D&D 5E If WotC is outsourcing official 5E material to 3PP, What is WotC working on?

Mistwell · May 23, 2019

Hussar said:
Ah. My post is a lot less funny now that they deleted the spam account.

On the contrary, it's far funnier. We're all trying to find the cogent and/or interesting point that had been made. It's a challenging Easter egg hunt.

gyor · May 23, 2019

I assume they are finishing up BG: DIA, The Starter Kits, AI, and the Eberron Hardcover.

But they keep hiring new people so I'm hoping that 2020 is a lot better, more ambitious. We know they are hiring outside cultural experts because they are exploring regions outside usual European inspired areas. That could be Kara Tur, Katashaka, Zakhara, Osse, Calisham, Old Empires region, ect...

Parmandur · May 23, 2019

gyor said:
I assume they are finishing up BG: DIA, The Starter Kits, AI, and the Eberron Hardcover.

But they keep hiring new people so I'm hoping that 2020 is a lot better, more ambitious. We know they are hiring outside cultural experts because they are exploring regions outside usual European inspired areas. That could be Kara Tur, Katashaka, Zakhara, Osse, Calisham, Old Empires region, ect...

My bet for next Spring is something along the lines of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but with Desert of Desolation: wilderness rules and generation tables for desert life, maybe an Egyptian themed starting town set in the Old Empires region with suggestions for other worlds. Dunno if any other old adventures would fit in, but seems a good candidate for this sort of treatment.

gyor · May 23, 2019

Parmandur said:
My bet for next Spring is something along the lines of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but with Desert of Desolation: wilderness rules and generation tables for desert life, maybe an Egyptian themed starting town set in the Old Empires region with suggestions for other worlds. Dunno if any other old adventures would fit in, but seems a good candidate for this sort of treatment.

I did some research and this is what I found for Setting neutral desert adventures:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Al'Akbar Day of Al'Akbar. It's a little more Arabian flavoured then Egyptian/Mesopotamian flavoured however.

https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?articleid=30671 The Book with No End. This one actually fits well with Desert of Desolation, you are on a Quest for a magic book called the Book with No End that is so powerful it's turned a lush Jungle into a Desert, that would fit as an Imaskari artifact very well.

Lastly Old Empires 2e source book has a bunch of small adventures in it. Plus add in Desert Rules, details about the Old Empires Region and it's culture, Magic, Gods, and History, and current State and you have a very full book at that point, especially if it has one player options/backgrounds and so forth.

Desert of Desolation is over 100 pages by itself, once you figure in quality of life improvements, add 5-10 pages, then add in a Faerunized Book of No End, Desert Rules, and Regional Guide (like W

H and SKT got basically), special monsters and any Player options and you have a full book, no other adventures needed.

Parmandur · May 23, 2019

gyor said:
I did some research and this is what I found for Setting neutral desert adventures:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Al'Akbar Day of Al'Akbar. It's a little more Arabian flavoured then Egyptian/Mesopotamian flavoured however.

https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?articleid=30671 The Book with No End. This one actually fits well with Desert of Desolation, you are on a Quest for a magic book called the Book with No End that is so powerful it's turned a lush Jungle into a Desert, that would fit as an Imaskari artifact very well.

Lastly Old Empires 2e source book has a bunch of small adventures in it. Plus add in Desert Rules, details about the Old Empires Region and it's culture, Magic, Gods, and History, and current State and you have a very full book at that point, especially if it has one player options/backgrounds and so forth.

Desert of Desolation is over 100 pages by itself, once you figure in quality of life improvements, add 5-10 pages, then add in a Faerunized Book of No End, Desert Rules, and Regional Guide (like WH and SKT got basically), special monsters and any Player options and you have a full book, no other adventures needed.

The Desert Nomads series might also work. This model has a lot of possibility.

gyor · May 26, 2019

I took another look and the implications of the Desert of Desolation on FR religion is massive. In Ancient Bakar the Norse, Finnish, Greek, Egyptian, Celtic Pantheons were all worshipped with a Celtic God of Mountains, a Finish God of Sleep, Baldar Norse God of Beauty, Prometheus Titan God given as examples, along with Egyptian one (this is the only FR book that uses the term Egyptian).

It also has the Durpari as idol smashing monotheists, worshipping a God called Anu.

Its a really weird adventure set in the realms, but it was also I believe the first or second Forgotten Realms book ever published, even before the Grey Box, so so much of the setting wasn't defined yet.

