Disclaimer: There are links in this article which direct you to the Amazon pre-order page for several products reviewed within. Hipsters of the Coast may receive a commission for purchases made on Amazon after using one of these referral links.
Welcome to a special Monday edition of Tabletop Tuesday! In just several weeks, just in time for the holidays, Dungeons and Dragons will head to the legendary land of Azeroth, home of the cultural phenomenon known as World of Warcraft. Wizards of the Coast was kind enough to organize a sneak peak for the upcoming product line including a new source book, map pack, and DM screen to bring the epic tales of WoW to your tabletop (or VTT) sessions.
The session with Wizards’ team featured James Wyatt (Principal Game Designer, Project Lead Designer), Joey Haeck (Senior Game Designer, Designer – Dungeons), Ben Petrisor (Senior Game Designer, Designer – Character Classes, Unique Monsters), Erin Roberts (Game Designer, Designer – Miscellaneous Monsters), and Carl Sibley (Game Designer, Designer – Monsters (Demons, Dragons) and Magic Items). One key element the team made clear was just how passionate they all are for World of Warcraft and the world of Azeroth, and how much of that was put into creating a product that felt both simultaneously like two different iconic games.
With the products already available for pre-order, I wanted to dive into all the info you need to know about what’s inside for players and dungeon masters alike, as well as some more specifics on the products. But before we do, let’s talk about what it means to play World of Warcraft through the experience of Dungeons & Dragons, because obviously there’s a world of difference between a video game and a tabletop RPG.
D&D WoW leverages a lot of the core Dungeons & Dragons experience, especially when it comes to character creation and dungeon exploration, but it also adds several new and important ideas which can be used not only for campaigns in Azeroth but anywhere.
Building on existing concepts native to D&D are the classes, races, magic, specializations, dungeons, and monsters of World of Warcraft. Many of these ideas already fit neatly into the rules of both games. Most of what was added included new character options (backgrounds, feats, subclasses) and a whole slew of compendium entries (spells, magic items, monsters) and of course the iconic dungeons and NPCs from the video game.
But there are new concepts being added as well, and that’s what will really help separate your campaigns using the WoW ruleset from other campaigns. These include an expanded system for professions and crafting, an expanded renown system for the Horde/Alliance style of conflict with sub-factions for each main faction as well as joint-faction adventuring, a loot system for generating random rewards from encounters that are iconic to the battle, and a flexible dungeon system that allows for both a classic D&D combat-encounter filled experience or a WoW-style boss-fight focused experience.
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check out the pre-orders, and read on to learn more about the character options, dungeon master tools, and physical product line coming to D&D World of Warcraft in November.
Rolling a New Character in Azeroth
Pick your Class and Race
The adventure begins of course with character creation and true to World of Warcraft (virtually) all of the classes and races are available. Plan your party with the right mix to make sure you’ll be able to tackle any quest or dungeon for epic loot.
For classes there will not be any new core classes but instead a combination of six new subclasses, three updated subclasses, and additional options will allow you to create a character in line with WoW’s 13 classes and over 40 specializations. Want to be a Death Knight? Evoker? Shaman? They’re covered. The overlap classes, meaning they share a name, such as Druid, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, and Warlock, have their own guidance for making them feel like their video game equivalent.
To help support character creation, there are six new subclasses, three updated subclasses, and over 40 specializations coming to the new rulebook. The new subclasses are Oath of the Ebon Blade (Paladin), Oath of the Holy (Paladin), Demon Hunter (Ranger), Shadow Domain (Cleric), Discipline Domain (Cleric), and Path of the Elements (Barbarian).
The updated subclasses are Swashbuckler (Rogue, originally found in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide), Path of the Spiritual Guardian (Barbarian, assumed to be the subclass originally found in Xanthar’s Guide to Everything as Path of the Ancestral Guardian), and Warrior of Mystic Brews (Monk, assumed to be the subclass originally found in Xanthar’s Guide to Everything as Way of the Drunken Master).
