2021 was a big year for Dungeons & Dragons in terms of new content, and with the growth as a multimedia entity, this 2022 could be D&D's best year ever. There are a number of D&D books coming 2022 and there will likely be more announced throughout the year, especially as Wizards of the Coast has already been hinted about what's in store throughout the year.
2021 saw the release of Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, which fleshed out the lore for the dragons in the D&D multiverse and add new options for draconic races, subclasses, and spells. The Ravenloft campaign setting returned in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, bringing the Domains of Dread into 5E and updating some of them from their Advanced Dungeons & Dragons counterparts. Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos brought the magical Strixhaven University into D&D, along with a college-themed campaign. D&D received a new adventure anthology, in the form of Candlekeep Mysteries, which had seventeen adventures set in the fabled Candlekeep library. 5E also had its first Feywild campaign in 2021, with The Wild Beyond: The Witchlight taking players on a trip to the mythical realm of the faeries.
Wizards of the Coast has revealed some of the new D&D books that are coming this year, but there are also novels and video games set within the D&D multiverse that are on the way. There is a lot to cover, as there's a ton of D&D arriving in 2022.
D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set & Mordenkainen Presents: Multiverse Of Monsters
The first major D&D release of 2022 was originally meant to launch in 2021. The D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set contains three books that contain additional rules that are meant to supplement the three main rule books. The Rules Expansion Gift Set has Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and a brand new book, called Mordenkainen Presents: Multiverse of Monsters. The set also comes with a DM screen featuring brand new artwork. All three books will have special foil cover art that is exclusive to the Rules Expansion Gift Set. There is also the alt-cover set, which will feature all-new cover art for the case and books, which will be sold exclusively in game store. The intention was to release this set as a 2021 holiday season item, but it was delayed, and will now launch on January 25.
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar's Guide to Everything contain additional rules for players and DMs alike. These include tons of new subclasses, as well as the new Artificer base class, which originally debuted in the Eberron campaign setting. The books also contain new magic items, spells, and feats for players, as well as monsters, traps, and puzzles for DMs. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything also introduced the new D&D race stat rules changes that have slowly become the standard in the game, as well as fun optional rules for groups, including sidekick characters that can stand in for missing players, and group patrons, who can bring party members together for missions.
D&D recently changed the lore for some existing monsters, as part of a push to remove problematic elements from the game. A lot of this content originated in Volo's Guide to Monsters. The brand new book that is appearing in the Rules Expansion Gift Set seems as if it will be the new playable monster book for D&D. Mordenkainen Presents: Multiverse of Monsters will feature revised versions of 30 playable monster races, and over 250 redesigned monsters, with updated stat blocks. A standalone version of Mordenkainen Presents: Multiverse of Monsters will also be available in 2022.
Two Classic Settings Will Be Returning To D&D
The current edition of D&D has revived a number of classic settings, with Ravenloft returning in 2021. D&D has also added some brand new campaign settings, including Ravnica, Strixhaven, and Theros from Magic: The Gathering, and the Exandria setting from Critical Role. Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that two classic D&D settings are returning in 2022 and that a third will be coming in 2023.
By far the strongest contender for one of the returning campaign settings is Spelljammer. This was one of the campaign settings from the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, where sailing ships were enchanted to allow them to travel in outer space. Spelljammer was D&D's attempt at creating a sci-fi setting, while still only using fantasy elements. The reason why people think D&D classic setting Spelljammer is coming back is due to an Unearthed Arcana article that featured playtest material for upcoming races, all of which originated in the Spelljammer setting. These include astral elves, autognomes, giff, hadozee, plasmoids, and thri-keen. Either Wizards of the Coast is trolling the fanbase, or Spelljammer is on its way back.
The identity of the other campaign setting coming in 2022 is unclear. The 2023 one is likely Dragonlance (for reasons outlined below), but the other slot could easily be a revived version of Greyhawk, considering that characters that are native to that setting have been the POV characters of new rulebooks recently (Mordenkainen, Tasha). The Planescape setting is also a possibility, considering how D&D is expanding the multiverse, and a trip to Sigil would be the perfect way to open up doorways between settings. Fizban's Treasury of Dragons featured a surprising reference to the D&D Council of Wyrms campaign setting, so that shouldn't be ruled out. There are lots of possibilities for the second slot and it will be exciting to see which setting is revived in 2022.
Critical Role: Call Of The Netherdeep
The Exandria campaign setting that debuted in Critical Role and became an official part of D&D will host a new campaign in 2022. Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep is a campaign that will be told across seven chapters. The party travels to the city of Ank'Harel, before venturing into the Netherdeep, which combines the Far Realm with the dark depths of the ocean. The party is contacted by a powerful entity that was once a champion of the gods but is now sealed beneath the depths of Exandria, and is looking to be freed by some gallant heroes.
