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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don’t think they’d be working on player side psionics at all if they didn’t want to do darksun. Is player side psionics as important to anything else?

Rule of threes. That seems super important to Chris.

It could be said that Psionics is important to Planescape, with the Githyanki and Githzerai, and Coatls, but it's not as important to Planescape as it is to Dark Sun.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not as important as in Dark Sun, but they definitely play a role in Eberron.

They play a roll in every campaign setting, it seems.

 

[darjr]

OK, but It’s a requirement in Dark Sun.

 

[Parmandur]

After the decision to do three Setting books in a 9-month period, patterns as such are clearly meaningless. Also, the post-Ravnica Setting book format might just we'll have outmoded the Monster or Crunch format permanently. With Goodman putting out high quality adaptations of old Adventures, they might not want to do anoth GoS.

Time will tell in all cases.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

After the decision to do three Setting books in a 9-month period, patterns as such are clearly meaningless.

Yeah we just have no idea what's coming up at this point.

Also, the post-Ravnica Setting book format might just we'll have outmoded the Monster or Crunch format permanently.

Outmoded seems like a loaded word, because it implies that it's in some clear way "better" or "more modern", which it definitely isn't. Replaced, perhaps. If so it's a bit disappointing. I prefer my monster collections loosely themed at most, rather than extremely setting-specific. Theros has the advantage that D&D already has basically all the Greek Myth monsters, so more and flashier versions is a good fit, but I daresay many other settings won't be as good at fit. It also has so little crunch in the form of races and classes that I'm distinctly unimpressed there.

The sheer amount of "unresolved" UA for subclasses and the CFV seem to strongly indicate a crunch book along the lines of Xanathars though.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah we just have no idea what's coming up at this point.



Outmoded seems like a loaded word, because it implies that it's in some clear way "better" or "more modern", which it definitely isn't. Replaced, perhaps. If so it's a bit disappointing. I prefer my monster collections loosely themed at most, rather than extremely setting-specific. Theros has the advantage that D&D already has basically all the Greek Myth monsters, so more and flashier versions is a good fit, but I daresay many other settings won't be as good at fit. It also has so little crunch in the form of races and classes that I'm distinctly unimpressed there.

The sheer amount of "unresolved" UA for subclasses and the CFV seem to strongly indicate a crunch book along the lines of Xanathars though.

"Outmoded" for WotC marketing purposes. If they can get more people to buy more books by splitting Mosnters & Crunch and spreading it among Setting lore books, that is superior for Wizard's needs. I'm still reeling from the triple threat, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the new normal now.

We have 15 Subclasses in the current round of UA, including the 4 returned and retooled options from last year. If the rate of success for the Theros set holds, several of them might see print.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I find that idea very implausible - we know there are a significant number of people who simply don't buy setting books, and the sales figures for Xanathar's are way better than any of the setting books.

More likely, the Wildemont book, being 3rd party written, never formed part of the WotC scheduling. It came out when it was done - basically at random, so three settings in a row was never part of WotC's plan. And I doubt we will see any more setting books until well into 2021.

 

[Parmandur]

I find that idea very implausible - we know there are a significant number of people who simply don't buy setting books, and the sales figures for Xanathar's are way better than any of the setting books.

More likely, the Wildemont book, being 3rd party written, never formed part of the WotC scheduling. It came out when it was done - basically at random, so three settings in a row was never part of WotC's plan. And I doubt we will see any more setting books until well into 2021.

I wouldn't bet against it. I would've said 2 in that period wasn't likely, and we got 3! These books do everything a Volo's or Xanathar's would, and then some.

As Crawford said when they began testing Theros options last year in UA, most of the low hanging fruit in 5E is picked, so options are getting more niche.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I find that idea very implausible - we know there are a significant number of people who simply don't buy setting books, and the sales figures for Xanathar's are way better than any of the setting books.

Yes, Xanathar's sold so well that it's highly unlikely that WotC won't try to do the same thing again.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes, Xanathar's sold so well that it's highly unlikely that WotC won't try to do the same thing again.

I'd argue they've done it multiple times since 2018, with Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica and following.