Spelljammer D&D Direct Live Report: 9am PDT (5pm BST) SPELLJAMMER CONFIRMED! DRAGONLANCE!

D&D Direct, WotC's new video-format announcement show launches today at 9am PDT (5pm BST). If you aren't able to watch it, I'll be updating this article live. Feel free to comment below! Once it launches, you will need to refresh this page when you want to see new updates. The video is expected to last about 30 minutes.

If you CAN watch it, you'll find it on YouTube or Twitch at the above times. Otherwise, follow along below!

• 45 mins to go. Live updates incoming!
• 30 mins to go!
• 5 minutes to go!
• Here we go! Opens with a sea shanty.
• Forgive typos. They talk fast and I can't type.

• Spelljammer is confirmed!
• They talk REALLY FAST!
• Spelljammer Adventures in Space, project lead Chris Perkins, Trystan Falcone graphic designer
• Cities built on asteroids, dead gods floating in the ether
• 6 races---astral elves, autognomes, hedozi(?), gif, plasmoids, thri-kreen
• 3 hardcovers in a slipcase: Astral Adventurers Guide, Boo's Astral Menagerie, Light of Xaryxis adventure
• Prequel adventure in July
• Wizkids miniatures

Other stuff also discussed!

• Baldur's Gate 3 CRPG preview video (game is in 2023)
• Journeys Through Radiant Citadel intro video -- 3 of the adventures are: Wages of Vice (5th level), Caribbean; Orchids of the Invisible Mountain (14th level), feywild, far realm, Whistler new monster; Fiend of Hollow Mind (4th level), skeletons and spirits

• "Campaign Cases" -- Creature tokens! Terrain tiles! July!

D&D Movie directors now onscreen. The movie in March 2023 is called HONOR AMONG THIEVES.

• New D&D starter set. Comes with 'digital onboarding'. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. We knew about that one.
• D&D digital monstrous compendium. Available to those with WoTC or D&D Beyond Accounts. Volume 1 has an eldritch lich and the 10 legged asteroid spider. And the starlancer. Might have misheard some of that!

• MMO Neverwinter video. Dragonslayer begins June 2022. (I wonder if they'll need a dragonance for that?)
• New D&D actual play video, Legends of the Multiverse. Lots of 80s cartoon style soft rock music. Boo is in it.

WIzKids skirmish game D&D Onslaught. October

Finally -- DRAGONLANCE WARRIORS OF KRYNN! SHADOW OF THE DRAGON QUEEN!

 

[Greg Benage]

Doubling the page count literally doubles the print costs, from everything I have ever seen, though I'm sure there are people here who can comment more directly.

Yeah, that's not true. It doubles the cost of paper, maybe, but when you're doing a print run, you're paying for pre-press, setup (e.g. plates), finishing, binding, etc.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I see about a third of the content, for a third of the price. The dice are worth about $7, which is what the official D&D dice at Target are sold for separately, as opposed to the $25 DM screen.

Well, my complaint is largely on the format, which is leading to the higher price. I'd prefer one book, no screen or slipcase, for a lower price. I get the utility of three separate books, but to me it's not worth an extra $20 or even $10.

 

[darjr]

Nothing about a tv show or cartoon I see, or did I miss it?

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, that's not true. It doubles the cost of paper, maybe, but when you're doing a print run, you're paying for pre-press, setup (e.g. plates), finishing, binding, etc.

And ink. I'm just going off what I've seen in price quotes: increased page counts is a major price increase.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, my complaint is largely on the format, which is leading to the higher price. I'd prefer one book, no screen or slipcase, for a lower price. I get the utility of three separate books, but to me it's not worth an extra $20 or even $10.

That's super fair. I find myself feeling it, but I understand the frustration.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Doubling the page count literally doubles the print costs

I mean, it's going to potentially double the costs of printing the actual pages, yes, I agree. But is that the majority of the cost? Or is binding and finishing and so on? Or what? That's what I'm trying to get at. I was the under vague and not very well-substantiated impression (because printing is not something I know much about) that the binding/cover were actually a really significant proportion of the costs to manufacture a hardback full-colour A4 book, and thus more bindings/covers spikes the price way more than more pages.

But maybe that's outdated or was never true with the particular methods WotC uses, I dunno.

 

[Parmandur]

Nothing about a tv show or cartoon I see, or did I miss it?

Not today

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, it's going to potentially double the costs of printing the actual pages, yes, I agree. But is that the majority of the cost? Or is binding and finishing and so on? Or what? That's what I'm trying to get at. I was the vague and not very well-substantiated (because printing is not something I know much about) that the binding/cover were actually a really significant proportion of the costs to manufacture a hardback full-colour A4 book, and thus more bindings/covers spikes the price way more than more pages.

But maybe that's outdated or was never true with the particular methods WotC uses, I dunno.

I mean that the price quotes I've seen for X number of hardcover books double for doubling the page count. But the scale of what I've seen is, I'm sure, comically out of scale with WotC and their printer relations.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

They're just gonna do what they did to Ravenloft.

Butcher these settings.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

They're just gonna do what they did to Ravenloft.

Butcher these settings.

I suspect Dragonlance will be fine. It's pretty hard to butcher Anaslon. I know this may be controversial, but I'd say Hickman/Weis butched Anaslon/Krynn way worse that WotC ever, in a million years, will with some of the post-War of the Lance books.