The world’s most famous MMMORPG is officially joining the world’s best TTRPG, as Wizards of the Coast just revealed that World of Warcraft will get an official Dungeons & Dragons release later this year — letting you bring Azeroth’s species, locations, bosses, and player builds to your table.
The gameplay expansion is due to launch as part of D&D’s Season of Champions on November 17, 2026, and it kickstarts a new-ish approach for the tabletop game — one that arguably borrows the most controversial aspect of Wizards’ other hit game, Magic: The Gathering. However, you won’t catch me complaining.
Because while the promise of nine new and updated subclasses, seven WoW dungeons to explore, over 60 spells to play around with among so many other additions is exciting, two words might overshadow this launch as they tease the arrival of plenty more otherworldly tie-ins (It has already told us Star Wars is coming down the line).
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This World of Warcraft expansion will kickstart D&D’s Universes Beyond era. And whatever you think of UB in Magic, it’s easily most at home in this Dungeons & Dragons form.
A multiverse of wonder
For the uninitiated, Universes Beyond is the branding used in Magic: The Gathering to denote cards featuring an IP that Wizards hasn’t developed. It has brought us game pieces featuring characters and places from Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Marvel, and soon Star Trek, among plenty more.
I love it. I first picked up the TCG because of its tie-ins (after seeing D&D and Stranger Things inspired cards), and having heard designers like Mark Rosewater talk so passionately about their approach to Universes Beyond card design, I can’t help but mimic their infectious joy.
Though I can’t pretend the whole community shares my feelings.
Whether it’s because UB now makes up three of every six sets released each year and the bloat some believe this many releases in general adds, the higher costs that come with UB products compared to in-universe expansions, or simply a dislike for the external IP and a belief its vibe doesn’t gel with Magic’s, you can find many reasons for Universes Beyond hatred.
Dungeons & Dragons, however, should dodge a lot of these community complaints. In fact, I could see the Universes Beyond expansion being widely loved by the community.
Above and Beyond
For a start, if anyone hates this approach, they can ignore it. This same strategy has been suggested by Wizards to folks who dislike UB in Magic: The Gathering, but outside of fan-made formats like Planar Standard it’s simply not viable — in competitive formats you have to follow the meta. In Commander you have to accept that your opponents will play the legal cards they want to play.
In D&D, however, the game is designed for you to pick and choose what is/isn’t incorporated into the world. Some DMs ban certain subclasses, or only accept a small selection of spells. In contrast, others (like myself) will invite not only all official content but plenty of homebrew sources to their tables.
Speaking of, either through unofficial fan creations or official adaptations created using the free Open Game License / System Reference Document (which allows folks to create their own 5e-compatible content using the core Dungeons & Dragons rules) there’s already a lot of external IP ready to access — either in roundabout ways like through Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt’s Bloodborne inspirations, or in more explicit capacities like Doctors and Daleks.
I think we’ve all also played in a game where someone has taken inspiration from pop culture to build a character. I’ve built a tarroka deck-wielding Fire Genasi Bard to recreate X-Men’s Gambit, and in one of my earliest D&D games two people at the table were clearly playing fantasy Han Solo and Chewbacca (and will likely love the offical Star Wars expansion D&D is offering up after WoW).
Entering D&D’s weird world of roleplaying can be a tough experience at first, so being able to lean on familiarity, especially in an official capacity like Universe Beyond, makes the game more accessible and also simply helps players have the fun they want to have.
That’s already the approach for in-universe expansions. There’s Greyhawk for high fantasy lovers, Dark Sun if you want a more mature, violent setting, Spelljammer if you want a space-themed adventure, and Strixhaven if you want to enjoy magic school drama, to name a few.
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
We’ll have to wait and see how D&D’s approach to Universes Beyond evolves over time, but I don’t see any downsides.
It’s a game all about creating the adventure you want to have. Universes Beyond won’t change that. If anything, it should only make that goal a heck of a lot easier for so many players.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
