Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne looks at the Dungeons & Dragons releases planned for the next year.

It looks as if Wizards of the Coast will take a break from the seeming onslaught of new releases we have seen so far in 2022 (though when I actually counted them the number was not quite as big as I thought, only eight, or roughly one every month and a half).  I only count two releases for the rest of the year, three if you count the Dragonlance boardgame separately from the Dragonlance RPG book.

Releasing in October in the FLGS is the new D&D Starter Set, Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (see "Hasbro Announces New D&D Starter Set in 2022 Lineup Trailer").  At least it’s October if you are a Friendly Local Game Store.  If you are Target, you got the set at the end of July.  Of course, FLGS do get the opportunity to promote the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle set, and Dungeons & Dragons in general, all throughout the month of October.  For Target, the set is just one more tiny part of its product mix; for game stores, it is a fairly important component of their marketing program for the entire D&D line.  We still sell the current Starter Set and Essentials Set regularly, and have not had a customer ask us about Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, so I suspect Target’s customer base is not a particularly strong target for into D&D sets.  Game stores will likely sell Dragons of Stormwreck Isle long after Target either clearances them or returns them to Wizards of the Coast.

December 6th we see the release of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen with a regular cover, alternative cover and a Deluxe Edition, which includes a DM screen and the Warriors of Krynn cooperative boardgame (see "’D&D: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen’").

There’s no indication yet if WOTC will release the boardgame separately from the campaign book, but the spec sheet for the release indicates players will have the option to play through some of the scenarios from the campaign book using the boardgame.  No price is listed for the combo yet on the WOTC website, but I would bet over $125, which is a bit pricey for any but the most dedicated player.  I would not be surprised by a separate release sometime in 2023, but WOTC does not have it on the schedule yet.

Coming in 2023, WOTC has Tales from the Golden Vault scheduled for February (see "WotC Teases 2023 ‘D&D’ Slate").  This is a scenario collection, similar in format to Tales from the Yawning Portal and Candlekeep Mysteries, only themed around heists and thefts instead of books and bars. Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants releases in the second quarter and tips its hat back to the past with its nod to Bigby, a PC from the early days of D&D and "creator" of the assorted hand spells.  As a longtime D&D player, I enjoy seeing these references to the game’s early days.

Then, during the summer, stores will see the release of the, as yet unnamed, Phandelver campaign, based on The Lost Mines of Phandelver, the adventure included in the current D&D Starter Set, although this campaign book will have "tinges of cosmic horror," to quote D&D Product Manager Chris Lindsay.  Call of Cthulhu meets D&D?  It has happened before in 1st Edition.

Finally, the year wraps up with a relaunch of the Planescape campaign setting, though in what format WOTC has yet to say.  Given the prices current commanded for Planescape materials, with the boxed sets regularly selling for $200 and up, I can see even more demand for this set than for Spelljammer.

Your thoughts?  Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.