Dungeons & Dragons is starting to preview its World of Warcraft book

Several influencers have revealed some details about the upcoming World of Warcraft crossover book, which is due to be released later this year. Most of the previews appear to center on how dungeons will be used in the book, with the GameMasters YouTube channel confirming that dungeons will be split up into different tiers of play. GameMasters revealed 7 dungeons that will appear in the book, with the Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep set up for Levels 1-4 players, Blackfathom Deep and Scarlet Monastery for Levels 5-10 players, Scarlet Monastery (again) and Dire Maul set up for Levels 11-16 players, and Azjol Nerub and Anoxia’s Lair for Levels 17-20 players.

Crit Hit the Giant provided some additional flavor about dungeon setup, with his preview of Dire Maul containing a large map of the dungeon, plot hooks for the dungeon, and a list of NPCs and monsters that populate the dungeon. From the looks of the preview pages in this video, it seems that each dungeon will be broken out into some detail, although it will be left to the DM to decide how to use each dungeon within their own game.

As I’m not a World of Warcraft player, it’s hard to tell how closely these dungeons skew towards the video game, but it looks like the average D&D DM will be able to use these dungeons in their own games without much issue. I find it interesting that Wizards of the Coast is turning towards D&D influencers, several of whom expressed in their own videos having a general lack of knowledge of the World of Warcraft setting as well. One would think that they’d be leaning on World of Warcraft influencers or Blizzard instead, but it was interesting that BlizzCon (an annual event focusing on Blizzard video games) came and went with no mention of the World of Warcraft/D&D crossover.

 

[Milli Rabbit]

Im mostly excited because one streamer mentioned possibly alternative features for classes. They couldn't share more, however, but they were excited to be able to share more in the future.

 

[EthanSental]

That’s interesting for wow dungeons and differing character levels, much like the game.

 

[Liongo]

I am mostly interested in features for martial classes and the Profession mechanic, but it looks like there won't be another embargo lift until October.

 

[UVAtom]

How is this different from the previous versions of the World of Warcraft TTRPGs? Were those 3.5 products?

 

[Superchunk77]

How is this different from the previous versions of the World of Warcraft TTRPGs? Were those 3.5 products?

Yes, the original WoW books were made back in the 3.5e ruleset. There was also a Warcraft RPG for 3e as well (IIRC).

 

[overgeeked]

Anoxia’s Lair

I believe it's Onyxia's Lair.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The level ranges in the book sound like they're comparable to where they are in the MMORPG -- the actual numbers are different, but the tiers are right.

That said, making dungeons for this book will be really easy, thanks to Blizzard making beautiful in-game dungeon maps and a robust wiki community:

• Category:Dungeons
• Category:Raids

In most cases, the monsters are pretty easy to reskin from the Monster Manual or to read the Wowhead page for a raid boss and figure out what their abilities should be: Onyxia

Also, I have never heard of these streamers before. Are they primarily Twitch folks or is WotC mixing up who gets the preview copies and expanding their potential audience?

 

[Bolongo]

Very nostalgic. If indeed "Anoxia" is a misspelling for Onyxia, then Azjol Nerub is the only dungeon that isn't from Vanilla.

 

[Starmaster]

I don't know anything about WoW, but I like the guy in the foreground of the orange painting on the right who looks kinda like he has a needle nose pliers head. I suppose maybe needle-nose-pliers-head is somebody important in the WoW universe.