D&D 5E D&D Direct: WotC's 2023 Announcement Showcase Livestream

D&D Direct, the half-hour livestreamed event where WotC will reveal its new Virtual Tabletop (VTT), talk about the future of D&D, and celebrate the new D&D movie, starts at 9am PT (5pm UK time)! Watch it below!

D&D Direct 2023 is a digital showcase that will feature announcements from all corners of the D&D fandom. Get a first look at the D&D virtual tabletop, tie-ins for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, exciting partnerships, and even hear about what to expect in future books. Deep dives for tabletop products will come later this year.

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Highlights/Contents

• D&D Minecraft is coming soon. You can download a Minecraft Monstrous Compendium at Minecraft.net.​
• Honor Among Thieves movie trailer.​
• Song cartoon about teaching your friends D&D.​
• Hasbro's 'March Monster Madness' D&D movie toys.​
• Magic: the Gathering cards featuring D&D movie characters.​
• Lolth's Warrior, R.A. Salvatore's new book in The Way of the Drow trilogy.​
• Trailer for Neverwinter video game Menzoberranzan.​
• D&D Digital Playspace--the upcoming new Virtual Tabletop playtest coming in late 2023.​
• Newsroom skit about a lifesized mimic and a baby owlbear escaping WizKids.​
• Joe Manganiello updates about his D&D documentary.​
• Chris Perkins & Jeremy Crawford on the D&D multiverse, Keys from the Golden Vault, Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants, Phandelver & Below: The Shattered Obelisk, Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, Deck of Many Things, and hints about Vecna coming in 2024 in a worldhopping adventure, a Red Wizard story in 2025, and D&D cartoon villain Venger will return in an adventure.

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[Henadic Theologian]

you got Rising backwards. By default it isn’t connected, and they give you an option as how to connect it (Baker himself says as much).

And Eberron showing up in Vecna’s adventure is not a problem.. it will just not be canon in Eberron

Its clear in the lore its connected as default, I mean Sigil & Vi are even mentioned in the book, the crystal sphere is as well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

But Eberron shouldn't be too linked to the rest of D&D multiverse because their magitek is too advanced for the standars of D&D, for example Oerth(Greyhawk).

 

[Bolares]

Here’s Keith’s take on this subject from a few years ago…

Post in thread 'Eberron Is Here Today!'
D&D 5E - Eberron Is Here Today!

 

[Parmandur]

They already did with Eberron: Rising from the Last War, they placed it for the first time in the default cosmology, making its own cosmology a microcosm of it in a single crystal sphere, which was not in the OG Eberron in 3.5e era which had a view that setting except for Greyhawk & Planescape should be seperate from the Great Wheel cosmology.


That doesn't fit 5e/One D&D's ambitions at all, they want a transmedia cinematic/gaming multiverse that is interconnected, so they made a few changes to Eberron (Crystal Sphere to fit its cosmology inside the 5e Great Wheel, Planeswalker Vi, etc...) and made disconnecting Eberron optional.

They made Eberron part of the metaplot and I will be surprised if Eberron doesn't show up in Vecna's adventure.

Remember that only the Core books are Canon, and that no media will be canon. They are having fun with connecting bits, bit the canon policy still applies.

 

[Bolares]

Remember that only the Core books are Canon, and that no media will be canon. They are having fun with connecting bits, bit the canon policy still applies.

Yeah. In 5e the rest of d&d actually got closer to how eberron does canon, and not the other way around

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah. In 5e the rest of d&d actually got closer to how eberron does canon, and not the other way around

Yeah, the "Multiverse" angle they are pushing so hard allows them to have their cake and eat it, too: they can tell stories, even big interconnected stories, without worrying about "canon," since literally every table playing I'm the Forgotten Realms is a different universe to itself:

"Our studio treats D&D in much the same way that Marvel Studios treats its properties. The current edition of the D&D roleplaying game has its own canon, as does every other expression of D&D. For example, what is canonical in fifth edition is not necessarily canonical in a novel, video game, movie, or comic book, and vice versa. This is true not only for lore but art as well."

"This approach allows R.A. Salvatore to write Drizzt novels without having to worry if his version of the Forgotten Realms perfectly matches what we do in the roleplaying game. It means that a D&D video game can take elements from a series of novels and present them in a way that serves the game’s needs, rather than adhering to the sequence of events chronicled in the novels. Creatively, it’s liberating. This approach also acknowledges that different media have unique challenges and requirements."

D&D Canon | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

In this D&D Studio Blog, Chris Perkins describes the D&D Studio's position on canonicity.

dnd.wizards.com

@Henadic Theologian I see no reason to suspect they are changing this approach: in fact, this seems like doubling down on it, and using alternative universes as a way to handwave away continuity when convenient for the brand.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah. In 5e the rest of d&d actually got closer to how eberron does canon, and not the other way around

And now it seems they're going a different way. Hey, I wish Keith's opinion on what to do with Eberron was relevant to WotC's plans too, but it just isn't.

 

[Bolares]

And now it seems they're going a different way. Hey, I wish Keith's opinion on what to do with Eberron was relevant to WotC's plans too, but it just isn't.

Is this based on anything other than your opinion?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Is this based on anything other than your opinion?

The metaplot multiverse thing appears to be a fact. WotC having control of Eberron, and not Keith Baker, is definitely a fact.

 

[Bolares]

The metaplot multiverse thing appears to be a fact. WotC having control of Eberron, and not Keith Baker, is definitely a fact.

I’m talking about your statements that they will change how they’ve been treating Eberron for decades, and that keith’s views are irrelevant to wotc