"The Future of D&D" (New Core Books in 2024!)

The online D&D Celebration event, which has been running all weekend, comes to a close with The Future of D&D, a panel featuring WotC's Ray Winninger, Liz Schuh, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford, hosted by Elle Osili-Wood.

D&D is exploring the multiverse
Revisiting classic settings. 1st of 3 settings (Ravenloft) released this year. Next year, the other two major classic D&D settings come out. Both in formats they've never published products before.

Plus a "little peek" at a third classic D&D setting - a cameo.

In 2023, yet another classic setting is coming out.

Evolving D&D
Because of new players, they're always listening. Exploring new styles of play (like no combat needed in Wild Beyond the Witchlight). Also presentation of monsters and spells. New product formats. More adventure anthologies.

Making products easier to use. Ways to create the best experience. Experimenting and looking into technology.

Approaches to Design
Wild Beyond the Witchlight has interior design and tools to make running the adventure easier. Story tracker, guidance.

Beyond the books, they want to make different and varied products - packaging and form factor. Things different to hardcovers and boxed sets.

A blog post is coming soon detailing some of the changes, with more to come in future posts.

50th Anniversary in 2024
They've begun work on new versions of the core rulebooks. Recent surveys tie into that. They're still making plans, but expect more surveys. More will be said next year.

They will be completely compatible!

New experiences in the digital arena.

January Gift Set
Rules Expansion Gift Set -- Xanathar, Tasha, and a new book: Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. All in a slipcase. Was intended for the Holidays, but global production issues mean January instead. There's also an alternate cover version.

D&D 5E - A Closer Look At January's D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set

WotC earlier announced a D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set for January, which includes three books - Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and the new Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. These were intended for the holidays, but the global production issues...

www.enworld.org

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse
A treasure trove of creature related material from previous products compiled into one book and updated.

Opportunity to update material with a feel for how the 50th Anniversary books will be.

Improvements based on feedback, rebalancing, new and old art.

Over 250 monsters, and 30 playable races. All of the setting agnostic races that have been published outside the Player's Handbook.

Some content from Witchlight, Fizban's, and Strixhaven was influenced by Mordenkainen's.

Available first in the gift set, but separately later in the year.

Monsters alphabetized throughout rather than using subsections.

D&D 5E - Zooming In On Monsters of the Multiverse [UPDATED!]

Earlier, WotC announced Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse, a new D&D compilation of monster material from previous products updated to a new format. These screen grabs are as good as I could get them. They're not terribly clear, but you can make more out than in the original...

www.enworld.org

Stat block changes --

Spellcasting trait is gone. Spellcasting action, slimmed down. Spellcasting monsters need less prep.

Spell slots are gone for NPCs. Regular actions that would have once been spells.

It was too easy for a DM to use spells which result in the monster having a too low effective CR.

Monsters can be friends or foes, and some magic will help rather than hinder PCs.

Where are we going?
More adventure anthologies. Another classic setting fairly soon.

Two all-new settings. Completely new. In development stage, an 'exploration' phase, testing the viability of them. They might not see the light of day.

Retooling nostalgia and blending it with new concepts. A blend of things that you know, and things that they have never done before.

In the short term -- more news next month about a new product for 2022 which goes into a new scary place we've never been before.

Boo the miniature giant space hamster
Below is an sketch from Hydro74's alt cover, which features Boo the miniature giant space hamster.

 

[Li Shenron]

Will be interesting to see what they come up with. Full backward compatibility certainly limits the amount of changes that can be expected.

When they say full compatibility, I don't think they mean what we mean. Basically I expect them to do whatever change they want and claim it's compatible because they say so.

 

[RichGreen]

This was my first thought too... Spelljammer adventure, starting in FR but heading to SPAAAACE. Lots of spooky Far Realm shenanigans, Mind Flayers, beholders, etc.

Mine too! I would love this!

 

[Lyxen]

Revisited Campaign Settings will be published in less than 2 years, i would have expected them to reveal some of them at D&D Celebration ☺

And this is why speculating about what might or might not come out in more than 2 years is extremely hazardous indeed...

 

[Blue]

I did a quick run through and counted 26 total setting agnostic races. This includes tortles!

Not sure where the others are coming from.

Did that include the new ones from Witchlight? Fizban's may also have redone Dragonborn if they kept the UA.

 

[Lyxen]

When they say full compatibility, I don't think they mean what we mean. Basically I expect them to do whatever change they want and claim it's compatible because they say so.

I'm honestly not sure. For example aligning all the races to the Tasha model is really compatible, it's just a matter of moving an option into the mainstream.

 

[Marc_C]

Well, at least 5e will have lasted 10 years. Right up there with 2e.

 

[Bolares]

There are people that will play 4 Element Monks, Undying Warlocks, and Purple Dragon Knights. Just because people play it, doesn't mean that it's "playable". (I mean, I'm obviously wrong here, because if people play it, it's obviously playable. However, you get my point. Some things are just so egregiously bad mechanically that they're "unplayable", even if there is a strange minority of people that will play it.)

I want Genasi to be balanced in comparison to the other races in the game, I want them to become lineages like the Gothic Lineages from Ravenloft, and maybe have a bit of tweaking lore-wise (as Genasi used to be people who were just touched by the elemental planes, instead of having to be half-genie).

I'm curious about what is unplayable about them (sorry if you go in to detail latter in the thread, haven't gotten there yet. I have an air genasi player at my table, and after I changed the Scores to match tasha's the race functioned fine.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm honestly not sure. For example aligning all the races to the Tasha model is really compatible, it's just a matter of moving an option into the mainstream.

Probably that kind of update will be completely fine.

