D&D General Greyhawk to Faerun and Beyond: A Multiversal D&D Lore Book Is Coming This Fall

This coming October, a 360+ page hardcover which delves into Dungeons & Dragons' various worlds and settings will be released. The book isn't from WotC--it's from Ten Speed Press--but it's by Adam Lee, who wrote for Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. The book comes full of 50-years of artwork, and is narrated by the famous wizard Mordenkainen. Additionally, the book contains some original fiction.

Dungeons & Dragons Worlds & Realms: Adventures from Greyhawk to Faerûn and Beyond is available for pre-order already.

The book covers Greyhawk, Mystara, Dragonlance, Faerun, Eberron, the Feywild and Shadowfell, Spelljammer, the Nine Hells, the Abyss, Sigil, and the Far Realm. It's a book of lore and story, not a rulebook, giving an overall of D&D's entire multiverse and its many worlds.

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Celebrate fifty years of the spellbinding settings and planes of Dungeons & Dragons with this beautifully illustrated exploration of the multiverse.

Worlds & Realms is an illustrated, story-driven retrospective celebrating the immersive worldbuilding of D&D since the iconic game’s inception in 1974. Legendary mage Mordenkainen takes adventurers on a fantastical journey through the multiverse, delving into memorable and fascinating lore and locations across all five editions of the game.

With Mordenkainen’s guidance, readers will revisit worlds that have come to define D&D over the decades, from the familiar realms of the Material Plane to lands beyond the Astral Sea. Mordenkainen’s philosophical musings provide a mage’s-eye view of the worlds’ unique features, creatures, and characters, captivating readers’ imaginations as they learn more about the history and mysteries of the multiverse. Additionally, readers will join adventuring parties with inhabitants of each realm through exclusive short stories by award-winning contributors Jaleigh Johnson, Jody Houser and Eric Campbell, Jasmine Bhullar, and Geoffrey Golden.

Full of exciting and enchanting artwork showing fifty years of gameplay evolution from vintage D&D through the present, with original cover and chapter-opener illustrations, Worlds & Realms is a spellbinding tour of the strange and wonderful worlds of the multiverse, appealing to both new and long-standing fans alike.

Polygon has some previews of the book.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah I agree, but its price point ($50 USD) lines up with the price of the other history books, which are also put out by Ten Speed Press. Coupled with the fact that this one isn't penned by Jim Zub and Stacy King, nor is it "A Young Adventurers Guide to the Realms" or something like that makes me lean toward it being geared toward adults.

I mean, all D&D books are geared towards teenagers...? The trade dress ia no accident. This is a larger vook, but it is aimed at the people who have been reading the Young Adventurers stuff for years.

 

[LaTia J]

I mean, all D&D books are geared towards teenagers...? The trade dress ia no accident. This is a larger vook, but it is aimed at the people who have been reading the Young Adventurers stuff for years.

I'm not saying the trade dress is an accident, but it's kind of clear that some people are confused by it—myself included! I'm just speaking on the things I notice about how the Young Adventurers Guides are presented versus this:

• Jim Zub and Stacy King are the main authors of the YA Guides, with occasional other writers
• Each YA book says "A Young Adventurers Guide" on the bottom
• Their price points, even for the thicker books, aren't that high
• They're usually A5-sized, not the size of a coffee table book. I've seen kids carry their YA books around; this would be a harder carry for an 8-12 year old.

The guest authors here are also people that adults would recognize over kids, and the fact that they're being used in the marketing continues to suggest, to me, a book for adults, or at least a book that's meant to get the adults' attention beyond simply buying it for their kid.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not saying the trade dress is an accident, but it's kind of clear that some people are confused by it—myself included! I'm just speaking on the things I notice about how the Young Adventurers Guides are presented versus this:

• Jim Zub and Stacy King are the main authors of the YA Guides, with occasional other writers
• Each YA book says "A Young Adventurers Guide" on the bottom
• Their price points, even for the thicker books, aren't that high
• They're usually A5-sized, not the size of a coffee table book. I've seen kids carry their YA books around; this would be a harder carry for an 8-12 year old.

The guest authors here are also people that adults would recognize over kids, and the fact that they're being used in the marketing continues to suggest, to me, a book for adults, or at least a book that's meant to get the adults' attention beyond simply buying it for their kid.

