GameHole Con Hints At An "As Yet Unannounced Setting" for D&D This Year

The Glen · Mar 17, 2019

It's going to be Mystara or Birthright, nobody will ever suspect them.

Being serious, my bet is on Planescape because that gives them an out to open up all the rest with a tie in.

TarionzCousin · Mar 17, 2019

Parmandur said:
... and the island planehoping recently would be a good fit.

I want a planar setting/adventure, too. Is that a Freudian slip?

Thomas Valley · Mar 17, 2019

Morrus said:
He’s probably enjoying reading us all pouring over his words and trying to guess what he meant though.

Indeed.

dwayne · Mar 17, 2019

Enevhar Aldarion said:
No, an Epic is a standard style of Adventurer's League scenario. They span multiple tables, and multiple tiers, all playing through the same adventure at the same time, generally with a winning table chosen from each tier at the end.

This is all about getting AL DMs for the convention.

Epic is also was used for level above 20 in D&D before some dumb event thing, i really doubt that is what he was talking about here.

lordstimpy · Mar 18, 2019

Mike Mearls left the DnD stream he was doing, and after the Lore You Should Know segment he did on Grayhawk, I would be surprised to see a Grayhawk release similar as Wayfinders Guide to Ebberon.

Enevhar Aldarion · Mar 18, 2019

dwayne said:
Epic is also was used for level above 20 in D&D before some dumb event thing, i really doubt that is what he was talking about here.

Here is the full text from Valley's Facebook post:

This year, Gamehole Con will feature the following premiere D&D Adventurers League content:
• A Liar’s Night (Halloween) EPIC masquerade event written by Elisa Teague and Lysa Chen.
• The premiere of an Epic event set in as yet unannounced setting.
• The premiere of adventures set in as yet unannounced setting.
• The premiere of a Season 9 Epic
• The premiere of Season 9 adventures.

See how it says Adventurer's League for everything listed?

SkidAce · Mar 18, 2019

Charlaquin said:
I think this is right on the money.

I'm already jammin' through the Astral, hope I dont have to retool much....

Paul Farquhar · Mar 18, 2019

lordstimpy said:
Mike Mearls left the DnD stream he was doing, and after the Lore You Should Know segment he did on Grayhawk, I would be surprised to see a Grayhawk release similar as Wayfinders Guide to Ebberon.

Given that the Ebberon book is mostly filled with special rules that apply to that setting, it's hard to see how a "similar" book could be released for Grayhawk, since it uses core rules.

A book describing the locations, organisations etc of Grayhawk could be released, but that would basically be reprint of the original World of Greyhawk. You could do revamped art I suppose.

dwayne · Mar 18, 2019

This is what i was talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Level_Handbook being over 50 you should have known this. Those "events" don't mean crap to the bigger picture as they may cause a draw but a setting and material would draw much more. If he was talking about some dumb game con thing i would think he would have said that, as this seemed more of a hint. But again i tend to read more into things than most and over estimate the intelligence of people which always disappoint me in the end.

AmerginLiath · Mar 18, 2019

As others have noted (and I’ve done the same), references to Spelljammer by developers and comments that Spelljammer won’t be a setting aren’t necessarily at odds: in the “D&D Multiverse” nature of 5e, it makes sense that a lot of SJ elements are being brought into the core planar cosmology (especially as defining how the Prime Material Planes work, as we’ve seen developers comment); any sourcebook or adventure/set of adventures about the planes is likely to have dashes of Spelljammer to it as much as it has dashes of Planescape.

In terms of the setting vs. Campaign Setting question, particularly dealing with epic tier adventures, I think the talk of the planes and Planescape as a source of setting (vs. a Setting) are possibly apt. Mechanics and material on the planes — including references to Sigil and other PS ideas — have been appearing more commonly in recent sources, so I expect we’ll see the planes (feeling like a combination of the 1e/3e Manual version and the 2e Planescape version, with Spelljammer elements salted in) appearing in a sense in their original use as “where adventurers go when they run out of things on their own world to challenge them” (not to say there won’t be lower-level uses too, but I’d expect a focus on the *literal* larger-than-life out there). Seeing perhaps a set of high-level adventures based out of Sigil or somewhere like it would strike me as a way to introduce that while a product for it is in the works (I’ve long suspected that, given how 5e makes each book multifaceted, we’ll see a planar book that is also the high-level campaigns book).

As for other Campaign Settings, I agree that Dark Sun is a setting we’re likely to see appear in a fashion similar to Eberron, but with the Psion class anchoring it rather than the Artificer class (complete with a quasi-playtest release and use of DMs Guild and work with old designers). As for Dragonlance (my personal favorite setting), my question from a neutral standpoint is trying to see where they can sell it distinctive from FR (note how the beginning of the push on Greyhawk toward some release is focusing on a grim ‘n gritty swords ‘n sorcery element, presumably that should color setting rules elements in any release); I’ve wondered for a while if the long-delayed Mass Combat rules will play into any DL release (along with more detailed mounted and flying combat options similar to what’s now coming out for ships), but that only covers part of the “why play here and not FR?”