I could sit here and go through every single announcement from tonight’s Dungeons & Dragons event at GenCon but I don’t get paid enough to write a 10,000 word article. The press release was five pages long you guys. Five. Pages. It’s a lot.
So instead I’m gonna talk about the three bombshell announcements that Wizards dropped tonight on the tabletop realm. You might think they’re obvious things like the World of Warcraft crossover, or the Icons products (especially Dragonlance), or the Warlock reveal (which wasn’t even in the press release, which was five stinking pages long).
But you’re not here for the obvious, so let’s talk about the really important stuff, the stuff that only a company like Wizards of the Coast and a brand like Dungeons and Dragons can bring to the table to rock the community.
Dungeons and Dragons Roadmap for 2026 revealed at GenCon
Dark Sun’s Mature Rating
It’s been a minute since we’ve had new Dark Sun content. But that’s not what’s important here. When I heard that this product was getting a mature rating due to the violence, gore, nudity, and more, I was shocked. Not that Wizards of the Coast necessarily has a reputation for being a children’s company, but they do make games, and Hasbro sure makes a lot of kids stuff.
This is a big leap of faith for Wizards of the Coast because even though children may not be a core demographic for Wizards of the Coast (or even a fringe demographic), diving into mature content can be tricky. Of course, Wizards has done this before, and you can’t go a week on a D&D forum without someone asking when a new Book of Vile Darkness is going to be released.
No, this isn’t the recently announced Dungeon Crawler Carl game. But I can understand the confusion.
No, the big concern is that corner of the community that tends to get satirized on shows like South Park. Misogyny and the objectification of women, overt racism and echoes of slavery, and just a generally “non-politically correct” vibe are the hallmarks of older tabletop role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons has made significant strides to remove those aspects of the game. Developing a mature product, especially one in a post-apocalyptic setting primed for racism and sexism, is like tossing a hand-grenade into the community. We just don’t know if the pin’s pulled or not.
It could be great. It could be a brilliant take on the classic post-apocalyptic world with the violence and sexual content handled in a way that will appeal to modern gamers. But it could also be the complete opposite, turning back the progress and resurrecting tropes that ought to stay in their mothers’ basements.
As an aside: if you want to run your home game chock full of racism and sexism, you do you. It’s disgusting, but I can’t stop you. What I can do is take Wizards of the Coast to task for enabling it, something I’m very wary of. But I digress…
Partnership Content
Okay let’s move on to what I consider the next biggest announcement of the night: partnered content. The idea is simple: a lot of D&D fans are actually fans of one setting. Maybe it’s Ravenloft, or the Forgotten Realms, or Greyhawk. Who knows, I’m not here to judge. But Wizards can’t make content for your favorite setting every year. Shit, they can’t even do it every decade sometimes. The recent Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms releases were the first in ages. Greyhawk being in the 5.5 DMG was an even bigger gap.
Wizards can’t keep up. But you know who can? Whoever they feel like selling a license to, that’s who. Welcome to your 2027 partnered content publishers:
- Ravenloft by Ghostfire Gaming
- Eberron by Visionary Production and Design
- Forgotten Realms by Kobold Press
Odds are you’ve heard each of those names before. Ghostfire is already partnering on the Vampire the Masquerade book with the 5.5th edition rules. Visionary has been making third-party Eberron content for a while now. And Kobold Press likely needs no introduction.
So what’s different? There’s a shift from “companies that make licensed products to sell on D&D Beyond” to “companies that Wizards officially designates as Brand Ambassadors.” It’s kind of like when Wizards announced that TCGPlayer was the official secondary market for Magic. It elevates some brands, and its unclear what it will do for others.
As a Forgotten Realms fan, my wallet is already whining at the idea of new books every year. I’m sure Hasbro stockholders are salivating.
D&D Beyond
D&D Beyond is now 9 years old and probably still isn’t a top-three Virtual Tabletop tool. Roll20 is still pretty great. I hear good things about FoundryVTT and Demiplane. And yet, Wizards keeps putting features into D&D Beyond.
We need a mobile Baldur’s Gate 3 port with this interface
They swear this year they’re gonna get it right. No really, this time they’ll do it. I want to believe, I really do. I don’t want to have to buy books twice, once on D&D Beyond and again on Foundry or Roll20. It sucks. So I want to see this work out.
Clearly Wizards isn’t ready to throw in the towel. They announced both new features for in-person play on mobile devices and virtual play via find-a-group and virtual maps features. Plus continued drops of new exclusive content and features for subscribers. Will the investment work out? I don’t know, they have stiff competition.
Rich Stein (He/Him) has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since he could force his little brother into diabolical dungeons using a Hero Quest board and some Advanced D&D rules. Since then he’s played and DM’s in every edition from 3rd to 5th-and-a-half and currently runs games for his kids. His favorite class is Paladin and his favorite setting is the Forgotten Realms.