But would be well aimed at a 16 year old who has been reading the Young Adventurer Guides for years.

 

[J.Quondam]

Now having read the article more carefully and inspected at the pages presented, i think I'm leaning a bit more toward "meh". I was hoping for a guidebook or something, like "Here's a World with capsule history, major cities, sites, factions, and hooks." Something fairly heavy on the information, but minus system crunch.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but it seems more like Mordenkainen just talking about places, plus lots of illustrations and maybe some stories. The spreads shown seem a little sparse, too, though that could be peculiar to those specific pages.

So... it sounds a little thin and less structured than what I was hoping for. I suppose it could be pretty inspirational (especially the art), but maybe not as useful in the way I was hoping? We'll see when it comes out!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Looking at the table of contents (added to the first post), it's striking that Mystara is making the cut alongside Greyhawk, Faerun, Dragonlance and Eberron. (The mixed naming conventions there make me kind of nuts.)

The others are all much bigger names in 2024 and have all had, or will have, products during the 2014/2024 era. I would be pretty surprised to see a Mystara product coming out any time soon, so I assume this is a combination of respecting the Basic D&D line for the anniversary and the big backlog of art from that stuff that WotC has the rights to.

 

[Parmandur]

Now having read the article more carefully and inspected at the pages presented, i think I'm leaning a bit more toward "meh". I was hoping for a guidebook or something, like "Here's a World with capsule history, major cities, sites, factions, and hooks." Something fairly heavy on the information, but minus system crunch.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but it seems more like Mordenkainen just talking about places, plus lots of illustrations and maybe some stories. The spreads shown seem a little sparse, too, though that could be peculiar to those specific pages.

So... it sounds a little thin for what I was hoping for. I suppose it could be pretty inspirational (especially the art), but maybe not as useful in the way I was hoping? We'll see when it comes out!

Hard to say from tge handful if pages we see: the Material prime worlds all get 24-40-ish pages, which is probably enough for a smart teen DM with the core books to actually run a Mystara campaign.

 

[LaTia J]

Now having read the article more carefully and inspected at the pages presented, i think I'm leaning a bit more toward "meh". I was hoping for a guidebook or something, like "Here's a World with capsule history, major cities, sites, factions, and hooks." Something fairly heavy on the information, but minus system crunch.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but it seems more like Mordenkainen just talking about places, plus lots of illustrations and maybe some stories. The spreads shown seem a little sparse, too, though that could be peculiar to those specific pages.

So... it sounds a little thin and less structured than what I was hoping for. I suppose it could be pretty inspirational (especially the art), but maybe not as useful in the way I was hoping? We'll see when it comes out!

Ye, now that I'm better equipped to confirm, it is the next book following Art & Arcana and Lore & Legends, written in Mordenkainen's voice.

(Also hello, D&D Community Manager here)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now having read the article more carefully and inspected at the pages presented, i think I'm leaning a bit more toward "meh". I was hoping for a guidebook or something, like "Here's a World with capsule history, major cities, sites, factions, and hooks." Something fairly heavy on the information, but minus system crunch.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but it seems more like Mordenkainen just talking about places, plus lots of illustrations and maybe some stories. The spreads shown seem a little sparse, too, though that could be peculiar to those specific pages.

It's certainly possible to present all that kind of information via a narrator, but you're right that we don't know for sure from this preview. Hopefully @brimmels will do an advance review of the product when the publication date gets closer.

 

[Parmandur]

Looking at the table of contents (added to the first post), it's striking that Mystara is making the cut alongside Greyhawk, Faerun, Dragonlance and Eberron. (The mixed naming conventions there make me kind of nuts.)

The others are all much bigger names in 2024 and have all had, or will have, products during the 2014/2024 era. I would be pretty surprised to see a Mystara product coming out any time soon, so I assume this is a combination of respecting the Basic D&D line for the anniversary and the big backlog of art from that stuff that WotC has the rights to.

Based on the Grehmyhawk into description, it seems they are setting up those 5 "Kitchen Sink" Settings as different plausible to capture people's imagination. And, given another decade, a Myatar product isn't entirely outside the realm of poaaibkity: there has only been one classic Known World module published in anthologies so far, Lost City. Lots of material to mine.

 

[Parmandur]

(Also hello, D&D Community Manager here)

Welcome! Anything else you can clear up about our speculation?