Wizards of the Coast Offers New Details on How D&D Seasons Work

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At this year’s annual GAMA Expo in early March, Wizards of the Coast VP Dan Ayoub officially introduced the concept of D&D Seasons; a new marketing strategy in which official books, accessories, local game store activities and organized play events will be all focused around a single theme for a three or four month period.

The goal is to generate buzz around a specific key product and create a stronger sense of community and connectivity among the D&D playerbase. Since that time, we’ve already started the first official D&D Season of Horror, with other seasons coming up fast. More recently, as part of the annual Game Store Week, Wizards of the Coast unveiled even more information on what fans can expect, particularly when it comes to in-store promotions, breaking out the three “phases” associated with the events.

So just what can fans expect now that D&D Seasons are upon us? Below, we take a closer look at all the details.

What are the D&D Seasons for 2026?

Each D&D Season will take place over 3 to 4 months, with a major book release serving as the centerpiece. As a larger marketing event, however, a season is broken down into three phases:

• Preview phase: This kicks off when the season’s products are revealed and preorder opens
• Celebration phase: This happens when a product hits shelves and retailers runs adventures from the recently restarted D&D Encounters program (although notably, these adventures will also be made available for use online and at home). Encounters can technically be scheduled the first weekend after a season begins and each session involves short, three-hour, low level adventures that can accommodate 20 players at one time. Stores will also be given awards for players and DMs.
• Play phase: This involves retailers running weekly play sessions for D&D Encounters. Wizards of the Coast will provide stores with enough content for four weeks of adventures via a digital play kit. Stores in select regions can also receive physical play kits (limited to 1,000 copies in total). Each kit contains five printed copies of all the D&D Encounters seasonal adventure material, 25 premade characters, five printed tactical maps, player rewards for up to 25 players, rewards for up to 5 DMs and printed instructions for the store organizer.

With these phases in mind, the specific Seasons for the remainder of 2026 are as follows:

• Season of Horror: Running from April to June 2026, the season will be anchored by the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within supplement (which is being released on June 16th). Supporting products will include a new Tarokka card deck, DM Screen and Map Pack, all of which are tied to Ravenloft. The first campaign of the new Dungeon Masters actual play series also ties in as it takes place in Ravenloft using the Horrors Within and will featuring official Play-Along Packs (such as the recently released Zombie Clot pack). Game stores who are members of the Wizards Play Network (WPN) and part of the early access program will be able run D&D Encounters from June 5-14, 2026. Stores without early access, however, won’t be able to D&D Encounters until June 19-28, 2026.
• Season of Magic: Running from July to September 2026, the season will be anchored by Arcana Unleashed and its companion adventure Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall. Supporting products will include D&D Reference Card Decks, all tied to the high-magic themes introduced in the books. Organized Play events will also be held which link back to the materials.
• Season of Champions: Running from October to December 2026, the season will be anchored by a major product that has yet to be announced (some speculation is that it could be a new Dark Sun book, given that we’ve seen recent Unearthed Arcana playtest material that’s focused on the world of Athas).

Wizards of the Coast has also announced that the D&D Legends of Greyhawk organized play program (which is typically run at conventions by Baldman Games) will also be linked to the D&D Seasons (although it’s not yet clear how this will work).

Final Thoughts

The concept of D&D Seasons is something we’ve never really seen before with the game, and it feels like a step in the right direction in terms of building community among fans and offering more than just one-off product releases. Whether fans embrace these Seasons and the strategy pays off, however, remains to be seen.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.

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