News Roundup: WOTC Recalls Eberron Artificer Books Due to Printing Defect

Welcome to this news roundup for TTRPG Insider. We touch on the delay of Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, we have a new trailer for Season 5 of Stranger Things, and we take a look at the pricing for the upcoming D&D starter kit that’s more board game than TTRPG.

In This Edition

• Eberron: Forge of the Artificer Release Delayed Du …

• Is the Upcoming D&D Starter Set Too Expensive?

• Stranger Things Finally Reveals Season 5 Footage

• In Other News

• My Reporting This Week:

Eberron: Forge of the Artificer Release Delayed Due to Printing Defects

Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, the upcoming release of the artificer class and additional lineages for the 2024 update to Dungeons and Dragons, has had its release schedule delayed due to printing defects.

“A few weeks ago, we received the first printed copies of Eberron: Forge of the Artificer,” the company wrote in a Friday blog post. “At first, everything looked great and met our production standards. But as time passed, a serious issue emerged: the covers began to warp. This was a defect that developed after production and wasn’t visible during initial inspection.”

The company reviewed the entire run of printed books and determined that it would recall and reprint the entire series.

“We know waiting isn’t easy, but to preserve the integrity of the experience and ensure a unified launch for everyone, we’ve aligned the digital and physical editions to the same timeline,” the staff wrote. This means both the digital and physical editions will now officially launch on December 9, 2025. Early access has been adjusted to match the new release timeline.” Digital access has also been delayed to Nov. 25 for DND Beyond Master Tier subscribers and Dec. 2 for Hero Tier.

The product was initially scheduled to release on Aug. 19, 2025, but will now be delayed four months to accommodate the reprint.

The book would contain the 2024 edition of the Artificer, five subclasses for it, five revised species, 17 new backgrounds, 28 new feats, and new tools to allow players to explore the steampunk-themed Eberron setting created by Keith Baker.

The decision to recall these books arrives at a costly time. WOTC is likely losing a substantial source of revenue due to Diamond Comic Publishers’ decision to liquidate its inventory of books that it is selling. WOTC has not commented on its losses from this liquidation yet. However, a January filing revealed that Diamond owed more than $914,000 to Wizards of the Coast, and over $1 million to Hasbro in a separate transaction. The reprint will place an additional cost upon the company and impact the TTRPG publisher’s bottom line for the upcoming quarter.

Hasbro is expected to announce its Q2 2025 earnings on July 23, 2025.

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Is the Upcoming D&D Starter Set Too Expensive?

Heroes of the Borderlands, D&D’s upcoming starter set, is launching in September to help people get more into the 2024 run of D&D.

What caught some people’s attention was the price. Heroes is priced around $49.99, which is more than twice the price of past Starter Sets (such as Lost Mines of Phandelver or Dragons of Stormwreck Isle). Is this Wizards of the Coast mooching off consumers, or something else?

It’s important to note that Heroes has significantly more components than past starter sets, including sheets, cards containing stat blocks, tokens for each monster and dice. The design clearly treats Heroes more like a board game than a TTRPG. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last few months of reporting on TTRPGs, it’s that board games are way more expensive than TTRPGs to produce in this tariff-heavy environment. But I suspect this design decision was made way before this became an economic problem.

I’ll be curious to see if this price point decreases product sales, but it’s clear that WOTC wants to make playing D&D (particularly a starter campaign like this) easier than ever.

GenCon is coming up. TTRPG Insider will be your go-to guide to the “Best Four Days in Gaming” in Indianapolis, IN. Stay tuned as we cover all the announcements, news releases, panels and more!

Want to meet me there? Shoot me an email at [email protected] and I will do my best to meet you where you are.

Stranger Things Finally Reveals Season 5 Footage

Stranger Things 5, the finale to the show that many attribute to the surge of interest in TTRPGs, has received a full trailer with actual lore and content from the new season. Seems that a lot of the old monsters are returning, the town is under serious lockdown and some chaos is brewing.

The season description is as follows:

The fall of 1987. Hawkins is scarred by the opening of the Rifts, and our heroes are united by a single goal: find and kill Vecna. But he has vanished — his whereabouts and plans unknown. Complicating their mission, the government has placed the town under military quarantine and intensified its hunt for Eleven, forcing her back into hiding. As the anniversary of Will’s disappearance approaches, so does a heavy, familiar dread. The final battle is looming — and with it, a darkness more powerful and more deadly than anything they’ve faced before. To end this nightmare, they’ll need everyone — the full party — standing together, one last time.

The new season will premiere in three parts; Vol 1 arrives on Nov. 26, Vol 2 arrives on Christmas, and the finale on New Year’s.

I’m glad that the Duffer Brothers get to end this show when they decide to end it. I’m also curious to see if this final season could help resurge interest in D&D, or if all the ‘hype’ it could build is already spent. The show is special for myself because my siblings and I (who are now spread across the United States) regularly gathered to watch the new seasons together. It’s a program that we all get super excited about when it premieres, even if my parents (who both work in ministry) don’t get the horror.

In Other News

Tabletop Vacations, the company behind D&D in a Castle (the vacation event where you travel to a castle and play D&D with celebrity DMs), is expanding its offerings with a new program called Dungeon Master University. The program will host its first “symposium” in 2026 at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA. The courses offered will include “skill-building, campaign-building, world-building and career-building.” GMs will take their chosen track of courses and pay between $950 and $2,250 for the experience. Personally, I’m very curious about what sort of GM training is worth $2,000 myself and what amenities come with it. Also, whose teaching is worth that much?!?!?!

Critical Role is going overseas for its 2026 Echoes of Exandria tour. EU fans should prepare to see shows in Berlin, Edinburgh and London next year! Also, Travis Willingham is going to DM a game in Fort Worth, TX (his home state).

Paizo has partnered with Titan Forge, and MyMiniFactory to produce STLs and print-on-demand miniatures for Pathfinder and Starfinder. They’ll be available for purchase starting on July 31, 2025.

Mutants and Masterminds, Green Ronin’s D20-based superhero TTRPG, is getting a fourth edition update, according to creator Steve Kenson. A playtest will be released by the end of July, along with a limited print run for Gen Con attendees.

The Twenty-Sided Tour, the off-Broadway D&D traveling show, begins this week with a run in Washington, DC. It is expected to cross the country in the coming weeks and months.

Alfred Leonardi, the founder of the small game publisher Nova Games, passed away (according to the publisher's Facebook page.) He's best known for creating Ace of Aces, a 1980 WW1 air combat game, and the "combat picture book game" Lost Worlds.

My Reporting This Week:

We covered the change in developers for 7th Sea, Chaosium’s swashbuckling TTRPG. We also spoke with Sebastian Yue about their latest scenario for Spire.

I got to sit down and review the new D&D anthology, Dragon Delves for The Fandomentals. Is it worth your time?

That’s all this week! Feel free to send tips, press releases or emails to [email protected].