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.

 

[TwoSix]

The real campaign setting books all had very small amounts of new subclasses. Eberron had 3 subclasses, and they playtested 4 for the book. Ravnica had 2 subclasses, and they playtested 4 for the book. Wildemount had 3 subclasses, and there were no UA for this book. By this point, WotC would have figured out a pattern for Theros. Playtest 2-4 subclasses, and put 2-3 of them in the book.

I'm just saying that previous patterns have little weight in predicting what's going to happen next. Ultimately, they do what they want.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You color assignments sound right. The colors have a metaphysical, philosophical meaning, that James Wyatt interpreted into other words for the D&D products. The metaphysics is still informing the books.

Yes.

But the metaphysical concepts exist separately to, and predate, MtG. MtG just stuck coloured labels on ideas that where already part of fantasy fiction (and mythology) in general and D&D in particular.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm just saying that previous patterns have little weight in predicting what's going to happen next. Ultimately, they do what they want.

Precisely this. It is possible to read the tealeaves and guess at what they are thinking, but it is not a mechanical process, bit a series of human decisions weighed carefully by free agents.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

SCAG had 11.5 actually.

There have been enough setting books now for SCAG to show up as a clear statistical anomaly.

To be precise, it's 2 standard deviations from the mean.

 

[Parmandur]

There have been enough setting books now for SCAG to show up as a clear statistical anomaly.

Interpretation of WotC is a liberal art, not statistical analysis.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I'm just saying that previous patterns have little weight in predicting what's going to happen next. Ultimately, they do what they want.

Precisely this. It is possible to read the tealeaves and guess at what they are thinking, but it is not a mechanical process, bit a series of human decisions weighed carefully by free agents.

You were literally saying before that there's no way that the UA before CFV could be for Xanathar's 2.0 because it would've been playtested too early.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There have been enough setting books now for SCAG to show up as a clear statistical anomaly.

Interpretation of WotC is a liberal art, not statistical analysis.

It's an anomoly because WotC have found their pattern and are sticking with it because it works.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

SCAG is a real Setting book, and certainly as valid a precedent as anything else. Testing 15 options to publish like 9-10 would be in line with their previous work. And publishing 2 options from 5 UA wouldn't be out of line proportionally.

Did they ever even playtest the subclasses for the SCAG? IIRC, they did not.

Testing 12 options for 2 subclasses in the book would be out of line. WotC know better than to do that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Giant Runes are a thing in Eberron, too: there was a whole Continent chock fill of them, and all Elves used to be their slaves. It would have fit in fine in Eberron, and there isn't any other product they made last year it would have fit.

The ordning, which was a key part of the Giant Soul lore, did not happen in Eberron.

 

[Mercurius]

I think we can make some informed guesses, though. For instance, it is fairly safe to say that we’ll continue to see at least one each of story arcs and settings a year, and that four books is the new baseline, and that we’ll see more Magic books.

After that we can make some “probablys”: that we’ll see the planes and psionics in some form or fashion. These could even be in the first category, but could be done in a variety of ways.

The rest are maybes: specific legacy settings, Xanathar 2 as a distinct book, specific story arcs, etc.

WotC has done a good job with keeping us on our toes, especially when it comes to specifics. For instance, we know we’ll get more Magic settings, but not which ones. We know we’ll (probably) get psionics, but not whether it will be tied to Dark Sun, or what the specifics will be.