But so much also got ignored later on, but not entirely the desert elvish town ended up in a novel, and Bakar itself was mentioned in the grand history of the realms.

Parmandur · May 26, 2019

gyor said:
I took another look and the implications of the Desert of Desolation on FR religion is massive. In Ancient Bakar the Norse, Finnish, Greek, Egyptian, Celtic Pantheons were all worshipped with a Celtic God of Mountains, a Finish God of Sleep, Baldar Norse God of Beauty, Prometheus Titan God given as examples, along with Egyptian one (this is the only FR book that uses the term Egyptian).

It also has the Durpari as idol smashing monotheists, worshipping a God called Anu.

Its a really weird adventure set in the realms, but it was also I believe the first or second Forgotten Realms book ever published, even before the Grey Box, so so much of the setting wasn't defined yet.

But so much also got ignored later on, but not entirely the desert elvish town ended up in a novel, and Bakar itself was mentioned in the grand history of the realms.

My understanding is that it was written and published originally to be 1E "setting generic," hence the use of a Deities & Demigods mishmash. It was the reprint that was designated as a FR book, as it coincided with the original publishing push.

gyor · May 26, 2019

Parmandur said:
My understanding is that it was written and published originally to be 1E "setting generic," hence the use of a Deities & Demigods mishmash. It was the reprint that was designated as a FR book, as it coincided with the original publishing push.

True, but then it was partially rewritten for the realms which is why they make it clear that there were alot of planar immigrantion to Bakar to explain all the Gods not seen else where.

Parmandur · May 27, 2019

gyor said:
True, but then it was partially rewritten for the realms which is why they make it clear that there were alot of planar immigrantion to Bakar to explain all the Gods not seen else where.

Interesting: in the event of a DoD book like GoS (It'd seem to be a good candidate eventually), I wouldn't necessarily bet on it being explicitly in the FR: they might revert it to generic, and put the Realmsian stuff in a sidebar of suggestions.

I've been reading GoS the past couple of days, and it us pretty cool. The Saltmarsh town & region chapter is pretty well-rooted in Greyhawk, and I've noticed Easter Egg references to other adventures. In particular, cults if Elemental Evil come up a few times, and there is a reference to Zuggtmoy currently being trapped in the Temple of Elemental Evil. This may indicate that they might have more Greyhawk adventure plans in the works.

gyor · May 27, 2019

Parmandur said:
Interesting: in the event of a DoD book like GoS (It'd seem to be a good candidate eventually), I wouldn't necessarily bet on it being explicitly in the FR: they might revert it to generic, and put the Realmsian stuff in a sidebar of suggestions.

I've been reading GoS the past couple of days, and it us pretty cool. The Saltmarsh town & region chapter is pretty well-rooted in Greyhawk, and I've noticed Easter Egg references to other adventures. In particular, cults if Elemental Evil come up a few times, and there is a reference to Zuggtmoy currently being trapped in the Temple of Elemental Evil. This may indicate that they might have more Greyhawk adventure plans in the works.

Thing is Desert of Desolation shaped the south eastern realms massively. When Old Empires came out it had to deal with the Bakar Empire and this huge desert that wasn't originally in Ed Greenwoods Forgotten Realms. This in turn lead to a radical shift in Mulhorand and Unther and possibly Chessenta from Ed's original vision for Mulhorand which was basically FR's Stygia (Conan reference) who ruled by bald Priests of Set, which got shifted to being ruled an incarnated Ra and the other Mulhorand Gods, with Set in Exile. The whole founding myth of Mulhorand and Unther and later Chessenta, and the creation of the ancient Imaskari Empire was a by product of the Desert of Desolation. It even I believe effected the History of the Durpari.

This had a massive ripple effect, from Sharess and Zandilar being merged and added to Bastet and Felidae, to changing the course of history in almost the entire Eastern Side of the Forgotten Realms. Implications even are felt as far as Shou Lung and Tu Lung, because Imaskar and Imaskari survivor state was one of the first major powers of Kara Tur, before Shou Lung.

I'd argue its one of the most important modules in FR, but weirdly indirectly, but people don't really realize the consquences of the Module on FR. The Empires it lead to were some of the biggest in FR human History, with possibly a dozen or more nations descending from them, implication across two continents.

I think the closest Module in that sort of effect on FR would be the Bloodstone Pass H series modules because they forced Ed to skrink the great glacier and add Vaasa and Damara to FR (another of my favourite FR regions), which had major implications for other regions like Impiltur and Narfell.