D&D 5E WotC Announces An Impending Announcement: New Setting, Storyline

Early this week, WotC announced on Twitter that today there would be some kind of announcement on their Twitch channel. Those who heard that announcement and tuned in were treated to an announcement that the new storyline will be announced at a live event in June.

The press release announcing the impending announcement also mentions a new setting, as well as the storyline, so it sounds like it might not be set in the Forgotten Realms (or maybe is in a new region - to 5E - of the Realms, such as Icewind Dale). The adventure and the setting might be the same thing, or they might be completely different things. Recently, WotC has released a bunch of settings: Eberron, Ravnica, Wildemount, and the upcoming Theros.

Fans of D&D will learn all about the new setting and storyline

The new storyline specifically will be revealed at 12pm PST (8pm GMT) on Thursday, June 18th.

The June event will raise money for Comic Relief, and will feature celebrities including Brandon Routh (Superman), and will preview the brand new storyline. It takes place June 18th-20th. Other names involved include Felicia Day, Deborah Ann Woll, Amy Acker, David Harbour, Matthew Lillard, and more.

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 PRESS RELEASE

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RENTON, WA – May 21, 2020 – People all over the world continue to stay safe by staying home, but that doesn’t mean the adventuring has to stop. Dungeons & Dragons is more popular than ever because it allows people to weave compelling stories together even when they’re physically apart through online videoconferencing. Now, Wizards of the Coast brings the stars to this virtual table with D&D Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage. An amazing cast of characters led by expert storytellers preview the latest D&D storyline with live gaming sessions, all while raising money for Red Nose Day to help the most vulnerable children across the US and around the world, who have been so affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.The adventure begins 10:00am PT on June 18, 2020 and will run through June 20, 2020 at dungeonsanddragons.com.

D&D Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage features big personalities playing elves, wizards and fighters to accomplish quests using their imaginations. Funny people like Brian Posehn, Kevin Sussman and Thomas Middleditch will work together to solve problems or, more likely, cause some hilarious new ones. WWE ® Superstars Xavier Woods ®, Tyler Breeze ®, Ember Moon ®, Alexa Bliss ® and Dio Maddin ® will contend with beefcake destroyer Jeremy Crawford, a.k.a. Principal Rules Designer for D&D. Deborah Ann Woll will lead a group of actors in improvising a way to help people in a fantasy world not that different from ours. And principal D&D writer Chris Perkins takes players

Fans of D&D will learn all about the new setting and storyline as well as accompanying new products plus tons of unique gameplay available on June 18, 2020. D&D Adventurers League has four new short adventures everyone can enjoy. By donating a small amount to Red Nose Day, fans will have access to sign up for D&D sessions with players around the world! During #DnDLive2020, fans will also be able to choose the character best suited to help the region through Reality RP, a mashup of fantasy storytelling, community engagement, and reality television.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I mean, it's like a pretty minor idea to me. 4E was incredible for reskinning. You could literally take powers from another monster, and the DDI would autocalibrate them and do all the math for you and stuff, and you could level creatures up and down really easily, and change abilities really easily, and the whole monster editor (and the mechanics, post-fix) meant that re-skinning something in a useful and pointful way was really trivial and amazing.

OK, you're using "reskinning" in a much more in-depth way than I ever do. Your comment made it sound like it's hard to, say, turn a bugbear (boring) into an owl-headed murderer (much cooler!), which is obviously trivial.

And yes, 3E and 4E were much more about that modular design, which is very satisfying as a roll-your-own DM. (I have made so many 3E spells.)

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Look, you seem to be getting a bit hot under the collar about this chat, so I'm not going to keep on about this.

Not hot under the collar. I don't get angry at this kind of thing, just overly annoyed when claims are made with basically no evidence.

The Giant Soul looks like it was considered for Eberron and rejected, for what it is worth.

It was being playtested at exactly the same time as the Ravnica options, before most of the Eberron ones. There's no saying what it was playtested for, which is kind of my point. You're saying the fact that these UA were playtested before MOoT means that they were meant for Theros.
(Also, why the hell would they be playtesting a Giant Soul Sorcerer for Eberron of all settings? That makes literally zero sense. Eberron has no particular connection to giants over any other setting.)

Correlation does not mean causation, but it is suggestive, particularly given the publication history of tests correlating to future products.

It is suggestive, but this "suggestion" you have is a circular argument. Your argument is "It came out around theros, so it had to be for theros, because the theros UA were tested around the same time as these".
And, "given the publication history of tests correlating to future products", is easily refuted by saying "they never have playtested this many UA for a measly setting before". They have playtested this many for a certain "Xanathar's Guide to Everything" so the claim with more evidence is that they're planning to develop another "Xanathar's"-type book.

