D&D 5E The Next D&D Storyline Will Be Released In September; Plus 'Reality TV' D&D At D&D Live!

The new D&D storyline, which WotC announced that they would be announcing online at D&D Live this month, will be released in September, WotC's Greg Tito announced in an interview with Screen Rant.

We've done these events annually for the past few years to get the Dungeons & Dragons community excited about playing with each other, as well as for the new storyline that we will introduce at this time that will be released in September.

The announcement event will also feature some reality-TV style features which they're calling "Reality RP". The storyline involves a prison warden who's a wizard, and who traps a group of suspects in a food storage sabotage investigation and sets them challenges. One of these ten people is the culprit, and each is played by a different performer. Over the weekend, the cast members get reduced until there are only three left on the last day.

At its core it is a combination of different things, it's performative cosplay, deductive roleplay such as Clue, but there is Mafia/Werewolf, those type of party deductive reasoning social games, as well as reality television gameplay, I know we all hate on reality television but some of the shows are actually pretty innovative as far as what kind of game design and things that are going on.

There's other information in the long interview on Screenrant, so it's well worth checking the link. Amongst other things, Tito revealed that the proportional of women playing D&D has increased from about 39% a year or two ago to about 50/50 now. He also mentioned that we can expect to see more Magic/D&D crossovers in the future.

D&D Live is running June 18-20.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I was going to post this in the Icewind Dale thread, but that seems to be derailed into DMs Guild discussion, but this may be the better place anyway. lol

I found this on the D&D Instagram account:

Join our host, Prosperon, the Prison Warden of Revel's End, in rooting out the cultist of Auril hiding amongst the Champions of the Ten Towns. Starting June 18, those who have donated to #RedNoseDay can access a special map on our website (link in bio), uncover clues about each prisoner, and observe the trials of Revel's End live right here.

 

[Parmandur]

I was going to post this in the Icewind Dale thread, but that seems to be derailed into DMs Guild discussion, but this may be the better place anyway. lol

I found this on the D&D Instagram account:

Revel's End? Prosperon?

Shakespeare's Tempest? Odd flex, but alright.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Revel's End? Prosperon?

Shakespeare's Tempest? Odd flex, but alright.

They like their Shakespeare. Remember that Storm King's Thunder used Macbeth.

 

[Parmandur]

They like their Shakespeare. Remember that Storm King's Thunder used Macbeth.

King Lear, IIRC, very vaguely.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I was going to post this in the Icewind Dale thread, but that seems to be derailed into DMs Guild discussion, but this may be the better place anyway. lol

I found this on the D&D Instagram account:

You probably should post it there as well, the thread has gotten back on track, and this all but confirms the speculation there.

 

[Zardnaar]

The full answer (which is not, but the way, that it's 5/50 now):

Question: Along with the sales data released last year, it was also revealed that 39% of the D&D player base is now women, and that's a pretty big leap from the days when the game was considered to be a bit of a boy's club. What do you think has caused such a drastic shift in interest in the game?

Answer: That data is from a few years ago so I think it's potentially trending toward 50/50, which is our goal. We've been collecting survey data on that now and I don't think we'll be satisfied until it is up to what the population numbers actually are. And I think it has to do with a lot of factors, I think that you mentioned the boys club attitude that has been eroding over time with the more mainstream acceptance of the game as a whole. Folks like Joe Manganiello who has been very vocal about "hey he's a jock, he's a gym brat", but he likes playing Dungeons & Dragons and I think that broke down that barrier and I think that a lot of women are seeing themselves on streaming shows like Critical Role, I think it was really instrumental in showing role-players, you know, people who enjoy different facets of the game, can find the appeal in it and if you enjoyed playing with dolls as a child, you're kind of gonna like playing D&D. I think a lot of that had been ignored by women for a long time and now that they got to see they can do that as adults and as kids, but especially adult women are seeing the joys and beauty of the game and spreading it and playing it with their children, I think all of those factors contributed to the growth of the player base and not just women. I'm also seeing a huge increase in people of color who are wanting to join this game, and not to get to treacly about this, but I think that more people playing D&D and putting themselves in the shoes of others can do a lot for how people are approaching hot topics about racism right now. It's really encouraging to see people who have experimented with playing different characters, and different ways of experiencing the world and having their eyes opened and to saying "I've never really realized this is what people were feeling" and it's really eye-opening to think that the more it's done, it can help the world as a whole.

YouTube and critical role.

3E predated social media and no one really wanted to play 4E. Game if Thrones as well.

In seeing a lot more females here, female DMs rare as fairies though (singular), still mostly white and middle class.

That's probably more due to the local university.

Video games helped as well. Big changes in amount of women playing them. They still break down along gender lines by genre though.

I suspect D&D will struggle more breaking through class barriers than gender/racial.

 

[willrali]

Glad to hear about the gender ratios. I have absolutely no idea how this stream is at all D&D in any way, but any news exposure is good.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don't know how interested I am in this particular event, but the news that the player base is now about 50% women is really phenomenal. I never would have imagined it even a few years ago.

I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long, but my local sample group skews very queer and femme.

They like their Shakespeare. Remember that Storm King's Thunder used Macbeth.

As it should. Most stuff should reference Macbeth.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I was going to post this in the Icewind Dale thread, but that seems to be derailed into DMs Guild discussion, but this may be the better place anyway. lol

I found this on the D&D Instagram account:

Typo. Maybe the meant Ravel rather than Revel?

I mean, following the sequence of doing adventures with the titles of old computer games, the next in the sequence after Icewind Dale is Planescape: Torment.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

King Lear, IIRC, very vaguely.

Yes, the 3 daughters and the ailing king. VERY vaguely.