The DnD Road Map for 2024 and 2025: What’s Coming Next
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In August 2024, the Dungeons & Dragons brand team streamed D&D Direct 2024, an annual online event that unveils new products and plans for the coming year, something which publisher Wizards of the Coast refers to as their DnD road map.
This list of new products slated for 2024 and 2025 includes the much-touted upcoming DnD Core Books, as well as several surprising new adventure additions. So just what’s included in these new titles? Below, we break down all the details on what to expect with the new DnD road map.
What’s in the DnD Road map for 2024 and 2025?
Wizards of the Coast has a number of titles planned for the remainder of 2024 and 2025. We’ve listed them out below, starting with the most recent item on the road map.
New Player’s Handbook
Coming: September 17th, 2024
An updated version of the existing DnD fifth edition rules, the new Player’s Handbook introduces a number of major rules updates, including a new approach to species, backgrounds and feats. It also has made significant changes to character classes and subclasses, in addition to changes to spells, magic items and equipment. The book also includes a new Weapon Mastery system, new rules for Crafting and some minor but impactful tweaks to rules like Surprise and Exhaustion.
New Dungeon Master’s Guide
Coming: November 12th, 2024
Another key aspect of the DnD 5e rules update, the new Dungeon Masters’s Guide is a major structural overhaul that’s designed to make content easier to find use by both new and existing DMs. In addition to the updated layout and content, the book will also include new artwork, maps and indexes, plus a sample campaign world based on the popular Greyhawk setting. Finally, the 2025 DMG will include a variety of new and updated magic items, as well as enhanced rules for crafting your enchanted artifacts.
New Monster Manual
Coming: February 18th, 2025
Featuring over 500 new and returning creatures the new Monster Manual is also being updated to work with the enhanced DnD 5e rules. The book will also integrate with content from other related publication, including Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters. In addition, it will include changes to monster Challenge Ratings, along with new monster lore and backgrounds, new artwork and the introduction of new monster “Families.”
Dragon Anthology
Coming: Summer 2025
This will be the first adventure to use the new 2024 rules and will consist of 10 short adventures featuring a variety of different dragons. The adventures will be suitable for a range of character tier levels and can be played together or run as individual one-shots.
DnD Starter Set
Coming: Fall 2025
Designed for new players to learn the basics of the game, this box set will include dicce, character sheets and adventure based on the classic Keep on the Borderlands adventure module from 1979 (tentatively entitled “Heroes of the Borderlands”), which will be divided into three separate booklets exploring an ancient fortress, the wilderness and the dreaded Caves of Chaos.
Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide
Coming: Late 2025
Designed for players and Dungeon Masters, The Forgotten Realms Player Guide will contain a setting overview and new rules options, including new subclasses, feats, backgrounds and spells (including a new type of spell). It will also include new faction details, with background information on how players can join groups such as the Harpers and Zhentarim.
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
Coming: Late 2025
Designed just for Dungeon Masters, The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide will contain in-depth guides for five key settings in Faerûn: Baldur’s Gate, Calimshan, the Dalelands, the Moonshae Isles and Icewind Dale. The book will also include adventure hooks, new monsters and new magic items, with the ability for DMs to add the materials to new or existing campaigns set in the Realms.
What was included in the last year’s DnD Road map?
Below we’ve included the titles from the 2023 to early 2024 DnD road map, along with their release dates, a description of the product and some general thoughts on how it was received both both fans and critics. For ease of reading, we have listed the road map products from newest to oldest.
Quests from the Infinite Staircase
Published: July 16th, 2024
What Is it: Quests from the Infinite Staircase is a collection of six classic old school DnD modules that have have been updated for edition. The adventures can be played individually or as part of a connected campaign that features the powerful genie Nafas (a new character to NPC lore) who grants the wishes of those in need via the Infinite Staircase, a multiverse-spanning portal to numerous planes of existence.
How Was It Received: The product was generally seen as being one of the best Wizards of the Coast products for DnD 5e, bringing to life some of the most beloved adventures from DnD lore (we gave the book a 19 out of 20).
