The New D&D Adventure Storyline Will Be Announced On June 2nd-3rd

WotC is holding an event, which they're calling the Stream of Annihilation, on June 2nd and 3rd to announce the new D&D storyline. Various D&D Twitch steamers have been invited to participate in the upcoming campaign, which will be live streamed along with interviews, and so on. "We’ll have folks from Misscliks, Maze Arcana, Critical Role, and Dice, Camera, Action! with Chris Perkins, not to mention international gaming groups like Yogscast's HighRollers (U.K.) and Dragon Friends (Australia)." You'll be able to watch it all live on Twitch at the time. Is this where we'll discover the identity of the mysterious Dust and Midway? Speculate away!

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Here's the announcement in full. There's more info about the hosts and the guests here.

Dungeons & Dragons loves the amazing video streams produced by our fans. This community-generated live-play highlights what’s fantastic about D&D—sitting down together with your friends to tell a grand story!


To celebrate, we’ve invited a bunch of D&D streamers and luminaries to Seattle, Washington to hang out and roll some dice on June 2nd and 3rd! This two-day event is called the Stream of Annihilation and it’s two full days of streaming that D&D fans won’t want to miss. We’ll have folks from Misscliks, Maze Arcana, Critical Role, and Dice, Camera, Action! with Chris Perkins, not to mention international gaming groups like Yogscast's HighRollers (U.K.) and Dragon Friends (Australia).
[h=3]PROGRAMMING[/h]Kicking off at 10am on both June 2nd and 3rd, hosts Anna Prosser Robinson and Kelly Link will talk to the Wizards of the Coast D&D team and learn all about our next exciting storyline coming in September. Then each group of streamers will play or share a sample of what to expect from the campaigns they’ll be running over the summer that preview the new D&D story. There will be multiple live games, interviews, new product unveils and improvised hilarity each day, starting at 10am PT and ending at 10pm each night. You’ll get introduced to the High Rollers crew delving into uncharted territory DMed by Mark Hulmes, a new Misscliks show investigating rumors called Risen, two weekly groups from our friends Satine Phoenix and Ruty Rutenberg at Maze Arcana, a new group of L.A. actors called Girls Guts Glory, and more!


Throughout the Stream of Annihilation, we’ll drop details on our expanded D&D Twitch programming, new accessories fans have been clamoring for coming later this year, and amazing board games and products from our partners. You’ll hear from Cryptic Studios about plans for Neverwinter, Curse Media for D&D Beyond, as well as WizKids, Gale Force 9, Fantasy Grounds, Roll20, and more. Plus, like any Dungeon Master worth their salt, we have a few exciting surprises to pull from our bags of holding!
[h=3]FURTHER DETAILS[/h]You’ll have to watch the Stream of Annihilation to catch it all live! Follow twitch.tv/DnD to get all the updates, then mark your calendars for Friday, June 2nd and Saturday, June 3rd to make sure you don’t miss a thing!


A full schedule, group bios and some more of the celebrities attending the Stream of Annihilation will be announced over the next few weeks. We’ll also be talking about the event on our official Twitter account (@Wizards_DnD) as well as interviewing some of the groups this month on Dragon Talk, the official D&D podcast.

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[martinlochsen]

What they should do is release one single rules expansion including race options, classes, monsters and whatever you need to play in all the settings (or at least the most popular ones). That way, you'd be able to use all the old settings without doing all that conversion work yourself, just using the old books for setting information. Also, you'd have one book to satisfy fans of all the settings and avoid the problem of them competing against each other, while this book would be an interesting buy for anyone playing homebrew and FR because of the new options.

Oh yeah

 

[FitzTheRuke]

What they should do is release one single rules expansion including race options, classes, monsters and whatever you need to play in all the settings (or at least the most popular ones). That way, you'd be able to use all the old settings without doing all that conversion work yourself, just using the old books for setting information. Also, you'd have one book to satisfy fans of all the settings and avoid the problem of them competing against each other, while this book would be an interesting buy for anyone playing homebrew and FR because of the new options.

Oh yeah

I think "Midway" will be this, or something similar.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[weldon]

I'm not sure if we are having two different discussions here…

A: people who want adventures with hooks and fluff that are clearly set in non-FR campaign settings (and those that disagree with them)
B: people who want campaign settings books that are not FR (and those that disagree with them)

I'm pretty mild on both topics, but (FWIW) my own opinion is that Wizards should focus on bringing more new people into a "shared" D&D experience. My own experience indicates that new campaign books wouldn't lead to more fun at the table (I wouldn't play with them), but I'm still nostalgic for them because I loved reading all of them. Like everyone else here, I'm easily convinced to apply my own experience to understand why Wizards is acting the way they are. Perhaps they agree with me that campaign settings books (or adventure books that don't easily fit into a "shared" narrative) wouldn't actually get used at the table and their limited creative resources are better applied elsewhere.

