Upcoming products will "touch on cultures that don't usually get exposure."

Paul Farquhar · Jan 9, 2019

Bitbrain said:
Makes sense to me.

Volo's can be thought of as a kinda-sorta companion piece to Storm King's Thunder.
Mordenkainen's is similar, at least with regards to Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

I expect the ship-themed product will be followed by an adventure path where seafaring plays a major role.

Ah, but the second product has to work without the first, so the can't publish an adventure featuring a navel battle if it requires rules for navel battles only found in the other book.

delericho · Jan 9, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Ah, but the second product has to work without the first, so the can't publish an adventure featuring a navel battle if it requires rules for navel battles only found in the other book.

They could, of course, publish the minimal set of required rules as an online supplement - like they did with the collected monster stats in the early Storylines so they could be run with only the Basic rules.

gyor · Jan 9, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
How about something that isn't a real world culture at all?

There have been hints about Lantan around for a while.

They wouldn't feel the need to call in cultural experts for a place like Lantan which has no RW equivilant.

gyor · Jan 9, 2019

It will likely be two of Maztica, Al Qadum, or Kara Tur, with Katashaka and Osse being long shots. Possibly an AP for the Old Empires region as well. I could be wrong.

LuisCarlos17f · Jan 9, 2019

If it is Kara-Tur or al-Qadim, What about oriental classes? Maybe some player want a sohei class, or the return of martial adepts from "Tome of Battle: Book of nine Swords", with poses and ki manuevers. And the sha'ir? My opinion is samurai and ninja shouldn't be subclasses but base classes, and better with ki maneuvers as martial adepts, and many don't agree me.

Other option is new regions, and then we have got Africa and Oceania equivalent.

Quickleaf · Jan 9, 2019

Here's the link to video and transcript of relevant section:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Ipq4S_TrY
Around 55:15

Kate: I’m seeing some questions about… Are we ever going to do another book in a setting like Africa, Asia…those more…less white folks…? Because we did that with Tomb of Annihilation. I think that went over pretty well.

My note: From a cultural sensitivity perspective there are, of course, dissenting views about how Tomb of Annihilation was handled. Here's a link to one critique: https://pocgamer.com/2017/10/13/tomb-of-annihilation-review-part-1-chult-in-5e/
And another (that I feel is more nuanced and balanced): https://kotaku.com/dungeons-dragons-stumbles-with-its-revision-of-the-ga-1819657235

Nathan: Yeah, I will say on that…So the Forgotten Realms…you know… pretty much…kind of… has influence from all kinds of different things. So it’s really kind of a when will we go to that area and focus more on areas that have those influences in it. We don’t ever have like a one to one.

Nathan: I will say that in 2019 I don’t think that we’re going to get much more culturally diverse with the content that’s in there, but in 2020 we’re going to go…really…lots of different diverse stuff that brings in some different cultures and some different influences. We’re bringing in a lot of consultants this year to kind of vet the product…make this stuff… You won’t see much of it in 2019, but 2020 products I think will have a couple major products that have a lot of influence from cultures that we have not really touched on before that I think are pretty prevalent. I don’t want to give away too much, but I’m proud of the influences and the work that they’re doing, and how they’re doing it.

Parmandur · Jan 9, 2019

Quickleaf said:
Here's the link to video and transcript of relevant section:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Ipq4S_TrY
Around 55:15

Kate: I’m seeing some questions about… Are we ever going to do another book in a setting like Africa, Asia…those more…less white folks…? Because we did that with Tomb of Annihilation. I think that went over pretty well.

Nathan: Yeah, I will say on that…So the Forgotten Realms…you know… pretty much…kind of… has influence from all kinds of different things. So it’s really kind of a when will we go to that area and focus more on areas that have those influences in it. We don’t ever have like a one to one.

Nathan: I will say that in 2019 I don’t think that we’re going to get much more culturally diverse with the content that’s in there, but in 2020 we’re going to go…really…lots of different diverse stuff that brings in some different cultures and some different influences. We’re bringing in a lot of consultants this year to kind of vet the product…make this stuff… You won’t see much of it in 2019, but 2020 products I think will have a couple major products that have a lot of influence from cultures that we have not really touched on before that I think are pretty prevalent. I don’t want to give away too much, but I’m proud of the influences and the work that they’re doing, and how they’re doing it.

Seeing the verbal gymnastics Stewart goes through to avoid spoilers amuses me.

Paul Farquhar · Jan 9, 2019

gyor said:
They wouldn't feel the need to call in cultural experts for a place like Lantan which has no RW equivilant.

You wouldn't want to upset the gnome population. The Campaign for Equal Heights can be quite militant!

Have you ever seen an angry gnome?!

Azzy · Jan 9, 2019

Quickleaf said:
Nathan: I will say that in 2019 I don’t think that we’re going to get much more culturally diverse with the content that’s in there, but in 2020 we’re going to go…really…lots of different diverse stuff that brings in some different cultures and some different influences. We’re bringing in a lot of consultants this year to kind of vet the product…make this stuff… You won’t see much of it in 2019, but 2020 products I think will have a couple major products that have a lot of influence from cultures that we have not really touched on before that I think are pretty prevalent. I don’t want to give away too much, but I’m proud of the influences and the work that they’re doing, and how they’re doing it.

So, is that cultures that haven't been touched on in D&D? Because, if so, then Mezo-America (Maztica), various East Asian and Southeast Asian (Kara-tur), and Middle Eastern (Al Qadim) cultures don't seem like what's being described as those have each had boxed sets and supplements in the past.

Demetrios1453 · Jan 9, 2019

Azzy said:
So, is that cultures that haven't been touched on in D&D? Because, if so, then Mezo-America (Maztica), various East Asian and Southeast Asian (Kara-tur), and Middle Eastern (Al Qadim) cultures don't seem like what's being described as those have each had boxed sets and supplements in the past.

That is what I was about to ask - it's unclear whether he's saying untouched by D&D in general, or specifically by the 5e development team. The "we" is really undefined there...