In addition to picking from one of WoW’s 13 classes, you’ll be able to choose from 16 races included in the book. This includes the Dracthyr, Draenei, Dwarf, Earthen, Elf, Forsaken, Goblin, Haranir, Human, Mechagnome, Orc, Pandaren, Tauren, Troll, Vulpera, and Worgen. This covers most of the playable races and their lineages in the game.
Spells and Magic Items
To further flesh out your new Dungeons & Dragons World of Warcraft characters are 60+ spells and 25+ magic items. That’s not surprising as a lot of the iconic WoW spells just don’t have a good analogue for D&D. For example, the WoW Mage’s ability to use Polymorph to turn enemies into sheep isn’t exactly the same as D&D’s Polymorph, and will hopefully be included somehow.
As for magic items, 25 doesn’t scratch the game’s surface but D&D already has plenty of loot to go around, and DMs can always port their favorites over from WoW as needed.
Professions and Crafting
This part is not entirely new, but adds several new dimensions to Dungeons & Dragons’ pre-existing crafting rules. I’m excited for this one because as an MMO player one of my favorite things is grabbing a profession (fishing or mining are usually my preference) and then building up my crafting skills and making exotic items for myself and my friends.
In D&D WoW you’ll be able to pick from simply expanding the existing system of using skills and adding profession skills and looting abilities to a full-blown crafting system with materials, recipes, and unique items to allow your character to not just be an adventurer but also an alchemist or blacksmith or so on.
Dungeon Mastering a Campaign in Azeroth
Bestiary
If all you wanted out of this book was to put your players through adventures in the legendary world of Azeroth then this section would be critical for you, the DM. In this chapter you’ll find all the iconic World of Warcraft monster groups from Murlocs to Naga to Satyrs to Drakes and all the way up to legendary entries like Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, and the Lich King Arthas.
Dungeons
But monsters alone do not make the World of Warcraft experience. For that you need the iconic dungeons of the game. Below you can see some preview pages for the Dire Maul dungeon, structured as an adventure for characters level 11-16. Wizards has taken the dungeons and used them to build out the kind of adventure blocks they have in past supplements. This allows you to build your campaigns around these classic encounters, NPCs, and of course the boss fights.
The design team had numerous challenges when porting the dungeons from one system to another, but they talked about special consideration for non-linear experience, optional grinding encounters (through random encounter tables), opportunities to rest and recover, mythic actions for boss fights, and random loot tables including unique loot from the video game.
Factions
Lastly, what’s more classic from Warcraft’s very bones but the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. Yes you have your characters and your dungeons but now you need to create a living, breathing world and factions and renown are how you’ll do that. As your party moves from friendly to exalted with various factions you’ll unlock access to new quests and dungeons, really translating the feel of progressing through the story of an MMORPG. Savvy DMs will also be able to apply these rules to the factions and sub-factions of their own home campaigns.
Purchasing Products in Azeroth Your Local Game Store
Last but certainly not least, I want to just cover the various products Wizards is offering. There are three physical products that will be available in November, and they are the core rule book, a map pack with a digital adventure, and the DM screen. Additionally, if you buy from DnD Beyond or your local game store, there are collector’s and hobby versions of the core rules.
The map pack is really interesting as it includes five double-sided poster maps (22″ x 30″) covering iconic Icecrown Citadel encounters and two token sheets. It also gives you the digital assets for the maps, as well as the level 16-20 adventure that goes along with the maps (plus monsters and magic items you’ll need to run the virtual adventure).
Make note though, if you want the fancy covers below, you’ll want to act fast as they’re likely to sell out very quickly!
Rich Stein (He/Him) is an avid Dungeons & Dragons player as well as video game player, and while he admits he spent way more time in Vana’diel than Azeroth he has a deep appreciation for all things Alliance v. Horde and can’t wait to try out some of these new dungeon designs with his friends and maybe even use them to introduce his kids to the wonders of World of Warcraft.