D&D 5E Everything You Need To Know About Witchlight

Todd Kenrick posted a video summarizing a press conference which listed many of the things you need to know about The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. The video is below, but I've bullet-pointed the key items if you can't watch it right now.

• The Witchlight carnival is a mirror of the carnival in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Shadar Kair are in charge of the feywild carnival and someone else in charge of the Ravenloft carnival. If these two carnivals meet the ownership shifts again and it is part of the plot that Mr Witch and Mr Light do not want to trade the carnival back.
• The carnival will go to multiple worlds. Inspiration actually came from things like Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes; Mr Light is a reflection of Mr Dark from that movie.
• There's a map of the Witchlight carnival laid out like an amusement park map.
• Time is a component of the adventure. Time moves very differently in the feywild and the shadowfell. Expect time hijinks!
• The Witchlight carnival is a way of getting into the feywild itself.
• There are domains much like the dread domains but these are called domains of delight. Each is controlled by an archfey that has power over each of these domains.
• Some art included the Palace of Hearts of Desire, and they showed a treant called Little Oak who has a tree house built into his back and children live in that tree house, plus a displacer beast kitten named Star.
• This adventure will be a very light hearted. Any challenge in this book can be solved with combat but also in a non violent way. Talking your way out of things etc.
• The carnival has attractions and NPCs like a mermaid, a mime named kendlefoot, a Kenku that's up to to to to no good. Also classic characters from the D&D animated series. On the map there is a rollercoaster identical to the rollercoaster in the intro to D&D the animated series. This can imply that that entire amusement park was the Witchlight carnival in disguise.
• Playtesters loved the game you can play in the carnival.
• There's 'custard damage'.
• Player options include new backgrounds. The Feylost and Witchlight Hand. Plus the fairy and herangon (rabbit folk) races.
• Warduke, Strongheart, and Kellek from the cartoon.

 

[Zaukrie]

An interesting thing......I have a moon ruled by subjects of Fey Lords and Ladies in my novel(s), and each realm takes on the vibe of the Lady.....kind of like Prismeer. I maybe should re-write this novel or a new / better one in that world....not that my moon is fun and light....

 

[Oofta]

I'm glad they're releasing this book, it sounds like a lot of fun but I doubt I will buy it. I'd like a book that really does justice to the fey in all their weirdness and this is not it. Sounds like fun for the younger crowd though, so it's all good!

 

[Remathilis]

What is SWTWC?

What Whizbang said:

Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, which will be recommended reading for my players before this campaign.

Yup, the grandfather of the dark carnival genre, at least in print.

Am I missing something or isn't this answered in the very first bullet point of the OP?

I mean yes, which is why WotC got me to pre-order it.

Sounds like they might have some inspiration from WoW's Darkmoon Faire as well. Granted, "creepy carnival" is a fairly common trope...

I'm sure it pulls from a few different sources, but I wonder exactly how much "dark" there will be with it seemingly set in a more kid-friendly environment. Of course, Ravenloft's carnival is one of the least mavolent domains in the book, and if this is the inverse, this might be very dark compared to the otherwise cheerful fey domains.

Southwest Transportation Workforce Center. But I have no idea how that relates to the discussion either.
Though maybe Something Wicked This Way Comes? Not into theatre so no idea how that would relate either.
Those are just the first 2 hits Google gave me.

Your second hit is correct.

 

[darjr]

I took some notes and art screen caps from the WotC Witchlight stream.

D&D 5E - The Feywild and Prismeer from WotCs D&D youtube, now with screen caps of art!

Chris Perkins, Ari Levitch and Kate Irwin from the Dungeons & Dragons design studio dive into the Feywild and the realm of Prismeer in the upcoming adventure "The Wild Beyond The Witchlight" due out on September 21st, 2021.

www.enworld.org

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Not feeling it
Feels like they decided to make the Feywild the opposite of Ravenloft. But domains of dread are not the only feature of the Shadowfell

It feels very Disney. Very sanitized fairy tales

When I think of fey, I go to Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Sussanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman
Amoral fae of the seelie and unseelie courts

I'd say "I'm happy for the people interested in this and hope they enjoy having a book"
But I think I've said that for ten or eleven of the last dozen books

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd say "I'm happy for the people interested in this and hope they enjoy having a book"
But I think I've said that for ten or eleven of the last dozen books

So now you're not happy for the people who are interested in it?

 

[Charlaquin]

Not feeling it
Feels like they decided to make the Feywild the opposite of Ravenloft. But domains of dread are not the only feature of the Shadowfell

The Faewild has been the opposite of the Shadowfell since 4e. Just as the Domains of Dread are not the only feature of the Shadowfell, I very much doubt the Domains of Delight will be the only feature of the Faewild. Indeed, I’m quite certain they won’t be.

It feels very Disney. Very sanitized fairy tales

When I think of fey, I go to Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Sussanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman
Amoral fae of the seelie and unseelie courts

That’s how I prefer my fae as well, and I don’t think the existence of one adventure set in the Faewild with a lighter tone will get in the way of that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That’s how I prefer my fae as well, and I don’t think the existence of one adventure set in the Faewild with a lighter tone will get in the way of that.

Even if the art shown so far is fully representative of the tone of this adventure, it's not all cheerful stuff. The room full of creepy marionettes definitely suggests this isn't all happy fun times.

And yeah, even if Prismeer is super-chipper, which I don't think it will be, that means very little for the rest of the domains.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

So now you're not happy for the people who are interested in it?

Now I'm just becoming apathetic
But WizCo is saving me a bundle of $$$

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

The Faewild has been the opposite of the Shadowfell since 4e. Just as the Domains of Dread are not the only feature of the Shadowfell, I very much doubt the Domains of Delight will be the only feature of the Faewild. Indeed, I’m quite certain they won’t be.

From the previews, we're only getting the one Domain of Delight. That's being sold as representational
They're not going to do a second Feywild adventure
Domains of Delight might as well be the only feature