D&D 5E DMG Preview: The Multiverse

[Remathilis]

(There may be, and probably are, others on the list; the page is cut off, so we can't see 'em all.)

The PDF lists Mystara (home of the Known World/BD&D) as well, as a Heroic Fantasy setting.

My thought is that they are dividing it something like this:

Sword & Sorcery: Emphasis on shades of gray, getting rich & powerful, with death behind every corner.
Heroic: PCs are heroes stopping villains and saving the world.
Epic: Heroes are larger-than-life, with complex relationships, duties, and failings.

Explains why my favorite settings (Eberron, Mystara) are all heroic...

 

[Mercurius]

I find myself heartened by the fact that Birthright is mentioned as "one of the gang." Birthright isn't my favorite setting, but it is a "second tier" setting--one that hasn't received multi-edition support--which make me thing WotC is wanting to support the entire family and that we may even see actual product support for ALL settings. I mean, how awesome would a massive hardcover "Worlds of D&D" book be? And/or individual introductory primers, with fuller treatments for the more popular ones?

 

[Shemeska]

Judging just on this - overall, not bad.

One mistake however in the artwork - you aren't actually able to see the Infinite Spire from within Sigil. In the Outlands you can look up and see what can be assumed to be Sigil floating above it, but once inside of Sigil, you can't see the Spire.

Additionally, the description of the Outlands could have used more description of how the Gatetowns and their portals influence the nature and geography of the Outlands near those tangent points. The DMG seems to describe a flat, uniform disk with portals at the edge. It also doesn't address that the Outlands don't end at the Gatetowns, but it keeps on going forever outwards (the DMG can be read to imply that it's a finite disk).

Mentioning Ravenloft as a demiplane is good to see, rather than the Ravenloft/Shadow/Negative Energy in a conceptual blender = Shadowfell in 4e.

 

[jaycrockett]

Interesting, my favorite settings, Greyhawk and Dark Sun are both listed as Sword and Sorcery. I guess that's my jam.

I never considered a mashup, but I guess it could work. Dark Sun as future Greyhawk maybe?

 

[Fralex]

The thing I like about Sigil is that if I ever need to make a map of the entire thing, it neatly unfolds into a rectangle.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Nitpick: It describes demiplanes as "extradimensional spaces," thereby re-breaking something that was fixed in the PHB.

 

[Rygar]

An exceedingly interesting tidbit that hints at the future in there...

The reference to Dragonlance is set during War of the Lance, the actual timeline of Krynn had been moved forward through the Dragonlords, the death of Takhisis, and finally to Mina's godhood. There were rumors flying around about Dragonlance being rebooted and IIRC Tracey Hickman even said he had an idea for it. It seems to me that the reference they went with points to future plans as it is set back at the origin point for Dragonlance. If they didn't intend to do anything with it I would've expected "Takhisis is dead and the Gods are active in the world vying for the positions of power now open with Paladine's mortality and Takhisis's death".

 

[Dragonhelm]

An exceedingly interesting tidbit that hints at the future in there...

The reference to Dragonlance is set during War of the Lance, the actual timeline of Krynn had been moved forward through the Dragonlords, the death of Takhisis, and finally to Mina's godhood. There were rumors flying around about Dragonlance being rebooted and IIRC Tracey Hickman even said he had an idea for it. It seems to me that the reference they went with points to future plans as it is set back at the origin point for Dragonlance. If they didn't intend to do anything with it I would've expected "Takhisis is dead and the Gods are active in the world vying for the positions of power now open with Paladine's mortality and Takhisis's death".

I think you might be reading a little too much into this.

In my mind, WotC simply referenced the most well-known era of Dragonlance - the War of the Lance. A lot of people gave up after Dragons of Summer Flame. Admittedly, I was one until I began working on the Dragonlance Nexus and read the War of Souls.

I've seen a number of fans who never knew that Dragonlance had a number of 3.5 sourcebooks out under license to Margaret Weis Productions. I've also seen many fans (including some on these boards) who seem to think that Dragonlance has only one adventure (the original DL series of modules).

Dragonlance has many stories left to tell. While it has traditionally been a successful novel world, I maintain that it is every bit as good of a gaming world as any of the other D&D settings. I think it's time to get Dragonlance going again, to explore a future of new companions, the changing face of magic, and where dragons, terrible and great, made war on this world of Krynn.

 

[Dire Bare]

Man, that is some disappointing art. Total perspective failure.* And where is that wizard standing, exactly?

The art isn't accurate to canon, but it is hardly a fail. I love it! In fact, it's now my officially favorite picture of Sigil yet! The wizard is quite obviously standing on a hilly part of the ground near the base of the spire. The spire itself looks "accurate", but Sigil is too close to the ground and looms too large over our adventurers . . . canonically speaking. As of now, officially in my own campaign, the torus of Sigil moves up and down the spire randomly. No one ever actually sees it move, but each time they approach the spire the city is seemingly at a different elevation. And, in my campaign, the spire CAN be seen from within the city, why not?

Love. It.

*OH, they've retconned the torus. Well, that's boring.

No they haven't. I fail to see any meaningful difference between Sigil being a city on the inside of a ring and Sigil being a city on the inside of a torus. A "ring" is a much easier concept for folks to grasp than a "torus", and the difference is minimal anyway.

 

[Dire Bare]

Intriguing; the worlds are divided by epic, heroic or sword and sorcery types of fantasy. I wonder if this is something gone into earlier in terms of setting up a campaign?

These are just genre terms. And while genre differences are important, they are subjective and fuzzy for both game world and fiction. Nothing has really changed here, we are just seeing all of our favorite settings dropped into three very large boxes. Boxes that overlap and that are even seen differently by different observers!