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!

 

[michaeljpastor]

yeah - I started thinking about this the other day when there was a conversation in another thread about Spelljamming through the Astral to the outer planes. Flying ships in the outer few "rings" of the Outlands would make planar warfare even messier, and spark some need for adventurers to come in and save some Gate Towns.

I also have been rereading The Plane Above and a central conceit of that book is that the exarchs of the gods on the various outer planes all have their own flotillas and war with each other in the Astral Sea - I think that idea could work even if you just want to use the Great Wheel too.

Because I completely skipped 4th edition I never knew about this title and now it's on my must-have list. It looks really cool. I know what I'll be reading all weekend long. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[Jer]

The Plane Below is great, too. Between those two and the Manual of Planes, there's a lot of content waiting to be used for 5E Spelljammer.

The Plane Below is also great, and I previously turned to that and the 4e Manual of the Planes when I needed inspiration for Abyssal adventures for that same group.

 

[Jer]

Because I completely skipped 4th edition I never knew about this title and now it's on my must-have list. It looks really cool. I know what I'll be reading all weekend long. Thanks for mentioning it.

Keep in mind that the 4e cosmology is different from 2e/3e, so while I think it (and as overgeeked says The Plane Below and Manual of the Planes) are all great inspiration, there is definitely going to be some "do-it-yourself" work to be done to make it compatible with the Great Wheel if that's how you're taking it.

 

[Remathilis]

A lot of digital content was announced. IMO, this is still the best digital product released by D&D

View attachment 155875

I'm sorry, that is the vastly inferior Core Rules 1.0. Core Rules 2.0 + Expansion, which allowed for custom races, classes and kits plus had the entire PHBR and PO in it, was the far more superior version.

 

[michaeljpastor]

yeah - I started thinking about this the other day when there was a conversation in another thread about Spelljamming through the Astral to the outer planes. Flying ships in the outer few "rings" of the Outlands would make planar warfare even messier, and spark some need for adventurers to come in and save some Gate Towns.

I also have been rereading The Plane Above and a central conceit of that book is that the exarchs of the gods on the various outer planes all have their own flotillas and war with each other in the Astral Sea - I think that idea could work even if you just want to use the Great Wheel too.

OMG i am just floored by this book and I'm only at page 19. And I just came across the precedent for making Spelljammer Astral. Emphasis mine.

Sailing: Most humanoids think of the silver astral realm as a sea. Astral skiffs, planar dromonds, spell· jammers, githyanki pirate ships, quom raiders, and the various dominion ships treat the Plane Above as ifit were a great ocean. They're greatly aided in this belief by the constant astral winds that make actual sailing more reliable than it is on the world's oceans. The advantage and drawback of navigation by sailing is that sailors fall naturally into the pattern of orienting themselves along the astral horizon.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah. I called it as Planejammer back when the UA came out. Lotta folks argued with me that it was only Spelljammer, but the inclusion of Astral Elves, as well as the ship that travelled between planes in Minsc and Boo indicated Planejammer.

Might be an issue of semantics: I wouldn't call this "Planejammer" even if they are hybridizing with the 4E Astral Sea concept. I don't see anything about sailing to the Nine Hells or Sigil.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Might be an issue of semantics: I wouldn't call this "Planejammer" even if they are hybridizing with the 4E Astral Sea concept. I don't see anything about sailing to the Nine Hells or Sigil.

It definitely seems based on the tweets I've read that you can sail to the Nine Hells or Outlands through the Astral. That said, I doubt it will be mentioned much at all (as that is essentially an entirely different setting) so I don't see much point calling this Planejammer.

 

[overgeeked]

OMG i am just floored by this book and I'm only at page 19. And I just came across the precedent for making Spelljammer Astral. Emphasis mine.

Sailing: Most humanoids think of the silver astral realm as a sea. Astral skiffs, planar dromonds, spell· jammers, githyanki pirate ships, quom raiders, and the various dominion ships treat the Plane Above as ifit were a great ocean. They're greatly aided in this belief by the constant astral winds that make actual sailing more reliable than it is on the world's oceans. The advantage and drawback of navigation by sailing is that sailors fall naturally into the pattern of orienting themselves along the astral horizon.

Whatever you might think of the mechanics of 4E, they definitely took the lore and laser-focused it on being usable for adventuring and many of the books are simply dripping with inspiration. Those three (Plane Above, Plane Below, and Manual of the Planes) are some of the best they've ever done.

 

[Parmandur]

So is it really just 192 pages of content for $70, or is it a boxed set with some extra stuff in it?

It is 3 64 page books, which would go for $25 each based on prior WotC 64 page hardcovers and those from other game companies, and a DM screen that would normally go for $25. So, YMMV, but that's the value. And now they are hinting thst the individual books will be for sale eventually, which would probably entail $75 to get all 3, bit off the a la carte option.

 

[Parmandur]

It definitely seems based on the tweets I've read that you can sail to the Nine Hells or Outlands through the Astral. That said, I doubt it will be mentioned much at all (as that is essentially an entirely different setting) so I don't see much point calling this Planejammer.

I do think that they have worked out some "Grand Unified Theory" of the multiverse, but for genre purposes I doubt it will come up. I expect a Planescape product next year.