Second Dungeons & Dragons Product for Fall 2018: Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Myrdin Potter · Jun 4, 2018

Remathilis said:
You forgot Tal'dorei (from Critical Role) as having its own 5e setting, produced by Green Ronin: https://greenroninstore.com/products/critical-role-tal-dorei-campaign-setting

I didn’t forget it, I just don’t have it and have not really wanted to watch it. There are many more than I listed, so many that the complaints about not enough options to FR is weird ...

Abstruse · Jun 4, 2018

Remathilis said:
Moreover, I think they want to set the tone of each setting before the fans run wild on it. Some fans of Dark Sun prefer the 2e version (complete with uber ability scores and scant race/class options) while others favor the more 4e style of reflavoring PHB options rather than reinventing everything. I think WotC would like to get a word in on that before letting the fans go wild.

Sigh, still waiting for "Shemenska's Guide to the Multiverse" to lay down the guidelines for other worlds and then open them to the DM's Guild for expansion. Maybe 2019?

A lot of things pointing to Spelljammer (and possibly Planescape) for 2019. Mearls and Crawford tweeting about psionics, the githyanki in the artwork for the Waterdeep books, Perkins flat out saying that Halaster having a spelljammer ship (though that one I take with a grain of salt because the stuff Perkins was tweeting last night, he was one tweet shy of proclaiming that Drizzt is actually twenty puppies wearing a drow suit).

My guess is 2019 being a Spelljammer/Planescape combo multiverse setting to open up to other settings that couldn't be "inserted" into FR the way Ravenloft was, with all the rules for planar travel and Sigil profiled as a sort of port city. It's what makes most sense going off what they've been working on, how long they've been working on it, and what they've released to this point (particularly, making all the urban/city rules available for Waterdeep first to "ground" it for new players rather than introducing it as Sigil so they can focus on the unique aspect of that over how to do rooftop chases or whatever other rules they do in WDH).

Patrick McGill · Jun 4, 2018

Jester David said:
Option 1) DMs Guild. There are endless numbers of PDFs and several Print on Demand campaign settings. The lore is edition neutral. Just update a few races (which are often done by fans on the Guild) and you’re golden.

Option 2) Midgard by Kobold Press. This has a huge splatbooks of PC options and is fantastic. And the campaign setting is massive. Plus, they have numerous adventures for Pathfinder and 5e already out.

Option 3) Speaking or Pathfinder... go Golarion. Use that setting. You can even upgrade their Adveture Paths fairly easily. And there are often conversions online.

Option 4) Tal’Dorei. The campaign setting from Critical Role and published by Green Ronin. No adventures, but a decent sized world and a product full of adventure hooks.

Option 5) Use the Realms. It’s just a background for adventures. Use it.

Option 6) Rename the Realms. Like the above, but swap out all the proper nouns.

Option 7) Find a different 3rd Party setting: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...the-Third-Party-5th-Edition-Campaign-Settings

Option 8) Use one of the other actual TSR/WotC settings from editions beforehand. I ran Al-Qadim while converting the boxed sets on the fly and it was fantastically fun. I did the first two modules for Dragonlance during the playtest. The great 1st edition material for Greyhawk would work wonderfully with just a little DM elbow grease, and not nearly the amount needed to do a whole new campaign world.

Hell, even with all the FR support I would be remiss in saying that I STILL find the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms setting book nigh indispensable.

vecna00 · Jun 4, 2018

M.T. Black said:
In terms of other settings, I'm guessing that most levels of the megadungeon can be transported elsewhere with little to no modification. So if you want to place it beneath Castle Greyhawk on Oerth, or beneath Skullcap on Krynn, or wherever, should be easy.

Oh I'm planning on seeing how well this will work as an ancient catacomb under Sharn in Eberron. And mayhaps using it as Under Tyr...

Jester David · Jun 4, 2018

Anton A. Kryzsko said:
I do think the best solution would be to open up DMs Guild to these other settings. Why not? I can't think of any downside. In fact, it could be a good test bed to see what settings are the most popular.

The thing is... content on DMsGuild doesn’t sell that well. It moves an okay number of copies, but nothing remotely compared to a real book. I don’t think anyone is living off the profits. Or even selling a comparable number of copies as a Kickstarted 3rd Party book.

There’s just not that big an audience for those old campaign settings. Right away you’re looking at gamers who were playing 20 years ago. Who don’t already have all the material they need. Who are playing 5e. And who are willing to use 3rd Party material.
There was a little surge in Ravenloft attention when that setting premiered, but it’s not like we’ve seen a wealth of Ravenloft material or update documents.

The thing is... most campaign settings have fan communities that do free updates. Netbooks and the like. It’s not legal, but that content is out there. And, really, most campaign settings don’t need much mechanical support. Maybe a race or two, but often not even that. The content is unneeded.

Jester David · Jun 4, 2018

Myrdin Potter said:
I didn’t forget it, I just don’t have it and have not really wanted to watch it. There are many more than I listed, so many that the complaints about not enough options to FR is weird ...

I think the issue is that Tal’Dorei is very well selling. High on the Amazon charts. It’s likely sold several times as many copies as Midgard.
It is the campaigns setting book for 5e. (And doesn’t really require knowledge of the show.)

vecna00 · Jun 4, 2018

Myrdin Potter said:
I don’t get it. Recently Kobold Press released a detailed 5e version of Midgard. Cubicle 7 has Tolkien’s Middle Earth for 5e. Frog God Games has the their Lost Lands setting (including their own mega dungeon). Legendary Games has a whole interstellar romp for 5e. You can play a Conan style adventure with the Thule setting. Scarred Lamds was just released in 5e.

There is no shortage of releases that are not Forgotton Realms, and these are all major publishing houses that have been making material for decades in many cases with many of them working for TSR/WoTC at some point.

Maybe those who are looking for the old setting have no interest in the works of the aforementioned publishers. Which is fine really.

Myrdin Potter · Jun 4, 2018

Jester David said:
I think the issue is that Tal’Dorei is very well selling. High on the Amazon charts. It’s likely sold several times as many copies as Midgard.
It is the campaigns setting book for 5e. (And doesn’t really require knowledge of the show.)

If the response had not said critical role, I would not have connected the settings name with the show.

So, as a conversational technique, you could say I forgot it and then list what a forgot. Personally, I did not, I wrote a quick list of ones I own that are from decent sized publishers that I figured that people would know if someone tried to claim that they do not want to play settings from nobodies.

Out of the ones I own, Midgard and Middle Earth impress me the most with the amount of actual new play options they present on top of the 5e core.

Lidgar · Jun 4, 2018

Marcelus14 said:
That’s a Death Tyrant, my friend!

Right you are! Forgot about those guys...too many beholders!

mach1.9pants · Jun 4, 2018

They're up on Amazon, sans images:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_...s+RPG+Team&qid=1528077993&sort=date-desc-rank

Second Dungeons & Dragons Product for Fall 2018: Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

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