Vecna: Eve of Ruin
Published: May 21st, 2024
What Is it: Venca: Eve of Ruin is a high-level campaign for Level 10 to 20 characters, with players matching wits with the legendary arch-lich Vecna himself. Along the way the players must travel across the planes of existence themselves and rebuild the legendary Rod of Seven Parts, with adventure taking place the Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Spelljammer, Eberron, Ravenloft, Dragonlance and Greyhawk.
How Was it Received: While some fans and critics complained of the campaign’s railroading, it received fairly positive reviews and was noted for being one of the few high-level DnD 5e campaigns ever released by Wizards of the Coast (we gave it an 18 out of 20).
The Book of Many Things (TBoMT)
Published: November 2023
What Is It: According to the original 2023 DnD road map, this product was scheduled to release at the start of the summer before the new Phandelver campaign. Instead, it’s been pushed out to almost the end of the year (possibly due to the significant printing demands of the product). The box set itself is based on the infamous magical artifact known as the Deck of Many Things, and features a guide book, reference book and 66 deck of embossed tarot-sized cards.
How was It Received: The Book of Many Things product has received strong reviews (we gave it a 17 out of 20), with fans and critics praising the design and the surprising flexibility of the cards (which can be used to randomly generate adventures, NPCs and even substitute for dice).
Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
Published: October 2023
What Is It: The DnD 5e update of Planescape is one of the only items in Wizards of the Coast’s 2023 Road Map that more or less hit its target released date. The three book box set contains a campaign setting guide to the City of Sigil and the nearby surroundings, a new monster manual and a complete adventure. The set also included a DMs Guide and map.
How Was It Received: The Planescape box set has received mostly positive reviews (we gave it a 17 out of 20). One criticism was that for a product that features “multiverse” in the title, it focuses almost exclusively on the City of Sigil and not much one any other locales. That being said, the overall materials have been widely praised by both fans and critics alike.
Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk
Published: September 2023
What Is It: In the DnD Roadmap, this book was originally scheduled for release in the late summer and at the time was referred to simply as “The Phandelver campaign”. In reality it launched in late September 2023 and was given the official name Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. This new campaign is designed to take players from Levels 1 to 12, with the first half consisting of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure featured in the original 2014 Starter Set.
How Was it Received: Phandelver and Below has received relatively positive reviews (we gave it a 19 out of 20). A few reviewers and fans noted that the cosmic horror elements might not be for everyone, but in general it’s considered to be a solid update to one of the most popular DnD 5e campaigns.
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
Published: August 2023
What Is It: The second title on the DnD road map, the book was originally scheduled for a release in the Spring of 2023, but was pushed out to August 2023. The book itself is narrated by the popular wizard Bigby of Greyhawk fame, and includes new rules, spells and magic items, character backgrounds, monsters and giant-related lore.
How Was it Received: Glory of the Giants received generally favorable reviews (we gave it an 18 out of 20), but did receive some backlash after it was revealed that one of the artists had used generative AI to touch up an image (something Wizards of the Coast was unaware of at the time).
Keys from the Golden Vault
Published: February 2023
What Is It: The first book on the DnD Road Map was originally scheduled for a Winter 2022 release, but was pushed out to February 2023. The book collects 13 standalone heist-themed adventures for players of Levels 1 to 11 that can be run as individual one shots or played consecutively as a larger campaign. The book introduces a number of new rules, but also features adventures that are more sandbox in nature, allowing players to plan an execute their own version of the perfect heist.
How Was it Received: Keys from the Golden Vault launched shortly after the OGL scandal, but generally received positive reviews from fans and critics alike (we gave it an 18 out 20).
Tyranny of Dragons Re-release
Published: January 2023
What is it: This first release for the DnD 2023 road map collected the existing Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat campaign book into a single hardcover edition, taking players from Levels 1 to 15. The book does contain some minor updates, but is otherwise unchanged from the original editions which were released over a decade ago.
How was It Received: In general, Tyranny of Dragons received relatively positive reviews, although many fans and critics noted that not much was done to fix the glaring pacing issues which plagued the campaigns when they were first released (we gave it a 15 out of 20).
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
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