D&D Meets Minecraft

The lead announcement from today's D&D Direct presentation is a collaboration between Dungeons & Dragons and Minecraft, releasing this spring. Tom Sargent, senior producer at Wizards of Coast, said it's set in Forgotten Realms and that they're “...two amazing properties that work well together.”

At a press preview held yesterday, Riccardo Lenzi, senior producer for Mojang Studios, explained that the game begins with figures at a table with a dungeon master. Players will pick their character from a fighter, cleric, rogue, or wizard, and then enter the world of Forgotten Realms.

“Knowing that Minecraft has such a broad age range, we wanted to stick with core D&D because it might be someone's first exposure to D&D or it might be someone familiar with D&D,” said Sargent.

Lenzi and Sargent explained that Minecraft D&D is a full videogame story, and it's the first Minecraft licensed DLC with voiceovers. It also has full music to make the battle scenes more epic, but it's not all fighting. Exploration is also be part of the game, but it's not a full open world. The estimated first play-through takes about 10 hours. You can play on your own or with friends.

There's no connection between this DLC and core Minecraft, in part because of the various components. For example, Minecraft D&D has dynamic music and a battle soundtrack commissioned specifically for this box. Minecraft D&D also has a robust menu system and a quest log. And, because this is D&D, there are dice rolls that determine success or failure.

So Minecraft D&D uses the Minecraft engine, but a mimic can't be ported over to main Minecraft. People also can't use D&D assets for their own builds. It “stays in the box” as Sargent said, because of how it's pushing the limits of the Minecraft Engine. However, each class has skins and those can be used outside the Minecraft D&D box.

Minecraft Dungeons & Dragons will be available on all platforms Minecraft is currently using. That said, Lenzi noted that with the way it pushes the Minecraft engine it might not be perfect if played on an old phone, for example.

If you're not a Minecraft player, the crossover still has something for tabletop players. Dan Dillion, game designer at Wizards of the Coast gave us a preview yesterday of Monstrous Compendium Volume 3: Minecraft. Available today as a no-cost download on D&D Beyond and Minecraft's website, it translates Minecraft creatures such as Creepers, Ender Dragons, and Endermen into D&D stat blocks that can be added to your campaign however you wish.

Download Monstrous Compendium 3: Minecraft at minecraft.net or dndbeyond.com.

 

[JEB]

Download Monstrous Compendium 3: Minecraft at minecraft.net or dndbeyond.com.

FYI, the minecraft.net release is a PDF, though I had to dig a bit to find it: scroll to the bottom of https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/collectibles/minecraft-collection

So those of you who like PDFs and/or don't want a D&D Beyond account, they've got your back.

 

[Parmandur]

FYI, the minecraft.net release is a PDF, though I had to dig a bit to find it: scroll to the bottom of https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/collectibles/minecraft-collection

So those of you who like PDFs and/or don't want a D&D Beyond account, they've got your back.

Microsoft scores for the little guy? Or something?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not letting people who purchase the DLC use beholders and mimics in regular Minecraft is weak sauce. I don't believe for a second that a beholder is somehow harder for the game to handle than a (Minecraft) ghast, for instance.

And I'm not sure we needed stats for a Minecraft wolf, but I had planned on making a D&D creeper for games I play with my kids, and am happy to see the work done for me.

 

[Mecheon]

Not letting people who purchase the DLC use beholders and mimics in regular Minecraft is weak sauce. I don't believe for a second that a beholder is somehow harder for the game to handle than a (Minecraft) ghast, for instance.

Oh, that's how its been in all of 'em forever. There's like a Sonic one, a HTTYD one, a Megaman X one of all things, all sorts of random ones just locked to the stuff.

hence why I'm on Java edition and all of its bits and bobs

 

[MNblockhead]

Blocks are the best video game graphic. The best selling video game of all time is Tetris, and Minecraft is number 2.

I concur. Blocks ARE the best. ;-)

 

[Clint_L]

WTF did I see? Like can someone else explain the appeal of Minecraft, I've seen 80's video games that look better, I mean its all blocky and stuff. What am I missing that is so popular?

