Dungeonosophy
Legend
I'm glad that the 5E has, to a small but consistent degree, continued to mention the other D&D Worlds besides Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft. All the key worlds (Oerth, Mystara, and so forth) are mentioned in the DMG, and 5E adventures usually have placement notes for each world. Cool.
There is so much depth in the Oerth, Mystara, Krynn, and all the other worlds.
Yet I'm disappointed that the 5E team hasn't really tapped into those classic corners of the D&D Multiverse.
I suggest that Mike Mearls and the WotC Team amp up the unity of the D&D Multiverse.
In a similar way that the widespread appearance of Gates in Third Edition FR opened up the whole world (or at least Faerun) to dungeoneering within a single campaign arc (without having to travels for weeks and months to get to the next adventure site)...go ahead an open up all of the D&D Worlds, as if they were a single setting. I realize you don't want to split up the brand like TSR did, but just make the D&D Multiverse a single setting...with the same branding!
And unite it in practical ways. Continue to provide sample locations for placing adventures in any world, but also place alternate world gates all over the place (subject to DM's whim of course). (See the back appendix of the Classic D&D Gazetteers - they had a bunch of gates connecting Mystara to Toril to Oerth).
Make planewalking, spelljamming, and chronomancy three of the main campaign models from the start (alongside dungeoncrawling, of course). By including Chronomancy, DMs would be supported in having campaigns tromp throughout the history of the D&D worlds too (e.g. the Blackmoor era of Mystara and Greyhawk 2000). Highlight some trans-world organizations and factions which exist in all of the key D&D worlds. Open up time and space. It's all a single setting and brand.
Have some sort of cross-worlds "Crisis on Infinite Earths" story-event which definitely depicts all of the worlds as a single setting. Bring out the big writers...Salvatore, Weis and Hickman, all of them...and write some mega-epic "Dragonlance Chronicles"-style re-casting of the entire D&D Multiverse. Have Drizzt and Elminister team up with Tanis and Fizban, or something like that. Bring back the "Wizards Three" to the nth degree! C'mon...the D&D worlds are not that sacrosanct...they're all a gumbo mix of fantasy tropes anyway. I'm a Mystara enthusiast myself, but as long as its history, details, and continuity were acknowledged, I'd rather have it exist as an integral part of the D&D Multiverse, than retired on a shelf.
Don't leave anything out - give us Pelinore, Jakandor, Council of Wyrms, the generic world(s) of the D&D gamebooks, the Kingdom of Ghyr of the AD&D action figures, Karawenn (the land of some of the D&D First Quest novels), Thunder Rift (D&D Black Box setting), the Vale (D&D Fast Play setting), Ghostwalk, Mahasarpa (and James Wyatt's other settings such as Petroyeska which have been glimpsed in various DRAGON magazine articles), the d20 Modern and Alternity Campaign Models, Gamma World (which was re-branded as D&D in the recent boardgame), Historical Reference Earth, Masque of the Red Death, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Nerath, Izmer (the world of the D&D Movie(s?)), Kolhapur (2e standalone South Asian mini-setting), the Land of Arir (1e standalone Arab mini-setting), the parallel Oerths (Uerth, Yarth, Aerth), the Sundered Empire, Aquaria, the Dream Lands of Symslyvch (the setting of the BECMI Hebrew-language adventures)...everything!...at least briefly touch on every WotC-owned TRPG IP.
Two sourcebooks would help shore up this Unified Setting:
Atlas of the D&D Multiverse - showing world maps for all of the D&D Worlds. And Spelljammer and Planar maps to and from them all.
Grand History of the D&D Multiverse - unifying the timelines of all the worlds.
If you're into naming the books after famous figures then call it "Tasslehoff's Atlas" and "Pluffet Smedger's Grand History" or whatever.
And then open up all those worlds to the DM's Guild. Then we'd be rolling.
-C'mon Mike...you can do it! You've gone half way by mentioning the other worlds...now go all the way and really make the D&D Multiverse a single setting!
There is so much depth in the Oerth, Mystara, Krynn, and all the other worlds.
Yet I'm disappointed that the 5E team hasn't really tapped into those classic corners of the D&D Multiverse.
I suggest that Mike Mearls and the WotC Team amp up the unity of the D&D Multiverse.
In a similar way that the widespread appearance of Gates in Third Edition FR opened up the whole world (or at least Faerun) to dungeoneering within a single campaign arc (without having to travels for weeks and months to get to the next adventure site)...go ahead an open up all of the D&D Worlds, as if they were a single setting. I realize you don't want to split up the brand like TSR did, but just make the D&D Multiverse a single setting...with the same branding!
And unite it in practical ways. Continue to provide sample locations for placing adventures in any world, but also place alternate world gates all over the place (subject to DM's whim of course). (See the back appendix of the Classic D&D Gazetteers - they had a bunch of gates connecting Mystara to Toril to Oerth).
Make planewalking, spelljamming, and chronomancy three of the main campaign models from the start (alongside dungeoncrawling, of course). By including Chronomancy, DMs would be supported in having campaigns tromp throughout the history of the D&D worlds too (e.g. the Blackmoor era of Mystara and Greyhawk 2000). Highlight some trans-world organizations and factions which exist in all of the key D&D worlds. Open up time and space. It's all a single setting and brand.
Have some sort of cross-worlds "Crisis on Infinite Earths" story-event which definitely depicts all of the worlds as a single setting. Bring out the big writers...Salvatore, Weis and Hickman, all of them...and write some mega-epic "Dragonlance Chronicles"-style re-casting of the entire D&D Multiverse. Have Drizzt and Elminister team up with Tanis and Fizban, or something like that. Bring back the "Wizards Three" to the nth degree! C'mon...the D&D worlds are not that sacrosanct...they're all a gumbo mix of fantasy tropes anyway. I'm a Mystara enthusiast myself, but as long as its history, details, and continuity were acknowledged, I'd rather have it exist as an integral part of the D&D Multiverse, than retired on a shelf.
Don't leave anything out - give us Pelinore, Jakandor, Council of Wyrms, the generic world(s) of the D&D gamebooks, the Kingdom of Ghyr of the AD&D action figures, Karawenn (the land of some of the D&D First Quest novels), Thunder Rift (D&D Black Box setting), the Vale (D&D Fast Play setting), Ghostwalk, Mahasarpa (and James Wyatt's other settings such as Petroyeska which have been glimpsed in various DRAGON magazine articles), the d20 Modern and Alternity Campaign Models, Gamma World (which was re-branded as D&D in the recent boardgame), Historical Reference Earth, Masque of the Red Death, Boot Hill, Gangbusters, Nerath, Izmer (the world of the D&D Movie(s?)), Kolhapur (2e standalone South Asian mini-setting), the Land of Arir (1e standalone Arab mini-setting), the parallel Oerths (Uerth, Yarth, Aerth), the Sundered Empire, Aquaria, the Dream Lands of Symslyvch (the setting of the BECMI Hebrew-language adventures)...everything!...at least briefly touch on every WotC-owned TRPG IP.
Two sourcebooks would help shore up this Unified Setting:
Atlas of the D&D Multiverse - showing world maps for all of the D&D Worlds. And Spelljammer and Planar maps to and from them all.
Grand History of the D&D Multiverse - unifying the timelines of all the worlds.
If you're into naming the books after famous figures then call it "Tasslehoff's Atlas" and "Pluffet Smedger's Grand History" or whatever.
And then open up all those worlds to the DM's Guild. Then we'd be rolling.
-C'mon Mike...you can do it! You've gone half way by mentioning the other worlds...now go all the way and really make the D&D Multiverse a single setting!
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