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.

 

[Mercurius]

So, since Eberron was released (everything from LYSK leading up to Eberron was focused on Eberron), we have gotten several Wildemount and Theros LYSK episodes, and the following Realms or general D&D episodes in the podcast:

• Lareal Silverhand
• Icewind Dale
• Anauroch Desert
• Mindflayer Nautiloids
• Dueregar, specifically how much they hate the Mindflayers
• "The Enemies of the Mindflayers" focused on the Gith mainly

These may or may not all relate to forthcoming products and/or Adventurer's League content, based on history.

I don't want to speculate too much (OK, I do), but that list seems to imply a story arc set in the far North and Anauroch, with a strong Underdark theme, involving the mindflayers and setting the stage for...Planescape/Spelljammer in 2021.

2021: The Year of the Planes.

(no, confirmation bias is not at play. at all)

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

2021: The Year of the Planes.

I think this will be either late 2020 or early 2021, but I hope it comes out earlier.

 

[Mercurius]

I think this will be either late 2020 or early 2021, but I hope it comes out earlier.

Who knows, but I'm starting to doubt that we'll get a 4th product this year, or if we do it will be something like an adventure compilation. But if we only get three products this year, it means they pushed one back and we might get five next.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don't think they're release an adventure compilation this year. TftYP came out April of 2017, and Ghosts of Saltmarsh came out May 2019. If they continue this pattern, the next adventure compilation will be released Spring of 2021.

It is fairly unlikely that we'll get a 4th product this year, given that last year we got 5 books and the fact that we're likely to get a second wave of Covid-19 in the Fall 2020, but it's possible.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't want to speculate too much (OK, I do), but that list seems to imply a story arc set in the far North and Anauroch, with a strong Underdark theme, involving the mindflayers and setting the stage for...Planescape/Spelljammer in 2021.

2021: The Year of the Planes.

(no, confirmation bias is not at play. at all)

Well, not every LYSK segment historically plays into upcoming products. Some relate to AL Season events, or to stuff Perkins feels like talking about. The Mindflayer theme is...strong... currently, at least.

 

[Gradine]

Well, not every LYSK segment historically plays into upcoming products. Some relate to AL Season events, or to stuff Perkins feels like talking about. The Mindflayer theme is...strong... currently, at least.

Yeah but wasn't that all buildup to Baldur's Gate III, which has so far heavily featured mindflayers, githyanki, and a nautiloid.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah but wasn't that all buildup to Baldur's Gate III, which has so far heavily featured mindflayers, githyanki, and a nautiloid.

Yeah, but that is hardly mutually exclusive: I'd actually look at the Mindflayer themes of BG3 at the begining as signaling a greater likelihood that the next Adventure that comes out at the same time is probably Mindflayer related Mearls spent a year in Belgium working on the video game, and in interviews spoke to wanting to tie in BG3 to the overarching sequence of events of the 1490's DR on the Sword Coast.

 

[Parmandur]

From an interview last year:

"
But, he stressed, the sequencing itself is important. The events of Descent into Avernus must happen before the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, and maintaining that order is literally Mearls’ job."

"That’s the only way to make sure that the overarching story of the Forgotten Realms, the behind-the-scenes details that will likely never see the light of day, can even begin to make sense to Mearls and his team. And, maybe, one day, to the rest of us as well."

Ask a simple question about the Dungeons & Dragons timeline, get a complicated answer

Mike Mearls, co-creator of D&D’s 5th edition, knows more than he’s letting on

www.polygon.com

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

That article is. . . uh. . . interesting.

 

[Parmandur]

That article is. . . uh. . . interesting.

Some quirky look behind their franchise plan curtain, yes.

They aren't bouncing from topic to topic haphazardly with the Adventures: per Chris Perkins many moons ago, they planned out five years of stories at the start of the edition, which we aren't quite at the end of yet since they went to one big storyline a year in 2017.