D&D 5E Mike Mearls did an interview for Escapist Magazine and reveals PHB classes, races, and much more

[Agamon]

No worse than Aragorn clones or the like, imo.

Well, Aragorn is the poster boy for ranger, much like Conan is for barbarian. It's a little less obvious when someone makes an Aragorn clone because it just looks like a ranger. But the Drizzt clone is easy to pick out in a crowd....just like his player.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Ah. D&D fiction. That something else. Sure, then Krynn should be the default.

Uhh...Krynn mostly consisted of 3 books that were published years and years ago. Then almost no one read any of the other Krynn books. R.A. Salvatore still gets on the best seller list each time he releases a book. Some of the other FR authors also get on there. FR's popularity dwarfs Krynn by a lot.

In terms of the actual D&D game, how many people ever refer to Drizz't in their games vs. Orcus? How prominent has Drizz't been in D&D products vs. Orcus? And do you really think that many people who, say post on ENWorld like him? Do you really think he is that "popular".

Hmm, number of times Orcus has been mentioned in any games I've ran on played in....0. Number of times Drizz't gets brought up as an example or something that happened one of his books gets mentioned...about once every 2 sessions.

Heck, we actually played the series of adventures for 4e that ends in you fighting Orcus. We never made it all the way to the end, however, so Orcus was never revealed as the villain. The fact that he was the villain at the end got brought up out of character once, though. I had to explain to everyone at the table who Orcus was.

To say there are any FR references in the 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 PHB, or MM, or DMG, its unreal.

There ARE FR references in the 4e PHB. It lists at least one FR god as a standard god.

 

[Morrus]

Uhh...Krynn mostly consisted of 3 books that were published years and years ago. Then almost no one read any of the other Krynn books.

Well, now, that's not true, is it? There are over 190 Dragonlance novels, and the series is second only to FR in popularity and has hit over 20 worldwide bestsellers lists.

 

[am181d]

I think we can all agree that the most important question is:

Will by elf sub-race be able to teleport once per encounter.

 

[TerraDave]

Uhh...Krynn mostly consisted of 3 books that were published years and years ago. Then almost no one read any of the other Krynn books. R.A. Salvatore still gets on the best seller list each time he releases a book. Some of the other FR authors also get on there. FR's popularity dwarfs Krynn by a lot.

The guv has already responded on this. No. Its not true. Dragonlance has a 20 million+ sold number attached to it. Salvatore has 10 million+ on his website. Which are great numbers, but not DL numbers.

Hmm, number of times Orcus has been mentioned in any games I've ran on played in....0. Number of times Drizz't gets brought up as an example or something that happened one of his books gets mentioned...about once every 2 sessions.

Heck, we actually played the series of adventures for 4e that ends in you fighting Orcus. We never made it all the way to the end, however, so Orcus was never revealed as the villain. The fact that he was the villain at the end got brought up out of character once, though. I had to explain to everyone at the table who Orcus was.

OK, your a fan.

There ARE FR references in the 4e PHB. It lists at least one FR god as a standard god.

There is a god, Bane, they moved to the default pantheon. But FR is not the default setting and not called out.

Actually, even the 2E PHB has some FR influence (this is not a new issue)...but you wouldn't call it the default setting.

 

[am181d]

The guv has already responded on this. No. Its not true. Dragonlance has a 20 million+ sold number attached to it. Salvatore has 10 million+ on his website. Which are great numbers, but not DL numbers.

Guys, can we please not argue over which popular thing is secretly not popular?

If you are comparing ALL of Dragonlance to one author's Realms output (however impressive) you are not arguing honestly. Both DL and FR have sold A LOT of novels, and Salvatore's Drizz't books are a healthy percentage of the FR output.

These are facts that do not need to be debated.

 

[TwoSix]

Ah. D&D fiction. That something else. Sure, then Krynn should be the default.

In terms of the actual D&D game, how many people ever refer to Drizz't in their games vs. Orcus? How prominent has Drizz't been in D&D products vs. Orcus? And do you really think that many people who, say post on ENWorld like him? Do you really think he is that "popular".

You are right. Its a laughable difference.

It's not about the game. It's about the brand. WotC is making a conscious effort to consolidate and repackage all of the distinctive D&Disms. Notice how Mearls said in the interview that they had 15 people on the team, half of whom were working on projects that had nothing to do with the TTRPG. Forgotten Realms is intended to be the baseline that the game books go in, and the apps, and the video games, and the fiction.

Considering the entirety of the D&D products over the years, what makes more sense than FR? It's had more gaming material published than any other setting. While I'm sure Dragonlance was ahead in the fiction department for a long while, has it really been relevant as a fiction line for the last 10-15 years?

Then you add in the fact that almost every major video game title has been set in FR. Neverwinter and Baldur's Gate are pretty iconic names. Has there been a video game set in Dragonlance since the SSI gold box games? D&D Online was set in Eberron originally, but even that has had FR material added in.

