Let's Talk About the First-Ever D&D Direct 2022: Spelljammer, Starter Sets, and more!

What a time to be alive. Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and other role-playing games have seen an exciting revival, along with board games in the past 5-10 years. It's evident that tabletop roleplaying games are engaging a wide audience of all ages and are becoming more popular in mainstream culture. Maybe it's because of the pandemic, popular live-stream shows, or the new great content that Wizards of the Coast has been releasing for everyone to enjoy, but a D&D Direct announcement program is a big deal.

It's good news for fans because Wizards of the Coast can create better content for the fans and for those who want to get started playing. From that standpoint, this D&D Direct blew all expectations out of the water with the sheer amount of new source material, game resources, and more. If you haven't seen the video, definitely watch it below and then read ahead on our take on the D&D Direct.

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space

Starting off the D&D direct, Wizards announced the surprising return of the Spelljammer setting for 5e, originally from the 2nd edition of D&D (Advanced D&D). Introduced as Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, fans have been clamoring for a reboot to this setting, and, wow, have they delivered. Three brand new books are being released: The Astral Adventurer's Guide, Boo's Astral Menagerie, and Light of Xaryxis. The Astral Adventurer's Guide is a setting manual with details on the Astral Plane setting and 6 new playable space races. Boo's Astral Menagerie is a monster bestiary for this new setting including space clowns, murder comets, space hamsters and solar and lunar dragons to just name a few of the fun monsters to use!

Of course, the third book is an adventure book called Light of Xaryxis with 12 episodes targeted for characters level 5-8 including a fodlable map and DM screen. This entire set is set to release August 16, 2022 is available for preorder now!

For those that can't wait, they are releasing a prequel adventure in July and all you need is sign up for a wizards account to redeem the content later in July.

Components

The Astral Adventurer's Guide, 64-page with details on the Astral Plane campaign setting, space-based character options, spell/magic items, and spelljamming ships
Boo's Astral Menagerie, 64-page
Light of Xaryxis, 64-page adventure set in Astral Plane for characters level 5-8
Poster map of Rock of Bral, the campaign hub in the Astral Plane
Four-panel DM Screen

Preorder at Amazon

D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle

This newly announced starter set joins the original D&D Starter Set: Lost Mines of Phandelver and the D&D Essentials Kit. It looks like they're really going to focus on integrating digital tools into this set. They mention how this new set is more streamlined and easier to understand. They admit that only a couple of minutes were spent in the D&D Direct talking about the set. From the D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle webpage, however, it says how "This box contains the essential rules of the game plus everything you need to play heroic characters caught up in an ancient war among dragons as they explore the secrets of Stormwreck Isle." Sounds exciting!

If this new set is anything like the last two, then it will be a great resource to introduce to new players. Especially with the new acquisition of D&D Beyond, there may be content focusing on playing online and remotely with friends.

Features

48-page adventure booklet
32-page rulebook for characters of levels 1-3
5 pre-gen characters with character sheets
6 game dice
Available Target Exclusive August 1, 2022, General release on October 4, 2022

Preorder at Target

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

Previously announced earlier this year, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is a ground-breaking collection of stand-alone D&D adventures written by 16 black and brown writers based on their backgrounds, cultures, and myths. These adventures cover character levels 1-14. Similarly the anthology adventure settings like Candlekeep Mysteries and Ghosts of Saltmarsh. These varied adventures are full of adventure with a multitude of cultural references throughout each adventure.

Preorder at Amazon

New D&D Resources, Translations and more

This D&D Direct had so much jammed in that it's hard to cover everything single thing in detail. Here are just a couple of the other new things that they have planned:

D&D Campaign Case: Terrain

30 double-sided 5"x 5" terrian tiles
5 resuable Adventure Clings
1 double-sided adventure grid
Storage folder and storage case

Release date: July 19, 2022.

Prorder

D&D Campaign Case: Monsters

64 weight plastic discs in 3 sizes and 4 colors
5 sheets of resuable creature clings
3 custom storage trays
Storage folder and storage case

Release date: July 19, 2022.

Prorder

New Book Translations

Wizards of the Coast have already translated a multitude of their source books into French, Italian, German, and Spanish. For our European friends, they a timeline of a couple more books that that they plan to release in these languages.

Tasha's Couldron of Everything: July 12
Monsters of the Multiverse: September 13
Curse of Strahd: October 25
D&D Starter Set - Dragons of Stormwreck Isle: October 4th

If you have any European friends waiting for their translations, this is the time to let them know!

One final surprise: Dragonlance

Between new live shows, video game announcements and even a movie, this D&D Direct was packed with new content that will keep fans playing and engaged for a while. Wizards left us a little surprise treat at the end, though: Dragonlance. Created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, the Dragonlance setting has been turned into D&D modules, books, and more. Not much is known about the adventure just yet but it looks like Wizards is planning on keeping us entertained with new adventures for a while and I'm here for it.

Update: They released a Unearthed Arcana Playtest for Dragonlance on their website titled Heroes of Krynn Revisited. Download the PDF on their site for a preview of the Kender race, feats, backgrounds, and more.