News Roundup: A 'Psionic' Addition to Dungeons and Dragons

Welcome to your weekly roundup of TTRPG news. In this issue, we explore the origins of the newest class for Dungeons and Dragons in six years. White Wolf offered more information on its plans going forward in the World of Darkness. Finally, the TTRPG VTT Foundry looks back at last year's developments and gives a closer look at what games are being played on its platform.

In This Edition

• The Psion Returns

• White Wolf Redux

• Foundry: A Year in Review

• In Other News

The Psion Returns

Wizards of the Coast surprised fans this week by releasing the Psion, the first new class to be added to Fifth Edition D&D since the mechanically inclined artificer was introduced in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. The class is currently Unearthed Arcana, which means that it isn’t formal content yet. But if enough people playtest and approve of it, we should expect to see it in an official WOTC book in the future.

The psion draws on psionic powers akin to those accessible by classes like the Psi Warrior and Soulknife, aka those manipulating matter and energy in the universe through their minds. It is a caster class, meaning spells rather than martial abilities define its abilities. The class was initially introduced to D&D in 1991 with the release of the Complete Psionics Handbook, but this is the first time it has appeared in Fifth Edition.

The core of the subclass is the Psionic Dice, a mechanic that allows the player to move characters with their mind or telepathically communicate with them. They’ll also be able to cast several of their spells without requiring verbal components, an element that may allow them to be more subtle about their use of magic in appropriate circumstances.

The class gets interesting in its subclasses. The Metamorph, for example, allows the player to remold their body into weapons they can use. The Psi Warper, in contrast, can move allies and enemies around the battleground. The Psykinetic can buff or debuff allies while blasting opponents for extra damage through their Psionic Dice. Finally is the Telepath, who is all focused on reading minds.

You can read the playtest for yourself and get a feel for how useful it might be at your table. It’s an interesting class that really could offer some fun options for players if they want to lean into a Professor-X type character. It seems more focused on more utility than high damage, but your results may vary.

The new class was released weeks after WOTC announced that it was testing new variations on its “horror” subclasses. These include Hexblade Warlock, Shadow Sorcerer, College of Spirits Bard and two new classes. I’m eager to test these out at some point, but I will admit that I am uncertain where they fit in the release calendar. Will we get a Ravenloft-focused supplement that might hold these new player options? Or is there something else coming out in the future?

Personally, I’m voting for a revamped version of the Domains of Dread.

White Wolf Redux

As we touched on last week, Vampire: The Masquerade publisher and licensor World of Darkness is getting a serious revamp by renaming itself as White Wolf. We’ve gotten a lot more details about what this means in the days after.

WoD Brand Marketing Manager (and resident plush doll) Jason Carl spoke with Forbes’ Rob Wieland about the rebrand and its implications for the game.

• There shouldn’t be any significant publishing changes. Renegade Game Studios, the company that prints all the current versions of WoD TTRPGs has been a “fantastic partner” and will continue to print books. White Wolf’s team intends to be more involved in the creation process and forming the TTRPG, which may be a good thing for the game in the long run.

• Carl is considering a combined or condensed book for the V5 rules that would help address some of the main issues with the Vampire the Masquerade core rulebook. A lot of fans have noted that while it is very stylish, it is also extremely hard to navigate for new players.

• White Wolf will significantly expand its team in the coming weeks and months to help create products faster.

Carl also alluded to Fifth Edition versions of Changeling the Dreaming, Mage the Ascension, and Vampire: The Dark Ages in an interview with a Brazilian influencer, which gives me hope that we might see those settings adapted to match v5 rule dynamics. The games still operate according to their older rules, but are still quite popular among World of Darkness fans. I’m more fond of the newer rules due to the systems' narrative flexibility, but I understand why folks may find the older stuff more fun.

We’re still in the early stages of the revamp, so we will see if Carl’s words pan out. After the revamp, VTM: Bloodlines 2 will be the first real White Wolf product to bear its name. We also have another version of VTM’s LARP event, Darkness Emergent, set for Nov. 2025.

But I’m raring to ‘sink my teeth’ into whatever White Wolf is cooking next.

Foundry: A Year in Review

Foundry is one of the leading virtual tabletops on the marketplace, best known for its customizability and strong developer support community. It’s also the VTT I use for nearly every game I DM.

The company published its Year in Review this week, acknowledging some of the major updates that it has implemented in its twelfth and thirteenth versions of the system as well as its upcoming plans for the 14th update.

Some of the company's biggest developments so far include the launch of its own TTRPG setting last year and the Foundry Marketplace earlier this year.

One of the more interesting aspects is seeing what games are being played through Foundry. While Roll20 remains the leading VTT, Foundry offers limited insights into what’s popular.

Fifth Edition D&D and Pathfinder (First and Second Edition) remain at the top, to no one’s surprise. What caught me off guard was the presence of Warhammer Fantasy Fourth Edition, Cubicle 7’s adaptation of the Games Workshop setting into a TTRPG format, in the top five. The mecha TTRPG Lancer also shot up the ranks in 2025. I’m curious if that growing interest is due to promotional efforts by Quinn’s Quest or if it is due to its rising popularity on the RPG subreddit. I’m told it is a popular game for helping move people from D&D into other systems, although I’ve yet to see any objective evidence of that.

The Foundry still has quite a long way to go if it wants to beat Roll20, particularly as the online VTT continues to acquire companies like DrivethruRPG and Demiplane. But I do think it is one of the better TTRPGs due to its constant community support and its mod-heavy approach to game design.

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In Other News

Kobold Press, a prominent third-party creator in the D&D space, has released a new collection of player options for 5e and Tales of the Valiant on Kickstarter.

Do you like Baldur’s Gate 3 but prefer Pathfinder rules over Fifth Edition? Now there’s a mod that changes the rules to make it feel like Pathfinder. At that point, you should just go play Owlcat’s Pathfinder CRPGs (which are phenomenal, by the way.)

In a video segment, CNN featured HOME, a solo TTRPG about defending your “home” from giant monsters. The fact that CNN featured -any- solo games is just bonkers to me and seems rather random. Will we see more TTRPG coverage at CNN or is this a fluke?

StoryCorps, an NPR-affiliated podcast, published a story about how players voting two different ways in 2020 led to the end of a thirty-year campaign of Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve mixed thoughts on the story. Exploring how the Trump election has split previously established communities is a topic that remains pertinent in our politically tense climate. At the same time, I wonder what wasn’t discussed at the table that allowed them to avoid touching on politics for such a lengthy period.

That’s it for this week’s roundup! Next week, we’ve got a ‘galactic’ story for you to consider.

If you have story ideas or want to chat for an interview, send me a note! My email is [email protected].

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