Two New Settings For D&D This Year

Enevhar Aldarion · Jun 13, 2018

bmfrosty said:
Baldman Games has some sort of Moonshae Campaign Guide coming out in some format.

https://twitter.com/Eric_Menge/status/1006580113213935617

Demetrios1453 said:
Now that is intriguing. Is WotC going to farm out Forgotten Realms regions to 3rd parties? That would be an interesting and welcome development, as long as that are done well!

Baldman Games has been producing adventures for Adventurer's League play for a year or two now, all set in the Realms. So far, they have done all of them in the Moonsea region, but at Origins they will be introducing an AL campaign set in the Moonshaes. So nothing really special or unusual, just a bit of branching out. The Moonshae Campaign Guide is just their version of an AL campaign guide that has been done for every season of AL play.

bmfrosty · Jun 13, 2018

Enevhar Aldarion said:
Baldman Games has been producing adventures for Adventurer's League play for a year or two now, all set in the Realms. So far, they have done all of them in the Moonsea region, but at Origins they will be introducing an AL campaign set in the Moonshaes. So nothing really special or unusual, just a bit of branching out. The Moonshae Campaign Guide is just their version of an AL campaign guide that has been done for every season of AL play.

The branching out to the moonshaes and the border kingdoms was announced a while ago. I was expecting modules. I wasn't expecting settings guides.

Demetrios1453 · Jun 13, 2018

Enevhar Aldarion said:
Baldman Games has been producing adventures for Adventurer's League play for a year or two now, all set in the Realms. So far, they have done all of them in the Moonsea region, but at Origins they will be introducing an AL campaign set in the Moonshaes. So nothing really special or unusual, just a bit of branching out. The Moonshae Campaign Guide is just their version of an AL campaign guide that has been done for every season of AL play.

Oh OK, that makes sense. Well, there goes that idea then!

Coroc · Jun 13, 2018

[MENTION=7635]Remathilis[/MENTION] #474 "Except it's not...."

The way i do it is different. See, i discuss the General outline of a Setting and how i intend to run it upfront. Then i create a Matrix with playable race class Combos.
This i give to the Players and ask them to find something nice. They also discuss with each other to get some sort of Balance to the Group. If anyone is missing anything i will check if i can somehow shoehorn it in, but that has not been the case yet.

I do include things if they make sense, e.g. i dm Greyhawk atm allowed Player races are human halfelf halforc tiefling Gnome and that's it. All of them are accepted in the free lands. I use the official material as a Frame for a classic good vs evil campaign in a qasi Renaissance Environment. Iuz and his orc hordes bolstered by demons have plundered and marauded the lands.
Each of the Special races makes sense: Halfelves and halforcs are mostly orphans of war. Dwarves and elves exist but only as npcs they few and often remote.
Tieflings got to have lawful Background (No one wnated to Play one yet but if) because otherwise they would be associated with the enemy.

It all fits into the Settings published material the feel is a bit different but you can recognize it is greyhawk and you can recognize it is not FR, and most improtant my Players and me enjoy it.

But let us get to your example:

Assume:

Player: i got this Halforc Barbarian (Not an unusual choice)
DM: To bad, we Play Dragonlance, sorry mate no Orcs on Krynn you can Play a Minotaur instead.

- So you see that is not DS specific

Another:

Player: I want to Play a tiefling Monk
DM: hm we Play darksun. So you want some martial Monk with unarmed combat? How about a Thrikreen Gladiator?
Ah, you want an elemental Monk? How about a Druid or an elemental cleric? How about some sort of mystic?

- So this is also resolvable in a contructive way, if you got mature Players.

You can tweak some of the classes allowed with a custom Background also if something is amiss, 5E is a Toolbox and the best Toolbox of all Editions so far to do such things, except eventually 4e where all things just had different names but i am not to familar with 4e.

Paul Farquhar · Jun 13, 2018

I wouldn't let a player bring in a character from another game under any circumstances anyway. If you want to join my campaign you create a new character with a background appropriate to the setting. Even though it's Forgotten Realms, I'm not allowing anyone to play as an elf, because it doesn't fit with the plot.

Coroc · Jun 13, 2018

[MENTION=6906155]Paul Farquhar[/MENTION] Why elf in FR in your case? (Mark it as Spoiler if your Players are not to read it)

Enevhar Aldarion · Jun 13, 2018

bmfrosty said:
The branching out to the moonshaes and the border kingdoms was announced a while ago. I was expecting modules. I wasn't expecting settings guides.

Do not be fooled by the phrase "campaign guide". It will be the same as normal AL guides in that it will be a 15-20 page pdf with area-specific downtime options and backgrounds and what your faction can do for you in the area.

gyor · Jun 13, 2018

Enevhar Aldarion said:
Baldman Games has been producing adventures for Adventurer's League play for a year or two now, all set in the Realms. So far, they have done all of them in the Moonsea region, but at Origins they will be introducing an AL campaign set in the Moonshaes. So nothing really special or unusual, just a bit of branching out. The Moonshae Campaign Guide is just their version of an AL campaign guide that has been done for every season of AL play.

There are no AL Campaign Guides, there is an AL players guide, and a AL DMs guide, but nothing as extensive as a AL Campaign guide to a region.

This sounds more like a SCAG specifically for the Moonshaes.

gyor · Jun 13, 2018

Enevhar Aldarion said:
Do not be fooled by the phrase "campaign guide". It will be the same as normal AL guides in that it will be a 15-20 page pdf with area-specific downtime options and backgrounds and what your faction can do for you in the area.

Are you sure of that how do you know?

Remathilis · Jun 13, 2018

Coroc said:
The way i do it is different. See, i discuss the General outline of a Setting and how i intend to run it upfront. Then i create a Matrix with playable race class Combos.
This i give to the Players and ask them to find something nice. They also discuss with each other to get some sort of Balance to the Group. If anyone is missing anything i will check if i can somehow shoehorn it in, but that has not been the case yet.

Sure the individual DM can always ban options if he wants; the DM can create the PC's for the players if they agree to it. I want the setting guidelines to not take that option out of my hands. So your vision of DS might be very restrictive, mine might be very lienient. It's easier to say "I run my game like 2e, so no monks and warlocks etc" than for some WotC author to make that call for me and the then I have to justify allowing it back in (by finding it a home that WotC didn't). I'd rather WotC did the legwork and found them homes and I decide if I like/want it than have a book that repeats the mantra "x doesn't exist in y".