On the first evening of GenCon 2026, in a venerable theater that Wizards of the Coast took over for a weekend’s worth of Dungeons & Dragons activities, the team behind the biggest tabletop roleplaying game in the world revealed its next year of upcoming adventures.
There was plenty of news to look forward to, including the triumphant return of D&D legends to contribute to classic D&D settings like R.A. Salvatore (The Legend of Drizzt), Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis (Dragonlance) and Luke Gygax (Greyhawk, one of the earliest D&D settings created by his father, Gary Gygax). Among the banquet of table offerings was outreach to other corners of nerd culture — including new sets for World of Warcraft and Star Wars planned for this year and next.
The new series, Universes Beyond, works much like the same-named subset of Magic: The Gathering releases: adapting fan-favorite franchises to the game’s system. In D&D’s case, this means adapting the iconic signature, villains, boss fights and regions for D20 rules. Yes, that means you can fight the Lich King in D&D — that’s the objective of the Warcraft set’s first adventure, plotted out so players can jump in right out of the box.
But the big virtue of Universes Beyond is kicking off custom adventures to explore the corners of these franchises with characters that players can grow at their own pace. With all the information Wizards of the Coast has revealed, CNET’s brain trust of dice-rollers has come together to theorycraft exactly what we want to play first in these exciting new collaborations.
The only problem? The D&D team shared plenty about the World of Warcraft set, which will come out in the fourth quarter of 2026, but shared almost nothing about Star Wars. Still, we let our imaginations run wild for how we’d play to see what happens in Azeroth and a galaxy far, far away.
How CNET would explore the World of Warcraft, one dice roll at a time
The D&D team rolled out a small family of products that will debut with the World of Warcraft set toward the end of the year, including a 265-page sourcebook (along with special and hobby store-exclusive editions), the aforementioned adventure called Icecrown Citadel for character levels 16-20, a map pack for said adventure, miniature packs and a dungeon master’s screen adorned with famous characters from the MMORPG. All of those are available for preorder right now with a full release later this year on Nov. 17.
On stage during the D&D keynote, presenters laid out what the set adds to the broader tabletop RPG. You’ll be able to play virtually any species you can in the online game, including 11 that are wholly new to D&D, such as Dracthyr, Earthen and Pandaren. There are nine subclasses in the sourcebook, six of which are new, like the iconic Death Knight, Demon Hunter and Shadow Priest. There are also stat blocks for the MMORPG’s most famous characters, like Arthas Menethil, Jaina Proudmoore, Anduin Lothar, Thrall and Sylvanas.
Here’s what CNET’s editors would play first:
It’s been over 20 years since I last played World of Warcraft – I reluctantly canceled my subscription when I started college. But as soon as I read D&D’s news, my mind immediately cast back to my time roaming the Barrens of Kalimdor as a troll shaman, braving the frontier for the Horde. Before smartphones and doomscrolling and Twitter and all the modern escapes in your pocket, entering the Dark Portal on World of Warcraft’s login screen was how I left my mundane reality behind.
I never got to a high enough level to participate in a raid, the large-group efforts that bundled 10, 25 or even 40 players together to take on the biggest bosses in the game. From Ragnaros to the Lich King himself, the sourcebook has stat blocks for 30 of these classic World of Warcraft baddies, though they’ve been scaled down so that a D&D-friendly three-to-five-person party can take them on. I’d love to tackle the worst of the worst, explore the seven dungeons in the new sourcebook, and more — undertaking the challenges I missed out on to prevent me bungling my college career.
- David Lumb, Managing Editor
I’ve been WoW-curious for about as long as the game has been around, but I’ve always been a bit too intimidated by the prospect of investing hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into a game when I already feel like I can’t keep up with new releases and my existing library. So World of Warcraft coming to Dungeons & Dragons is exciting because it’s an opportunity for me to interact with the world without tumbling into a seemingly bottomless pit.
I enjoy casting spells and controlling battlefields, so my mind immediately goes to a couple of different builds. If my group wants to go the Alliance route, a Frost Mage Void Elf sounds like a fun time, and fairly straightforward to build with existing D&D Wizard rules. If we’re feeling more Horde, I’d probably check out the new Shadow Priest subclass, maybe as a shifty Vulpera. I’m excited about the high-level Lich King adventure, but I’m hoping the book also gives us options for things like a political intrigue campaign set in the maritime island nation of Kul Tiras, which is the kind of campaign I might brew up if I were in the DM seat.
