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!

 

[dave2008]

I want more DM-oriented material. Another Volo's or Mordenkainen's (Tome of Foes, not the reprint of old material that is Monsters of the Multiverse) would be cool. I don't want yet another Campaign level adventure, setting, or Anthology that only a fraction of it is useful or requires a tremendous amount of work by the DM to make functional.

OK, as a DM I am kinda in the same boat. Except, there is nothing I need for 5e so I don't even know what that would be!

 

[OblivionDrive]

Not that it makes up for the $20 increase but it includes a DM screen (and maybe a map too). Plus for some it is nice to have separate books. I personally prefer this format, though soft covers would be nice.

Yeah I think a lot of people are ignoring the screen in the price hike. Sure, a lot of times they’re cheap add-ons but assuming this is one of the thick ones (rather than the flimsy ones we get in starter boxes) with a lot of SJ specific tables and charts, I think that’s deffo worth an extra $20.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm not loving the overall Spelljammer format/price, but I will applaud WotC for the free Monstrous Compendium. I get the idea is to give you a reason to subscribe to their platforms that I assume they'll want you to purchase stuff on... but they still didn't have to give out this PDF of new monsters for free, and it's pretty good!

I mean, how can one complain about 5E art, this stuff is cool af!

 

[OblivionDrive]

Also: Will Warlords of Krynn finally be the straw that "allows" PVP in Dungeons and Dragons to be seen in a more positive light? Like, can you take your character, say a Bard for example and have that PC's stats reflected in the Board Game only component of Warlords of Krynn? Will Snarf's Bard Slayer PC be too OP for it? Etc, etc etc.

I just hope the idea of it being mass battle rules will be easily portable to an outside-of-Krynn setting rather than being super duper deeply tied to the world.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Heh - a way to do what crystal spheres did without the actual physical sphere, and Astral sea instead of phlogiston. The two things I disliked the most since I opened up the boxed set back in 1989 are not going to be in this iteration - I guess I wasn't the only one.


And the thing I disliked the third most (the mechanics of spelljammer helms) are if not out at least optional. More chariots flying into the heavens pulled by giant swans please!

I think Crystal Spheres will still a thing for particular Wildspace systems like Realmspace, Krynnspace, Eberron, but it might not be as universal anymore, like the two new system in the adventure might not have Crystal Spheres.

Also this feels very Planesjammery to me, once you leave Wildspace, I see no reason why you can fly to Hell and back, or the Mount Celestia or Limbo as easily as another wildspace system.

 

[dave2008]

Yeah that's in the "no thanks, jerk" price range given were only look at what, 192 pages? That's actively insulting, especially to digital customers who literally are not getting the slipcase or DMs screen (in a usable format anyway). U mad Ruin? Yes, I am mad.

Especially as we'll no doubt see more overpriced content-light releases as people rush to nostalgia-buy this.

Is it really such an enraging issue? I'm not sure were you live, but cost are going crazy here in the States. I'm an architect and just had the budget on a project jump 25% and we didn't change a damb thing. Steel has jumped %100 in the last year. I just see this as such a big issue. Cost are going up everywhere, why should this be any different?

 

[Jer]

Also this feels very Planesjammery to me, once you leave Wildspace, I see no reason why you can fly to Hell and back, or the Mount Celestia or Limbo as easily as another wildspace system.

I think that's exactly right - on the product page it says:

Home of the stars and gateway to the heavens, the Astral Plane teems with excitement and possibility. With the help of magic, spelljammers can cross the oceans of Wildspace, ply the silvery void known as the Astral Sea, and hop between worlds of the D&D multiverse.

"Home of the stars and gateway to the heavens" sounds very much like you can fly through the Astral Sea and arrive at the home planes of the gods. In that way it kind of reminds me of 1st edition cosmology where each setting was an "alternate Prime Material Plane" and they were linked through the Astral Plane to each other - you could find color pools leading to different Prime Planes in the Astral, for example.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Is it really such an enraging issue? I'm not sure were you live, but cost are going crazy here in the States. I'm an architect and just had the budget on a project jump 25% and we didn't change a damb thing. Steel has jumped %100 in the last year. I just see this as such a big issue. Cost are going up everywhere, why should this be any different?

I mean, it's a 40% price increase for less content. I get if it actually is more economical (there's a slipcase, three harcovers etc) but it's actually less content than recent setting books.

I'd be ok if it was a normal book at $60. But honestly, I don't really want to support a more expensive model like this. I'll wait probably and see if they eventually release it as one book for less, or digital.

 

[ersatzphil]

Ohhhh so who is changing their avatars?

Speaking as one of the gamblers, I'm honestly not sure. For what it's worth, here's the avatar I knocked together for @Parmandur in the event that I won:

 

[Weiley31]

And since we have the Ghost of Saltmarshes and Acquisitions Incorporated books out already, you can totally import/refluff stuff from those into your Spelljammers and what not.