Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia announced by Penguin Random House

Penguin Random House is publishing a Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia. The new 320-page book was written by Matt Forbeck, Michael Witwer, Jon Peterson, Kalysta Harmon, and Jessica Lee Patterson and will be released on October 20, 2026. The book will contain information on more than a half-dozen different campaign settings, including the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, and Greyhawk, along with information on monsters, locations, heroes and villains, and iconic items.

Penguin Random House has published licensed Dungeons & Dragons books for years and also has a robust line of guide/encyclopedia books covering various licensed properties. For the Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia, Penguin brought in several experts. Forbeck is a longtime game designer who worked for TSR and Wizards of the Coast on various book projects. Witwer has written multiple D&D books for Penguin, including multiple art guides and also wrote a biography of Gary Gygax. Peterson is considered one of the foremost historians of Dungeons & Dragons and has written several books on the game Patterson is an art historian that has collaborated with Peterson on an art exhibition of D&D.

The Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia will retail for $60.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Well there is for some of them like FR, probably others like Planescape and DL

FR maybe, but I doubt it for Planescape or DL. Historically those are much less popular. Plan escape would be pretty fun though

 

[Henadic Theologian]

FR maybe, but I doubt it for Planescape or DL. Historically those are much less popular. Plan escape would be pretty fun though

Planescape would function as a kind of Manual of the Planes as well for lore, not just like Sigil and its factions.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

What it should be is a bigger updated version of the Grand History of the Realms, one of the best books ever written. They should release a bigger updated version of that book for 5.5e.

 

[Stormonu]

I wish all of the major RPG licenses would do a master reference book at some point. Just a giant in-universe history with appendices and sections for magic, tech, locations, people, etc. But no RPG notes.

I think you could, or I would like to see, make a D&D lore book that includes everythin, but isn’t broken out by setting. Similar, I guess, to the 2024 DMG but greatly expanded

The Young Adventurer guides make a decent attempt at this, especially the Monster book. If all of the Young Adventurer's books were combined into one tome, it'd be a pretty decent look at D&D overall.

Back in 2E, there were at least two softbound books that TSR put out that had no rules and were campaign-specific guides - Player's Guide to Dragonlance and Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms. I also used to have something similar that did the Old World from GW's Warhammer world, and I have one for Blackmoor. I also happen to own one (well, two) that was done for A Song of Fire and Ice. I've even got one for Hyrule that isn't about playing the various Zelda games, but a world book covering the various places within in a coffee book style, as if you could take a vacation there.

Worlds & Realms was a recent attempt, but I think it falls flat because it tries to cover too much and ends up giving too little information. I think you get more information out of the world blurbs from 30 Years of Adventure. And stupidly, not a single map in the Worlds & Realms book, which I think is important because TSR put out two very popular books - the Forgotten Realms Atlas and DragonLance Atlas, and while those two were loaded with maps, they also mixed in maps and summaries of the more notable books. Heck, TSR sold a CD with nothing BUT Forgotten Realm maps!