I'm not even a FR fan (I much prefer Eberron and Planescape), but it's an interesting setting with a ton of material, and it makes sense to leverage that to a wider audience.

 

[Herschel]

Time to get on board. The train is pulling out of Waterdeep station, and not even Mystra can stop it now.

Mystra tried to stop it, got run over and died again, setting up the next Realms-Shattering even coming 2016.

 

[I'm A Banana]

One thing I found interesting in regards to the elves in Forgotten Realms is that if you take a look at Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, they identify the high elf subtype as a "gold elf", and the wood elf subtype as a "moon elf".

Which is a bit odd, in several ways. First, simply because they use two different FR elven naming conventions: gold elf and moon elf as opposed to using gold elf and silver elf or sun elf and moon elf. Then even more odd is the fact that in 3E the sun *and* moon elf were both considered the INT-based magical elf subtype... and it was the wood elf and wild elf that were the DEX-based nature elf subtype.

Which makes me wonder what (if anything) has advanced since this module was made last fall... if indeed they've condensed the FR subtypes down to just gold/sun and silver/moon (and maintaining the high elf / wood elf split to both of them)... or if they've reintroduced the wood and wild elves back into the core of the FR game to cover the wood elf subtype.

Speaking personally... I know that I'm going to use the high elf subtype for both Sun Elves and Moon Elves, and the wood elf subtype for the Wood Elves and Wild Elves. And then the dark elf subtype for the Drow of the Realms

I think Page 13 of the PHB will provide the official D&D Sorting Algorithm of Elf Names for everyone who is very concerned that they get this right.

Quite possibly they'll just go "Here's a Gold/Sun Elf, here's a Moon/Silver Elf, these are true to FR's presentation of them and have abilities and bonuses that make sense for the FR lore, and what they are outside of FR if anything is your call as a DM." But I'm sure someone somewhere will not like what the Sorting Algorithm has to say, regardless of what it says.

The thing I liked, which isn't exactly new, but was nice to hear, is that each core rulebook is being written with the assumption that you might not own the other two. I'm really digging the approach that the game is playable for free, and each product expands upon the basic rules.

I'm also quite content with "The PHB is a big book of house rules" approach!

A couple of things. I actually don't hate it. I did quote I guess, but I don't hate. I do see it as a fringe character that has been divisive and seems overrated. Popular and enduring in D&D? Orcus. Orcus is popular and enduring.

This much push on the Realms in the core is new(ish). It makes sense, but its new(ish) and different, and we don't have to like it.

I think the "we're pushing FR" element of the PHB makes this understandable to me. Drow rebellion is A Thing in FR. The drow there are not automatically bad guys. It's one of FR's themes now (for better or for worse), and it belongs in FR. It doesn't, necessarily, belong outside of FR, but it's got a clear place in FR (and it's popular enough there that folks who like it in FR might export it to their home games).

Thankfully, everything in the PHB is clearly subject to being deleted, modified, or ignored -- it's all opt-in material. So it shouldn't be hard to ditch them from the list of things that the players in your game can opt into: Basic is Core!

Same here. I'll be able to live with it as long as it isn't too pervasive, but the strong ties to the Realms in the starting adventures have turned me off from buying them. Adding factions, while really cool, is actually a huge strike against them to me, simply because those factions are definitely tied to the FR in a very deep and meaningful way- good for the module and organized play campaigns and so forth, but not good for importing into my home game.

I dunno, I won't dismiss a cool organization just because it's tainted by FR cooties. My home games might welcome red wizards and harpers, even if I completely remove them from their contexts. Or even port their contexts over with them, just disentangled from FR. But I am enamored of organizations and D&D has generally second-tier'd them, so that might be personal bias. At any rate, it doesn't seem like something they'll be pushing in the home games.

Nothing wrong with Drizzt. The problem was the winners who thought they were super cool creating their angsty Drizzt clones in games. This leads to people thinking a drow PC has to be an angsty Drizzt clone, which it doesn't.

No worse than Aragorn clones or the like, imo.

What chaps my hide is why every dwarf needs to have a bad Scottish brogue, and why half of the halflings are self-interested little stab monkeys, and why elves are always timeless and hugging trees and sparkling with magic, and why 3/4ths of barbarians hate magic and love violence. It is almost like we are playing a game of archetypal characters that speak to common tropes and that we are not always 100% original in our game that is basically a math-based fanfiction of an entire genre of media. Almost.

 

[TerraDave]

It's not about the game. It's about the brand... .

No question. And it makes sense. More so then, say, doing yet another same but different vanilla fantasy setting as the new default.

Of course, I still hope that the FR references are minimal and in passing. Which also makes sense for WoTC, as in spite of the interview, they will want to sale a FR setting book(s) at some point.