D&D General WotC's Secret Lore Book

Parmandur

Book-Friend
So where was this supposed book of secret FR lore dating back over 40 odd years when WotC published the 4th edition FR campaign setting?

Oops! Did I actually hit the Submit Reply button here?? I'm sorry. :angel:

No, there is no such book: Mearls is talking about a plan conceived of within the past 7-8 years, while 5E was being made.
 

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Jer

Legend
Supporter
The entire premise here is that somehow Wizards controls the lore in my game. While that happens when I play/run AL, there's not a snowball's chance in Avernus of that being the case for my own game.

No, the premise here is that Wizards controls the lore on their publication schedule. And that some people would like to have access to the spoilers.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
No, the premise here is that Wizards controls the lore on their publication schedule. And that some people would like to have access to the spoilers.

And, on top of that, have a metaphysical model to explain things like how Dragonlance and Eberron fit in with Greyhawk and Mystarra.
 

generic

On that metempsychosis tweak
And, on top of that, have a metaphysical model to explain things like how Dragonlance and Eberron fit in with Greyhawk and Mystarra.

Wait, you mean that I might not have my theory of multi-dimensional crossdirectionality in planar spheres, as justified under Xhylorpcha's Law, verified or disproven by WotC?
 

Inchoroi

Adventurer
The problem is that once you give away the secrets, they aren't secret any more. It is attractive and tantalizing while you don't know it, but once you do? Meh.

It is a document they use to create new, yet consistent, materials for us. No, don't publish that, because it will take away much of the "new" for us.

I'm actually fine with knowing all the secrets, because then I get to lead my characters through discovering them as well.
 


Psyzhran2357

First Post
And, on top of that, have a metaphysical model to explain things like how Dragonlance and Eberron fit in with Greyhawk and Mystarra.

Didn't they already explain this? Sort of?

IIRC, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance are all in the Great Wheel as normal crystal spheres in the Material Plane. Eberron meanwhile is isolated in its own pocket dimension; it's crystal sphere cuts it off from everything except the Deep Ethereal, and its Orrery of 13 planes is contained within.

No clue for Mystara though.
 

Mercule

Adventurer
And, on top of that, have a metaphysical model to explain things like how Dragonlance and Eberron fit in with Greyhawk and Mystarra.
This is actually the point where I start to have an issue with the "secret bible". I'm actually just fine with there being a secret book of lore for FR or Dragonlance or Greyhawk or Eberron, etc. In fact, I think there really should be one for each setting. The problem is when someone thinks any of those books has any bearing on any of the others.

One of the really amazing things about AD&D was that it wasn't a unified setting. Yes, Gygax put lots of vague (very vague) lore in the core books and there was a published Greyhawk setting. But Orcus, the planes, Vecna, the Wind Dukes of Aqaa, and so much more were just inspirational building blocks to be interpreted and snapped into your own game. Is Orcus "alive", dead, risen as undead? Whichever suits your game. Krynn didn't need to share a cosmology with Greyhawk (even though there were attempts) because it was a different story that used the blocks differently. Dark Sun didn't have to explain why things worked different; they just did. Yeah, there were some attempts to explain how to jump from one world to another, like Greenwood's articles where Elminster, Mordenkainen, and Dalamar sat around smoking and drinking. But, they weren't particularly canon.

D&D isn't a unified setting. It's actually just the opposite. It's a meta-setting that supports multiple, unlinked settings. There shouldn't be any sort of official attempt to make it otherwise -- at least not in a definitive way. Planescape is fine. So is Spelljammer. Neither exist for me, though.

How does Eberron fit in with Greyhawk? It doesn't. They're two settings that use the same mechanical system to play. It's like if the same company owned the rights to do a Babylon 5 game and an Aliens game and chose to use the same mechanics. You could say that Aliens was a few centuries earlier and that the xenomorphs exist in B5. The system would make it a breeze to do so. But, it sure isn't inherent in anything with either setting.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
Didn't they already explain this? Sort of?

IIRC, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance are all in the Great Wheel as normal crystal spheres in the Material Plane. Eberron meanwhile is isolated in its own pocket dimension; it's crystal sphere cuts it off from everything except the Deep Ethereal, and its Orrery of 13 planes is contained within.

No clue for Mystara though.

Oh, for sure, they've talked about all of this for years, bits and pieces. What Mearls is saying is that they have a through Bible worked out for this to keep official releases coherent, but have no plans to push the Bible as a wholesale product, or even put it all out there as definitive.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
This is actually the point where I start to have an issue with the "secret bible". I'm actually just fine with there being a secret book of lore for FR or Dragonlance or Greyhawk or Eberron, etc. In fact, I think there really should be one for each setting. The problem is when someone thinks any of those books has any bearing on any of the others.

One of the really amazing things about AD&D was that it wasn't a unified setting. Yes, Gygax put lots of vague (very vague) lore in the core books and there was a published Greyhawk setting. But Orcus, the planes, Vecna, the Wind Dukes of Aqaa, and so much more were just inspirational building blocks to be interpreted and snapped into your own game. Is Orcus "alive", dead, risen as undead? Whichever suits your game. Krynn didn't need to share a cosmology with Greyhawk (even though there were attempts) because it was a different story that used the blocks differently. Dark Sun didn't have to explain why things worked different; they just did. Yeah, there were some attempts to explain how to jump from one world to another, like Greenwood's articles where Elminster, Mordenkainen, and Dalamar sat around smoking and drinking. But, they weren't particularly canon.

D&D isn't a unified setting. It's actually just the opposite. It's a meta-setting that supports multiple, unlinked settings. There shouldn't be any sort of official attempt to make it otherwise -- at least not in a definitive way. Planescape is fine. So is Spelljammer. Neither exist for me, though.

How does Eberron fit in with Greyhawk? It doesn't. They're two settings that use the same mechanical system to play. It's like if the same company owned the rights to do a Babylon 5 game and an Aliens game and chose to use the same mechanics. You could say that Aliens was a few centuries earlier and that the xenomorphs exist in B5. The system would make it a breeze to do so. But, it sure isn't inherent in anything with either setting.

This is why, as I read it, Mearls is reluctant about productizing their "official" Unified Setting Theory. It's not a straightjacket for DMs, it's a tool for developers such as Larian.
 

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