GenCon: How D&D is Adapting Azeroth for Your Table

The Dungeons and Dragons Vision Keynote contained a multitude of new projects, but the one that I was the most intrigued by was a D&D book focused on World of Warcraft’s Azeroth. I’ve played WoW since I was in university in 2012, and have regularly returned to this world. So I was very excited to see the D&D: World of Warcraft leaks confirmed.

World of Warcraft, for those unaware, is arguably one of the biggest massive multiplayer roleplaying games in video game history. Originally published in 2004, it has regularly produced content and released eleven expansions of stories and adventures. Members of the noble Alliance and fierce Horde have faced off with Lovecraftian horrors from the void, demonic lords from the Twisting Nether, extremist warlords like Garrosh Hellscreem, and deathly lords like the Lich King.

So how do you adapt all of this into a single book? That’s the challenge that Principal Game Designer James Wyatt faced when adapting the game. A collaboration between D&D and WoW developer Blizzard Entertainment has been in the works for a long time, Wyatt told TTRPG Insider, although he was unable to state how long. Wyatt described himself as a lifelong fan of WoW, playing it decades ago in its earliest versions.

The book contains character options reflecting nearly all of WoW’s classes, from the holy priest to the fiendish demon hunter. Some classes map easily onto one another (rogues, monks, warlocks, etcetera). Players who want to be a mage in WoW, for example, can just choose to play something like an Evocation Wizard and modify their spell choices to better reflect the “vision” of a frost mage.

Other classes didn’t translate as directly. The Death Knight, for example, is an undead revenant empowered by the Lich King with powers related to blood, frost, and undeath. That’s not a class that translates 1-for-1 into a death knight in current D&D books.¹  

Players who want to become a death knight must create their character as a level three paladin and then take on the Oath of the Ebon Blade. The inability to choose to start out as a normal paladin is intended to reflect the fact that a DK is usually resurrected with death magic before being forced to serve. The DK paladin won’t have holy magic, however. Wyatt said they will only have access to the magics of undeath, just as most DKs would in-game.

D&D and WoW Warlocks also had some notable differences in design. While a D&D warlock is often described as a character who made a bargain with a greater power to get magic, that’s not required for WoW warlocks. They just have to force demons to work for them through dark magics.

Wyatt noted that the warlock relationship that most players use in D&D is not “hard-coded in the rules” and to play a warlock as they see fit. If they want a patron, it is certainly an option. But it’s not required. The patron is just “the source of your power,” Wyatt emphasized.

Blizzard Entertainment released a list of the six new subclasses featured in D&D Azeroth:

• Oath of the Ebon Blade Paladin (for Death Knight players)

• Oath of the Holy Paladin (for actual paladins)

• Demon Hunter Ranger (for Demon Hunter players)

• Shadow Domain clerics (for shadow priests)

• Discipline Domain clerics (for disc priests)

• Path of the Elements Barbarian (which leans into the fantasy of shaman)

Three D&D traditional subclasses will also be updated to help fit WoW’s aesthetic.

• Swashbuckler Rogue (for Outlaw Rogue players)

• Spiritual Guardian Barbarian (likely a play on one of the druids?)

• Warrior of Mystic Brews Monk (for brewmaster monk)

The remaining WoW classes will use reflavorings of already established D&D classes. The Dracthyr Evoker, for example, will use the sorcerer class.

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Capturing WoW’s Lore in a Single Volume

Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft not only faces the challenge of channeling the player experience, but the lore as well. When asked how up-to-date the game is with the current state of World of Warcraft, Wyatt said the last additions were the druidic Haranir and the Devourer Demon Hunter; two character options added at the beginning of the latest Midnight expansion. This means the book will not receive any new stats or features when future expansions (such as the upcoming Last Titan) come out.

The game was written with feedback from Blizzard’s lore team as well as a consultant who Wyatt says plays D&D with former WoW creative director Chris Metzen.

That doesn’t mean that DMs or players have to stick to the canonical timelines, however. The book (presented by time-traveling dragon Chromie) openly states that your table’s version of Azeroth is yours within the multiverse of timeways that define Azeroth. If players wanted to run a campaign where the Lich King wins, they absolutely could.

Players will be able to play in any period of time within Azeroth’s history, since the book will contain lore and resources on many of the key plot points.

The written dungeons and maps are significantly limited, however. The seven dungeons include Azjol Nerub from Wrath of the Lich King and Shadowfang Keep from the original launch of the game. Only certain boss monsters are included, such as the Lich King and Inquisitor Whitemane. The listed dungeons all seem to center on locations that long-time fans have fond memories of.

Wyatt said he made a stat block for C’thun (one of the Old Gods and a major raid boss from early Warcraft history), but it ended up cut on the floor.

At this time, there are no plans to release additional resources for Azeroth through additional books or Drops, although Wyatt seemed all too eager to do so if he was allowed.

“I’ve made it known that the opportunity to do another World of Warcraft book might delay my retirement,” Wyatt said with an excited look on his face.

Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft will release to the public on November 17. Early access begins on November 3.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].

1  The D&D team experimented with some villainous options in a recent Unearthed Arcana. However, Death Knights in traditional D&D lore are very different than WoW DKs.