D&D 5E Seriously, why no setting support?

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd expect anything related to the settings to be low priority for them. Unless they can figure out a way to present the material in some way that is more useful to a wide audience.

They must realize that the surveys are mostly completed by more long time and/or diehard fans. So yeah, the demand per the survey might be high, but will people buy a Dark Sun or Ebberon book in numbers like the sales of other books so far? Probably not.

Using the DMGuild as a means of releasing such material seems like a decent idea, but they haven't really done that for anything other than the AL stuff so far. For whatever reason, they seem reluctant to release things that way.

I wouldn't mind some setting based info myself, but I prefer it to come packaged with something else, along the lines of Curse of Strahd and Ravenloft. I love Planescape and Dark Sun, and I'm using both in my current campaign. If they put material out for either, I'd probably pick it up...but until then, I'm managing with what I have already and homebrewing the rest. WotC probably realizes that as well; so much material already exists for these settings that it's tough to come up with something new that doesn't seem like a rehash except with 5E mechanics.

Eberron is interesting/engaging enough on its own merits that a storyline is all that would be needed to get newer players into it enough to buy a book for it.

That said, a world building book with info and options for the major settings would be a pretty good bet. Especially if it came after a story line each for at least two of the settings detailed therein, and included some optional Rules stuff like Dragonmarks as a layer outside of what is there already (I don't dig the feat approach. Even Keith has suggested it isn't how he'd have done it had he had full control.), Action/Hero points, whatever weirdness Dark Sun needs, and a couple new classes, like Artificer and Mystic.

Such a book would pretty much much have to also have new feats, subclasses, races, monsters, spells, items mundane and magical, and could easily have alternate/optional rules for skills. Perhaps also rules for organizations, strongholds, airships and spelljammers, and some guidance on worldbuilding, using various DnD settings as examples.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

After listening to the recent podcast I have a theory. They've said that the barriers between worlds are weakening. They've said that there is a master plan and that we should consider all the supplements to be like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. Various other things in combination with all of this make me think that the next adventure campaign will be Halaster and Undermountain which will lead into Planescape, which will suddenly open the door for travel between worlds and thus the following campaigns will be Dark Sun and Eberron.

Personally I'm hoping that the inclusion of the Neogi in Volo's means that we're also going to get a Spelljammer campaign, but I realise that's probably not going to happen

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Yeah, they've made a big deal of stepping away from metaplot; and without metaplot, there is not much to recommend a new version of a setting. They have emphasized that older edition setting books are perfectly usable with 5E, over and over. So, no traditional campaign guides seem likely...

Give the mechanics for the settings distinctives, open them up on the DMsGuild...that would be good business sense.

Honestly, I would be most happy if they rented out the settings. Establish some quality control so the renters don't sink the setting, and let them go forth. If the rental is a dud, disavow it.

 

[Morrus]

Honestly, I would be most happy if they rented out the settings. Establish some quality control so the renters don't sink the setting, and let them go forth. If the rental is a dud, disavow it.

Who would pay for a disavowalble license? That defeats the point of the license. You're paying for the official connection.

 

[Lanliss]

Who would pay for a disavowalble license? That defeats the point of the license. You're paying for the official connection.

Have you ever heard of the Legend of Zelda CDi games? Seems like the same thing to me.

 

[Morrus]

Have you ever heard of the Legend of Zelda CDi games? Seems like the same thing to me.

Nope.

 

[Tony Vargas]

So, we can assume the info gleaned is good, right? Relatively large sample size, pointed questions, sounds good to me.
"The popularity of settings in the survey fell into three distinct clusters. Not surprisingly, our most popular settings from prior editions landed at the top of the rankings, with Eberron, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms all proving equally popular."
I mean, ok. I assume that "equally" is an overstatement, but even so, the fact that the results were close enough to group these together is significant.

It sure reads to my cynical eyes like spinning FR unexpectedly coming in fourth. ;|

And these are settings which require new rules, right? I mean, Eberron isn't Eberron with just what's in the PHB.

Eberron 'needs' a lot. For one thing, it was always kinda a catch-all setting, with a place for everything that'd ever been in D&D. And, of course, it had it's own new stuff, too. It's magic-as-technology setting could be left a backdrop but would really benefit from a big list of common (on Eberron) magic items that pulled back a bit from the 'just better' 5e philosophy.

Dark Sun also clearly needs some significant adjustments, rules and alternate options to make work, just as it did in AD&D and 3e.

Planescape, for all it's weirdness, maybe not so much.

So, do we think they're going to give Eberron and Planescape and Dark Sun the Ravenloft treatment? Give us 1/4 of a setting guide built into an adventure storyline, and hope we're satisfied?

Seems likely. CoS was a pretty well-received product.

Would it be rude to badger Mike on twitter

Yes, regardless of topic.

about following up on that "expect an update by the end of this year" line?

But feel free to vent here, anytime, instead.

 

[fjw70]

The biggest support disappointment are no pdfs.

 

[transtemporal]

Would it be rude to badger Mike on twitter about following up on that "expect an update by the end of this year" line?

Not at all. You're just querying the status of an expectation that he set, but heres an example of what not to write "Hey Mike you ^%$$#$ %$$#, you said we were going to have Eberron by xmas! Where is it you lying ^$%$#?!"

 

[Lanliss]

The biggest support disappointment are no pdfs.

Just for the sake of weighing in on this, I hate PDFs. I have hated reading ebooks since they became a thing, and have gone for print whenever it was available. I would rather see a printed book of UA than a PDF version of the core books. This is not some grognard who doesn't want change btw, I am millennial. E-books just feel so flat and boring compared to a real thing.