All of the books coming to D&D in 2024 (and beyond)

Dungeons & Dragons turns 50 this year, and when not laying off employees, Wizards of the Coast likes to celebrate by releasing new books, including a new version of D&D that eschews the concept of editions (while it is itself a revision of the 5th Edition). We now have release dates for several books for 2024 (and one for 2025) that include the new version of Dungeons & Dragons.

Vecna: Eye of Ruin — May 21, 2024

Back in the year 2000, Wizards of the Coast released Die Vecna, Die, a module which saw the evil Archlich Vecna ascend to godhood and forever alter the multiverse in an attempt to become the supreme deity of all existence. The module essentially served as a farewell to 2nd Edition AD&D and an introduction to the 3e version of Dungeons and Dragons, with rules changes and the presence of Vecna as a sinister god of secrets.

Now, in 2024, just before we get the new non-edition 50th Anniversary revision of D&D, Vecna’s back to try it again, leading a group of adventurers on another mission across the expansive D&D cosmology that’s been built up over the past few years. The D&D multiverse seems to always get its face wrecked by Vecna just before a new version of the game comes out.

We don’t know what Vecna: Eye of Ruin will specifically entail, but we’re promised “beloved settings such as the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk“ will all make an appearance, and frankly, I’m a little upset we’re not going to get Mystara or Athas. Still, a level 10 to 20 adventure starring everyone’s favorite Lich is likely to be a lot of fun as well as a nice way to onboard players to the new rule changes coming with the 50th Anniversary.

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977 — June 18, 2024

This isn’t a rule book or an adventure, but rather, a kind of history book or a biography — not of any individual person, but of the game Dungeons and Dragons itself. I’m interested in seeing how the book deals with the often controversial question of who, exactly, actually created D&D and if they were treated well or poorly at the time — I won’t pick a side, but I know some Dave Arneson partisans who will likely get their pitchforks and torches ready.

Quests from the Infinite Staircase — July 16, 2024

This is another anthology bringing older D&D adventures up to the 5th Edition, similar to the Tales from the Yawning Portal anthology. It’s also reminiscent of the Planescape meets Forgotten Realms book Tales from the Infinite Staircase, probably deliberately so — much like bringing Vecna back to imperil the multiverse, Wizards seems to be deliberately evoking different eras in the game’s history with 2024’s releases. I’m curious to see which classic D&D adventure modules (that’s what we called them back then) will be revised in QftIS.

50th Anniversary Player’s Handbook — September 17, 2024

Wizards is emphasizing how this new PHB isn’t a new edition but is rather a revision that expands on the current 5th Edition of the game. But at the same time, they’re definitely going over the playbook of products from previous edition changes and making use of some of the classics this time around. This version of the PHB, if it’s anything like the playtest documents we’ve gotten to see over the past year and a half, is definitely not trying to make the game unfamiliar to current players the way we saw with 3rd Edition.

50th Anniversary Dungeon Master’s Guide — November 12, 2024

Putting aside for the moment that the Dungeon Master’s Guide sounds like something Anne Rice might have written under a pseudonym, anyone who’s played D&D over the years knows how essential the DMG is for harried DM’s trying to run a game. My one hope for the new DMG is that it has more advice on how to pace adventures, a subject I get asked about by new DMs all the time.

50th Anniversary Monster Manual — February 18, 2025

Look, in a way, the Monster Manual is the most important of the three core rulebooks for D&D, because without monsters to fight D&D just isn’t the same. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to creatures like Mind Flayers, Beholders, Golems, Giants, and of course Dragons — without this tome and the legions of foes it contains, adventures would be a lot less interesting.

So there you have it: the slate of published D&D material we’ll get to see between May of 2024 and February of 2025. Are you excited? Do you think this upcoming version of D&D can undo the self-inflected reputation hit of last year’s OGL nonsense and the big Hasbro layoffs at Wizards? Only time will tell. But at least we’ll always have Vecna, y’all.