D&D (2024) Wizards Presents Live Coverage

Hello, Darryl here standing in for Morrus with live coverage of the Wizards Presents live stream! This post will be updated throughout the presentation with news updates for Dungeons & Dragons. The event hosted by Jimmy Wong, Sydnee Goodman, and Ginny Dee starts at 9:00 AM Pacific and, while live-streamed, was pre-recorded and expected to last about an hour.

Over the weekend in advance of the stream, this placeholder pre-order page popped up on Amazon for a “Dungeons & Dragons 2022 Release Hardcover" with a retail price of $49.95 and release date of December 6, 2022. It’s highly likely this is Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon hardcover sourcebook that, along with the large-scale battle game Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn, was announced back in April for a release this year.

The stream is now archived on the D&D YouTube channel for those who missed the stream.

The pre-show featured a comedy sketch about working in the Wizards of the Coast offices with Magic: The Gathering characters terrorizing their co-workers.

The show starts proper with Magic: The Gathering news with the Middle Earth crossover in Universes Beyond.

The Dungeons & Dragons news starts with Jeremy Crawford introducing the new initiative called "One D&D". Chris Perkins reiterated what was said back during "D&D Next" playtests in 2013/2014 that there won't be any new "editions" of D&D but that the 2024 version will refine 5th Edition by building on that rules framework. All three core rulebooks will get a refresh, with Chris Perkins saying he's restructuring the DMG to be more friendly to new players. The "three pillars" of One D&D will be:

• D&D Rules. This takes what we love about fifth edition and updates the rules of the game to reflect the feedback we have heard from players and where the game is today.
• D&D Beyond. This will be the platform for your digital D&D collection, content, and tools.
• D&D Digital Play Experience. In early development, D&D Digital will offer an immersive player experience, rich creation tools for Dungeon Masters, and a connected space for DMs and players to get together and play D&D.

The new VTT will be in Unreal Engine 5 using 3D models of...well, models. All the footage is of the pre-alpha build, but the tabletop looks like a tabletop with minis and terrain thanks to tilt shift camera technology. The idea is to sell adventures with pre-built dungeons that you can play as-is or disassemble into parts for use your own games.

Playtesting begins today on the new rules system with a FAQ already live on the D&D Beyond website covering all three pillars and announces that the first digital/physical bundle will be Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon.

Not mentioned on the stream, a full one-hour video about the playtest for the Character Origins popped up on the official D&D YouTube channel:

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More Magic: The Gathering news about tournaments and the 30th anniversary celebration including in-person events. So a chance for the D&D fans to catch their breath.

The 35th anniversary of Drizzt Do'urden will see reprints of all 39 books in the series with new covers both in print and digital format. There will also be a new "visual dictionary" released on March 7, 2023 (pre-order link on Amazon). From the product description:

A visually stunning exploration of a legendary fantasy world

The Forgotten Realms offer D&D players an endless array of secrets to uncover, foes to fight, and treasures to be taken. But there is one name that has always stood out from the rest: Drizzt. Drizzt Do’urden.

This legendary drow elf ranger has been adventuring across the Forgotten Realms for decades, whether through New York Times bestselling fantasy novels or award-winning video games. Now Drizzt will take readers on a spectacular journey through his world.

This book showcases Drizzt and his travels through the Forgotten Realms in never-before-seen detail, with the glorious artwork produced by Wizards of the Coast put center stage. From the glaciers of Icewind Dale to the teeming cities of the Sword Coast, and the sinister shadows of the Underdark to the chambers of Mithral Hall, fans can explore the Realms through Drizzt’s eyes as never before with this immersive, extraordinary guide to their favorite fantasy setting.

Finally, there will be a new Legend of Drizzt webcomic on Webtoons featuring Briennelle Zaharina, Drizzt and Catti-brie's daughter, who will take her father's sword Twinkle and go out to prove she's just as much of a hero as her parents.

Back to M:TG with more tie-ins...it was previously announced one of them would be Warhammer 40000 but there will be a live stream on September 12th announcing details. The big announcement: Doctor Who for Commander formats.

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The stream reminds us of this week's release of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space with an animated commercial. The cartoon features a Spelljammer space hamster mother telling a scary story to her child of a frightening "hooman", who she says is too strange to be real before drawing a dagger and doing battle with a beholder.

Now, Dragonlance! "This is D&D telling a war story." Lots of art previews from Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon, which will be set in the War of the Lance telling side-stories outside the events of the novels. Kender confirmed as a playable race, along with the Knights of Solamnia and Tower of High Sorcery plus many new feats. Pictured above, Lord Soth will be on the alternate cover. The setting is built to work alongside the Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn board game as a mass combat optional rules set you can play on its own or add into Shadow of the Dragon Queen as a rules expansion.

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We got a trailer for a new starter set for Japan that seems to lean heavily on isekai tropes with three normal people hauling a cart before they're surrounded by magical flames and attacked by zombies. They transform into their characters and defeat the zombies just as a large dragon shows up...moving back to the table to show everyone playing at the table. The set is coming this winter.

