D&D 5E (2024) Predict WotC's 2026 D&D releases

[GarrettKP]

ugh, the worst D&D youtuber out there, and that is saying a lot…

Definitely the worst D&D YouTuber. But in the positive side, at least I know not to take anyone who shares that channel seriously.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

@Whizbang Dustyboots, I can't imagine that they'd spend time updating classic 5e books when the point of "backwards compatibility" was done to avoid that.

The point of "backwards compatibility" was to prevent a full-on rebellion by 2014 purchasers.

And if they did, I would expect it to come in the form of remixes, like replacing Lost Mines with Phandelver & Below (though I hope they learned their lesson there on how NOT to execute a remix).

I think it'll mostly be remixes -- whoops, Twilight Cleric somehow got lost in the process! -- except in situations like Curse of Strahd where the core adventure is so well liked and where they don't want to risk another Phandelver & Below situation.

It's possible that they will eventually do some updates along the lines of Strahd Revamped and Tyranny of Dragons (how it fused the two original books along with updating) but I don't think they'll spend much effort on it at any given time. We will see.

I think most of the stuff they publish each year, especially initially, will be new stuff, but I suspect we might see a remake every year or two. Curse of Strahd is 10 years old this year, which seems like a nice milestone to do a "deluxe" version this year, without the price tag associated with a Beadles & Grimm release.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Redoing CoS would be absolutely terrible. The is nothing in the current version that doesn’t work just fine with the 2024 rules. And every potential player knows every encounter like the back of their hand anyway.

It's been 10 years since it came out. In that time, a ton of new players have come along. Older players who already own and have played it a bunch aren't the core audience, much as the people who owned the original Giant, Drow and Queen of the Spiders modules weren't the audience for TSR's different compilations and updates of those originals. They were trying to scoop up new customers.

A product not being for you does not mean it's not a product for a different, potentially huge, audience.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Chris Cox gets his new karatur book or officially announced it and included optional stuff
Agreed sketchy source

Man, you have got to label your FB links. I don't want to give that channel any traffic.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would like another classic anthology that ends with Queen of the Demonweb pits.

Given what an odd ending that was to the original saga -- Lolth was the enemy of the drow cult who were behind the giant invasion -- I'd love to see the entire saga get a through rewrite to make it more coherent and more tightly plotted and include other giant and Underdark groups.

I don't own Storm King's Thunder, but a remake of Queen of the Spiders would also need to differentiate itself from that as much as possible.

 

[Remathilis]

I think most of the stuff they publish each year, especially initially, will be new stuff, but I suspect we might see a remake every year or two. Curse of Strahd is 10 years old this year, which seems like a nice milestone to do a "deluxe" version this year, without the price tag associated with a Beadles & Grimm release.

On a related note, B&G is doing an anniversary edition of Tyranny of Dragons "updated" to 2024. From what I read, they are just reformatting the stat blocks and using 2024 versions when applicable, no actual changes to the content.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

On a related note, B&G is doing an anniversary edition of Tyranny of Dragons "updated" to 2024. From what I read, they are just reformatting the stat blocks and using 2024 versions when applicable, no actual changes to the content.

Which certainly suggests that, if WotC is doing re-releases, Tyranny of Dragons isn't on the short list. And maybe they're not doing re-releases at all.

 

[GarrettKP]

On a related note, B&G is doing an anniversary edition of Tyranny of Dragons "updated" to 2024. From what I read, they are just reformatting the stat blocks and using 2024 versions when applicable, no actual changes to the content.

I have it. It’s a cool idea, but I wouldn’t call it a comprehensive update. They redid the monster stat-blocks, some in better ways than others, and that’s it as far as updates go from what I’ve seen.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The point of "backwards compatibility" was to prevent a full-on rebellion by 2014 purchasers.

I mean, it works for that as well, but they've managed to get away with that problem every edition change in history. The thing that makes this one different from all of those is that they still have the 5e Adventures in print and intend to keep selling them. That never happened before.

I think it'll mostly be remixes -- whoops, Twilight Cleric somehow got lost in the process! -- except in situations like Curse of Strahd where the core adventure is so well liked and where they don't want to risk another Phandelver & Below situation.

I think most of the stuff they publish each year, especially initially, will be new stuff, but I suspect we might see a remake every year or two. Curse of Strahd is 10 years old this year, which seems like a nice milestone to do a "deluxe" version this year, without the price tag associated with a Beadles & Grimm release.

I don't think that what you're saying is a terrible idea, and it's not impossible. Personally, I doubt that we'll see that sort of thing this year, and I'd take the higher end of maybe every two or three years, tops, but who knows at this point.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's been 10 years since it came out. In that time, a ton of new players have come along. Older players who already own and have played it a bunch aren't the core audience, much as the people who owned the original Giant, Drow and Queen of the Spiders modules weren't the audience for TSR's different compilations and updates of those originals. They were trying to scoop up new customers.

A product not being for you does not mean it's not a product for a different, potentially huge, audience.

They can sell, and are selling, the current one to those folks, without any extra work at all.