D&D’s next adventures are being designed to come apart at the seams
The release schedule for Dungeons & Dragons is packed with some meaty new adventures this year, but publisher Wizards of the Coast is subtly changing how they’re constructed.
Gone are the clockwork, nearly linear campaigns like Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. In their place are books that just as easily can be torn apart at the seams, shredded by players and Dungeon Masters alike to make their own unique, homebrew campaigns. “As we create products we learn from our fan base,” said product manager Chris Lindsay. “And we learned from our fan base that what they really want are things that they can pull apart and use as they want in their games.” It’s easy to see the origin point of this particular shift for 5th edition.
Anthologies like Candlekeep Mysteries, Keys From the Golden Vault, and Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel have been hits in part because they contain excellent adventures able to be run across multiple settings at multiple levels.
They’ve beenpiling on accolades from outlets like Polygon, but also from other writers voting on the 58th Nebula Awards. Even reboots of old D&D franchises, like Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, have been designed more to be buffets of content rather than scripted epics.
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