Now for the entire year of 2023 Dungeons & Dragons releases (well, almost the entire year as Jeremy Crawford clarified in Twitter this was just "some of the products" coming):

• Keys from the Golden Vault, a heist anthology adventure collection coming in Winter 2023
• Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants, a collection of lore about giants set to be the "definitive" book on giants coming Spring 2023
• Phandelver Campaign will expand the setting of Phandelver from the original Starter Set into a full campaign coming Summer 2023
• Book of Many Things draws from the iconic magic item coming in Fall 2023
• Finally...Planescape (!!!) coming in Fall 2023

And the stream closes out on Magic: The Gathering news for Dominaria United and other big releases for 2023.

PS. Thanks to @darjr for grabbing screenshots of the presentation while I was frantically typing to keep up.

 

[DEFCON 1]

One thing that might be an interesting twist... if by some chance the community tells them they do not want monsters to lose the ability to critical hit... would be for PCs to be able to use their Inspiration to cancel a crit made by a monster.

If Inspiration dice are now meant to be gained, used, and regained on a much quicker pace... then allowing PCs to spend them to reduce enemy functionality in addition to increasing their own functionality, might be an interesting variation and change.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

One of the dumbest/worst lore fails of 5E (which had pretty few outright lore fails imho) was that Angels were solely the servants of Good gods, which left Neutral and Evil ones with no real inherent servants because Devils/Demons explicitly weren't that. Just a total mismatch with the cosmology.

I had no idea that they made that change from 4e. I've still been playing with Angels of all the gods. Besides, Angels should always be terrifying and brutal, good or not, IMO.

 

[Ondath]

I may have missed it, but is this a change? RAW now, a nat 20 is not an automatic success for saving throws or skill checks.

In the playtest video, Crawford says they've changed Nat 20 and Nat 1 to be auto success/fail on all saves, checks and attacks.

 

[MarkB]

Let's say there is a magical lock, imbued with ever-changing cylinders from the plane of Limbo itself. The DC to pick this lock is 35. Could a level 20 rogue pick this lock? Yes, with luck. Should I allow a level 1 fighter who found some lockpicks a roll?

Are you in any doubt as to whether or not the level 1 fighter is capable of picking the lock? No? Then don't allow the roll. But if it's a character who might plausibly have close to a high enough bonus to make the roll, which is the example you previously provided, then yes, absolutely - that's precisely when a character getting lucky on a natural 20 and succeeding beyond their natural aptitude will be an awesome moment.

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

Are you in any doubt as to whether or not the level 1 fighter is capable of picking the lock? No? Then don't allow the roll. But if it's a character who might plausibly have close to a high enough bonus to make the roll, which is the example you previously provided, then yes, absolutely - that's precisely when a character getting lucky on a natural 20 and succeeding beyond their natural aptitude will be an awesome moment.

So now I have to keep track of the PCs' lockpick bonuses in order to decide whether or not to allow a roll. Why can't I just set a high DC and rely on that to eliminate impossible attempts?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

So now I have to keep track of the PCs' lockpick bonuses in order to decide whether or not to allow a roll. Why can't I just set a high DC and rely on that to eliminate impossible attempts?

Not really, just ask if they are proficient. Anyone with proficiency should have a chance even if only characters with expertise have odds.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So now I have to keep track of the PCs' lockpick bonuses in order to decide whether or not to allow a roll. Why can't I just set a high DC and rely on that to eliminate impossible attempts?

If you have a locked door you don't want the PCs to get through... don't set a DC at all and just say it can't be opened.

Besides, it's a team game. What difference does it make if the Fighter opens it or the Rogue with Expertise in Thieve's Tools opens it?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So now I have to keep track of the PCs' lockpick bonuses in order to decide whether or not to allow a roll. Why can't I just set a high DC and rely on that to eliminate impossible attempts?

I hate to argue with you, and you can do what you like, but I don't undestand this complaint at all. The only reason to put a Magical, God-Lock with a dc of 35 into play is if you don't want the PCs picking it (at low-to-mid-level). So just don't make them roll (this is a clear part of the Rules in the DMG). If you want them to have a chance at picking it, then they can have a 1-in-20 chance, It won't happen often anyway.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I hate to argue with you, and you can do what you like, but I don't undestand this complaint at all. The only reason to put a Magical, God-Lock with a dc of 35 into play is if you don't want the PCs picking it (at low-to-mid-level). So just don't make them roll (this is a clear part of the Rules in the DMG). If you want them to have a chance at picking it, then they can have a 1-in-20 chance, It won't happen often anyway.

Heh heh.. or they can just not use the new '20-always-succeeds' rule in their game if that matters that much to them.

I mean if anyone thinks that this game is going to be exactly what they want across the board and their days of houseruling D&D is over... I hate to break it to them, buuuuuuuuuuut.....

 

[billd91]

And it’s not going to be free. Even further widening the divide.

Well, something's gotta pay for the development, maintenance, etc.