Dungeons & Dragons Will Announce New Products at Gen Con, Modules Returning to Game

Wizards of the Coast plans to use Gen Con as a launching point for future products. During a press briefing at Gary Con on Thursday, Head of D&D Franchise Dan Ayoub said that they would be announcing the product tied to the Season of Champions at Gen Con this year. Additionally, starting at Gen Con in 2026, D&D will also announce the roadmap for the upcoming year at the convention, which will include announcements of upcoming Seasons, announcement of new products, and other "stuff" tied to the season.

Ayoub told the press briefing that early feedback for the seasons have been "fantastic," so it appears that this will be the standard moving forward.

Later in the press briefing, Ayoub noted that the lengthy delay in announcements was due to a combination of internal reorganization for the D&D team and a shift in which products would be released in 2026. He also said that adventure modules will be returning to Dungeons & Dragons as part of the new Season models, although it's unclear whether this will be through the D&D Encounters program, Adventurer's League, or through some other kind of unannounced product.

 

[mamba]

If they were smart, they would find a way to monetize he idler editions too, on Beyond or at least DMsGuild.

monetize beyond selling them, i.e. opening them up for new 3pp material? Not sure they want to do that and get people into the old editions over 5e (not that the OSR is not taking care of that to a degree anyway)

 

[DEFCON 1]

I guess my point is two fold:

1. We don’t know how WotC determines demand.
2. Be a smart buyer. Buy stuff you want from reputable companies putting out quality work. If you see something you want on DMsGuild, great. But telling people to go buy there willy-nilly (like really, there has been a lot of low effort crap on DMsGuild) because it sends a signal to WotC isn’t going to help anyone.

Fine (general person). Don't do anything. But don't then complain (general person) that WotC isn't doing anything either. If you (general person) can't be bothered... there's no reason to think WotC should be.

(I realize of course, @Artamo, that you weren't one of the people complaining that WotC wasn't making Eberron or Raveloft anthology modules and your responses to me were more of a generalize comment about buying DMs Guild material... which is why my comment above is aimed to the general patron out there and not you personally. )

 

[Artamo]

Fine (general person). Don't do anything. But don't then complain (general person) that WotC isn't doing anything either. If you (general person) can't be bothered... there's no reason to think WotC should be.

(I realize of course, @Artamo, that you weren't one of the people complaining that WotC wasn't making Eberron or Raveloft anthology modules and your responses to me were more of a generalize comment about buying DMs Guild material... which is why my comment above is aimed to the general patron out there and not you personally. )

I would be very happy to get a Ravenloft anthology. I buy pretty much any Ravenloft product WotC puts out, and I’ve bought some third party stuff as well. Personally, I think it’s only a matter of time that I get what I want on that score.

 

[Clint_L]

I happen to think game stores provide a niche that places like libraries, schools, bars, etc. can't provide. And one of the ways an item gains popularity isn't just from online advertising. It is also through word of mouth. And as far as I know, no one does word of mouth better than a game store.

I love game stores, but that doesn't mean a product can't be successful without them. In this hobby, there are plenty of different sales models; most TTRPG products aren't readily available in a typical FLGS.

The quote to which I was responding asserted that, to be successful, these modules had to available in a FLGS. But DDB already has lots of prducts for sale that you can't easily get at an FLGS, and this type of low page count product fits the bill. Thus, I suggested that they might be intended as primarily or even exclusively digital products - we'll have to see. I'm not arguing against the value of game stores.

 

[tetrasodium]

They'll doubtless get ruffled further when I say that I've always seen FR, Greyhawk, and Mystara as being pretty much interchangeable in terms of what one can run in them. Just gotta change a lot of names, is all.

Indeed.

100%. People who only know fr often seem to aggressively assume that the process is identical for converting to other less legally distinct but virtually identical settings

Exactly. Not so simple for Planescape modules, or Dark Sun, or Eberron, though; as there's often considerably more to convert in order to make in run in Homebrew Setting X (unless, of course, one's homebrew hews quite cose to one of those).

This not so simple conversion gets even more complicated when poor mechanical support leads to the conversion also needing to fight the system on top of rebuilding parts the adventure.

Examples are ritual tiny hut completely nullifying any meaningful impacts the cold could have I'm frost maiden while incomplete container rules overly generous carrying capacities alongside ultra trivialized rest/recovery rules pretty much nullify most of the survival elements that remain

Darksun faces those same survival issues and swaps cold for heat while adding the total dissonance caused by nearly unlikable PCs shielded by death saves healing word and yo-yo healing. You could also add the fact that the game being designed for assumed zero magic items & overly simplified weapons/armor means that the general lack of metal means that needing to use the darksun bond and stone stuff can't feel any different.

Eberron needs to fight that same simplified weapons and armor with zero magic items from the other end because the PCs are already unkillable cockroaches who become even more insulated once given magic items they are assumed to never get and there isn't enough granularity left to motivate desire for churn like the old DR/whatever & resist/whatever used to

 

[ersatzphil]

One of the adventures in Candlekeep mysteries is partially set in Ravenloft, and two others are a great fit as Ravenloft adventures.

Speaking as someone who bought Candlekeep Mysteries because I heard there was a Ravenloft adventure in it, I would push back on this, hard. 'The Book of the Raven' just happens to randomly have wereravens in it. Which two do you think would be good thematic fits?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Speaking as someone who bought Candlekeep Mysteries because I heard there was a Ravenloft adventure in it, I would push back on this, hard. 'The Book of the Raven' just happens to randomly have wereravens in it.

Because it revolves around and climaxes in a short visit to Ravenloft proper.

Which two do you think would be good thematic fits?

The one I ran as a Ravenloft adventure was Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme, but A Deep and Creeping Darkness and Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor also work.

 

[ersatzphil]

Because it revolves around and climaxes in a short visit to Ravenloft proper.

The one I ran as a Ravenloft adventure was Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme, but A Deep and Creeping Darkness and Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor also work.

Chalet Brantifax is explicitly in the Shadowfell; other than the book being written by a Vistani there's not much to tie the adventure to Ravenloft - no Vistani even appear in the adventure.

I will say, of the Candlekeep adventures I have run, 'A Deep and Creeping Darkness' was easily the best.

 

[jayoungr]

Modules' returning will only work if there is a lot of them and you can mix and match them

There were over 100 of them, and you always could mix and match. People just totally ignored things published for Adventurer's League for some reason.