 

[Parmandur]

Not hot under the collar. I don't get angry at this kind of thing, just overly annoyed when claims are made with basically no evidence.

It was being playtested at exactly the same time as the Ravnica options, before most of the Eberron ones. There's no saying what it was playtested for, which is kind of my point. You're saying the fact that these UA were playtested before MOoT means that they were meant for Theros.
(Also, why the hell would they be playtesting a Giant Soul Sorcerer for Eberron of all settings? That makes literally zero sense. Eberron has no particular connection to giants over any other setting.)

It is suggestive, but this "suggestion" you have is a circular argument. Your argument is "It came out around theros, so it had to be for theros, because the theros UA were tested around the same time as these".
And, "given the publication history of tests correlating to future products", is easily refuted by saying "they never have playtested this many UA for a measly setting before". They have playtested this many for a certain "Xanathar's Guide to Everything" so the claim with more evidence is that they're planning to develop another "Xanathar's"-type book.

Time will tell.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Time will tell.

Time has told that they wouldn't waste 5 months of UA on a single setting book.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One significant difference, those weren't options being tested ahead of a Magic setting book. And again, it amuses me that your own distaste for the option is related precisely to it's Magic flavor, while you deny the Magic flavor...and in the end, what we got was a Magic book!

It has no MAGIC FLAVOUR.

It is chaotic - like all barbarians. It is warlike - like all barbarians. It breathes fire - wait! no it doesn't. It's actually less "red mana" than a Storm Herald with the desert options.

My distaste for it is pure because it is silly, broken and badly designed - something MtG is generally NOT.

And everything "came before an MtG book" (there will no doubt eventually be another). Although, both Ravnica and Theros conspicuously strip out almost all references to MtG mana and Planeswalker magic, so they aren't really MtG books at all, they are D&D books that share a setting with MtG.

There is nothing particularly "MtG" about the subclasses that did make it in - they are Greek* flavoured, yes, but not MtG flavoured. What colour is Collage of Eloquence? What colour is Oath of Glory? (Probably white, just like every other paladin.)

*Well, Oath of Heroism was, Glory is pretty generic, probably because it also has to go in November's general splat book.

 

[Parmandur]

Time has told that they wouldn't waste 5 months of UA on a single setting book.

One of the cornerstones of their yearly release slate would hardly be a waste. And they spent five months and more for both Everton and Ravnica, just less on Subclass options specifically.

 

[Parmandur]

It has no MAGIC FLAVOUR.

It is chaotic - like all barbarians. It is warlike - like all barbarians. It breathes fire - wait! no it doesn't. It's actually less "red mana" than a Storm Herald with the desert options.

My distaste for it is pure because it is silly, broken and badly designed - something MtG is generally NOT.

And everything "came before an MtG book" (there will no doubt eventually be another). Although, both Ravnica and Theros conspicuously strip out almost all references to MtG mana and Planeswalker magic, so they aren't really MtG books at all, they are D&D books that share a setting with MtG.

There is nothing particularly "MtG" about the subclasses that did make it in - they are Greek* flavoured, yes, but not MtG flavoured. What colour is Collage of Eloquence? What colour is Oath of Glory? (Probably white, just like every other paladin.)

*Well, Oath of Heroism was, Glory is pretty generic, probably because it also has to go in November's general splat book.

They used a White card for the art for the Paladin, yes. The Eloquence College also has precedence in White cards from, get this, Theros. As someone pointed out at the time of the UA...hmmmmm...

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

They used a White card for the art for the Paladin, yes. The Eloquence College also has precedence in White cards from, get this, Theros. As someone pointed out at the time of the UA...hmmmmm...

Basically every paladin is white mana. They used a white card for the art for the paladin, because they like to use M:tG art in these M:tG setting books. That's the cause of this correlation, not the colors being a thing in D&D, because they aren't.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Giant Soul Sorcerer was being playtested before Ravnica,

Er, Giant Soul draws heavly on Forgotten Realms giant lore.

Sometimes things are just tested without being pre-attached to a particular book.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Er, Giant Soul draws heavly on Forgotten Realms giant lore.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was pointing out. Just because they were playtested before a particular book doesn't mean it was intended for that book. The Giant Soul and Rune Knight aren't related to M:tG lore, they're much closer to FR lore. They're not meant for M:tG setting books, because that doesn't make sense.