Summary
In 50 years ofDungeons & Dragons, the brand has grown and expanded beyond the table withHonor Among ThievesandBaldur’s Gate 3, allowing fans to experience the world in completely new ways. The 50th anniversary is bringing new core rulebooks to players and DMs alike with the2024 Player’s Handbook, the2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, and 2025Monster Manual. Many of the changes were inspired by player insight, and it seems the Dungeons & Dragons may be looking for fan input in other areas, fromHonor Among Thieves,Baldur’s Gate 3, and beyond.
Baldur’s Gate 3hastaken the world by storm and the characters have captured fans' hearts. Wizards of the Coast took notice with their D&D Live show,An Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Action, during Gen Con including Neil Christie Newbon and Samantha Béart as their characters Astarion and Karlach, respectively. This and the inclusion ofBaldur’s Gate 3minis in Dungeons & Dragons Sigil could be the perfect groundwork to bring these characters off the screen for players to interact with or even play while on their own adventures.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Paladin/Warlock Multiclass Build
When Paladin is multiclassed with Warlock it becomes one of the strongest warriors in Baldur’s Gate 3. Both reinforce the power of Divine Smite.
While at Gen Con,Screen Ranthad the chance to interview Jess Lanzillo about the future of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. She revealed how she personally would like to see the brand expand and how her experience working on Magic the Gathering can open doors for Dungeons & Dragons. Lanzillo also revealed what they learned fromHonor Among Thievesand how they hope to useBaldur’s Gate 3charactersmore while being mindful of not losing what makes them so beloved.
“D&D Has Created So Many Cool Artifacts And Weapons” That Are Perfect For LARPing
After expanding D&D onto the big screen withHonor Among Thievesand video games withBaldur’s Gate 3, what’s an area you have not yet been able to expand in that you want to?
Jess Lanzillo: The unofficial non-professional, but fan answer from me is LARPing stuff. I’m a huge LARPer, and so I’m like, Oh, can we work with any armories or anything like that and have any of our iconic weapons recreated? I know it’s not the most, my boss is going to be like, oh, what is that answer? That answer’s so silly.
That’s great!
Jess Lanzillo: But for me, I’m just like, Wow, that is a dream come true. Plus D&D has created so many cool artifacts and weapons and stuff like that from throughout. I just want to be able to hold them and then play with them. And I don’t necessarily have to play as that character, but I get to use it as a storytelling device. I love that. Any manifestation of the imagination in the real world to me is always just a dream come true.
Yeah. You don’t need aStar Warslightsaber, but you want one.
Jess Lanzillo: Yes! Exactly. [LAUGHS] Exactly. I’m not going to use it in my real life. I mean, maybe.
Jess Lanzillo Loves “Seeing The Imagination And Magical Powers” Brought To Life On Screen
What for you guys was the most fun element from D&D itself to see be brought to life inHonor Among Thieves?
Jess Lanzillo: Oh my gosh. Honestly, for me, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to visualize powers because I come from an art background, right? So a lot of the world building I did with the Magic team previous to D&D and then with the D&D team now is like, What does this actually look like when you see it happen? Because so much with D&D happens theater of the mind and with Magic, it all happens on a still card.
And so you’re like, What does a Displacer Beast look like when it’s displacing? So for me, seeing that actually manifest in a way that was exactly the best version that I thought it should be was awesome. It was so awesome to me. There’s a million great things in that movie, but for me, I love seeing the imagination and magical powers kind of written large like that in this very cool way.
What from your experience working with Magic have you taken into D&D that was surprising in how helpful it has been?
Jess Lanzillo: Magic is creating so many worlds per year. I mean, the volume at which Magic has ramped up to means that it’s just a constant, What’s the new world? What’s new world? What’s the new world? So I think walking into D&D, what has been helpful is being like, Oh no, we can do a bunch of stuff. We can do a bunch of stuff. I feel like D&D has always been thought of as this very, it’s a little more old fashioned at times and moves a little bit slower because everyone’s very protective of what has already been made. And I think that’s in a good way.
