D&D Direct Recap

In the first D&D Direct, hosted by B. Dave Walters and Anna Prosser, Wizards of the Coast announced a slew of their upcoming projects, from new settings, books, video games, and more. Here is our recap of everything covered in this year’s D&D Direct and what is coming next for Dungeons and Dragons.

Spelljammer Confirmed

Finally, Spelljammer has been officially (and for real this time) been confirmed for fifth edition! Spelljammer: Adventures in Space will be releasing August 16, 2022 as a Campaign Collection. The bundle will contain three 64 page books, a double-sided map of the asteroid city, the Rock of Bral, and a DM screen all in a sleek slipcase.

The first of the books, the Astral Adventurer’s Guide is a campaign sourcebook with character options, spells and magic items, deck plans and descriptions of spelljammers, and more. It is targeted at players and Dungeon Masters with everything needed to run an adventure or campaign in Wildspace. Player options include six new races (some of which were teased in Unearthed Arcana): astral elves, autognomes, hadozee, giff, plasmoids, and thri-kreen.

Boo’s Astral Menagerie is a bestiary for the setting that presents game statistics and descriptions of over 60 creatures from Wildspace and the Astral Sea. Named after the famous miniature giant space hamster, this book includes astral elves, cosmic horrors, giant space hamsters, lunar and solar dragons, murder comets, space clowns, and vampirates. 

The final book, Light of Xaryxis, is an adventure set in the Astral Sea for player characters level 5-8. Made up of 12 episodes, each one ends on a cliffhanger until the epic conclusion where things go “buck wild.”

Alternate covers for Spelljammer: Adventures in Space will be available upon release from local game stores. 

Wizards of the Coast have also announced Spelljammer Academy, a downloadable prequel adventure releasing in July to all users who have a Wizards account. More details coming soon.

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is currently available for pre-order.

Spelljammer Miniatures from WizKids

To celebrate the upcoming release of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, WizKids has announced the return of their Icons of the Realms collection. The new miniatures will include the new playable races, Wildspace creatures such as Dohwar and Space Swine, Giant Space Hamsters, and larger terrors like Void Scavvers. They will also have 2-in-1 combined figures as well as gargantuan models, like the astral dreadnought. WizKids is also launching ship-scale models, likely allowing ship-to ship or ship-to monster pitched combat while in Wildspace. Does this mean we might see a spelljammer version of the ship combat mechanics we first saw in Ghosts of Saltmarsh?

The new Icons of the Realms collection from WizKids, coming in Fall 2022, can be pre-ordered now.

Baldur’s Gate 3

In an update from Larian Studios, we saw how much the game has changed in the last 18 months, with the most recent updates coming in Patch 7. They have added more classes to the game, changed visuals, and more. While still in Early Access, Baldur’s Gate 3 is still targeting a 2023 release date. 

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

A new anthology of adventures for fifth edition, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel brought “15 black and brown writers that put together stories based on their lives, their backgrounds, their cultures, and their myths to weave 13 incredible adventures and 15 new locations that players and DMs can really dig into.” (Ajit George during D&D Direct, Project Lead for Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel)

The book contains 13 adventures across 16 new locations for players level 1-14. The adventures can be played independently as one-off adventures, or played sequentially. It also has the potential to connect the Radiant Citadel to other locations, whether they are home-brewed settings or other D&D locations. One interesting aspect that was touched on during the showcase is that during the creation process, the writers all shared their notes with one another, and that collaboration allowed for references to other locations to pop up in order to give it all a sense of a shared world. 

During the showcase, the project leads shared a little about three of the adventures we can expect in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel.

Wages of Vice is the 5th level adventure which is marked by bright colors and pastels which are evocative of the Caribbean and draws players into that culture. 

Orchids of the Invisible Mountain is the 14th level adventure. It begins in Antagua, but becomes a plane-spanning adventure that touches on the mystery of the Feywild before traveling to the nightmarish Far Realm. Orchids of the Invisible Mountain also introduces a new monster, the whistler, to terrify your players.

The Fiend of the Hollow Mind is a 4th level adventure set in the city of San Citlan during the Night of the Remembered, a bright and colorful festival evocative of Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. It is a festival where the dead and departed return to celebrate with their loved ones for one night amidst a raucous party of spirits and skeletons. 

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel releases June 21, 2022 and is available for pre-order.

New Campaign Cases from Wizards of the Coast

Designed to be accessible options for DMs, two new Campaign Cases coming this summer provide great accessories for beginner and veteran DMs alike.

Campaign Case: Creatures comes with 64 weighted plastic discs in three sizes and four colors (40 medium, 20 large, 4 huge), 5 sheets of fully illustrated creature clings that are easy to remove and reuse, 2 removable token storage trays, 1 storage folder for creature clings, 1 outer box, and a durable storage case with magnetic closure and rope handle for easy transport. 

Campaign Case: Terrain comes with 30 double-sided interlocking 5×5” terrain tiles, 5 sheets of reusable cling terrain features such as rubble and campsites, 1 double-sided 22×25.5” adventure grid map for wilderness and dungeons, 1 storage folder to hold clings, 1 outer box, and a durable storage case with magnetic closure and rope handle for easy transport. 

Set to release July 19, 2022 and the Campaign Case: Creatures and Campaign Case: Terrain are available for pre-order.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

In an update for the new D&D movie, filmmakers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein announced that they have wrapped filming on the upcoming movie set in the Sword Coast in the Forgotten Realms. They also announced the official title of the movie.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is coming to theaters March 3, 2023. The movie stars Chris Pine, Ansel Elgort, Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant.

Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle

Wizards of the Coast announced a brand new Starter Set for fifth edition that is more streamlined than the current Starter Set. Titled Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, “[this] book contains the essential rules of the game plus everything you need to play heroic characters caught up in an ancient war among dragons as they explore the secrets of Stormwreck Isle.” (via Wizards of the Coast)

The Starter Set will include a 48 page adventure booklet along with a 32 page rulebook for playing characters level 1-3. The set ships with 5 ready-to-play characters with their accompanying character sheets and 6 polyhedral dice. 

Starter Set: Dragons of Shipwreck Isle releases exclusively at Target on August 1, 2022 (NA only), and later on October 4, 2022 for general release. It will also be available in French, Italian, German, and Spanish upon general release. It is currently only available for pre-order through Target.

More Online Content

In addition to the aforementioned Spelljammer Academy coming to the Wizards website, there is more online content coming to fans of Dungeons and Dragons. 

Monstrous Compendium: Volume One is available now to anyone with a Wizards account, or on DND Beyond. Bringing game statistics and lore for ten creatures both familiar and new ranging up to CR 16, this is another great way to begin preparing for Spelljammer coming this summer. 

Monstrous Compendium: Volume One is available now for download, with more content being hinted to be coming soon. 

Additional Translations for D&D Books

In 2021 Wizards of the Coast began releasing their books in multiple languages, and during D&D Direct they announced that more books will be coming in French, Italian, German, and Spanish later this year. The new translated books are Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (July 12), Monsters of the Multiverse (Sept. 13), Curse of Strahd (Oct. 25), and Starter Set: Dragons of Shipwreck Isle (Oct. 4).

Neverwinter: Dragonslayer

Gearbox announced their latest expansion for their action MMORPG Neverwinter: Dragonslayer. Adding dragon-themed quests, dragon hoards, and more, the new expansion will be playable in June 2022 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. 

Legends of the Multiverse coming soon to Twitch

A new streaming show set in Spelljammer, Legends of the Multiverse roars in with an epic trailer complete with music from Jason Charles Miller boasting a massive and diverse cast. The announced cast of players includes Deborah Ann Woll, B. Dave Walters, Gina Darling, Meagan Kenreck, Todd Kenreck, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Ginny Di, Anna Prosser, Deejay Knight, Emme Montgomery, Travis McElroy, SungWon Cho (ProZD), and Jim Zub. 

Legends of the Multiverse premiers Wednesday, April 27th at 5 PM PST on twitch.tv/dnd, and will also be available to watch on YouTube. 

Onslaught

A new 1v1 tactical skirmish miniatures game from WizKids pits the Harpers against the Zhentarim as they delve into forgotten dungeons within the Forgotten Realms, facing each other and those that guard the dungeon. The core set will include twelve characters from the two factions, a horde of monsters, fully painted miniatures, and more for a fully immersive campaign. 

This new combat board game is set to release in October 2022 and can be pre-ordered through WizKids. 

Dragonlance is coming to Fifth Edition

In the final announcement from D&D Direct, Dragonlance and the world of Krynn is coming to fifth edition. The announcement trailer is beautiful, and I immediately got chills hearing Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse, Arcane) narrating it as the knight Leo. Coming in late 2022, two Dragonlance products will be releasing from Wizards of the Coast. 

Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is an adventure book that takes place during the War of the Lance. The adventure will explore new stories with no ties to any Dragonlance novels. According to Ray Winninger, Head of Dungeons and Dragons, the campaign takes players to parts of Ansalon, one of the five major continents of Krynn, that have yet to be well-covered to-date. 

Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is a battle game designed by Rob Daviau and Stephen Baker. It is pitched as a standalone cooperative board game that allows players to play out massive military battles in their role-playing campaigns. According to a tweet from Ray Winninger following D&D Direct, Warriors of Krynn will be a “standalone cooperative board game that recreates large scale battles on Krynn (20-100k soldiers per side)” and that while not necessary, it “mates with the RPG product, also able to import RPG characters into the board game to play out epic battles that arise while adventuring.” It seems that Warriors of Krynn will be reminiscent of old RPGs having the built-in system of halting play to run a board game, essentially having war game sessions to play out massive military battles that occur in the RPG. Wizards has confirmed that both the adventure book and battle game can be purchased independently or in a bundle, and the adventure book does not require the board game for play and vice versa. 

Final Thoughts

From Dragonlance and Spelljammer being confirmed settings coming to fifth edition, teases of the adventures we can expect in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, to the awesome resources for DMs and players like the Monstrous Compendium and Campaign Cases, Wizards certainly has enough coming out through 2022 to keep D&D fans happy. And with the new streamlined Starter Set: Dragons of Shipwreck Isle making it easier to get started with D&D, more books being translated into multiple languages, D&D is becoming even more accessible to more people. As Wizards of the Coast show they are committed to more than just the TTRPG aspect of Dungeons and Dragons, I am excited to see games like Onslaught and Warriors of Krynn continue to open up board games to D&D fans, as well as investing in other mediums like the upcoming D&D movie and the new Legends of the Multiverse twitch stream with its talented and diverse cast. 

A lot has been going on behind the scenes at Wizards of the Coast, and I am excited for a lot of these upcoming projects now that they have been officially announced. The future of Dungeons and Dragons is looking bright.

Dungeons & Dragons is property of Wizards of the Coast.