Chris Perkins: Reintroducing Settings in Ways that Surprise People

WotC's D&D Story Manager, Chris Perkins, was the subject of an interview by a chap called Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti. One of the topics covered is campaign setting books; Perkins says that they want to reintroduce settings in "surprising" ways, and that they're not guaranteed to be books. (thanks to Mistwell for the scoop)

The video is below, but if you can't watch it right now, here are the highlights as listed by pukunui on WotC's website:

• He can't talk about products that haven't been announced yet
• They value all of their worlds, as each one has "tons of fans"
• They are focusing on specific areas within settings to detail and "codify" via their story bibles
• Their goal is to "challenge people's expectations" re: sourcebooks
• They're "not interested in releasing books for the sake of releasing books anymore"
• They want book releases to be events that will "surprise and delight people"; they also want to put out books that people will actually use rather than books that will just get put on a shelf to "stay there and slowly rot"
• "One of our creative challenges is to package [setting] material - reintroduce facts and important details about our worlds - in a way that we know that DMs and players are going to use, that's going to excite them, that's actually going to surprise them. We may get that content out, but I'm not going to guarantee it's going to be a book. I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to be anything that you've seen before. But it will be something."

[video=youtube;alnwC34qUFs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnwC34qUFs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
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[Jeff Albertson]

This all just feels like a subtle way to say we won't see a full CS anymore....

What is CS?

 

[DMZ2112]

Good to know!

In all seriousness I like this news. I keep saying this, but it never becomes any less true -- give us 1,000-foot updates rather than rehash the 10,000-foot material we've already purchased or could get at a discount from dndclassics.com.

I just hope future APs include more relevant setting detail than Princes of the Apocalypse, because 20 pages of (admittedly awesome) conversion guide at the end of the book doesn't cut it. PotA is a great book, but by moving the Temple of Elemental Evil to the Forgotten Realms you tell me nothing of value about the Temple of Elemental Evil and nothing of value about the Forgotten Realms, and now I really am only left with a long adventure I'll never use (and 20 pages of awesome conversion guide). It's not enough to justify a purchase.

The AP strategy has legs, but they have to be stretched; these books have to be truly multipurpose in scope.

 

[MoonSong]

What is CS?

Campaign Setting

 

[Halivar]

I think they should focus on making books people want to buy. I want to buy setting books. I don't want to buy adventure paths.

But there is nothing they can possibly release that they haven't released at least twice already (except maybe Spelljammer). I mean, if they wanted to be cynical, they could resell you the same setting book (as they did in 3.x and 4E), but it's really unnecessary. Right now I'm running 5E FR out of the 1E boxed set, and I am of the strong opinion that subsequent releases of that setting added absolutely zero value to what was already in that book and the atlas book.

 

[timbannock]

In all seriousness I like this news. I keep saying this, but it never becomes any less true -- give us 1,000-foot updates rather than rehash the 10,000-foot material we've already purchased or could get at a discount from dndclassics.com.

I just hope future APs include more relevant setting detail than Princes of the Apocalypse, because 20 pages of (admittedly awesome) conversion guide at the end of the book doesn't cut it. PotA is a great book, but by moving the Temple of Elemental Evil to the Forgotten Realms you tell me nothing of value about the Temple of Elemental Evil and nothing of value about the Forgotten Realms, and now I really am only left with a long adventure I'll never use (and 20 pages of awesome conversion guide). It's not enough to justify a purchase.

The AP strategy has legs, but they have to be stretched; these books have to be truly multipurpose in scope.

From the reviews (as I do not have a copy yet), one of the striking details of Princes of the Apocalypse is that it is more sandboxy than Hoard/Rise was, and each "adventure area" is covered in a way that allows it to be used outside of the scope of the campaign at large. Therefore, it seems like they purposely made it easier to just tear out and use sections in your home campaign.

At least, that's what I'm hearing from a lot of sources.

Do you agree with this? Is this just not something you'd use? Is it like Dungeon Magazine adventures, where you can reappropriate stats, items, NPCs, or locales?

Honestly curious what your view is, given what you said.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Campaign Setting

But we already have multiple versions of CSs, is a fourth, or fifth, really necessary, at this point?

 

[Kramodlog]

But we already have multiple versions of CSs, is a fourth, or fifth, really necessary, at this point?

CS change and over time. It is nice to have a compilation of the new lore. The FR has had the Sundering recently. Not sure what it is.

Of course they could always do a new one, like Nerath.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

But we already have multiple versions of CSs, is a fourth, or fifth, really necessary, at this point?

Depends on how you define "necessary."

I think that for those wanting to know the state of the Realms post-Sundering, sure, a CS book is necessary. There are people who prefer to run up to date games and want to know what's going on in the Realms.

I myself don't need such a book as my library of Realmslore is more than sufficient. Likewise my DMing experience.

However, if a new CS was published, I'd snatch it right up, because I love the Realms.

 

[Dire Bare]

I think they should focus on making books *I* want to buy. I want to buy setting books. I don't want to buy adventure paths.

Fixed it for you. Just because YOU want to purchase setting books and not adventure paths, doesn't mean WotC isn't producing products that many others don't want.

 

[Dire Bare]

Depends on how you define "necessary."

I think that for those wanting to know the state of the Realms post-Sundering, sure, a CS book is necessary. There are people who prefer to run up to date games and want to know what's going on in the Realms.

I myself don't need such a book as my library of Realmslore is more than sufficient. Likewise my DMing experience.

However, if a new CS was published, I'd snatch it right up, because I love the Realms.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Forgotten Realms setting book, redundant as it might be. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing if well done. However, I don't see it as a *necessary* release, even with the confusion over the events of The Sundering. A nice web article summing up all the Sundering changes would be enough, but I sure as hell wish they'd release something to lessen the confusion.