Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Nentir Vale Coming to Dungeons and Dragons
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 7527881" data-attributes="member: 5142"><p>I will join the chorus of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate that the Nentir Vale is getting some public recognition and not buried through any guilt by association with 4e. On the other hand, I dislike many of the proposed changes that Mike Mearls has voiced for his homebrew rendition of it, such as the Dawn War deities being prior mortals. (This even seems antithetical to the spirit of the Nentir Vale setting.) As such, I also have trepidation about the possibility of this iteration of the setting being officially published in any capacity. </p><p></p><p>Nentir Vale was a remarkable setting for 4e D&D. It cohered well with the themes, power tiers, and style of play that 4e sought to engender. I am not implying that Nentir Vale should be regarded as a idiomatic relic that should remain relegated to 4e. Eberron also represents, in many respects, a vision of D&D that makes idiomatic sense in the context of 3Era's vision of D&D (e.g., magic item creation, ubiquitous magic and magic items, etc.), but Eberron was also able to translate well enough into both 4e and 5e with expected system adjustments. </p><p></p><p>Though many regard 5e as some sort of "restoration" of DM-empowerment, I already felt empowered as a GM when running Nentir Vale back in 4e. It was a barebones, "faded-slate" setting. There was an implied setting that was clearly designed for both GM plothooks and player character plug-ins. Nearly every monster had a connection to the overarching metanarrative. There were mysteries galore! And everything had a coherent sense of place in the mythos of this implied world. Though tieflings were ex-humans, I appreciated that the two biggest empires of the past were dragonborn and tieflings rather than the usual crew (e.g., "high humans," elves, etc.). But the playable world itself was mostly bereft of cumbersome details. It was a Sandbox Heaven! </p><p></p><p>As someone who did not come into the game until the launch of 3.X, most of the prior D&D settings had already been colored in the lines. I remember thinking as I read through the 4e materials and began forming a vaguely implied picture of what would become the Nentir Vale setting, "Is this sense of wonder what it was like in the early days of Greyhawk? A mostly empty sandbox for creative play?" This setting made me want to play D&D again. By this point, I had mostly abandoned D&D proper for a number of its OGL spin-offs (e.g., True20, Arcana Evolved, etc.). </p><p></p><p>I also remember reading through the background info and thinking to myself, "Finally! A D&D setting that appreciates the cosmological motifs of real world human myths!" I loved the Dawn War mythos. It had a titanomachy with a Chaoskampf. And even 4e's refurbished alignment seemed to reflect that motif. The real world represented a miscrocosmic stage on which the macrocosmic themes were re-enacted, re-negotiated, and re-fought. The creation of the Feywild and Shadowfell as parallel planes to the Prime was a masterstroke of genius that likewise brought 4e (and the Nentir Vale) into a more mythic and folkloric frame of reference. It's little surprise that both were carried over into 5e.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aldarc, post: 7527881, member: 5142"] I will join the chorus of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate that the Nentir Vale is getting some public recognition and not buried through any guilt by association with 4e. On the other hand, I dislike many of the proposed changes that Mike Mearls has voiced for his homebrew rendition of it, such as the Dawn War deities being prior mortals. (This even seems antithetical to the spirit of the Nentir Vale setting.) As such, I also have trepidation about the possibility of this iteration of the setting being officially published in any capacity. Nentir Vale was a remarkable setting for 4e D&D. It cohered well with the themes, power tiers, and style of play that 4e sought to engender. I am not implying that Nentir Vale should be regarded as a idiomatic relic that should remain relegated to 4e. Eberron also represents, in many respects, a vision of D&D that makes idiomatic sense in the context of 3Era's vision of D&D (e.g., magic item creation, ubiquitous magic and magic items, etc.), but Eberron was also able to translate well enough into both 4e and 5e with expected system adjustments. Though many regard 5e as some sort of "restoration" of DM-empowerment, I already felt empowered as a GM when running Nentir Vale back in 4e. It was a barebones, "faded-slate" setting. There was an implied setting that was clearly designed for both GM plothooks and player character plug-ins. Nearly every monster had a connection to the overarching metanarrative. There were mysteries galore! And everything had a coherent sense of place in the mythos of this implied world. Though tieflings were ex-humans, I appreciated that the two biggest empires of the past were dragonborn and tieflings rather than the usual crew (e.g., "high humans," elves, etc.). But the playable world itself was mostly bereft of cumbersome details. It was a Sandbox Heaven! As someone who did not come into the game until the launch of 3.X, most of the prior D&D settings had already been colored in the lines. I remember thinking as I read through the 4e materials and began forming a vaguely implied picture of what would become the Nentir Vale setting, "Is this sense of wonder what it was like in the early days of Greyhawk? A mostly empty sandbox for creative play?" This setting made me want to play D&D again. By this point, I had mostly abandoned D&D proper for a number of its OGL spin-offs (e.g., True20, Arcana Evolved, etc.). I also remember reading through the background info and thinking to myself, "Finally! A D&D setting that appreciates the cosmological motifs of real world human myths!" I loved the Dawn War mythos. It had a titanomachy with a Chaoskampf. And even 4e's refurbished alignment seemed to reflect that motif. The real world represented a miscrocosmic stage on which the macrocosmic themes were re-enacted, re-negotiated, and re-fought. The creation of the Feywild and Shadowfell as parallel planes to the Prime was a masterstroke of genius that likewise brought 4e (and the Nentir Vale) into a more mythic and folkloric frame of reference. It's little surprise that both were carried over into 5e. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Nentir Vale Coming to Dungeons and Dragons
Top