So many new D&D books are coming in 2024, no printing company can handle them all
Earlier this month, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast unveiled its roadmap for 2024. It plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking tabletop role-playing game with a revision of all three best-selling core 5th edition rulebooks – the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master guideAnd Monstrous manual. The problem is that the publishing giant can’t find a printing partner to make them all on time.
“We haven’t spoken publicly about the release schedule yet,” said rules architect Jeremy Crawford at a press conference in Seattle earlier this month. “We are having conversations about what that will be, leaning towards a staggered release. Because […] there are some challenges to releasing all three at the same time, and not all of them involve staff or time alone.
The 5th edition Player’s Handbook in particular is a hot commodity in the publishing world. It is in the top 100 best-selling books Of every kind on Amazon since 2016 – two years after it was released first. Given the ever-increasing footprint D&D has in popular culture, it’s destined to sell again soon in its shiny new 2024 revised edition. That sales speed apparently has Wizards’ traditional print partners thinking.
“Our print runs are quite large,” said Crawford, “and printers tell us you can’t give us these three books at the same time.”
“The print runs we’re talking about are huge,” added control architect Chris Perkins. “That not only applied to the core books, but also Tasha’s Cauldron [of Everything]. It is what we call a high-end problem.”
Crawford said his team is not too concerned about the staggered rollout of the revised core rulebooks. The originals were released the same way. However, existing 2014 editions still on player shelves (and in stock at your local game store and bookseller of choice) will also remain compatible with the game.
“We want them to be close enough [together on the release calendar]Crawford said. “But we also recognize that this is not a new edition [of the game]. So that people can keep playing with the books they have while they wait for each release to come out. It should not interfere too seriously.”
Wizards has also made a big move into the digital space. Parent company Hasbro acquired D&D Beyond just a year ago, and some of the biggest releases of 2022 will include digital pre-release copies for those who pre-order. Will the same be true for these revised 5th edition books?
“[It’s] too early for us to talk about that,” Perkins said. “I don’t think anyone has that answer.”
“Chris and I enjoy our work [being] almost entirely focused on content generation,” said Crawford.
You can read more about what to expect in these recently revised core rulebooks in our main story.