D&D General Who's in the Who's Who of D&D

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Obviously, the money makers like Drizzt, Warduke, or Hank the Ranger, but how deep of a dive should they make?

Drizzt posts the "I don't know her" GIF in response to Warduke and Hank

Those two haven't made anyone significant money in more than 40 years.

Who do you include from Birthright? Where do you stop with Faerun? What about past hotness like Alias and Dragonbait? What about one-shot wonders like Duchess and Candella? Or maybe even Gord the Rogue? Bargle and Aleena should be obvious but would little known but critical to the setting characters like Emperor Thincol Torion of Thyatis have a chance?

I wouldn't include any of your list but Drizzt.

I think the lore glossary should be for questions like "who is Bigby and why does he have all these hand spells," "can you tell me more about these demon lord patrons without handing over the Monster Manual," "what is this Blood War the Monster Manual mentions several times?"

I don't see the value of NPC "celebrities" being collected all in one place, unless the gods of Krynn intend to drop a meteorite on all of them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I predict that if a proper name appears in any of the 3 books, it could easily get an entry in a Lore glossary. Below are some examples:

• Any spellcaster that has a named spell: Mordenkainen, Bigby, Otiluke, Tasha, etc.
• Any character mentioned in class or species entries as examples or sidebars, or if they use quotes like in they have in the Everything books: Will Bruenor or Drizzt be used in a sidebar? Elminster? Tanis Half-Elven? (Ooh, spicy topic.)
• Villains that have been important to the story so far, and those they want to focus on in the next 5 years: Acererak, Strahd, Lord Soth, Venger, Warduke, the League of Malevolence, etc.
• Any location mentioned in the books: Waterdeep, Greyhawk City, Sigil, the different planes of existence and their main cities (Elemental Plane of Fire and the City of Brass)
• D&D setting-specific Gods used as examples, or will they place them in their own section?: Lolth, Vecna, Bahamut, Tiamat, Corellon Larethian, though I'm not sure about different settings. Will Pelor and Lathander both be in the glossary?

This is an excellent list and the way to bet, IMO.

 

[Quickleaf]

I would be very, very surprised if any mention of Birthright is included in the DMG in any way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the original 5e DMG even mentioned the setting. I also doubt that they would include every D&D setting, as many of them have faded so much into obscurity that only a fraction of the existing fanbase even remembers them, much fewer still actually plays in them. I can't imagine that obscure setings like Ghostwalk, Birthright, Mystara, or Pelinore would be included.

They're probably just going to include the more popular/historically relevant settings, like the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron, Planescape, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, and maybe even Exandria (given CR's massive popularity and previous official tie-ins). And those settings would probably only mention the more famous characters from them (Drizzt, Volo, Mordenkainen, Vecna, Acererak, Tasha, Van Richten, Strahd, the Heroes of the Lance, Lord Soth, and maybe people like The Lord of Blades, Lady Illmarrow, Mordain the Fleshweaver, and Borys the Dragon of Tyr, etc). I wouldn't be surprised if characters from the D&D movie or old cartoon were mentioned, given recent (and upcoming) cameos in official D&D stuff.

But characters that aren't hugely relevant to people that don't know much about D&D and aren't super important about explaining the settings will almost definitely not feature. Like Dragonbait or Mirt.

So, uh, your assertion is wrong in this case.

The 5e DMG mentions several of the older D&D settings on page 68 – name and a brief blurb – including:

"On Aebrynis (the heroic-fantasy world of the Birthright setting), scions born from divine bloodlines carve up the continent of Cerilia. Monarchs, prelates, guildmasters, and great wizards balance the demands of rulership against the threat of horrible abominations born from the blood of an evil god."

"On Mystara (a heroic-fantasy world born out of the earliest editions of the D&D game), diverse cultures, savage monsters, and warring empires collide. The world is further shaped by the meddling of the Immortals—former adventurers raised to nearly divine status."

Mystara is actually mentioned right in the opening chapter of the 5e DMG (page 9) alongside Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk as examples of campaign settings that don't stray far from default assumptions of the D&D worlds (as well as Dark Sun, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape as examples going further afield).

This mirrors the approach in the 5e PHB which briefly mentions other worlds – including both Birthright and Mystara.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'd add to the list all the main Archdevils & Demon Lords, Primus, Baldur's Gate & Neverwinter, maybe some important celestials like Tome Archons, and a few Archfey.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So, uh, your assertion is wrong in this case.

The 5e DMG mentions several of the older D&D settings on page 68 – name and a brief blurb – including:

"On Aebrynis (the heroic-fantasy world of the Birthright setting), scions born from divine bloodlines carve up the continent of Cerilia. Monarchs, prelates, guildmasters, and great wizards balance the demands of rulership against the threat of horrible abominations born from the blood of an evil god."

"On Mystara (a heroic-fantasy world born out of the earliest editions of the D&D game), diverse cultures, savage monsters, and warring empires collide. The world is further shaped by the meddling of the Immortals—former adventurers raised to nearly divine status."

Mystara is actually mentioned right in the opening chapter of the 5e DMG (page 9) alongside Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk as examples of campaign settings that don't stray far from default assumptions of the D&D worlds (as well as Dark Sun, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape as examples going further afield).

This mirrors the approach in the 5e PHB which briefly mentions other worlds – including both Birthright and Mystara.

Thanks for correcting me. I remembered seeing Mystara (and getting it confused with the goddess Mystra) when I originally bought 5e, but I didn't remember how much it was covered in the DMG.

However, I'm still not convinced that the revised DMG will include characters from those settings in the glossary, at least not in a major way. I would be surprised if they were. I could be wrong, though. WotC has surprised me before.

 

[Parmandur]

I would be very, very surprised if any mention of Birthright is included in the DMG in any way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the original 5e DMG even mentioned the setting.

No, actually, it gets a whole paragraph description, same as Mystarra or Dark Sun, in Chapter 3.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I'm more interested in what kind of information is included.

Name, species, class, background, NPC stats to use -- what else?

It is a glossary, I doubt the will have a stats reference, but I could be wrong

 

[Parmandur]

Thanks for correcting me. I remembered seeing Mystara (and getting it confused with the goddess Mystra) when I originally bought 5e, but I didn't remember how much it was covered in the DMG.

However, I'm still not convinced that the revised DMG will include characters from the settings in the glossary, at least not in a major way. I would be surprised if they were. I could be wrong, though. WotC has surprised me before.

Yeah, no, I expect it will be more about iconic stuff they want to use for big campaigns or books, like Ackerack or Mordenkainen.

I recall several times in the past decade Chris Perkins bemoaning how people Googling, say, Vecna will get all sorts of weird mishmash information or table specific canon that floated into a fan Wiki.

This might, therefore, be somewhere they can subtlety retcon/recontextualize any old lore they want to use but might not want people to source from a fan wiki that treats 90's products as the Word of God.

 

[MockingBird]

Dragonbait was highlighted in an adventure, it wouldn't surprise me if he gets a name drop in the revised DMG.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This might, therefore, be somewhere they can subtlety retcon/recontextualize any old lore they want to use but might not want people to source from a fan wiki that treats 90's products as the Word of God.

And uses a weird past tense for everything, like it's the history of our real world!