- Adam Benjamin, Managing Editor
Forecasting fights and the Force in Star Wars D&D
While the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast had a lot to share about the upcoming World of Warcraft set due out later this year, they were tight-lipped about what’s coming with Star Wars. Despite prodding, the team deigned not to reveal anything just yet — not even whether there will be starship flight and combat systems in the game. And no, they didn’t confirm what challenge rating the Death Star will be (we’re betting it’s in the triple digits).
Without even a hint at what’s to come, we speculated on what we want most from exploring the expansive Star Wars universe, one dice roll at a time.
I’ve been playing Star Wars TTRPGs for an entire decade at this point, and having the franchise officially come to D&D is an exciting proposition. It’s going to be interesting to see how they deal with the more technical aspects of space combat, and I’m looking forward to seeing what era of Star Wars they start in.
I like the concept of a Force User droid. Potentially like General Grievous (a biological/droid mix), but as a Wizard-style class. His familiar could be a mouse droid from the Death Star. I’m not sure if “Droid” will be a race in the new campaign, but D&D already has a Warforged race from Eberron, so it doesn’t feel like a big stretch to add them here. Droids are such a large part of the Star Wars Universe and I would enjoy the roleplay challenges they would bring to the table.
- James Bricknell, Managing Editor
We don’t know what we don’t know yet when it comes to Star Wars played through a D&D lens, but the Star Wars universe is more than big enough to speculate on what would be cool to have. My genuine hope is that the rules being built for this little expansion make it relatively easy to play in any era of Star Wars. As much fun as it would be to roleplay through a big battle with Darth Vader or a space dogfight against a Star Destroyer, I’d love to see some of the flexibility from the High Republic era as well. From repair and hacker focused roles like Mekneks to the greater diversity of Force powers of the era, it’s a bigger sandbox to play in.
This doesn’t mean there needs to be a core book for each era of Star Wars, just a set of rules that encourage adaptation. This is something Wizards of the Coast has demonstrated as a core strength since the release of the 2024 rules. The tools for supporting the creativity of players have been well established, but adapting the massive and decidedly not high-fantasy vibes of Star Wars presents some fun challenges. I genuinely can’t wait to play.
- Russell Holly, Content Director
What’s the first thing D&D’s developers will play?
Ahead of the GenCon keynote, I chatted with several game developers from Wizards of the Coast to get the full scope of the World of Warcraft set. From development to new mechanics to how the Universes Beyond sets would play with broader D&D, I plied them with many questions — including what they would do first in their new worlds. While they couldn’t comment on Star Wars, they did have answers for World of Warcraft.
“For me, it’s the Icecrown Citadel adventure,” said Laura Hohman, product architect for D&D. Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft’s second expansion, was what really got her hooked, even though she spent most of the time collecting owls, she admitted with a laugh. But the climactic raid at the end, where players take on the Lich King, holds a special place in memory and nostalgia for her.
“I can’t wait, once this is out there, to play this with my friends [and] recreate those moments again in a new way on tabletop,” Hohman said.
Jeff Turiff, director of product management for D&D Beyond, the online character creator and portal for resources, talked about updates coming to the service as well as to its mobile app version. Fittingly, the self-avowed Horde player is going to “probably start by rolling up some characters.”
“I love character builds. Hop on D&D Beyond, of course, and make some characters to test drive in a setting — maybe in a standard D&D setting would be kind of cool,” Turiff said.
D&D Game Design Director Justice Arman is most excited about the mounts, an iconic element from the MMORPG that enables players to speedily travel (and show off with more exotic beasts of burden).
“I’m from Tennessee originally, so maybe it’s the cowboy in me, but the idea of having a direwolf or gryphon mount is pretty cool,” said Arman.
But as with Hohman, Arman turned to his memories of playing the MMORPG back in the day. It’s less about what race or class he plays, but who he plays tabletop games with, he said.
“Back in undergrad, I had two roommates who were wrestlers and they loved World of Warcraft, and we were playing it so often,” Arman said. “I would love to sit down with them and reconnect.”
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