Critical Role: Call of Netherdeep will tie into the themes of the Critical Role campaigns, and will include new lore for the world of Exandria, a poster map of Ank'Harel, stats for new monsters, magical items, and a mechanic connected to a rival adventuring party of D&D NPCs, all of which could be transplanted into a homebrew game. Critical Role: Call of Netherdeep takes players from levels 3-12, so it should provide many sessions of game time. Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep will be released on March 15, 2022.
Dragonlance: Dragons Of Deceit Kicks Off A New Dragonlance Novel Series
One of the most popular D&D novel series is returning in 2022. A new D&D Dragonlance series is on the way, with original authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman back on board, starting with Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit. This series will follow a new protagonist, named Destina Rosethorn, who seeks out the powerful Device of Time Journeying, in order to go back in time and save her father's life. The Device of Time Journeying might sound like a silly name, but it was a major part of the Dragonlance Legends trilogy from the 1980s and wasn't something new made up for this book.
The information about the book released so far suggests Destina changes the timeline of Krynn. A theory that a lot of fans have been spreading is that Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit is a soft reboot of the Dragonlance campaign setting, in order to give it a more diverse cast and remove some of the more problematic elements of the story, such as the gully dwarves. This could lead to Dragonlance being the returning D&D classic campaign setting in 2023, with the new novels building to a reborn version of Krynn. Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit will be released on August 9, 2022.
A Mysterious Baldur's Gate Book
Some of the most iconic heroes in D&D could be returning to the game in 2022. For many people in the 1990s, their only exposure to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was video games, like Baldur's Gate and its sequel, Icewind Dale, and Planescape Torment. Baldur's Gate 2 is often cited as one of the best games of its era and it's still celebrated by fans to this day (in addition to being available on modern platforms via Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition). The lore of the Forgotten Realms has skipped ahead a century, but many of its characters belong to long-lived races, including Jaheira, Viconia, and Korgan, so they could still show up in official D&D books. It has also been established that Minsc the ranger and Boo, his miniature giant space hamster, are still adventuring in the Forgotten Realms. As a human, Minsc should have croaked long ago, but he and Boo were petrified during one of their adventures, and have been revived in the modern era.
One of the most mysterious upcoming D&D books was revealed during D&D Celebration 2021. All that was revealed about the book was that it would feature Boo, as he appears in the snippet of the cover artwork that was provided, and that it would launch in 2022. Wizards of the Coast has revealed very little information about the book, but it will almost certainly be a tie-in to a D&D video game that is hopefully launching in 2022.
Baldur's Gate 3 Will (Hopefully) Leave Early Access In 2022
One of the most highly-anticipated RPGs of 2022 is Baldur's Gate 3, which developer Larian Studios has said is aiming to launch this year. Baldur's Gate 3 uses the fifth edition D&D rules and is set in the current lore of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, so it's not a direct sequel to the original games (though it is connected). Instead, it's a revival of the franchise in the modern era, a game that comes from a team self-professed to be extremely passionate about the original games. It's already gotten a lot of traction in early access, and looks to be an exciting new release for the franchise.
The story of Baldur's Gate 3 is set a century after the Bhaalspawn saga, which ended with the final Bhaalspawn perishing, and Bhaal returning to his role as the God of Murder. This new storyline involves the Mind Flayers, who have captured residents from the city of Yartar and taken them aboard their Nautiloid, in order to turn them into more Mind Flayers. The player character escapes, but they now have a parasite inside of their body, which is slowly turning them into a Mind Flayer. They must find a way to cure themselves of their parasite while resisting the urge to use its psionic powers against their enemies.
Baldur's Gate 3 is currently in development for PC and Google Stadia, with a console release expected in the future. The Google Stadia release will ensure that people who don't have beefy PCs can still play the game, so long as they have a decent Internet speed. The fact that Baldur's Gate 3 is a turn-based game means that it's the perfect fit for the streaming format. Those who want to check out an early version of Baldur's Gate 3 can do so, as it's currently in early access on PC and Google Stadia. Be warned that the early access version is still a full-price release.
Updates On D&D 5.5 & The Movie
There are some big D&D projects that are in development and are expected to launch in the future, but fans know practically nothing about them. The biggest of these is the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, which is currently set to launch on March 3, 2023. Despite this, Paramount Pictures has revealed almost nothing about the movie in terms of its storyline, and only some behind-the-scenes footage has made its way online. The cast of the film has been revealed, with Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant all set to appear. It's likely that the first official trailer for the D&D movie will be revealed in 2022.
The other major D&D project that is in the works is the revision for the three core rulebooks, which fans are referring to as D&D 5.5. This project is set to launch in 2024, to mark the 50th anniversary of D&D. Wizards of the Coast has been sending out fan surveys, in order to gauge interest in the parts of the game that the player base is happy and unhappy with. It's likely that a lot more of these surveys will be sent out in 2022 and that their content could hint at what's in store for the future of Dungeons & Dragons.