Whoa dude. Parent here. Do not disrespect Minecraft. It is one of the best creative tools ever invented.

Also…you’re just learning of Minecraft? In 2023? That’s actually impressive.

 

[cranberry]

I don't find extremely bad graphics in a modern game charming. The rest of that would be cool if the graphics weren't so terrible.

There are many free "texture packs" available that increase the resolution of the game. Some are (close to) photo realistic.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I don't find extremely bad graphics in a modern game charming. The rest of that would be cool if the graphics weren't so terrible.

Nor do I necessarily. But the open vistas, trippy music and vastness still make the game of interest.

I have played with my kids and really enjoyed it perhaps against expectations.

Looking at a picture of it is not thrilling. Playing survival and traveling a map is vastly different.

 

[Cadence]

Whoa dude. Parent here. Do not disrespect Minecraft. It is one of the best creative tools ever invented.

My 13yo was super-hyped about this! He was used to seeing D&D stuff put into Minecraft... it hadn't occurred to him to go the other way.

 

[Cadence]

WTF did I see? Like can someone else explain the appeal of Minecraft, I've seen 80's video games that look better, I mean its all blocky and stuff. What am I missing that is so popular?

If you put the right mods on it (don't ask me, ask my 13yo) it can look a whole lot different than the default.

 

[Emberashh]

It does fascinate me that theres a phenomenon of people aggressively asserting that Survival is an out of date way to play DND, despite some of the most popular video games, like Minecraft, featuring it significantly.

Minecraft in fact even manages to capture the classic dungeon crawl in a way, though the caverns and mines can be repetitive in spite of their ostensible infinite variety.

 

[Cadence]

It does fascinate me that theres a phenomenon of people aggressively asserting that Survival is an out of date way to play DND, despite some of the most popular video games, like Minecraft, featuring it significantly.

I wonder how much of Minecraft is played survival vs. creative?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Do you imagine anybody creating a Minecraft version of Sigil?

And have you thought about Hasbro selling toys of D&D-Minecraft?

Or youtubers and streamers producing machinima videos. That would be a great promotion.

---

I would bet we are going to see more collabs with other videogames.

 

[Emberashh]

I wonder how much of Minecraft is played survival vs. creative?

From my limited experience as a fan of the game, creative is fun but survival is the actual game.

Most streamers and Tubers tend to focus on survival, and it makes sense, as survival doesn't stop you from doing the crazy things you can do in Minecraft (aside perhaps from building castles out of diamonds, but even that isn't an impossibility), but doing it in Survival gives you "cred" you don't get with Creative unless you're showing off something novel.

Like, the people building computers in the game or building artistic works aren't going to looked down upon for not using survival.

But if you're trying some bizarre strat to take on the Ender dragon or showing off how you've carved the world into your image, people aren't really impressed if you did it in creative.

 

[Gradine]

Many content creators that do primarily stream in survival mode, but the ones who do big build projects will usually have a creative world to test their builds out and give them a sense of how many materials they need

 

[Incenjucar]

Minecraft is certainly not for everyone - I haven't played it since before MS bought it out, myself - but it's an extremely important game. This collab is very, very valuable for the brand, and RPGs in general.

 

[Scribe]

WTF did I see? Like can someone else explain the appeal of Minecraft, I've seen 80's video games that look better, I mean its all blocky and stuff. What am I missing that is so popular?

Its lego, in video game form.

 

[Emberashh]

Plus, in Minecrafts wake there have been games that give a similar harvest the environment and build whatever you want sort of gameplay loop, but deliver a more modern high graphics approach.

Ark Survival Evolved and, IIRC, Rust are the big ones in that camp, and theres some others like i think Valheim or the Forest (?).

 

[Cadence]

Minecraft has books, both official and unofficial - instructional, inspirational, comic, and chapter - to keep the young ones enthralled too when they aren't watching their favorite streamer.

 

[Incenjucar]

D&D should really have touch points in more game genres overall. It's already an inspiration for a tremendous amount of it, and there are plenty of elements that transfer easily without much effort. Throw in a D&D level in Vampire Survivor, for example.