Dungeons & Dragons Will Bring Back Another “Classic” Campaign Setting in 2023

Dungeons & Dragons plans to revisit at least one additional classic campaign setting over the next few years. D&D design studio head Ray Winninger confirmed that plans were in the works to revisit a third “classic” campaign setting in 2023. This is in addition to the two campaign settings planned for 2022, both of which will appear in “new formats” that will likely not be traditional campaign setting rulebooks. No other details about any of the classic campaign settings were announced at the panel.

Back in 2020, Winninger confirmed that the D&D design team was working on several new products that would revisit three worlds seen in past editions. The first of these products was Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, which came out earlier this year. Winninger confirmed last weekend that the other two products featuring classic campaign settings would roll out in 2022, which makes the 2023 product the fourth campaign setting D&D plans to revisit. 

Campaign settings are an interesting part of Dungeons & Dragons, primarily because they provide much of the lore used as the foundation for the game. Every adventure published by Wizards of the Coast (or its predecessor TSR Inc.) took place in a campaign setting, a fully fleshed out world with its own lore, cities, threats, and history. At one point, the D&D brand featured a variety of tie-in products that helped to flesh out these settings ranging from novels to video games. However, in recent years, the emphasis on campaign settings have faded somewhat, in part because so many D&D campaigns take place in “homebrew” world separate from D&D communities. 

Wizards of the Coast has ramped up its campaign setting products in recent years, but not necessarily featuring “classic” settings from past edition. Instead, Wizards of the Coast has published two campaign settings featuring various Magic: The Gathering worlds, with a third planned for release this November. Wizards also collaborated with Critical Role to release a campaign setting book focused on the world seen on that show. Interestingly, Chris Perkins confirmed during the Future of D&D panel that Wizards was also “exploring” two brand new campaign settings for a future release.