WotC Releases, Then Retracts D&D 2024 Release Dates – Here’s What We Know Is Coming
This past weekend at PAX Unplugged WotC talked about the future of D&D, and, shortly afterward, scrubbed all release dates.
WotC wants 2024 to be a big year for Dungeons & Dragons. It’s not only the 50th anniversary, but it’s also the launch of a new edition(ish) as well as a corner turned on the grand scheme of things for D&D at large. At a panel titled “50 Years of D&D” Amanda Hamon, James Wyatt, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford reminisced about the past and then looked to the future.
As they did so, WotC’s social media was awash with new images about the forthcoming books. Only these images had details that were missing from the presentation: release dates. They’ve since been scrubbed, but that itself is telling.
Curious about what next year holds in store for D&D? Here’s a look at everything from the panel.
PAX Unplugged’s 50 Years Of D&D Foretells Its Future
After reminiscing about the adventures that inspired them, including some love for the old magazines’ Dungeon as well as Dragon which ended up giving rise to Paizo (fun fact!), the WotC team cast their gaze into the future. Or at least to the release schedule as it exists in the present. This itself was pretty cool. Starting with something called the Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Described as “a distilled version of the classic Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth” meant to be played in a single session of play.
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an old 64-page “tournament adventure” and WotC will include a tournament scorecard as an homage to the past. This is the first of many “events that celebrate play” WotC has planned. It calls to mind the virtual play weekends WotC and Baldman Games have run over the past two years, which helped show off more recent adventures.
But far more exciting, the launch of a new edition and a new adventure that features Vecna (who often appears when editions change). The adventure, titled Vecna: Eve of Ruin is said to feature “classic D&D characters” who haven’t been in 5th Edition yet.
And alongside that, we got a look at the new 2024 Edition Player’s Handbook. Which, let’s just take a minute to talk about how amazing the new Fighter artwork looks. There’s a Dwarf Fighter, sword and shield in hand. Who knows if sword and board will actually be an option (it isn’t really a common one in 5th Edition, but holding out hope for 5.5), it looks cool nonetheless.
But, these images didn’t exist in a vacuum.
As you can see here, alongside the panel, there were other images shared. These ones came from the official D&D Instagram, and featured a detail not shared in the panel.
Release dates. And early ones at that, putting both Vecna and the new PHB right at the start of summer.
Release Dates Briefly Shared By WotC
In addition to Vecna: Eve of Ruin and the 2024 Player’s Handbook, two other big releases, both detailed at the panel, also had social media images with release dates: Quests from the Infinite Staircase, an adventure anthology of oldclassic adventures updated to 5th Edition, bound together by an “infinite staircase” which is an old D&D cosmology trope.
And also The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1976, a title as clunky as the original D&D was. In it, you can leaf through a “historical perspective” of the history of D&D. WotC tapped game historian Jon Peterson of Playing at the World and other various gaming history media, to create this nerdiest of history books.
But, now all these images have been replaced with identical images, save for the fact that these release dates have been scrubbed. Which raises the question of is this the actual release schedule, and WotC wasn’t ready? Or was there a mixup, and there’s a different plan? We’ll all know in a few months, either way.
At least you have an idea of what 2024’s release schedule *might* look like.
