New DnD Forgotten Realms Sourcebooks Coming in 2025
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Wizards of the Coast has recently unveiled a number of new Dungeons & Dragons products as part of D&D Direct 2024, the annual event that lists out the roadmap for the game in the coming year. One particular product that caught the attention of a number of fans was news of a new set of Forgotten Realms campaign sourcebooks that would bring the lands of Faerûn into alignment with the new 2024 DnD Core Books.
The materials, which are slated for release in sometime in late 2025, will consist of two new books focused on the Forgotten Realms: one designed for players and the other for Dungeon Masters. So what else can fans expect with this return to one of the most popular DnD campaign settings of all time? Below, we break out everything we know so far.
What will the DnD Forgotten Realms Sourcebooks be about?
Details are extremely light so far as to what will be included in the two Forgotten Realms sourcebooks. In the D&D Direct video, lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford noted that “part of our reimagining of the D&D core books was also wanting to return D&D’s most popular setting: the Forgotten Realms… It’s too much to fit into one book, so our return to the Realms is going to be in two books: one tailor made for Dungeon Masters and the other a book that is tailor made for players but also of use to DMs.”
In a post later shared on the official D&D Beyond blog they have provided the names for the two books (both of which are working titles): The Forgotten Realms Player Guide and The Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide.
The Forgotten Realms Player Guide
As the name suggests, The Forgotten Realms Player Guide will be designed for players and Dungeon Masters and will contain a setting overview and new rules options, including:
- Subclasses
- Feats
- Backgrounds
- Spells (including a new type of spell)
- Faction details (with background information on how players can join groups such as the Harpers and Zhentarim)
The Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide
This book will be only for Dungeon Masters only and will contain five in-depth setting guides that are designed to work with a variety of genres and styles of play. Specifically the settings are:
In the D&D Direct video, Senior Designer Jason Tondro also discussed the idea of bringing specific genres to life through the various: “If you want to do urban fantasy, well we’ve got Baldur’s Gate just for you. If you want to do survival horror you can take your adventure off the Icewind Dale. We’ve got sort of classic D&D fantasy where you have all these little isolated towns that live around this giant elvish mega dungeon that you can go explore.”
When are the Forgotten Realms Sourcebooks coming out?
Currently, the Forgotten Realms Player Guide and Adventure Guide are scheduled for release sometime in late 2025. As with other Wizards of the Coast products, however, you will likely be able to pre-order the digital and physical bundle via D&D Beyond, which means you’ll be able to access the digital version several weeks earlier,
This will also likely be the case if you pre-order the physical copy of the books from your local game store if they have opted into Wizards of the Coast’s early access program.
How much are the new Forgotten Realms Sourcebooks?
It’s not yet clear if the two books will be sold separately or as a slipcase bundle (similar to what we saw with Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, which retailed for around $112 USD for a three book slipcases).
Wizards of the Coast has recently increased the price of their DnD 5e books, but does offer print and digital bundles as a pre-prder discount D&D Beyond. It’s also likely that digital only versions will be available.
Will there be an alternate covers for the Forgotten Realms sourcebooks?
As with other new DnD 2024 titles, there will likely be an alternate covers available for both books. Typically, these are the same price as the standard edition, so it’s simply a matter of which cover you prefer.
It’s also not clear if Beadle & Grimm’s will be producing any alternate versions of the book, which has been the case for other DnD 5e products. For example, with Planescape they produced a deluxe box set. Given that the Forgotten Realms is incredibly popular, it’s likely we’ll see something similar.
What other tie-in products will be available?
Typically, WizKids releases a variety of monster and NPC miniatures that tie-in to DnD adventure supplements, so it’s possible we may see similar products.
It’s also likely that books will integrate with the new 2D Maps VTT via D&D Beyond, although it’s not yet clear if it will also be compatible with Project Sigil, the codename for upcoming 3D DnD virtual tabletop.
Final Thoughts
One major complaint from DnD fans over the past few years is that they’ve been getting too many adventurers and not enough campaign materials. Another major complaint is that content is focused primarily on Dungeon Masters, rather than players.
Wizards of the Coast appears to be addressing those concerns and bringing the focus back on one of the game’s most popular campaign worlds. And while some of these locations in the Realms have been explored in previous DnD 5e books, such as the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide from 2015, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus from 2019 and Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden from 2020, the inclusion of new player-focused elements that work with newe 2024 rules seems like a solid addition.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with more information as it’s made available. In the meantime, below is the D&D Direct 2024 video, timestamped to where the team discusses the new Forgotten Realms sourcebooks.
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Ollie Delano is a Staff Writer who lives in Chicago, Illinois where he majored in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He’s been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 10 years and currently plays in a weekly game group where he rolls way too many natural 1s and chugs way too much Mountain Dew. His favorite D&D campaign setting is Eberron and his favorite character to play was a Tiefling rogue named Draxiss who enjoys both literal and figurative backstabbing.
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