Covers Preview for Elemental Evil Adventurer's Handbook and Princes of the Apocalypse!

So, it's official now. The Elder Elemental Eye has been somehow released from The World of Greyhawk to unleash havoc in the Realms. No fantasy world was described in more detail than the Forgotten Realms, and they still manage to produce not one, but two storylines in a row with themes and antagonists that have nothing to do with the Realms. Good job, Wizards.

 

[pukunui]

Cite, please.

Or are you just assuming?

Chris Perkins said something to that effect in a recent interview. (IIRC, it was something about them not reviving Dragonlance unless they could come up with a good story for it.)

 

[pukunui]

So will we be seeing new character options in the Adventurers Handbook? Who is it being written by, WOTC or a 3rd party?

Yes, there will be new character options in the book, which is being written by Sasquatch Studios, or whatever they're called. WotC is overseeing the project and will publish it.

 

[lyle.spade]

Perhaps I'm missing some sarcasm here, but . . . the Realms IS a pretty generic world. It's why Greyhawk, Mystara, and even Dragonlance don't see much action, because they are ALL fairly generic worlds without much to distinguish themselves from each other. And the Realms has long been the most popular of the three, so it makes perfect sense for WotC to highlight the setting.

The storylines of Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil are PERFECT matches for FR. Retreading the War of the Lance in Dragonlance does not excite me, retreading the Temple of Elemental Evil in Greyhawk does not excite me. But adapting those themes to a different setting, one that is EASY-PEASY to translate to any homebrew? That is interesting to me, and I suspect to a lot of other people too, despite the Internet Kvetching Team's best complaints.

Guys, you are simply not going to get a new Greyhawk release anytime soon. It's also pretty unlikely we'll see a Dragonlance release in the near future. I'm a fan of both settings, and I'm excited to see their themes brought forward into the new edition. If I get a hankering to run me some classic Dragonlance, adapting Tyranny of Dragons should be super easy. Likewise with the upcoming Elemental Evil campaign if I really want to run me some Greyhawk goodness.

Or, I suppose, this is the internet. I could just join in on all the sour grapes and offended fans. Jeesh.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the artwork is fantastic! Really don't get the complaints and weird "transgender" comments. Keep up the good work WotC! You are making at least this guy happy with 5E!

Well said, Dire Bear. Those settings you mentioned are all pretty generic Western Europe-based fantasy worlds. Let's accept that and move along. Eberron is quite different, and even it doesn't escape m'lords and m'ladies and whatnot. I've never played Spelljammer, Dark Sun, or Ravenloft - and yet those seem to me to be the most unique and original worlds out there (that were official for DnD at some point).

I am actually very happy with the idea of taking some of the old 1e modules I have and converting them to 5e...in whatever world I decide to use, or perhaps my own. WOTC needs to make smart business decisions in terms of what books to produce, and so we're not going to get the wide shot patterns that we experienced way back when...it's not going to happen, and that's a good thing if we want the hobby through its flagship brand and company to prosper. WOTC will likely be conservative in what they produce and how much, and that's just good business sense for them. In the meantime I'll buy probably most of what they put out and will use it in whatever way I choose.

Remember: the WOTC police are not going to come and get you if you hack their modules.

 

[Gradine]

Frankly I'm excited for this AP, and look forward to using it to restart my Eberron Campaign, where I imagine it will make a better, easier fit than ToD. I'm also pretty excited about the splatbook, it will be a good indicator of the direction they will be taking splat in general this edition.

 

[HassanChop]

Like some others, I would prefer less Forgotten Realms and more other settings (Mystara, Greyhawk, Krynn, or a new setting).

 

[lyle.spade]

Frankly I'm excited for this AP, and look forward to using it to restart my Eberron Campaign, where I imagine it will make a better, easier fit than ToD. I'm also pretty excited about the splatbook, it will be a good indicator of the direction they will be taking splat in general this edition.

Great idea! I'll happily steal anything I can find to plug into Eberron.

