Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Announced, Release Date Scheduled for June 2026

[Remathilis]

Not all player options are put through UA - backgrounds, species, most feats aren’t. And they don’t really need to do it for subclasses either. But you are right, WotC aim for a balanced range of different products over the year, so having produced two books with a lot of player options they are not going to produce another.

I'll agree that they don't test species, feats and backgrounds (usually). But they have on subclasses and classes. And the only subclasses we have are Dark Sun, three mystic ones and a handful of reprints.

I'm going out on a limb to say IF it's NOT Dark Sun, it's not anything that is currently on our radar. No Dragonlance. No warrior options book. No Of Everything book. It's either another adventure anthology or something else geared towards DMs with limited PC options.

 

[Remathilis]

Opposite causality: putting Dragonlance material so heavily into their weirdly popular idle game suggests they are using that as the tie in to something else.

How much is Idle Champions even in the WotC zeitgeist? I played it a long time ago and promptly forgot it existed until this thread. Like the Neverwinter MMO, it feels like the kinda thing WotC let's exist to generate passive income rather than a showcase of their brand IP synergy.

 

[GarrettKP]

How much is Idle Champions even in the WotC zeitgeist? I played it a long time ago and promptly forgot it existed until this thread. Like the Neverwinter MMO, it feels like the kinda thing WotC let's exist to generate passive income rather than a showcase of their brand IP synergy.

They did post an article on Beyond about Idle adding Raistlin, for what that is worth.

 

[bedir than]

They did post an article on Beyond about Idle adding Raistlin, for what that is worth.

Other idel champs characters include actual plays sponsored by D&D iirc

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No Dragonlance.

Unlike Dark Sun, Dragonlance has no need for any player options apart from kender. And it’s very easy to produce an adventure - since it’s already written.

Remember that Christmas bauble - it indicated exactly what it appeared to indicate. It wasn’t random, and it wasn’t a misdirect. Soth? Not subtle, not random, not a misdirect. Champions? Not subtle, not a misdirect.

 

[Parmandur]

ah, that might make more sense, I assumed that would be more based on general popularity and what hasn’t been added yet…

Still not expecting anything DL this year but hey, if we get a setting book and the AP updated as one big adventure, I will be pleasantly surprised

Yeah, all just tealeaves at this point...but I doubt the Idle Champions people would go hard into something without some minimal attempt to coordinate with WotC.

 

[Parmandur]

How much is Idle Champions even in the WotC zeitgeist? I played it a long time ago and promptly forgot it existed until this thread. Like the Neverwinter MMO, it feels like the kinda thing WotC let's exist to generate passive income rather than a showcase of their brand IP synergy.

In terms of matching what WotC is producing, actually a pretty good indicator historically.

Not much interest in the game for me, but it keeps making WotC money, and the makers are plugged in. The thing is how hard they are going in on Dragonlance, just as WotC is publicly courting Weis & Hickman...and that Lord Soth so front and center next to the unrevealed product.

 

[Remathilis]

Unlike Dark Sun, Dragonlance has no need for any player options apart from kender. And it’s very easy to produce an adventure - since it’s already written.

I guess if you consider Dragonlance another generic kitchen sink akin to Greyhawk or the Realms, you'd be right. But there wasn't a lot of love for how bare bones Dragon Queen was when it came to fleshing out Krynn, so I don't imagine WotC is apt to want to do that again but even lazier.

 

[Parmandur]

Unlike Dark Sun, Dragonlance has no need for any player options apart from kender. And it’s very easy to produce an adventure - since it’s already written.

Remember that Christmas bauble - it indicated exactly what it appeared to indicate. It wasn’t random, and it wasn’t a misdirect. Soth? Not subtle, not random, not a misdirect. Champions? Not subtle, not a misdirect.

If it isn't Dragonlance, I could see easy explanations (Lord Soth will be in Ravenloft, the game producers were really just looking for content, Champions is vague as all get out, the Weis and Hickman stuff is much more of a long term thing, etc).

But if it is Dragonlance, then they aren't even hiding it.

 

[Parmandur]

I guess if you consider Dragonlance another generic kitchen sink akin to Greyhawk or the Realms, you'd be right. But there wasn't a lot of love for how bare bones Dragon Queen was when it came to fleshing out Krynn, so I don't imagine WotC is apt to want to do that again but even lazier.

Dragonlance, as a Setting, has some distinct flavor and is not as aggressively kitchen sink.

DL as a classic module series? Pretty well useable as generic, the DMG even suggests using those modules in Grehhawk in the Campaign chapter.