You’ll see some things where we’ve been really expansive and forward looking with rules or with adventure anthologies, and I’m like, No, can we do new worlds? And they’re like, Yeah, and I am actually really good at that. I know how to do it, it’s really easy. It’s not easy. It’s very challenging, but I’m pretty experienced with that. And they’re like, that’s amazing. How could we make that work? So just kind of having those frameworks, how do we refresh settings that are beloved in so that people can see them in today while also maintaining all the cool nuggets of lore that everyone that’s an old school fan can dig into?
How do you bring new stuff onto the table without freaking people totally out. I think there’s just some basic putting creativity and fun and being able to provoke human emotions at the forefront rather than over-engineering a thing. I think there’s a lot of, both games can be very tactical and strategic, but can mire themselves down if you’re not careful and being exactly, making a rule set that is so perfect that it no longer is spiky or has fun, real fun and adventure to it. So I think having that perspective between the two games is really, really, really useful.
Are you guys looking at bringing the beloved characters fromBaldur’s Gate 3into the tabletop space?
Jess Lanzillo: I think what we’ll look for are options where that makes sense. I don’t think that anyone, the fans or ourselves included, are super eager to just be like, we’re going to just kind of shove these characters down your throat all the time. We want to make sure we really land their character voice and that we aren’t seen as just kind of capitalizing on it or bastardizing these characters that people have really fallen in love with.
So I think it’s when the time is right and the people are right and the story is right then, yeah. I mean, if I can’t have more Astarion in my life, I’m going to go mad. So yes, we will, but it’s a matter of degrees and just a really intentional stewardship of those characters.
D&D Team Hopes To “Expand On The Things That People Really Latched Onto”
Are you looking at expanding upon the world that was established withHonor Among Thieves, either in a sequel or through TV show or something like that?
Jess Lanzillo: I mean, we definitely would love to, right? I think in general, the writers and everyone that worked on Honor Among Thieves did such a wonderful job. I think there’s aspects of it too where we’ve seen like, Oh, people really kind of understood the Red Wizards Thay for the first time. What could we do with that?
So even if we don’t see that expanding in the entertainment sphere for whatever reason. Reasons beyond my control, because if I had millions of dollars, I would definitely get Hugh Grant to be in more movies for me. But we still want to expand on the things that people really, really latched onto and really were able to make iconic D&D things for themselves from.
What are you excited about when it comes to the D&D franchise that maybe fans won’t expect?
Jess Lanzillo: I think there’s going to be a bunch of things that fans won’t expect. I can’t really talk about most of them, but I think what people will see is that the D&D designers and developers are more open and receptive to new ideas that may have seemed different for D&D than in the past. I think that at the same time, there’s still remarkable stewards of everything that has come before, and so being able to knit those things together I think is just going to be an absolute delight for fans.
They’re just going to love it so much. I can’t begin to reiterate enough how smart and thoughtful and how much love and passion for this game all of the developers have. I came from the Magic side where I was like, Oh my gosh, this is amazing. I come over here, I was like, It’s the same! It’s like, wow, you eat and breathe and sleep this. Their dedication to wanting to just make people happy is just so impressive. I can’t say enough about it.
About The New Dungeons & Dragons Core Rule Books
Introducing the2024 Player’s Handbook, the new and improved guide for fifth edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Packed with endless character options, striking illustrations, and a streamlined design, every part of this 384-page book is a joy to experience. Excite your imagination with the2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, revised and expanded for fifth edition D&D! Whether you’re a new or experienced Dungeon Master, here’s everything you need to weave epic tales, build fantastical worlds, and inspire memorable moments for your party to enjoy. In the new and improved2024 Monster Manual, meet a monstrous menagerie of creatures for fifth edition! Encounter iconic D&D favorites and a whole host of mighty new monsters. Let their stories, illustrations, and streamlined stat blocks fuel your epic adventures.
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Dungeons & Dragons2024 Player’s Handbookwill be released September 17, the2024 Dungeon Master’s Guidewill be released November 12, and the newMonster Manualwill be released July 11, 2025.