 

[ranger69]

I have DM'd Mystara, Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk. I can see why people think they are similar, they are. However each has their own flavours also.
Forgotten Realms is probably the best known setting, so it does make sense for WOTC to use that setting.
Whichever setting I have used, including homebrew, I have never had a problem mixing and matching adventures between settings.
I am less concerned where this AP is set than the quality of adventure.

 

[AmerginLiath]

Keep in mind the storylines will also tie into the organized play program, affecting the villains and themes of those adventures. So they have to be in the Realms until that establishes themselves or they develop a method of moving between worlds. So the first real non-Realms adventure might be a Planescape/ extraplanar affair to allow PCs (or plots) to easily move between worlds.

THIS.

As others have pointed, these adventures can be converted to other campaigns/settings (especially being released months after the DMG), but the Adventurer's League organized play setting requires both keeping to the adventure-as-written and continuity in the overall setting (for factions and such, even if characters change). So that means Forgotten Realms for the main Storyline Adventures at least for now.

The question of using Tiamat and the Elder Elemental Eye in FR is a different one, but I'm also fine with it. As others have noted, I don't want to see Dragonlance and Greyhawk directly recycle their major stories once again ("Return to the Return to Temple of Elemental Evil!"), and I say this as a guy whose every D&D game is pretty much set on Krynn and would love to see DL back. Better to have these 'remixes' of classic elements that new and old players alike can enjoy in another applicable setting, where they can then seek out and readily convert the originals in their proper homes.

There are legitimate critiques to be made of the Tyranny of Dragons series (and likely will be of this upcoming storyline), but these aren't necessarily the ones to be made.

 

[lyle.spade]

About the Greyhawk complaints, who other than grognards actually knows about Greyhawk at all? There are at least a few fantasy buffs that know about Drizzt and Elminster and the Forgotten Realms, perhaps Dragonlance as well, but Greyhawk is relatively unknown. This edition just came out and they're still trying to build up a player base, why would they try to do that with a relatively unknown setting?

Sadly, good point on Ancient and Esoteric Knowledge Known Only to Grognards (AEKKOG). I have the old White Box with all the extra books still...never owned the Greyhawk boxed set, and have been playing DnD since before 1e was called 1e...and to be honest I can't tell you what made Greyhawk unique. I do remember ads in Dragon magazine heralding the release of the FR boxed set, with maps and clear overlays and all that, but never bought it. In fact, Eberron was the first, and only official world I 'bought into,' and thankfully I did it from the beginning so as to be able to make sense of it.

Yeah, GH has castles and knights and whatnot, right? Sounds pretty generic. FR has that, and the every-annoying Elminster and Drizzt characters (sorry folks...they just never did it for me.) There are plenty of places in FR that sound cool to me - I enjoyed Icewind Dale in the computer game and a book or two - and again, I'll just steal what I like for my own games.

If I were to have my drothers, WOTC would get cracking and publish Eberron for 5e...that'd make me happy. But being an old gamer - or just a gamer - I would likely still invoke my right as a geek to find something minor to complain endlessly about. There's nothing like assuming ownership of someone else's intellectual property and then slinging pointed words at them. Online.

Does anyone want to talk about the new lightsaber hilt?

 

[Mad Zagyg]

About the Greyhawk complaints, who other than grognards actually knows about Greyhawk at all? There are at least a few fantasy buffs that know about Drizzt and Elminster and the Forgotten Realms, perhaps Dragonlance as well, but Greyhawk is relatively unknown. This edition just came out and they're still trying to build up a player base, why would they try to do that with a relatively unknown setting?

Living Greyhawk was HUGE, actually, and much loved by an enormous player base. It was also the default setting of 3rd edition, which is much more suited to that role, in my opinion, than the Forgotten Realms.

It also seems likely that Greyhawk holds a special place in the hearts and minds of many of the designers working in the business today.

Oerth definitely transcends merely a grognard stomping ground.