Dungeon and Dragons is one of the most recognized role-playing games in the world. Since the franchise's beginnings with the first publication simply titled Dungeons and Dragons in 1974, the game has grown into one of the most widely known franchises ever created and has become the icon of the tabletop gaming community. The game's most recent update, Fifth Edition (commonly known as 5e), was released in 2014 and, now, Wizards of the Coast has made a major announcement for the future of the tabletop game.
Since the franchise's roots as a tabletop game in the 1970s, Dungeons and Dragons has blossomed into a multimedia juggernaut spawning video games, card games, and even an upcoming feature-length film. D&D has become a symbol of the gaming industry and has inspired many modern role-playing games like Worldwalker's recent D&D-inspired title Wildermyth. Fans of the tabletop RPG have spent years learning the ins and outs of Fifth Edition and, now, Wizards of the Coast has officially announced the impending arrival of a new version.
During the recent D&D Celebration 2021, executive producer Ray Winninger officially announced the "next evolution of Dungeons and Dragons". New rulebooks for Dungeons and Dragons were revealed to be in production with a tentative release date of 2024. Winninger did specify that the ruleset within the new books would be fully compatible with the currently existing Fifth Edition. No mention was made as to whether the upcoming rulebooks would be an official 6e release.
Dungeons and Dragons' Fifth Edition has already seen several expansions adding a plethora of new races and classes to the existing contents within its vanilla version. Popular Fifth Edition rulebooks like Mordekainen's Tome of Foes and the upcoming Fizban's Treasury of Dragons allow players to add new elements to their campaigns and offer more options for players to customize their characters. Dungeons and Dragons is also a popular outlet for homebrew content with many players adding their own personal spice to the classic role-playing experience.
Dungeons and Dragons has been one of the longest standing franchises in the world of gaming. The open-ended role-playing game has entertained legions of passionate fans all over the world for almost 40 years and has become a cultural icon. The game has spawned countless amounts of fan content and led to the creation of one of the most popular gaming series on the internet in Critical Role, which has grown so popular as to spawn its own official D&D expansions.
Big things are on the horizon for Dungeons and Dragons and the game continues to inspire and enrapture fans to this day.
Source: IGN