Would you rather we get more setting neutral content than adventures?

Azzy · Apr 19, 2019

Actually, what I want is a supplement or supplements that includes setting-specific material for multiple (currently) unsupported settings in one book—gimme the Dragonalance, Dark Sun, Kara-Tur, etc. races classes, subclasses, spells, and monsters so I can play those settings or pilfer them for homebrew settings.

MNblockhead · Apr 19, 2019

Honest question. Is this desire born out of playing Adventurer's League games? Every time this conversation or any conversation about wanting more content or a quicker release schedule comes up, I'll note that there are are already many great competing settings for 5e from various third-party publishers. Kobold Press's Midguard setting and Frog God Game's forthcoming Lost Lands setting are both content rich, high quality publications. The Numenera setting is coming out for 5e. Even among the official stuff there is Ravnica and Eberron in addition to Forgotten Realms. If I were running a game in the Forgotten Realms, Ravnica, or Eberron, I'd rather see more material fleshing out these setting than another setting book.

Every time I bring up non-official material the common retort seems to be that it is not AL legal. Yet I would think for organized play that sticking with a specific setting is more important than proliferating settings. Wouldn't it be better that the world all these AL characters are supposedly acting is more fleshed out than creating new settings?

I'm not trying to be contrarian, but the current release schedule is doing very well for WotC and their experiences with bloat in earlier editions have made them wary of rocking to boat. And, yet, that doesn't affect me in the slightest. but I'm DROWNING in great-quality material, both adventures, setting, and character options.

I realize that there are people who are lucky enough to play much more than I am and some of them only want to play D&D 5e, but I find it hard to believe that even these folks are lacking in options unless they choose to ONLY use official content.

Hussar · Apr 19, 2019

[MENTION=6796661]MNblockhead[/MENTION] - That's a very good point. DM's Guild is absolutely chock a block with more material, and material from well respected content produces also, than anyone could ever possibly use. I get the idea that people want to revisit older TSR or WotC settings, sure, and that's fair, but, the notion that there isn't enough material out there really is indefensible. There's a TON of 5e material out there.

Paul Farquhar · Apr 19, 2019

Campaign setting stuff (even if it's just detailed descriptions for another part of FR) are useful to me, as are short adventures that can be dropped into an ongoing campaign.

Splat books like Xanthar's are fun, and I will probably buy them, even though I don't feel I need them.

Long campaign adventures are of little use to me, and I will usually give them a miss. I might be tempted if they do one for levels 12-20.

DEFCON 1 · Apr 19, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
For a lot of people, the idea of buying books from a version to the game they aren’t going to play, so that they can then do the work of translating its contents into the game they are going to play, is just untenable.

If a book is primarily fluff, story, and plothooks... you don't need a "5E" version of it because the only stuff that would be edition specific would be monsters. And we've already gotten 3 books worth of monsters so its not like they have skimped out on us there. But a "focused release" book or product like Chronos96 was suggesting they wanted (a la Frostfell, Sandstorm, or Stormwrack) is rather unnecessary if everything in those books is edition-neutral and applicable to any kind of adventure or campaign prep.

I think that's the point of WotC's decision-making process on how they are putting their current books together. They are releasing books that have stuff for players & DMs that aren't just carbon copies of past books they've already made because they want to make these books applicable to a larger amount of people, including those who already own all those older books. I mean, do we really need a new "Manual of the Planes" that just describes and details the same exact planes that they already described to us in 4E, 3E, 2E and so forth? Personally, I don't think so (although I'm sure a few people will say "Yes, of course they do!".

But when we have entire books dedicated to the Feywild and the Shadowfell that they wrote for 4E, what would we gain by them just virtually reprinting them and slapping "5E" on the cover? A bunch of extra monsters in 5E styled statblocks, sure. But we already got a bunch of monster statblocks just that in Mordenkainen's Tome, the only difference being they chose a new part of the story and fluff to talk about (the Blood War), rather than the same "Here's four paragraphs about Limbo" that we've received many times over. If they are going to release books mainly filled with story, fluff, and hooks meant for only one specific type of player (DM or otherwise)... they aren't going to just re-do ones they've already done and which all of us could purchase and use right now.

TheSword · Apr 19, 2019

dnd4vr said:
I think, as usual, money is one of the goals in striving for both player and DM content in the same book--that way people who typically only play or DM will both buy the book. IMO it is a horrible system but it has been done since the beginning so it is nothing new.

