D&D 5E What's Next for D&D's Campaign Settings? (And an idea/suggestion for WotC!)

[interfactor]

My initial reaction to this was to recoil in horror, but upon reflection D&D might be due a reboot.

But here's the thing: JUST ONE. And from this point forward, setting lore doesn't undergo devastating change every time the edition rolls over.

I thought the transition to D&D3 from AD&D2 was cute, but that was because at the time I was ill-read in my classics and unaware that the exact same thing had happened to Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms between AD&D1 and AD&D2. And then the same thing happened again between D&D3.5 and D&D4.

It's time to embrace continuity in the lore. If that takes one big reboot -- emphasis on the ONE -- I can accept that.

...And welcome to the boards, Interfactor. Or at least, welcome to not lurking.

Agreed.

and thanks for the welcome.

interfactor

 

[Jester David]

I can't speak on Spelljammer, but Planescape has a metric ton of setting lore. There's no way that a magazine would even scratch the surface of the lore on a single one of the planes.

The setting lore continued to expand at a decent pace during 3e (though not in 4e since that had a completely different continuity and cosmology, even if it recycled some material). You would need a box set to even begin to cover the material (one focused on Sigil certainly, and one or more on the inner/outer/transitive planes).

True, but Planescape lore was related to setting neutral planes and Sigil. So a detailed Manual of the Planes books should cover a lot of that. Sigil is the only bit that's really specific to Planescape.

 

[DMZ2112]

True, but Planescape lore was related to setting neutral planes and Sigil. So a detailed Manual of the Planes books should cover a lot of that. Sigil is the only bit that's really specific to Planescape.

Judging by Mearls' remarks in L&L, I think the days of Planescape being its own brand are over. This is a mixed bag.

 

[Nellisir]

Reboot Greyhawk. Undo the violence done to the setting after Gygax left and use the first boxed set as a starting point. Update the City of Greyhawk and the classic modules. And lastly and importantly, Castle Greyhawk. License everything from Gygax's widow and place Rob Kuntz or Jeff Talanian in charge of the project. This should be the default setting. I have all the old books and modules, but I would buy them again if they were done well for 5e.

I think this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Sargent did some great work with Greyhawk, and the 3e crew (such as Eric Mona, who has gone on to doing...something) did a pretty good job as well. Am I all in favor of the Greyhawk Wars? No. But throwing out everything because of that is overkill.

 

[interfactor]

I disagree. Greyhawk should be Gary's world. Rebuild it the way he would have done it had he been given the opportunity. There is no doubt that there was some great work done on Greyhawk after he left, but the bad outweighs the good and after the second boxed set it never felt like "home" again. Greyhawk should be a tribute to the father of the game and a sandbox that DMs can build upon themselves. The OSR will love having the original Greyhawk back.

And as for Eric Mona, you don't see ultra powerful NPCs remodeling Golarion every couple of years. Paizo's success with Golarion is an indication that that model works. The Shattered Star adventure path is the only one that even assumes that previous adventure paths were completed and that is only minimal.

Don't get me wrong, I am a Dungeon Master first, but I loves me some Pathfinder. WotC has a lot it can learn from Paizo. A rising tide lifts all boats, and a rebooted Greyhawk would be a boat I would gladly sail.

interfactor

 

[sunshadow21]

I disagree. Greyhawk should be Gary's world. Rebuild it the way he would have done it had he been given the opportunity. There is no doubt that there was some great work done on Greyhawk after he left, but the bad outweighs the good and after the second boxed set it never felt like "home" again. Greyhawk should be a tribute to the father of the game and a sandbox that DMs can build upon themselves. The OSR will love having the original Greyhawk back.

If you want to use that logic, that FR would need to be set back to what Ed Greenwood created, and redeveloped along the lines that he would have done so, throwing out all the development done by other authors and computer games. Greenwood may not be the father of D&D, but he is certainly the father of FR, and deserves to be remembered as such. In the end, neither of those is a realistic expectation if they are going to be used in any form for 5E. The fact is that campaign worlds change and grow. What they could do is release a book for each different era of the different worlds they have, making it easier to play in the era you want to, but that would be the closest you would get to seeing a "reboot" of the older versions of the worlds.

 

[Quartz]

Every time there's an edition change there's some huge cataclysm or something - Greyhawk Wars, Second Cataclysm, Spellplague, etc etc. It's stupid and clichéd and unnecessary. What happened to gentle migrations?

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

If you want to use that logic, that FR would need to be set back to what Ed Greenwood created, and redeveloped along the lines that he would have done so, throwing out all the development done by other authors and computer games. Greenwood may not be the father of D&D, but he is certainly the father of FR, and deserves to be remembered as such. In the end, neither of those is a realistic expectation if they are going to be used in any form for 5E. The fact is that campaign worlds change and grow. What they could do is release a book for each different era of the different worlds they have, making it easier to play in the era you want to, but that would be the closest you would get to seeing a "reboot" of the older versions of the worlds.

Only if you're asking the same thing from Forgotten Realms, which supporters of Greyhawk aren't. Besides, The Forgotten Realms has the advantage that Ed Greenwood is still around to give input. He's been deeply involved in the setting bible that will be the basis of the next Forgotten Realms.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

If you want to use that logic, that FR would need to be set back to what Ed Greenwood created, and redeveloped along the lines that he would have done so, throwing out all the development done by other authors and computer games. Greenwood may not be the father of D&D, but he is certainly the father of FR, and deserves to be remembered as such. In the end, neither of those is a realistic expectation if they are going to be used in any form for 5E. The fact is that campaign worlds change and grow. What they could do is release a book for each different era of the different worlds they have, making it easier to play in the era you want to, but that would be the closest you would get to seeing a "reboot" of the older versions of the worlds.

Only if you're asking the same thing from Forgotten Realms, which supporters of Greyhawk aren't. Besides, The Forgotten Realms has the advantage that Ed Greenwood is still around to give input. He's been deeply involved in the setting bible that will be the basis of the next Forgotten Realms.

 

[Klaus]

Every time there's an edition change there's some huge cataclysm or something - Greyhawk Wars, Second Cataclysm, Spellplague, etc etc. It's stupid and clichéd and unnecessary. What happened to gentle migrations?

The Greyhawk Wars had nothing to do with an edition change. By the time 2e came out, Greyhawk was releasing the Greyhawk Adventures hardcover, which was merely an expansion of the 83 boxed set. After that, the City of Greyhawk came out, with still no wars in sight. The Greyhawk Wars was an attempt to give the setting a shot in the arm, possibly thanks to the success of FR's ongoing metaplot/fiction.