CHRONOMANCER: WotC's new meta-setting?

The most recent teaser strongly points to an unexpected meta-setting...CHRONOMANCER. Besides the clear reference to a "Time Machine", note the partly obscured word in the upper right-hand corner of the photo:

(CHRON)OMANCER



Chronomancer was a one-shot book for AD&D2e which provided a time-travel meta-setting which did for the Demiplane of Time (aka the Temporal Prime) what Planescape and Spellljammer did for the planes and space. The lead designers were Leonard Coleman and Matt Forbeck.

Here's the book at DMs Guild, along with a good Product History written by Shannon Applecline: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17442/Chronomancer-2e

There is an appendix in the book which outlines Chronomancy's ties to the main Official AD&D Worlds, such as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

Yet an official web enhancement was subsequently released entitled "Chronomancy and the Multiverse 1.1". This gave even more examples of Chronomancy from Earth (of the Historical Reference Campaign), Greyhawk, Gamma World, Gothic Earth (of Masque of the Red Death), and Mystara.

Here's the web enhancement: http://pandius.com/chron.html

It makes sense for WotC to bring Chronomancer back for 5E. If it were combined with Planescape and Spelljammer, there'd be an uber-meta-setting capable of bringing PCs to any world and time in the D&D Multiverse. It could serve as the foundation for sort of time-and-space-travelling "Pathfinder Society" which spans the D&D Multiverse.

Even within the core 5E setting of Forgotten Realms, there are so many playable eras of Toril: before the Second Sundering, the Spellplague, and the Time of Troubles. These would all be wide open for exploration again.

What past and future times, in what worlds, would you like to visit?

Here are some examples:

The Arcane Age (Toril)
The War of the Lance (Krynn)
The Age of Might (Krynn) - the era of Istar, prior to the Cataclysm, which was explored in some novels and comics.
Age of Blackmoor (Mystara) - the home setting of D&D co-creator Dave Arneson
Greyhawk 2000 (Oerth) - basically "Greyhawk Modern".

A couple talking-points in regard to Chronomaner 5E:

1) Let's synchronize the worlds of the D&D Multiverse. With the release of 5E Chronomancy, it would be a good time to line up the timelines of the various D&D worlds, via a sort of "Grand History of the D&D Multiverse". There are research details here: https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/timeline

2) A curious question arises: will the previous "rules-based" features of the Forgotten Realms, such as the Cavalier and Assassin classes from before the Time of Troubles, or the changes in spellcasting which occurred through the various "edition-change" cataclysms, be modeled using 5E rules? Or will it be totally hand-waved, as if the world was always depicted via 5E? The 2E Arcane Age product, set in Toril's ancient past, offered optional rules for modeling 1E features using 2E rules! Similarly, because the Saga card-based RPG system was used for one era of the World of Dragonlance, when this era was later depicted using 2E and 3E rules, some features of the Saga system were modeled via 2E and 3E, such as the Saga magic system. (For more about "game system realities" see: https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/d-d-realities)

What would you like to see in a Chronomancer (+Planescape+Spelljammer) meta-setting?

The half-covered letter in your first illustration isn't an "N", as it has two parts sticking out. So it's far more likely to be an "R", for "Necromancer"

You may be right. Nevertheless, there'd still be a Time Machine.

Polyhedral Columbia said:

What would you like to see in a Chronomancer (+Planescape+Spelljammer) meta-setting?

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Absolutely nothing.

My dude, do you have any idea how many words end with “omancer?” That could literally be any Latin prefix that ends with an o. Although knowing D&D, it’s almost definitely necro or maybe pyro.

Ugh, time travel. It's like, the 2nd worst plot device for anything except Doctor Who.

What's wrong with a Dr. Who-inspired D&D meta-setting? That'd be awesome. The entire timeline of all the D&D worlds would be opened up for adventure. That's basically what Chronomancer was.

A Planescape-Spelljammer-Chronomancer meta-setting would turn D&D into sort of a Rick and Morty-verse....OK, I'm on board.

"Tiny Elminster!"

Having noodled around with time travel in several games over the years...

Time travel plots are great if the audience (in this case players) know a *whole lot* about the setting. Shows like Doctor Who and Timeless, and games like Kevin Kulp's Timewatch are set in something like the "real world" in which all the history the audience/players remember from high school happened. Without that really detailed knowledge, time travel loses a lot of is savor - if you don't have intimate knowledge of the history, travelling to is is like travelling to another place.

I don't believe sufficient history has even been written for D&D worlds, much less is that tlore common knowledge, for this to be particularly special, to me.

Umbran said:

Having noodled around with time travel in several games over the years...

Time travel plots are great if the audience (in this case players) know a *whole lot* about the setting. Shows like Doctor Who and Timeless, and games like Kevin Kulp's Timewatch are set in something like the "real world" in which all the history the audience/players remember from high school happened. Without that really detailed knowledge, time travel loses a lot of is savor - if you don't have intimate knowledge of the history, travelling to is is like travelling to another place.

I don't believe sufficient history has even been written for D&D worlds, much less is that tlore common knowledge, for this to be particularly special, to me.

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There is a really great Ravenloft adventure which uses time travel both for investigative purposes and also problem solving (like in Zelda: A Link to the Past). It takes place in a castle which is shifting through time. Sometimes they are in the past and sometimes in the present (and even possibly the future). They learn about what happened but they can also influence the present through the past.

I think it works very well.