I am not familiar with a lot of the books (I didn't even know the revised "Against the Giants" was part of Tales From the Yawning Portal LOL ) but I would like to see some better organization. One book with all the character creation stuff, one book of all the new spells, one book about the Underdark, etc. I hate having to browse through different books looking for this or that.

Why on earth would they do that when that would preclude them from reading more similar content in the future. If they released a book with all the spells it would be obsolete the next time they released a spell. Unless you stop releasing spells.

TheSword · Apr 19, 2019

What some people are asking for is diversification. Instead D&D is being consolidated. Material from older editions is being reinvented or updated to fit with the new paradigm. The great news is that the paradigm allows you to beg/borrow/steal/third-party/guess your way through pretty much any product in D&D history using existing products as templates if nothing else.

I for one would much prefer to have Tomb of Annihilation with dozens of scenarios, encounter locations, NPCs, new monsters (or old monsters updated), magic items, and a fully detailed city or two. The campaign books are awesome. Context is King as they say and Campaign books provide context and examples.

thundershot · Apr 19, 2019

I’d love to have a setting a year built into an adventure book. Make a Spelljammer or Dark Sun book with setting material, monsters, races, classes and backgrounds, and a few adventures. Even take the Yawning Portal or Saltmire approach and convert a couple old adventures and update them. It could get people started with that setting and then let the DMSguild handle the support.

eyeheartawk · Apr 19, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
On the other hand, I don’t want things like a PHB2.

Xanathar’s sold well and works very well as a book because, like the phb, it has stuff for everyone, and it expands the game in ways other than just more monsters and player options. Morty’s Doesn’t have as much player stuff, but it’s primarily a DM book with some player stuff, so I don’t mind.

It’s a good model.

My only problem with the "a bit for everyone" model (besides nakedly being a cynical business consideration) is that it makes the books worse to use at the table.

If I'm the DM and I want to look at a table for magic items by rarity to hand out some goodies, is it in the DMG? Nope, in Xanathar's. For some characters I've played I've had to use four different books just for a tiny little section in each. For actual use separating the contents into more tightly themed "player options" and "DM additions" would make the game easier to play and prepare for.

doctorbadwolf · Apr 19, 2019

DEFCON 1 said:
If a book is primarily fluff, story, and plothooks... you don't need a "5E" version of it because the only stuff that would be edition specific would be monsters. And we've already gotten 3 books worth of monsters so its not like they have skimped out on us there. But a "focused release" book or product like Chronos96 was suggesting they wanted (a la Frostfell, Sandstorm, or Stormwrack) is rather unnecessary if everything in those l is edition-neutral and applicable to any kind of adventure or campaign prep.

I think that's the point of WotC's decision-making process on how they are putting their current books together. They are releasing books that have stuff for players & DMs that aren't just carbon copies of past books they've already made because they want to make these books applicable to a larger amount of people, including those who already own all those older books. I mean, do we really need a new "Manual of the Planes" that just describes and details the same exact planes that they already described to us in 4E, 3E, 2E and so forth? Personally, I don't think so (although I'm sure a few people will say "Yes, of course they do!".

But when we have entire books dedicated to the Feywild and the Shadowfell that they wrote for 4E, what would we gain by them just virtually reprinting them and slapping "5E" on the cover? A bunch of extra monsters in 5E styled statblocks, sure. But we already got a bunch of monster statblocks just that in Mordenkainen's Tome, the only difference being they chose a new part of the story and fluff to talk about (the Blood War), rather than the same "Here's four paragraphs about Limbo" that we've received many times over. If they are going to release books mainly filled with story, fluff, and hooks meant for only one specific type of player (DM or otherwise)... they aren't going to just re-do ones they've already done and which all of us could purchase and use right now.

Heroes of the Feywild is a terrible example. It was made as precisely the same kind of book they’re releasing these days, not a book with 90% fluff. It has new class options, new races, new paragon paths and epic destinies, a dragon article with new themes just for it, an “origin story” chapter specific to making a character from the Feywild, new items, etc.

I don’t remember the Heroes of The Shadowfell book as well, but I know it had several new “e+” classes, races, etc.

I don’t think most folks want reprints of pure fluff books, and if they do, I agree that’s silly.