D&D Direct: WotC Announces New Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Books
In case you were worried that D&D wasn’t going to be all about the Forgotten Realms, at D&D Direct WotC revealed two new books.
When WotC announced that Greyhawk was going to be the featured setting in the upcoming 5.5E Dungeon Master’s Guide, many wondered if this meant that we were going to leave behind the Forgotten Realms of Faerun as D&D’s “default” setting. If you were worried that you were going to have to say goodbye to the Sword Coast and its surrounding environs, worry no longer.
WotC just announced two new campaign setting books during D&D Direct, coming in late 2025. And it seems like WotC might have found a formula that may sate both players and DMs while also taking us a little further out from the Remembered Realms.
WotC Announces Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Books for 2025
The two new setting books were the big finale of the look ahead at D&D’s plan for next year. Why two books? One for players – the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide, whatever it ends up being ultimately titled, will feature new toys in the forms of new subclasses, new feats, new backgrounds, new spells, even “new kinds of spells” (maybe talking about mythals?) as well as information on the various factions your character might belong to and what you’ll get out of it.
Here’s hoping that it presents faction rules as comprehensive and actionable as the ones from the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, which gives players both resources they can call on as they rise through the ranks of a Guild, as well as increased responsibility. It’s a fun system and I hope WotC returns to it in a meaningful way.
But it’s weird that WotC would frame this as a “return to the Forgotten Realms”. You can’t call it a comeback if you’ve been there for years. At one point in the video, someone says “there hasn’t been a player’s guide for the Forgotten Realms in 5th Edition” before the video immediately cuts to the 5E Player’s Guide set in the Forgotten Realms.
Sure, maybe, maybe you could make the claim that the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide is technically just for one area of the Forgotten Realms – but in that book are many things from throughout the realms, including Bladesinger Wizards and Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade, and a bunch of other stuff that nobody really remembers or cares about. But it’s there! It exists. And you have the player guide sections of Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus as well as Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.
Words have meaning. You can’t act like this is a nostalgic return to the campaign setting we never actually left. But the new books do promise to go beyond the Sword Coast, especially the Dungeon Master’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms:
“Over in the Dungeon Master focused book, that’s where we’re really going to dig into the different parts of the Realms.
If you want to do Urban Fantasy, well we’ve got Baldur’s Gate just for you. If you want to go do Survival Horror, you can take your adventure off to Icewind Dale. We’ve got classic D&D fantasy, where you have all these little isolated towns living around an elvish megadungeon, that’s the Dalelands for you.
AdvertisementMaybe you’re having some faerie stories or you’re having conflict that you can resolve without violence. That’s all the Moonshae Isles. And then finally, the land of Calimshan.
– D&D Direct
Poor Calimshan. They finally get included and immediately get “and all the rest-ed” like some kind of season 1 Professor and Mary Anne. I wonder why. I mean, it’s such a sharp difference from the other realms, which get such a “here’s what you do in this place” description. What makes Calimshan different, I wonder. Well. Regardless, we know the new books will be coming out in 2025, along with a lineup of other stuff, including a new starter set.
WotC also doesn’t want you to call the Forgotten Realms a regular jam.