 

[guachi]

I'm of the opinion that any 5e AP success has less to to with being in the FR or the inherent quality of the adventure and more the fact that 5e is a good set of rules.

Because it's a good set of rules you can show that off by having a variety of settings and specific rules to accommodate that. But WotC doesn't do that. Always setting an adventure in the Realms and always having the same rules set yields a bland sameness.

Also, Chris Perkins' reason to set everything in the Realms is bogus. Is does not imply ought. Just because the Realms can accommodate all sorts of adventures because it's a kitchen sink doesn't mean you must set them there.

WotC can do what it wants but their strategy seems so narrowly focused and unimaginative.

 

[Mistwell]

That's actually an interesting question.

The number of people whose lives have been meaningfully touched by D&D at some point remains much larger (I suspect) than the number the number for MTG. I don't mean number of total players, but I mean the number of people who have deep nostalgia that is story-related versus MTG. I think despite the story elements of MTG, it remains "just a game" in people's minds much more than D&D. D&D has a lot more of a touchstone for both nostalgia and geek culture surrounding it. People who have never played D&D have heard the name Gary Gygax and have an image in their minds (usually) of what D&D is in some way. MTG just doesn't have that level of meaning for as many people.

 

[Demetrios1453]

From Mike Mearl's Reddit AMA earlier today (cut and pasted from http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?549246-Mike-Mearls-AMA-Summary):


Are there any plans for non-Faerun settings like Dark Sun, Eberron, Spelljammer, or really any setting that isn't Faerun?

Yes, but nothing I can talk about. We think of D&D as a multiverse of worlds.

Will we ever see a campaign setting book for the rest of the Forgotten Realms? Not just the Sword Coast.

Can't comment on specific stuff, but we've put thought against many regions of the Realms. Personally, I love Thay.

 

[Queer Venger]

I'm of the opinion that any 5e AP success has less to to with being in the FR or the inherent quality of the adventure and more the fact that 5e is a good set of rules.

Because it's a good set of rules you can show that off by having a variety of settings and specific rules to accommodate that. But WotC doesn't do that. Always setting an adventure in the Realms and always having the same rules set yields a bland sameness.

Also, Chris Perkins' reason to set everything in the Realms is bogus. Is does not imply ought. Just because the Realms can accommodate all sorts of adventures because it's a kitchen sink doesn't mean you must set them there.

WotC can do what it wants but their strategy seems so narrowly focused and unimaginative.

Unimaginative??
Are you aware of the financial success of 5e and how many more people are playing table-top D&D than ever before?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Unimaginative??
Are you aware of the financial success of 5e and how many more people are playing table-top D&D than ever before?

I don't think your point counters his in any way. He's only suggesting that a one-world focus is unimaginative, which is a fair point.

The rest of it is still pretty imaginative. IMO, 'natch.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm of the opinion that any 5e AP success has less to to with being in the FR or the inherent quality of the adventure and more the fact that 5e is a good set of rules.

Because it's a good set of rules you can show that off by having a variety of settings and specific rules to accommodate that. But WotC doesn't do that. Always setting an adventure in the Realms and always having the same rules set yields a bland sameness.

Also, Chris Perkins' reason to set everything in the Realms is bogus. Is does not imply ought. Just because the Realms can accommodate all sorts of adventures because it's a kitchen sink doesn't mean you must set them there.

WotC can do what it wants but their strategy seems so narrowly focused and unimaginative.

Mike Mearls, in his recent AMA, very explicitly describes the team as thinking of D&D as a multiverse of worlds.

My perspective is that they're building a strong foundation for the brand's success first, doubling down on the most recognizable elements of D&D, developing those well, and only once that foundation is in place... then they'll explore other settings and "things that haven't been done before."

I know some of us are chomping at the bit for "insert favorite setting" and "insert wild idea" ASAP, but given the way the D&D team is thinking I'm confident those sorts of things will be appearing. Maybe not as soon as we like, maybe not in the exact manner or boxed sets we envision, but it's coming.

 

[gyor]

From Mike Mearl's Reddit AMA earlier today (cut and pasted from http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?549246-Mike-Mearls-AMA-Summary):


Are there any plans for non-Faerun settings like Dark Sun, Eberron, Spelljammer, or really any setting that isn't Faerun?

Yes, but nothing I can talk about. We think of D&D as a multiverse of worlds.

Will we ever see a campaign setting book for the rest of the Forgotten Realms? Not just the Sword Coast.

Can't comment on specific stuff, but we've put thought against many regions of the Realms. Personally, I love Thay.

What the heck does put thought against many regions actually mean, I'm not familiar with that turn of phrase?