CHRONOMANCER: WotC's new meta-setting?

[LuisCarlos17f]

My opinion is we will see before the return of Spelljammer and later maybe chronomancer.

The chrononauts ( = time-travelers) are a good tool to justify some changes in the canon setting, for example the new classes (incarnum or martial adepts) or races. This allow even the total reboot for some D&D worlds, but there is a great risk to create an effect "jump the shark".

I love to create my own mash-up version of the most popular sci-fi & fantasy franchises but for a publisher company is more dangerous. If there is a retcon, what happens with the canon novels and books?

My hypothesis is we will see something like time-spheres, a mixture of crystal spheres from Spelljammer and the Hollow World from Mystara.

My homebrew rule is the time-travels can't change the past really (could Strand Von Zarovich to be killed before to become vampire, or Rajaat before to start the genocide wars in Athas, or lord Soth saved Krynn and avoid the cataclysm?), but they create a new timeline. Some time there is a cosmic conflict among these timelines, and the losers don't disappear really but they become a special type of demiplane, a kingdom of dreams or the nightmare, where fay lord's primal power is higher, but the planar barrier are weaker to stop visits from the Far Realm.

 

[SuperTD]

Unfortunately the reference to a time machine was almost certainly a joke based on the picture he tweeted previously with the wrong date and Mearls's reply.

 

[LordEntrails]

I gotta think the guys at WotC who post these things probably have running bets with each other.

Friday Night at Wizards:

"I bet you a beer that I can get people to speculate on way more crazy stuff than you can?"

"Oh yea? Well hold my beer..."

 

[Dungeonosophy]

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.

Well said. Time travel has been an especially big feature of Dragonlance. Raistlin's time travel was a key element of the Dragonlance saga. There was a whole 3.5E sourcebook about time-travel in Krynn: Legends of the Twins: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/3252/Legends-of-the-Twins-35?affiliate_id=2126

Mystara has the Comeback Inn - a time machine which takes the characters to and from the Age of Blackmoor. And also The Nexus from the CM6 module, whereby the party can visit any time or alternate world.

Timetravel is, or could be, a prominent meta-setting for the D&D Multiverse.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Unfortunately the reference to a time machine was almost certainly a joke based on the picture he tweeted previously with the wrong date and Mearls's reply.

You may be right. It would be unfortunate. Because a Chronomancer+Planescape+Spelljammer mashup meta-setting would be awesome.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

If there is a retcon, what happens with the canon novels and books?

It looks like all of the settings other than Forgotten Realms might be rebooted and retconned. I've heard from Ravenloft loremasters that the Curse of Strahd timeline is actually an entirely different timeline than the Classic Ravenloft timeline. In the Curse of Strahd, iconic characters from various eras of Ravenloft are presented as living in Barovia at the same time.

In the case of a reboot or retcon, the original timeline continues to exist as an alternate continuity.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

P.S. Dr. Who / Quantum Leap / Sliders already has been done by TSR/WoC. There's already a precedent. The Alternity RPG had a campaign model called "Tangents" which was basically modeled on Sliders/Quantum Leap/Dr. Who. Same for the "Dimension X" campaign model of d20 Future. And, well, 2E Chronomancer is basically Dr. Who too - the whole backstory of Time Guardians and so forth was very Dr. Who-esque. It'd be awesome.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Nope, sorry, but you are wrong. The partial -omancer word is obviously meant to be a new wizard sub-class: Ovinomancer, which has the ability to turn enemy creatures into sheep. *







*you will get this is you are a MtG fan.

 

[Ancalagon]

Nope, sorry, but you are wrong. The partial -omancer word is obviously meant to be a new wizard sub-class: Ovinomancer, which has the ability to turn enemy creatures into sheep. *







*you will get this is you are a MtG fan.

[MENTION=16814]Ovinomancer[/MENTION] will get it at the very least

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

“Neck Romancer”?