The next Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting is due to be released soon, but the hints that have been released so far suggest that it will be going to one of the coldest parts of the Forgotten Realms, as it will likely be set in Icewind Dale.
Icewind Dale is a frozen wasteland that first appeared in a novel called The Crystal Shard. The novel also introduced a character called Drizzt Do'Urden to Dungeons & Dragons. Drizzt is a drow elf, who escaped from the underground realm of his people and made his way to the surface world in order to live a new life among the races of the Realms. Drizzt would go on to become (arguably) the most popular Dungeons & Dragons characters of all time, and his adventures began in the frozen lands of Icewind Dale. If you aren't familiar with D&D lore, you at least might be familiar with the region from the Icewind Dale video games, especially as the first Icewind Dale was remastered for modern systems in 2019.
The next D&D campaign will be announced at an event called Reality RP, which will take place at D&D Live 2020 on June 18-20. The official website for D&D Live 2020 features a single piece of artwork (seen in the cover image above), showing a party of adventurers entering a cavern in a frozen wasteland. This led to speculation that the next adventure will be set in Icewind Dale. Screen Rant spoke to Wizards of the Coast Senior Communications Officer Greg Tito about Reality RP and he revealed information about the next event that hints at a return to Icewind Dale.
Reality RP will involve ten players competing in a game that is similar to Mafia or Werewolf, with one person playing a secret cultist who is trying to undermine the other players, while everyone else must work out their identity. It was during our interview that Tito revealed that the ten players will be characters from ten settlements in the region, which is an unusually large number of players for a game unless you consider the possible location.
It just so happens that the only major settlements in Icewind Dale are ten towns, which are referred to as Ten Towns, as seen in the map above. The Ten Towns are Bryn Shander, Bremen, Targos, Termaline, Lonelywood, Dougan's Hole, Good Mead, Easthaven, Caer-Dineval, and Caer-Konig. The towns often had an adversarial relationship when it came to trade, but they would band together against an outside threat, as seen in The Crystal Shard.
There is also a Dungeons & Dragons game called Dark Alliance that is due to be released in 2020. The trailer for Dark Alliance shows Drizzt and his friends battling enemies in a snowy region, which people assume is Icewind Dale. It's possible that there is an intention to cross-promote the tabletop game and the video game. We'll know for sure when the campaign is officially revealed on June 18, but the clues are pointing towards a long-awaited return to Icewind Dale.
D&D Live 2020 takes place June 18-20, 2020.
Source: Dungeons & Dragons