Dungeons & Dragons: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight preview

Dungeons & Dragons

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is the title of the next Dungeons & Dragons adventure that will transport players inside a traveling fair of wonders. On the evening of today, on the occasion of the first day of D&D Live, Wizards of the Coast will officially present its new adventure in the panel “The Wild Beyond the Witchlight discussion”.

We had the opportunity to discover a preview the adventure, talking with Chris Perkins, senior story designer, and Jeremy Crawford, Lead Rules Designer; below you will find some intriguing previews.

Welcome to the fair of wonders

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight - A Feywild Adventure (Amazon link), as can be guessed from the title, will be the first adventure of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition set in Feywild, the Plane of Fairies, a world inhabited by fairy beings and permeated by a fairytale atmosphere.

At the center of the story there will be the Witchlight Carnival, an enchanted traveling fair, which under the guidance of his two entrepreneurs, Mr. Witch and Mr. Light, he travels continuously throughout the multiverse bringing joy, amazement and fun to every place he stops.

Bewitched by the beauty of the fair and its many entertainments, players will find that this is the threshold that leads to the fantastic domain of the Feywild, a wonderful world threatened by the Coven of the Hourglass.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will be an adventure that will bring the pe rsonages from level 1 to level 8 and, taking advantage of the extra-planar nature of the fair, it will be possible to insert this adventure in any setting. Among the novelties introduced by the adventure, there will be two new playable races, fairies and harengon (anthropomorphic rabbits) and two new special backgrounds, the Feylost, that is characters who grew up in Feywild and the Witchlight Hand, that is the characters who work at the Witchlight Carnival .

One last note that will make longtime D&D players happy: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will also mark the return of Warduke, Strongheart, Kelek and other characters linked to early D&D editions.

Peculiarities of the module

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will be a module that promises to be something unique in the history of the adventures of Dungeons & Dragons, both in terms of the general fairytale atmosphere, and for the insertion of new game mechanics.

Mark time and mark mood

The manual will include a map of the Witchlight Carnival, which, with the style of the maps of the theme parks, will illustrate in detail the different attractions and entertainment that the characters may decide to encounter. In the upper left and lower right corner of the map, two sundials have been inserted, one reserved for time and one reserved for mood. These two elements will be used to keep track of the time spent during the game and how the actions of the characters can influence, positively or negatively, the mood of the NPCs of the fair.

These two elements will have direct consequences on the progress adventure, which will take different paths depending on how much time elapses between one event and another and how the NPCs react to the players' choices.

Solving the adventure without fighting

An absolute novelty introduced with this module concerns the presence of a non-combat option, or the possibility of completely avoiding fighting. This is something that in the history of Dungeons & Dragons is unprecedented: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, in its desire to bring to life an adventure with fantastic and dreamy tones, will embrace this possibility, allowing its players to solve the whole adventure in a non-violent way, opting for creative roleplay actions that do not involve the use of brute force.

The domains of delight

In the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons the Feywild, or Plan delle Fate, is briefly introduced in the Dungeon Master's Guide, which redefines cosmology for this edition. The Feywild is also mentioned in other manuals, where some of its inhabitants are illustrated, for example in the Monster Manual and in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight expands and enriches the information on this plane and in doing so he introduces the Domains of Delight, a new setting, which draws inspiration from books such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and The People of Autumn by Ray Bradbury.

In terms of D&D lore, the name domains of delight may be somewhat familiar, recalling Domains of Dread, another plane of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, tied to the Ravenloft setting and explored. in the recent Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

Just like their dark counterpart, contained within the Shadowfell, the domains of delight represent a "bubble" within the Feywild ruled by u n Fairy Lord able to shape and reign over these domains.

The points of contact with Ravenloft, however, do not end with the planar question, in fact those who have had the opportunity to explore the domains of fear may have come across a another traveling fair, obviously much more frightening and sinister than the Witchlight Carnival: it is The Carnival.

Chris Perkins told us that in the past of these two caravans there was an encounter that changed the history of both the fairs. Mr. Witch and Mr. Light were the owners of The Carnival, however following a lucky bet the two shadar-kai took possession of the Witchlight Carnival, giving ownership of the dark fair to the original owner of the Witchlight Carnival, with the promise to exchange fairs when the two caravans meet again.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: when it comes out

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight will be released starting from 21 September 2021. As is customary, this manual will also be produced in two versions, alternative and regular cover, with the alternative edition reserved for the specialized sales outlet circuit.

The covers interpret the theme of adventure in a very different way, the regular will present an atmospheric illustration in which we will find the circus tent of the Witchlight fair dominated by the figures of Mr. Witch and Mr. Light. The alternative, on the other hand, will feature an extremely graphic cover, which will recall the style of art nouveau, with the illustration of a distorting panther surrounded by flowers, in what could easily be an advertising poster for the fair.

The Witchlight Carnival Dice & Miscellany

Combined with the release of the manual Wizards also presented The Witchlight Carnival Dice & Miscellany, a set of thematic accessories designed to accompany players in their adventure within the Witchlight Carnival and the domains of delight.

The Witchlight Carnival Dice & Miscellany includes a set of premium dice (2 d20s, 1 d12, 2 d10s, 1 d8, 4 d6s and 1 d4) orange with a glitter finish, a lined box , a map and nineteen cards illustrated with information about the different non-player characters, creatures and objects that animate the Witchlight Carnival.