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!

 

[JEB]

The clockwork horror that’s clearly a sci-fi robot with buzzsaws for hands isn’t filling me with hope this is still Age of Sail in space.

Yeah, while I'm happy to see them back, I'm not enamored of the new look; would have preferred something more overtly, er, clockwork. (Suppose we could just say this is a variant line of horrors altered by the thri-kreen...)

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, same. The Killer Klowns from Outer Space with rayguns gave me a chuckle and a pause. The clockwork horror that’s clearly a sci-fi robot with buzzsaws for hands isn’t filling me with hope this is still Age of Sail in space.

I think they are loosening up the aesthetic there, a bit, going towards a Treasure Planet vibe: some techy stuff, but very much age of sail. They introduced it with a space shanty.

 

[darjr]

The techy stuff is my leverage to add Barrier Peaks and Esper Genesis

 

[OblivionDrive]

I don't like being forced to buy a DM's screen, since I have several but never use them.

And I don’t like having to buy stripped down basic rule books and pre-gen sheets in starter sets that I’m only buying for the adventure (and maybe dice) that comes in it.

We all have our crosses to bear.

 

[billd91]

Meh, Spelljammer isn't exactly my thing. Didn't like it the first time around, don't really expect to now - though one or both of my kids might.
Dragonlance - now that interests me.

 

[darjr]

 

[Staffan]

I haven't seen this posted yet:

(Ray Winninger confirms that the Astral Sea is replacing the Phlogiston, but says that there's some "nuances" to it. He does not elaborate on what those nuances are. Maybe the Phlogiston still exists, but is more of a river system or substance found in the Astral Sea?)

My guess is that there's "normal" space, but that once you're sufficiently far away from a planet you can shift into the Astral Sea which acts sort of like hyperspace, allowing you to rapidly travel from one planet or universe to another. But you don't need to go to double the distance to the outermost orbit, which is where the crystal sphere shell was located in OG Spelljammer.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I wonder if they're going to retcon the Crystal Spheres into being the fragments of Sardior's fractured body. It certainly fits their First World and 5e Multiverse lore. I'm also confused as to how the Solar and Lunar Dragons fit into 5e's dragon classifications. Are they "True" Dragons? If they are, do they count as Chromatic, Metallic, or Gem Dragons? Or something else, like the Moonstone Dragons?

I'm not sure about 5e specifically, but there have always been more classifications of true dragons besides the standard Chromatic, Metallic, and Gem. Solar and Lunar Dragons do have breath weapons and go through the typical dragon age categories. I suppose they would technically become part of the Planar Dragon classification now that the Astral Sea and Wildspace seem to be merged in some capacity. I hope we get Stellar and Astral Dragons somewhere down the line.

As far as their connection to the First World though, I'm not sure. I have typically contribute dragons existing outside of the Material Plane either due to being created by Io or some other deity (draconic or otherwise), or evolving from the standard three dragon types after thriving in one of the other planes for long periods of time (kind of like the Shadow Dragons but even more so).

 

[Micah Sweet]

The problem with the Amazon approach is that some folks prefer to support local game stores, so it isn't a complete answer.

It isn't a complete answer for everyone, but what is?

 

[overgeeked]

This thread is worth digging through. Some good details. Sorry if already posted.