Wizards of the Coast announced a nation-wide in-store D&D promotional event, a new retro D&D product, a new D&D campaign setting and more at the GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas last week. All were part of a coordinated strategy to bring new consumers into the D&D fold, and remind existing D&D fans of the reasons why they liked D&D in the first place.
WotC has scheduled a Worldwide Learn to Play D&D Game Day on Saturday, October 2nd. Participating WotC retailers will receive kits for volunteers to use to show store customers how to play the most popular roleplaying game ever. Giveaways will include promotional miniatures and d20 dice with the 30th anniversary logo. WotC's Game Day will be promoted with a $1 million advertising campaign.
The Learn to Play D&D event is one element of WotC's 30th anniversary celebration for Dungeons and Dragons in 2004. Some special 30th anniversary products are also planned. In September, WotC will release a new Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set , reprising the box sets used to introduce the line during much of its history. The box will contain streamlined rulebooks, map boards, roleplaying dice, and 16 miniatures. Coming in October is 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons and Dragons, a heavily illustrated, oversized book featuring essays by notables inspired by Dungeons and Dragons.
WotC will release Eberron, a new campaign setting incorporating pulp fiction adventure elements, as a 320-page color hardcover this June. In 2002, WotC asked for proposals from D&D players for this new campaign setting and weeded through 11,000 proposals to find the best. Eberron is written by winner Keith Baker, along with Wizards' Bill Slavicsek and James Wyatt. WotC plans a complete line of support products over the next two years, such as adventures, miniatures, and novels, plus electronic games from Atari.
In addition, WotC will be launching a new young readers imprint for fiction this summer, Mirrorstone. Dragonlance: The New Adventures, for readers ten and up, features young, likeable companions who band together for friendship and excitement in the age of dragons and heroes. The Knights of the Silver Dragon series, for slightly younger readers, about young adventurers who must perform heroic deeds to become members of a prestigious order, debuts this July.