But I don't think they'll stop there. I expect them to fall again for the "we need more substantial changes to let everyone buy the books again". If they start boosting a couple of classes, they will want to boost them all even slightly, and that's when compatibility becomes a shaky concept. Their meaning of back-compatible is "your new books will let you play the same game as before" but not "your old books will still be usable/worth".

 

[Lyxen]

Probably that kind of update will be completely fine.

But I don't think they'll stop there. I expect them to fall again for the "we need more substantial changes to let everyone buy the books again". If they start boosting a couple of classes, they will want to boost them all even slightly, and that's when compatibility becomes a shaky concept. Their meaning of back-compatible is "your new books will let you play the same game as before" but not "your old books will still be usable/worth".

We shall see, but I'm pretty sure that they are aware how much that could potentially cost them as well. They actually did really well with the playtest and survey of 5e, I would expect them to do the same and if there is a large portion of the player base telling them that money-grabbing would be counterproductive, maybe they'll listen...

 

[Blue]

I'm disappointed on 3 more years for a rehash of 5e and then probably a 3-7 year lifecycle for that. I'm just not sure that the base will be happy playing virtually the same game for 6-10 more years.

As a gentle reminder, edition change is determined by the beancounters. Look at 3.0 -> 3.5. Here's Monte Cook's take on the timing of it: Archived Topics REVIEWS

So if it continues to sell well, they will (rightly?) take it as a sign that it's doing well and keep it around. If sales fall off then they will consider a new edition. So ideas based on how long we expect a new edition to stay need to be based on that, not on what we would expect it's longevity to be as a game.

 

[Zi Mishkal]

My gut feeling is that the two settings will be Spelljammer and Mystara. But each setting will be so thoroughly gutted as to be only barely recognizable to those who grew up with them.

Spelljammer has been talked about to death - but the premise behind it back in the 1990s was extremely clunky. Mystara is a great opportunity for WotC to put the dagger in Paizo. The big thing about Mystara was that each country was its own very distinct culture - very similar to Golarion. But Mystara was also a product of the 1980s and would need significant 'cleaning up' to bring it forward.
Mystara was also groundbreaking back in the day for supporting character races for everything under the sun. Its also forgotten enough that it will seem fresh and new to most of the fanbase.

But we'll see. chews popcorn

 

[Hurin88]

Seems like the Bethesda/Rockstar approach:

Repackage mostly the same stuff, with a few tweaks and quality of life upgrades, and resell it again and again.

After 7 years, the lack of depth in 5e is starting to show. It's been fantastic at getting new players into the hobby, but there's only so many times I can play a Fighter or roll 1d8 for damage. Glad know it is time to move on though.

I was never a big fan of 5e, though, so I am biased. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I'm disappointed on 3 more years for a rehash of 5e and then probably a 3-7 year lifecycle for that. I'm just not sure that the base will be happy playing virtually the same game for 6-10 more years.

I personally don’t see a need for another version of D&D ever, but I’ve no idea if I’m part of the “base” or not

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

And Vecna, if you count the Hand of Vecna appearing in Descent into Avernus.

Vecna was part of the core in 4e (maybe sooner, IDK), so you can’t blame that on 5e as well.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I think supplements like Strixhaven are what is going to keep 5e sustainable into the future.

One of my groups is wrapping up a 3-year-long 5e game, a very classic "go into dungeons to save the world" game. If we are to continue playing 5e in the next campaign, I bet it will be with a very different adventure model, like Strixhaven.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Sure. I'm not advocating for a 4e sized change. But I think there's alot that could be improved with a fresh take instead of a rehash.


IMO. We've been promised dials and knobs since day 1 and there's hardly any that actually exist. I won't hold my breath there.

Oh there are lots of dials and knobs, you just have to do some of the turning and pushing yourself.

 

[FrogReaver]

As a gentle reminder, edition change is determined by the beancounters. Look at 3.0 -> 3.5. Here's Monte Cook's take on the timing of it: Archived Topics REVIEWS

So if it continues to sell well, they will (rightly?) take it as a sign that it's doing well and keep it around. If sales fall off then they will consider a new edition. So ideas based on how long we expect a new edition to stay need to be based on that, not on what we would expect it's longevity to be as a game.

I mean, I think they made the right business decision. You don’t throw away a well received product on a hunch that people might years from now lose interest.

Besides backwards compatible is a pretty loosely defined term. If they later decide they want to change a lot, it’s pretty easy to do so and still call it backward compatible. See Level Up advanced 5e.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Ah I’m afraid they’ll just be “new” (ie: to D&D) Magic the Gathering settings instead. So far those have been pretty great! But they’re somewhat smaller than a typical D&D setting

They said they are not MTG settings

 

[BookTenTiger]

Oh there are lots of dials and knobs, you just have to do some of the turning and pushing yourself.

I doubt they're going to do this, but it would be so interesting if WotC published some adventures with those dials and knobs turned.

For example, what would a WotC adventure look like if it was designed with Gritty Healing "turned on?"

 

[Blue]

When they say full compatibility, I don't think they mean what we mean. Basically I expect them to do whatever change they want and claim it's compatible because they say so.

My opinion is the other way. It will mean exactly what we think it will mean. Because I think they've already showed us what they are going to do.

I think we'll see all of the races including the change to ability scores, and possibly changing the name from "race".

I think we'll get more choices that can be swapped in for the existing classes like Tasha's did. The PHB Ranger is "fully compatible" with Tasha's - which doesn't mean that the beastmaster option that was problematic wasn't addressed as well as some base class features. It's just that you can continue to play a PHB Ranger.

I expect more of the same - everything you have still works, but now there are more customization options for races and classes so you can also play more - and some of those address issues that have been around since the beginning, while still allowing you to chose those original features that have issues.

I don't expect a single word that would invalidate an existing character. I do expect a bunch that would make one want to design that same character differently, much like when Tasha's came out.