The new 5th edition of D&D rollout starts 6 weeks earlier than expected at Gen Con

The 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Revision Players Manual will be released about six weeks earlier than expected, but only at the Gen Con tabletop gaming convention and in extremely limited numbers. The announcement, made late last week, adds another layer of complexity to an already unconventional product launch for publisher Wizards of the Coast.

First announced in 2022 as “One D&D,” Wizards has pitched the revised 5th edition of D&D as an upgrade to the core rules with many changes. It is also backwards compatible with the rules first introduced in 2014. The first of three core rulebooks, the Players Manualwill still be widely released on September 17th on places like Amazon. Local game stores will have physical copies available two weeks earlier, starting on September 3rd. Coincidentally, that’s the same day that the content will be digitally unlocked for those who pre-ordered directly from Wizards. But in addition to that soft launch on September 3rd, Wizards now says that there will be about 3,000 copies available Even earlier on August 1 for select attendees of Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Of course, there will likely be around 80,000 attendees at Gen Con this year, so not everyone who attends will get a copy. Full details on how to give it a try have been posted on the official D&D websiteand where you have to work with the congress’ notoriously clumsy ticket system.