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New D&D Campaign Settings Coming in 2018

D&D Stream of Many Eyes Part 2 -- Waterdeep: Dragon Heist AND Dungeon of the Mad Mage
D&D Character Creation is More Than Numbers and Abilities

The Stream of Many Eyes ended less than 24 hours ago and Wizards of the Coast dropped even more news for upcoming fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons products this morning. According to an exclusive from Comicbook.com, “Dungeons & Dragons plans to announce several additional publications in 2018 which will add new D&D campaign settings for players outside of the Forgotten Realms.” The website spoke with Nathan Stewart at the Stream of Many Eyes to ask what lay ahead in 2019 for D&D and the brand director and executive producer revealed there’s still more to come in 2018 aside from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage!

D&D campaign settings

D&D campaign settings inbound

Players clamoring for more D&D settings outside of the Forgotten Realms will be stoked to learn that as early as July 2018, two publications will present different worlds in the D&D multiverse. Similar to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, these new products will not be complete campaign adventures. Instead, they’ll introduce players to new settings and how to run games within them.

“Next month we’re going to talk about a couple of different settings that people can start playing as early as this year,” Stewart told Comicbook.com

Stewart did not specify which settings would be explored in the upcoming publications, but noted that they would please “hardcore fans” of D&D and that the design team has been listening to fans to guide them through the design process. He compared these new products to Curse of Strahd in presentation, in terms of drilling down on the culture, personalities and locations of Barovia.

Speculation online is of course going wild with excitement, with many (including me) guessing we’ll see some iteration of Spelljammer. We got the giff in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Chris Perkins teased that Halaster Blackcloak, the titular wizard behind the megadungeon in the upcoming Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad mage, has a spelljammer helm secreted away in Undermountain.

More details on these new publications will be coming in July, including “one surprise that’s going to release later this year that we’ve not told anyone about,” said Stewart.

Based on what we learned about Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and some of the thoughts and ideas expressed by Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and me about a future sixth edition D&D, it sounds like we’re in good hands with this direction the D&D team is taking with new D&D campaign settings. Using the rich history of D&D as a context and jumping off point, my guess is these new settings will contain great new material for those looking to play games set in popular worlds like Dark Sun, but expand beyond that with content to help create our own settings with the particular thematic elements exemplified in them. For example, running survival adventure games set in scorched desert environments, or even desolate arctic settings, using the world of Athas as a blueprint.

What about you? What classic settings are you most anticipating from these new products? What sorts of thematic contexts do you want to see for your adventures? Let us know in the comments below!

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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