Dungeons & Dragons

Release dates for the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, and various adventures unveiled.

Update 12:25 AM EST: Kobold Press has confirmed that they are the design studio behind the new adventures, and Wizards of the Coast will simply publish that material. In a joint statement, Dungeons & Dragons R&D member Mike Mearls said that Kobold Press writers Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter were "at the top of his list" for writing the new D&D adventures. "What I love about Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat is how Wolfgang and Steve Winter have approached the traditional adventure format. While the episodic structure makes it easy for DMs to trace the campaign's humble beginnings to its epic conclusion, within those episodes is a level of flexibility and freedom for DMs and players that places this among the great D&D campaigns." From that information, it appears that the new adventures will have an episodic format within individual books, meaning that both adventures may include multiple mini-adventures within them.

Original Story: Wizards of the Coast has revealed the covers and release dates for not only the core books of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but the adventures and miniatures that will accompany the release later this year. In addition to the previously revealed dates for the Player's Handbook and Starter Set, we now have dates for the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide for a three month window after the release of the Player's Handbook in August. The covers, prices, and details were revealed via Wizards' website product listings, as well as on Amazon. Among the new reveals are two adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, both intended as part of Wizards' Tyranny of Dragons story event for D&D. Regarding the extended game launch window, Wizards of the Coast's Mike Mearls said that the development team wanted to ensure that each book was as high quality as possible.

Much of the same information as was announced by Wizards of the Coast has been posted to multiple listings on giant online retailer Amazon.com. Most of that information is duplicated, but it does include the details that the Adventures for the new D&D are designed by Kobold Press, a popular third party RPG publisher that makes material for a variety of fantasy roleplaying games.

The products announced are:

Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set (July 15, 2014); Fantasy Roleplaying Fundamentals; $19.99; Will include six dice, a 64-page rulebook with adventure, rules for characters levels 1-5, and 5 pregenerated characters.

Player's Handbook (August 19, 2014); Core Rulebook; $49.95; Looks like the same book it has always been - learn the game's systems from it, but it includes only basic rules.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen (August 19, 2014); Tyranny of Dragons Adventure; $29.95; The first of the Tyranny of Dragons adventures, looks like the kickoff of the big event at 96 pages. The Amazon listing says that this one was designed and developed by Kobold Press, a third party firm.
Monster Manual (September 17, 2014); Core Rulebook $49.95; Bills its game statistics as "easy to use" and is supposedly full of "thrilling stories to feed your imagination" - same old, same old with a chance of increased game fluff.

The Rise of Tiamat (October 21, 2014); Tyranny of Dragons Adventure $29.95; Looks like the battle against Tiamat will become "increasingly political" - which would be an interesting twist for a second game adventure. Also designed by Kobold Press.
Dungeon Master's Guide (November 18, 2014); Core Rulebook $49.95; Full of "inspiration and guidance" as well as the optional rules modules we've been hearing so much about, as well as all the magic items - so not an optional book at all.
Deluxe DM Screen (January 20, 2015); $14.95; This one is listed at Amazon without details and not yet listed by Wizards.

Dungeons & Dragons, to be released later this year, will be the fifth official edition of the fantasy roleplaying game. It went through an extensive public playtest in late 2012 and early 2013, and has been in private development ever since.

Posted alongside the releases were two new miniatures products which by the familiar look of the sculpts are part of the line of miniatures produced by WizKids that were previously announced:

Icons of the Realms: Starter Set (July 14, 2014); Miniatures; $19.99; Described as a starter pack and clearly including figures intended as adventurers. Described as including "the dwarf cleric, human ranger, halfling rouge[sic], northlands fighter, elf wizard, and the famous drow ranger, Drizzt Do'Urden."

Icons of the Realms: Booster (July, 2014); Miniatures; $15.99; A box of four blind miniatures "inspired by the Tyranny of Dragons storyline" and almost definitely catered to go alongside the starter set and first adventures including "dragons, kobold fighters, bugbears, wraiths, mind flayers, and many more iconic D&D characters."

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Or here said:

As you might have noticed, we made an exciting announcement last week about our upcoming storyline called Tyranny of Dragons, and after over two years of work, countless hours of testing, and hundreds of thousands of playtest packets downloaded, we’ve finally announced release dates for the books and the Starter Set that make up the core of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

It’s been a long road to this point. It seems like just yesterday that we were in crunch mode for that first playtest packet. The team faced a daunting final push of work that day. I’m pretty sure that my rendition of several Public Enemy tracks provided the morale-boosting energy to finish that first release. Either that or everyone just wanted to get their work done to shut me up.

It’s been an interesting journey these past two years. The overwhelming response to the playtest showed us that demand for RPGs is still out there, despite a host of other gaming options. Your feedback and the steadily increasing approval in our surveys showed that we were on the right track. A simpler, leaner, extensible game was right not just for new players, but also for people who had put decades into playing D&D.

There’s a lot to talk about with the new game, but I’d like to take this week to focus on a piece of the puzzle we haven’t talked about yet: Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

Basic D&D is a PDF that covers the core of the game. It’s the equivalent of the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia, though it doesn’t have quite the same scope (for example, it won’t go into detail on a setting). It runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each. It also provides the dwarf, elf, halfling, and human as race options.

But the best part? Basic D&D is a free PDF. Anyone can download it from our website. We want to put D&D in as many hands as possible, and a free, digital file is the best way to do that.

If Basic D&D is the equivalent of the classic Rules Cyclopedia, then the three core rulebooks are analogous to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Want more character options? Pick up a Player’s Handbook. Looking for more critters for your campaign? The Monster Manual has you covered. Want to sculpt a unique campaign? Pick up the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Still, Basic D&D is the true heart of the game and could easily provide a lifetime of gaming.

At the launch of the D&D Starter Set, Basic D&D will include the material needed to create characters and advance to 20th level. In August, with the release of the Player’s Handbook, Basic D&D will expand to include the essential monsters, magic items, and DM rules needed to run the game, along with the rules for wilderness, dungeon, and urban adventuring. (The Starter Set already covers the aspects of these rules that you need to run the included campaign.)

As we introduce new storylines like Tyranny of Dragons, we’ll also make available free PDFs that provide all the rules and stats missing from Basic D&D needed to run the adventures tied into the story. The adventures released as part of Tyranny of Dragons are playable without requiring any of the core rulebooks or the Starter Set. With just the Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules, you can play D&D for years.

Basic D&D makes it easier than ever for new players and DMs to jump into tabletop RPG play. We’re involved in the greatest gaming hobby ever invented. It’s time to bring that hobby to everyone who wants to take part.

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