid, so has Gen-X sensibilities. Not to say that DL couldn't translate to a younger demographic, though.

He’s not late Gen-X. He barely younger than me and I’m pretty solid in the middle of that X status. I’m like 6 months older. But yes he was a huge DL fan as a kid, he talks about it in interviews and Easley is his favorite artist, so much so his wife got Easley to paint Arkhan for him. Plus Arkhan is a “Dragon Highlord Paladin of Tiamat” and he definitely means Takhisis.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

This is a lot of hype to be Spelljammer only a simple return. This is soundings as if there were serious plans for Spelljammer to become one of the main lines. Sometimes I have joked about Spelljammer as colab. in Fortnite.... but now I think it is not totally impossible. Epic Games realises if Spelljammer became more famous thanks this, then other companies would try to do the same, using Fortnite, the king of the intercompany crossovers as an advertising plataform for their own IPs. Hasbro knows they need to sell a franchise not easy to be imitated by rival companies. That is the reason Disney's last movies are with original characters, because the classic fairy tales were copied by others.

My question is about mash-up licences. Spelljammer could be used as a "land space of crossovers", starting with other franchises by Hasbro, for example other IPs from Saban besides the famous Power Rangers. Bionoids could be not only a creature, or monster template, but also a simbiontic craft, or a subclass.

Moon Dreamers (one of the forgotten Hasbro's IPs), published in Devianart

* Maybe will be the next story-arc about illithids? They should recover the cult of thoon, and the tscochar, a creature from 3.5 "Lords of Madness" but I suggest a psionic variant.

* The scroll had got an Easten-Asian artistic style. This could be a wink for the return of Kara-Tur, or a D&D adaptation of Kamigawa.

* Mystara doesn't need special rules to be previously playtested in UA articles, but Hasbro should talk with Capcom.

 

[teitan]

Well, Ashardalon was 10 years ago. Not that they won't ever go back to it, now that Wizkids is tackling better minis themselves... although I think both Wizkids and GW are mostly ditching resin for plastic whenever possible.

But yeah, I do think it a bit unlikely. I think all of the attempts in 5E to make products tied to a model with minis performed badly.

Oh god no!!!! Wizkids would charge 300 bucks for it.

 

[teitan]

Only because it seems to be perennially 50% off or so on Amazon - I don't have the sales numbers.

That’s just Amazon. Amazon sD&D books for about 30-40% off as their standard price.

Amazon is not a good gauge for how well something sells based on what we sale it for (I work for Amazon), we get things in bulk so can sale for very cheap. Target sells D&D books for about the same price
I have a couple friends who have published books with major publishers and periodically their $40 hardcover books will go on sale for 7 bucks a pop. The first time it happened one thought there was a sales issue and contacted his editor and they told him it was still one of their best sellers and Amazon had ordered a large quantity of the book for a flash sale.

The Curse of Strahd set is a luxury item but the contents themselves are inexpensive for WOTC to produce so it’s not an expensive product for them to put out aside from the box itself. Even at the Amazon discount they’ve made their money off it before Amazon even sells it on the site. You would want to look at book stores for clearance to see if it is a poor seller and even then it’s kind of meaningless because the size could be the reason it’s on clearance or that it is the last one.

another example is the Critical Role art book has a luxury editions in a slip case with loose art work etc and it is a big seller but on Amazon it’s $60, I got the one for my wife for 50 actually, cover is 120.

 

[teitan]

View attachment 155448

I love those D&D pops. Even Vecna even though he isn’t very Vecna. Tiamat is the best Tiamat mini.

 

[darjr]

I love those D&D pops. Even Vecna even though he isn’t very Vecna. Tiamat is the best Tiamat mini.

I don't buy pops. Or many of those kinds of cthokes. BUT I do have a cuuuuuube one. And NEED the Tiamat one. So they got me.

 

[teitan]

I don't buy pops. Or many of those kinds of cthokes. BUT I do have a cuuuuuube one. And NEED the Tiamat one. So they got me.

Tiamat is so cool. I tried to get Strahd and Driz’zt but they sold out. The mimic was cool but I only have so much space. We only buy D&D and Critical Role funko pops. I usually hate those things!

 

[ersatzphil]

This is a lot of hype to be Spelljammer only a simple return. This is soundings as if there were serious plans for Spelljammer to become one of the main lines.

What would 'becom[ing] one of the main lines' entail, do you suspect?

 

[Rikka66]

This is a lot of hype to be Spelljammer only a simple return.

Not really. Social media posts and swag for influencers is not new ground.

 

[Aldarc]

What will be the non-sequitur setting guesses for future products after Spelljammer is finally confirmed?