Wizards of the Coast offered new details on the Season of Magic organized play cycle for Dungeons & Dragons.
The Season of Magic, the second season of D&D Encounters in 2026 (see “‘D&D’ Play Seasons Revealed“), runs from September 1, 2026 to November 1, 2026. Key dates for the season break down as follows:
- Preorders & Scheduling Open. July 8, 2026
- Physical Play Kit Sign-up Deadline. July 29, 2026
- Digital Play Kit Available. August 12, 2026
- Physical Play Kit Delivery. August 19, 2026
- WPN Early Access Begins. September 1, 2026.
- Encounters Celebration (with early access). September 4–13, 2026
- Encounters Weekly Play (with early access). September 9–Oct 18, 2026
- Encounters Celebration (without early access). September 18–27, 2026
- Encounters Weekly Play (without early access). September 23–Nov 1, 2026.
In this season, players will head into the Forgotten Realms to battle the Red Wizards of Thay, which are part of the storyline from Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall (see “Preorder“). The D&D Encounters adventure for this season is titled Red Wizards’ Gambit and will feature an adventure for level 3 characters, who will advance to levels 4 and 5 over the course of four weekly play sessions. Weekly play sessions will run 90 minutes to two hours each and are designed to keep players coming back for more.
WotC made a couple of changes to the physical OP kits for this season. They now include 25 promo D20s as a participation award (replacing the folders from S1). Also, pre-generated level 4 and level 5 characters will be available for download (to give to players that didn’t play through the first few sessions, so they can jump in and play later sessions).
Source: ICv2
