D&D (2024) "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.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It depends on what era the samurai is from—the primary weapon of the mounted samurai early on (from the late Heian period onwards) was the bow, but closer to the Sengoku era, lances/spears (yari) became more prevalent during the Muromachi period. For what it's worth.

Absolutely, but I’d definitely want some sort of archery benefit to represent that Samurai regardless, because it is a major thing Samurai are famous for, and a thing that is different from European knights.

 

[Vael]

Maybe that's the problem: D&D is too European.

Then, you could have a duelist rogue or an oathsworn fighter without the cultural baggage of a swashbuckler or samurai baked in.

The problem with removing some of the cultural roots is the end result feels like white-washing them.

Monk, for example, is a challenge. I get the Orientalism of it. But if you call it the "Martial Artist" or "Pugilist" or "MMA fighter", you end up a different feel.

As it is, I've seen years of people saying the Monk is too "Anime" for their Mideval Fantasy and I read that loud and clear.

 

[Remathilis]

The problem with removing some of the cultural roots is the end result feels like white-washing them.

Monk, for example, is a challenge. I get the Orientalism of it. But if you call it the "Martial Artist" or "Pugilist" or "MMA fighter", you end up a different feel.

As it is, I've seen years of people saying the Monk is too "Anime" for their Mideval Fantasy and I read that loud and clear.

Then you've created the no win scenario. Samurai is too culturally specific, but removing its cultural origin is white washing. If you don't include it, your excluding other voices, but if you do, you're exoticizing them. And if everything is included, you've created a kitchen sink world with Vistani samurai gunslingers riding dinosaurs.

I get there isn't consensus, but at this point I'm starting to feel it's like the Supreme Court definition of porn: I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

 

[Aldarc]

The problem with removing some of the cultural roots is the end result feels like white-washing them.

Monk, for example, is a challenge. I get the Orientalism of it. But if you call it the "Martial Artist" or "Pugilist" or "MMA fighter", you end up a different feel.

As it is, I've seen years of people saying the Monk is too "Anime" for their Mideval Fantasy and I read that loud and clear.

I'm a fan of how both Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved and Kevin Crawford's Worlds Without Number handled the "monk." WWN called them Vowed. AE called them Oathsworn (drawing more inspiration from the Haruchai from Thomas Covenant), and as one might imagine, their powers didn't come from Ki but from their dedication to their oaths. I am partial to the idea of centering Monks more around oaths and vows rather than "ki."

 

[Vael]

Then you've created the no win scenario. Samurai is too culturally specific, but removing its cultural origin is white washing. If you don't include it, your excluding other voices, but if you do, you're exoticizing them. And if everything is included, you've created a kitchen sink world with Vistani samurai gunslingers riding dinosaurs.

I get there isn't consensus, but at this point I'm starting to feel it's like the Supreme Court definition of porn: I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

To be honest, I like Kitchen Sinks, I like big tents and I cannot lie. Every tavern is the Mos Eisley Cantina, every party a ramshackle array of creature types.

 

[Gradine]

I care about the topic quite a bit. I also feel these concerns are leading to a dearth of fiction, where only certain people are allowed to tell certain stories, and you're a monster if you're not ashamed of your childhood favorites.

I actually have an answer to this particular bit.

When my partner was a college RA, she would host these events called "Dissecting Disney", where she'd gather a bunch of a students, watch a classic Disney flick, and then host a discussion afterward of some of the Accidental Aesops they might teach. For instance, one of our best friends is native, and was in elementary school when Pocahontas came out. The other kids at her school who watched it took to chasing her around the playground singing "Savages! Savages! Barely even human!" which is an actual part of a song from that movie. Sure, it was sung by the bad guys, but those kids clearly missed that particular bit of nuance.

Anyway, a student once asked my partner why she hated Disney movies, and she responded "I don't; I love these movies! I can't wait to show them to my children! But also, I want to be prepared to have a conversation with them so they walk away with, for instance, healthy expectations about relationships."

She'd probably look back with embarrassment over all that, honestly, but I'll be damned if we haven't watched those films with our daughter and have those conversations, and it's gone quite well.

One of my favorite films/plays is Arsenic and Old Lace; for a product of the 40's it remains absolutely an hilarious black comedy. It also has the occasional racist joke, and its handling of mental health is... well, troubling to say the least. Literally every Harrison Ford hero of my childhood had a mild disdain for the concepts of "consent" at the best of times but that doesn't mean I spit upon Indiana Jones or Star Wars or Blade Runner and anyone who claims to still like them.

This is something that people, on both sides honestly, often miss. You can be critical of the things you like, and you can still like (even love!) the things you are critical of.

Hell, I still love D&D after all this time, and I mean, did you even read Tomb of Annihilation? Woof.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Dhakaan. Keith Baker said the (3.5) version of samurai and ninja fit well with proud martial traditions of the ancient goblinoids. Hobgoblin samurai and goblin ninjas were great ways to show incorporate the classic tropes of both without a need for an exoticized Asia analog.

Great, let's have our Japanese analogue be hobgoblins. That's not problematic at all!

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Hell, I still love D&D after all this time, and I mean, did you even read Tomb of Annihilation? Woof.

And that's one of the newer adventures. If Tomb of Annihilation has so much problematic language, I can't even imagine how worse it was 30-40 years ago. I've seen some of the stuff from previous editions that was just plain gross, but I doubt I've seen all of it or even the majority of it.

I love Tomb of Annihilation, just like older players can love their older adventures, but being aware of their issues is a good thing, not "being ashamed of your childhood favorites".

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Great, let's have our Japanese analogue be hobgoblins. That's not problematic at all!

I believe @Doug McCrae discussed this in a previous thread, comparing it to the racist Tokio monster from American WWII propaganda. (At least in Eberron the Hobgoblins aren't actually evil. It's still problematic, but it's far worse in some other worlds.)

 

[Charlaquin]

Then, you could have a duelist rogue or an oathsworn fighter without the cultural baggage of a swashbuckler or samurai baked in.

What cultural baggage does the name swashbuckler carry? It’s literally a descriptive name for one who swashes bucklers.