Dungeons & Dragons announces Universes Beyond line, kicking off IP crossovers

Dungeons & Dragons is getting into the crossover business. Today, Wizards of the Coast announced that their upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft book will be the first Dungeons & Dragons: Universes Beyond product. The new line will feature "handselected" IP crossovers in the vein of Magic: The Gathering's burgeoning line of crossover products. No other IPs were announced for the Universes Beyond line, nor did Wizards give an indication of how often the line would produce new titles.

Dungeons & Dragons hasn't been shy about crossing over with various other IPs in the past, with Starter Boxes featuring Stranger Things and Rick & Morty produced for 5E. However, they've never seen a consistent cadence of releases in the vein of Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond line, which has helped push the card game into a billion dollar franchise. The Universes Beyond line for Magic is incredibly profitable and now eclipses the number of in-universe sets produced per year. However, it's also met stiff criticism by fans complaining of "IP slop" and a watering down of the actual Magic: The Gathering IP.

In a press release held before Gen Con, Wizards employees noted they were trying to strike a delicate balance between Universes Beyond and their other products. Dungeons & Dragons releases a limited amount of products per year, so a Universes Beyond line could quickly crowd out other D&D products in a release schedule. There's also the issue that many potential crossover subjects like Lord of the Rings and Final Fantasy already have bespoke TTRPGs produced by other companies, which could limit which IPs Wizards may want to pursue.

 

[BigbyBear]

I actually really like the MtG books they've put out for D&D so I don't want to be a negative nancy on this. And really WoW should be a straightforward knock out of the park, but I'm already iffy on it.

Like it says rules for playing all 13 classes, but it seems to imply it's not giving us 13 classes instead will be like "a priest is a cleric that takes this subclass." Like square pegs and round holes and all that.

And I'm already kind of burnt out on 5e. I passed on the Hellboy RPG because it said it would be using 5e as a base. I still haven't bought a physical 2024 PHB. I guess it depends how much they're going to adapt the Universes Beyond to be their own thing. I'd be more enthused if plotweaver was doing it because we still see the same base system but drastic (but compatible?) differences just between Stormlight and Mistborn.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

D&D is great at D&D. It's not so good as bespoke systems for other properties, IMO.

 

[TheSword]

Interesting that a lot of the Warcraft book appears to be ‘use these options to recreate this thing from Warcraft’ which makes sense. Do we really need two Evokers.

It will be interesting to see if this matches other worlds beyond content. If it does, I reckon a lot of folks are gonna get awful mad.

 

[bsss]

Really looking forward to the Garfield Campaign Setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Like it says rules for playing all 13 classes, but it seems to imply it's not giving us 13 classes instead will be like "a priest is a cleric that takes this subclass." Like square pegs and round holes and all that.

I have an extremely long history with both D&D and WoW and plan on picking up the book (that murloc cover!). But it'll mostly be to either use it as a generic fantasy setting (Azeroth has a lot of dungeons and can accommodate pretty much anything in official D&D) or to raid it for spare parts, like renaming Blackrock Depths and just have it be a dwarven city.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting that a lot of the Warcraft book appears to be ‘use these options to recreate this thing from Warcraft’ which makes sense. Do we really need two Evokers.

It will be interesting to see if this matches other worlds beyond content. If it does, I reckon a lot of folks are gonna get awful mad.

I can see a Jedi skin for the Warlock simply working well mechanically.

 

[MichaelSomething]

D&D is great at D&D. It's not so good as bespoke systems for other properties, IMO.

That won't stop people from trying...

 

[TravDoc42]

D&D is great at D&D. It's not so good as bespoke systems for other properties, IMO.

Nail, hit on head.
I feel like people would be happier if they expanded their horizons to other systems instead of trying to jam Properties into 5.5e.

 

[ersatzphil]

Nail, hit on head.
I feel like people would be happier if they expanded their horizons to other systems instead of trying to jam Properties into 5.5e.

I agree with you, but people have been trying to use D&D as a kind of inverse procrustean bed for forever.