New D&D Encyclopedia Coming from Penguin Random House

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Penguin Random House imprint DK Books has just announced a new deep dive into the D&D multiverse with the official Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia. Developed by a team that includes longtime TTRPG historian Jon Peterson, the book explores some of the game’s most popular campaign settings, including Greyhawk, Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft. The encyclopedia also includes write-ups on a variety of iconic characters, creatures, locations and magic items.

The 320-page hardcover book will be officially coming out in October 2026, but you can pre-order a copy now from local game stores, bookstores and on Amazon. Below, we go through the A-Z of this latest D&D tome.

What is the Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia?

The official book page synopsis is as follows:

Pack your Bag of Holding and get ready for an expansive, official tour through the myriad settings of the D&D multiverse.

From the familiar fantasy lands of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance to the broodingly gothic planes of Ravenloft and star-hopping voyages of Spelljammer, Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia will uncover every facet of the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game.

Every page is packed full of information on D&D’s myriad settings, including the monsters that roam the realms and menace adventurers, legendary locations full of eventful histories, the heroes and villains that protect and plague the different dimensions, and the iconic items that enable the machinations of players, NPCs and big-bads.

For the first time ever in an official title, Wizards of the Coast has brought together more than half a dozen of its legendary settings – stretching all the way back to Greyhawk – to showcase the elements that make them unique, and Dungeons & Dragons the most diverse, exciting and unpredictable game in the world.

Who are the authors of the D&D Encyclopedia?

The book is written by a number of veteran RPG and Wizards of the Coast D&D collaborators, including:

• Jon Peterson: One of the most well-known TTRPG historians and author of Playing at the World, The Elusive Shift, and Game Wizards.
• Matt Forbeck: A New York Times bestselling author and game designer with more than thirty novels and countless games published to date.
• Michael Witwer: An author on numerous official D&D books, including Art & Arcana, the two Heroes’ Feast cookbooks and The Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary.

How much is the new D&D Encyclopedia?

The physical hardcover version of the book will retail for $60 USD (not including shipping ahd handling), which is comparable to other similar releases that we’ve seen in the past from DK, which has published larger format coffee-table style books like the 2025 D&D Book of Dragons.

Notably an e-book Kindle edition is also available for $19.99 USD, if you download it directly from Amazon.

When will the new D&D Encyclopedia be released?

The book will officially be available on October 20th, 2026, at which point you should be able to find it at most online and physical book retailers.

You can, however, pre-order it now from most major online and physical retailers.

Final Thoughts

Over the past few years, Penguin Random House has been producing a number of D&D tie-in books, including the recent DM’s Workbook of Worldbuilding and Player’s Workbook of Epic Adventures. We’ll also soon be seeing a complete line of new titles that tie in to Baldur’s Gate 3.

We’ll be doing a complete review of the Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia closer to launch in October. In the meantime, you can pre-order your copy now from your local game store, bookstore and on Amazon.

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