D&D 5E WotC's Nathan Stewart Teases New D&D Setting Book in 2019

No real details, other than denying that it will be Spelljammer, but in the latest Spoilers & Swag episode Stewart stated straight up that another hardcover setting book is coming in 2019:

"Nathan Stewart, the senior director of Dungeons & Dragons and Avalon Hill, made the announcement on his monthly "Spoilers & Swag" Twitchcast yesterday. 'Next year for our annual releases I can confirm there will be a setting book,' he said. 'A new setting book. A book that we have not created that is for a D&D setting.'"

I'd speculate, given the Settings mentioned in the recent marketing survey and what is listed in the DMsGuild, that the likely options are from the following, given we got Magic this year and Stewart has previously said they are not working on a new setting right now:

- Dark Sun
- Dragonlance
- Eberron
- Greyhawk
- Planescape
- Ravenloft

https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/11/03/dungeons-and-dragons-new-campaign-setting-book-2019/

 

[gyor]

You mean the only way you'd buy the product is if it were Spelljammer? Does that mean you only ever intended to buy one more D&D book ever anyway? Even if that one was, all the others wouldn't be.

I might buy a Spelljammer book, if it sounds interesting enough.

 

[gyor]

Meh. Not getting too excited.
Even if it's the spring book, it will be another two or three months before they announce. And if it's the winter book... why are they teasing it a full year away? We haven't even gotten Dungeon of the Mad Mage yet.

Likely won't be Eberron. The artificer hasn't been previewed yet, so there's no way they'd be able to get feedback for it for April or May.
Planescape seems too similar to Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and the planar lore in the DMG.

Probably just that Realms update people have been asking for pretty much since the playtest.

Again I know this isn't popular around here, but I'd be thrilled if it was an full FR Campaign book. But I only see them doing that if they plan on leaving FR soon (AP wise).

Which I don't think they are ready for yet. So I still think it will be Dragonlance, Planescape, or Theros.

 

[Jester David]

Q4 seems probable, given Ravnica's position. They were playtesting GGtR Ravnica material publically as late as August. If the Artificer (which they have been continuously iterating on and playtesting for nearly two years now) is released in 9 days and gets good feedback, or even mixed feedback, late November to August is more than enough time for another public iteration, if needed.

I doubt they have given 4+ months of UA for a DMsGuild product.

It wouldn’t be August. August/September is the adventure month for a few reasons, including Neverwinter updates and the release schedules of minis, which occur at more set times. It’d be October/November.

I also disagree about the artificer. They haven’t been doing “iterative testing”. For the second version, they threw out what the had and started again. And we still don’t know if they tweaked the upcoming version or started entirely fresh again.
We don’t have enough information to say one way or another.

But mainly, why would they tease the Q4 2019 release before the Q4 2018 release has dropped, and before teasing the Q2 2019 release?

They didn’t even announce Ravnica until June, although they were teasing it earlier that month. It feels far too early for them to be taking about a book they’ve only started working on and could still delay.

 

[Ath-kethin]

You mean the only way you'd buy the product is if it were Spelljammer? Does that mean you only ever intended to buy one more D&D book ever anyway? Even if that one was, all the others wouldn't be.

No. I have no need of a setting book. I have more setting material than I can use as it stands now. Spelljammer would at least be an interesting add-on.

That doesn't mean I won't ever buy another D&D book. I don't buy the adventures because I don't need them and I strongly dislike the Forgotten Realms. I pick up all the others, though, and stuff like Art & Arcana.

 

[gyor]

- No Psionics = No Dark Sun

- Yes to Ravnica = No to Planescape.

- No Dragonlance cuz noobs didn't even know what Dragonlance is + Wizards never did something Dragonlance related, the last one was TSR 20+ years ago

- No Greyhawk cuz they choose FR as main setting giving no credits to Greyhawk + noobs didn't know what Greyhawk is (even the ones that played 3.5) + they published MToF w/o any link to the Flanaess and other greyhawkish stuff

- No Raveloft cuz they did CoS as a standalone Module and Barovia as a single Domain w/o any reference to a real setting with more Domains + it's a setting with poor chance of interesting expansion (for them).

- Eberron. This is my bet. DMsGuilds + AL material + WGtE are more than a clue that they will choose this setting.

Noobs will know about Dragonlance fast if the rumours are true and they make a Dragonlance movie.

And only Sigil has any similarity to Ravnica,
Planescape is a lot bigger then Sigil and many if not most of it's source books were not about Sigil at all, they were about various planes. I think it's possible that the upcoming Volo's Guide to Spirits and Specters will act as a sort of campaign guide for the Planes. I could be wrong.

 

[Jester David]

Again I know this isn't popular around here, but I'd be thrilled if it was an full FR Campaign book. But I only see them doing that if they plan on leaving FR soon (AP wise).

Which I don't think they are ready for yet. So I still think it will be Dragonlance, Planescape, or Theros.

Based on the Sly Flourish survey, FR sees more play than every other campaign setting combined and doubled...

FR is th safe bet.

 

[gyor]

Based on the Sly Flourish survey, FR sees more play than every other campaign setting combined and doubled...

FR is th safe bet.

Your getting my hopes up.

 

[Parmandur]

It wouldn’t be August. August/September is the adventure month for a few reasons, including Neverwinter updates and the release schedules of minis, which occur at more set times. It’d be October/November.

I also disagree about the artificer. They haven’t been doing “iterative testing”. For the second version, they threw out what the had and started again. And we still don’t know if they tweaked the upcoming version or started entirely fresh again.
We don’t have enough information to say one way or another.

But mainly, why would they tease the Q4 2019 release before the Q4 2018 release has dropped, and before teasing the Q2 2019 release?

They didn’t even announce Ravnica until June, although they were teasing it earlier that month. It feels far too early for them to be taking about a book they’ve only started working on and could still delay.

They actually started hinting at Mad Mage, at least, way over a year ago. Been listening to some old Dragon Talk lately, they are subtle, but they tease all the time. Stewart is incorrigible.

We don't know the whole situation on the Artificer, bit we do know they put material in UA when they are thinking about putting it in a product within the next year. They worked on Ravnica through mid-September, that's a lot of time from now for a Q4 2019 release.

 

[Jester David]

They actually started hinting at Mad Mage, at least, way over a year ago. Been listening to some old Dragon Talk lately, they are subtle, but they tease all the time. Stewart is incorrigible.

We don't know the whole situation on the Artificer, bit we do know they put material in UA when they are thinking about putting it in a product within the next year. They worked on Ravnica through mid-September, that's a lot of time from now for a Q4 2019 release.

I guess we’ll find out in six to eight months....

 

[Parmandur]

I guess we’ll find out in six to eight months....

Time shall fly. Ironically, I think the FR won't happen because of all of the "zoomed in" pieces coming through the Adventure products, so I tend to doubt that is in play with this tease.