DnD Road Map 2023: What Happened (And What To Expect Next)
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As the year winds down, we take a look back at the key releases from the world of Dungeons & Dragons
Back in August 2022, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast held their annual Wizards Presents event, in which they unveiled a number of key products and laid out what they describe as the DnD road map. This list included the heist-themed adventure anthology Keys from the Golden Vault, the giant-inspired supplement Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, the retooled campaign for Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, a return to Sigil in Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse and the card and book collection The Book of Many Things.
The year, however, didn’t go quite as smooth as WotC had hoped, with the OGL scandal causing significant fan backlash and the company facing some major issues in terms of getting access to printers. As such, there was major movement in the original schedule, with products being shifted around and – in several cases – actually being renamed.
Below we break out more details on what was included in each of the DnD road map products.
What was included in the 2023 DnD Roadmap?
Below we’ve included the specific titles along with their release dates, a description of the product and some general thoughts on how it was received both both fans and critics.
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: The book launched shortly after the OGL scandal, but generally received positive reviews from fans and critics alike (we gave it an 18 out 20).
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: The book 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).
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: The campaign 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.
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 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.
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 product has received incredibly strong reviews, 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).
What’s in the upcoming 2024 DnD Roadmap?
As of this writing, Wizards of the Coast has not officially unveiled any 2024 DnD road map. In fact, they didn’t hold a 2023 Wizards Presents event, although they did host a D&D Direct event, which unveiled a number of new products. Below is what we know about their schedule so far.
New Player’s Handbook
Coming In: 2024
What Is It: The new Player’s Handbook will be retooling of the existing DnD fifth edition rules in order to make the game easier to learn and faster to play. While the exact release date is still unknown, the new PHB will also be released as part of the Dungeons & Dragons 50th anniversary celebration, which will be occurring in 2024. Notably, many of the updates to the rules have been added to the ongoing One D&D Playtest.
New Dungeon Master’s Guide
Coming In: 2024
What Is It: The new Dungeon Master’s Guide is also part of the rules updates being made to the DnD 5e system. The goal of this update is better organize content, making it easier to use by both new and existing DMs to get started and find what they’re looking for. Some of these new features (such as the Bastion system) have also been included in ongoing One D&D playtests.
New Monster Manual
Coming In: 2024
What Is It: The new Monster Manual will introduce a number of new creatures while work with the changes being made to the DnD 5e rules. Wizards of the Coast has also indicated that the book will include changes to monster Challenge Ratings (CR), along with new monster lore and backgrounds, new artwork and the introduction of new monster “families.”
New Vecna Adventure
Coming In: 2024
What Is It: This will be the first campaign to coincide with the updated 2024 Core Rules. So far, very little is known about the book, other than that it features the iconic lich Vecna as the primary protagonist. It’s expected that the campaign will launch on and shortly after the new Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide.
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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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