Dungeons and Dragons recently revealed its full slate of books for the year, and there’s not one pre-written campaign among them. We’ll still be getting plenty of adventure content thanks to an upcoming one-shot anthology, plus a heap of micro-adventure examples peppered throughout other sourcebooks and starter sets. However, there’s no big, years-long, level 1-12 game in 2025 – and, frankly, that’s great news.
To be clear, I love a pre-written DnD campaign. I have a full-time writing job, plus several non-D&D hobbies that serve as my creative outlet. This means I rarely have the time to design my own elaborate encounters and craft a fantasy setting from scratch. My ideal product is a complete module that does the heavy lifting for me and that I can tweak and tinker with to suit my preferences.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’d like to see more campaigns on 2025’s DnD release schedule, then. I am not among the hardcore homebrewers searching for small snippets to drop into their custom campaign – the typical person you’d expect to be celebrating this news. However, Dungeons and Dragons has a serious ‘quantity over quality’ problem that could be solved by producing fewer campaigns.
I’ve been reviewing DnD books for three years now, and I’ve never given a campaign book higher than the occasional 8/10. The recent releases have many redeeming features, but they’re not spectacular. Often, they feature good ideas that haven’t been explored in enough depth.
That leads to design and narrative choices that don’t make much sense – or, worse, disappoint the player. They require far more than small tweaks to function, and the word they tend to bring to mind is ‘thin’. Even the best modules require huge amounts of homebrew to help them realize their full potential (and it’s why I recently called for a Curse of Strahd reboot).
My hope is that, in a year where D&D is focusing on settings, one shots, and new rules, Wizards of the Coast will have time to assess its design process. An article from ENWorld proves that the publisher knows that, when one campaign is released, it’ll be over a year before the keenest fans have completed it. That means there’s no rush to pump out the next, and they have ample time to plan and prepare the next module.
At least, in theory. Capitalism tends to encourage corner-cutting in the name of profit rather than taking time to realize an artistic vision. Still, I can dream – I am a fantasy fan, after all.
For more on Dungeons and Dragons, here’s all you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races. Plus, we can explain all the DnD 2024 backgrounds found in the new Player’s Handbook.
Source: Wargamer
