Universes Beyond has been a major hit for Wizards of the Coast (WotC), as drawing outside intellectual properties like Final Fantasy into Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons has brought new audiences to those tabletop experiences. But what about the core games that serve as a foundation for Universes Beyond? There is some concern amongst the fandom that Universes Beyond could delay or replace original core D&D rulebooks and campaigns, but WotC says that the classic side of the franchise is still its top priority.
“A lot of the goal for it on our side was those new audiences,” head of Dungeons & Dragons Dan Ayoub said to GameSpot’s Jessica Cogswell at Gen Con. “There is certainly the fandom of, ‘Oh cool, I want to play in Azeroth.’ There is absolutely that layer. But a lot of things we want to do—and one thing that I am really passionate about—is bringing new players in. Role-playing games have been a huge part of my life, to my benefit. How do you ease that movement for people? It helps when people say, ‘I know Azeroth,’ or, ‘I know Star Wars,’ making it a little easier to get into it.”
Ayoub added that third-party crossovers are designed to bring new players into the hobby without taking away from what existing fans love. And if you’re not a fan of seeing Doctor Who or Warhammer 40,000 in Magic: The Gathering? It’s not like it’s a vital part of the game that you have to buy to keep up with the meta.
“The biggest difference from the Magic example is you do not need it,” Ayoub explained. “You do not have to play it. I think of it as a line, just like Forgotten Realms is a line, and core D&D is a line. Something I say a lot—and certainly as we have been doing all of this work this year to move to this new dawn of D&D—is we cannot make every release be for everyone. It is impossible. Fifty-two years of fandom means too many different types of fans. We cannot make every release be for everyone, but everyone should see a release for them in our calendar.”
“If you do not like the idea, or you do not like the universe we come with, we are not going to force you to do it. It is not like it is going to show up in someone else’s deck against you, for example. It is entirely opt-out. The other piece I want people to hear, because I have been seeing the concerns since last night, is this is entirely additive. This is not going to detract from anything we are doing on the D&D side. When folks see the roadmap next year, they are going to see even more than last time, with different ways to engage with it.”
“Talk is cheap, and I realize it is easy for me to say that. My hope is that people are just going to see it. It turns into, “Not for me. Cool, but I am going to go back over here, and there is going to be plenty of things for me to do in core D&D.”
D&D product architect Laura Hohman also spoke about the additive nature of Universes Beyond, and how WotC had grown to support the new line. “I think some big things that I just definitely want to double-click on is that Universes Beyond really has been treated in an additive way to our roadmap and even to our team,” Hohman said. “We’ve been hiring on top of our additional staff to support these, so it really hasn’t been taking away any resources, and D&D has really been investing in this as being additional.”
The next big entry in Universes Beyond will invite players to explore the final frontier, as Star Trek beams into the game. Dropping out of warp in November, characters, stories, and spaceships from the entire franchise will be featured in it. World of Warcraft is also getting the Dungeons & Dragons treatment, and it launches on November 17. This looks like it’ll be a big release, as all 13 WoW classes will be playable, there’ll be six additional subclasses, three modified ones, and over 40 class specializations to choose from.
