Dungeons and Dragons, take 5: what you need to know

The new Dungeons and Dragons 5E has been in development by Wizards of the Coast for over two years now, and it is nearing completion; with the Starter Kit launching on July 15th. The rest of the release dates are as follows:

July 15 — Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set, $19.99.

August 19 — Player’s Handbook, $49.95.

August 19 — Hoard of the Dragon Queen, $29.95.

September 30 — Monster Manual, $49.95.

October 21 — The Rise of Tiamat, $29.95.

November 19 — Dungeon Master’s Guide, $49.95.

You can find more information on io9. Here’s a quote from the article:

Wizards of the Coast is Outsourcing, and That’s a Good Thing

The people at Wizards of the Coast are pretty great at designing games, but sometimes they’re not so great at other things. This makes the decision to license or hire out certain aspects of D&D to people who are experts in those areas particularly interesting. The D&D miniatures line, due out in July, has been licensed to WizKids, who have been making prepainted plastic minis like HeroClix and Mage Knight for over a decade (although random booster packs of minis and another crazy high price point have me scratching my head). Better yet, the marquee adventures coming out alongside the core books were created by Kobold Press, headed up by Wolfgang Baur and Steve Winter. Those are some highly respected names in the RPG world, and I’ll have an interview with them about the new adventures later this week.