WotC 5E 2020 Book Clue - I need your help!

[Fenris-77]

Cormyr and or the Dalelands would also make sense because it connects to the currently fleshed out portions of the realms like a jigsaw puzzle. So if that's the expansion model it fits. Amn, Tethyr and Calamishan would also fit.

 

[Ringtail]

A 'series of towns' with heraldry and rivalries among each other almost sounds more like the FR Dalelands than Cormyr, unless WotC are doing something completely new.

Cormyr and the Dalelands are close, they could put them together in a book to cover a slightly wider area.

My other thought is Greyhawk, as far as I'm aware, heraldry isn't a big as deal in FR, though some places have it. But crack open one of the Greyhawk books and one of the first pages is heraldry for all the nations of the flanaess. Considering we have Saltmarsh, this couldbe possible.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

heraldry isn't a big a deal in FR

The trouble is he specified "a series of towns". In Greyhawk, nation-heraldry is huge (rather anachronistically). In the FR, town-heraldry is huge (at least in the Dales and Cormyr). All the Dales and many towns in the Dales and so on have heraldry.

 

[akr71]

I simultaneously want and don't want it to be Cormyr. I'm running a sandbox campaign there currently. I've taken what I needed from previous editions and cast aside a lot I found useless and made the area my own.

I'd prefer not to have it all blown out of the water, but I'm also curious what WotC would put out.

 

[Bitbrain]

Cormyr and the Dalelands are close, they could put them together in a book to cover a slightly wider area.

My other thought is Greyhawk, as far as I'm aware, heraldry isn't a big a deal in FR, though some places have it. But crack open one of the Greyhawk books and one of the first pages is heraldry for all the nations of the flanaess. Considering we have Saltmarsh, this couldbe possible.

You’re right, I completely forgot about just how prominent heraldry is in Greyhawk!

 

[Ringtail]

The trouble is he specified "a series of towns". In Greyhawk, nation-heraldry is huge (rather anachronistically). In the FR, town-heraldry is huge (at least in the Dales and Cormyr). All the Dales and many towns in the Dales and so on have heraldry.

You’re right, I completely forgot about just how prominent heraldry is in Greyhawk!

You could make a good case for both. The phrasing "series of towns" does lead one to believe its a smaller area. For example, it is unlikely to be a full-size campaign for Greyhawk. It still could be, but I imagine it is focusing on a smaller area, an individual nation or perhaps even just that, a handful of towns.

 

[Parmandur]

Hi folks,

On the latest DMs Block (Episode 204), beginning @ 32:35

Chris Perkins mentions that for an upcoming 2020 book, he has created gazetteer sections for a "series of towns" that includes:

• Population
• Leader ("each particular town has one")
• Militia
• Heraldry ("every town has a symbol that goes with it")
• Rivals ("every town has rivals")
• Ratings for Friendliness, Services, Comfort

My instant reaction (and hope) was for Outlands aka Planescape, but Im not super familiar with all the D&D settings, so do these sections hint at anything else? Dark Sun? Greyhawk? Dragonlance? Another part of the Forgotten Realms?

Thanks in advance for your knowledge and opinions!

My first thought is the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, which have a competitive rivalry thing going on, and their military is a bunch of frontier militias: dunno if heraldry is a big thing there, but otherwise it would fit. The OG Dalelands would also fit.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A Volo's Guide to...somewhere sounds about right. I'd want it to be somewhere other than the Sword Coast, that's for sure.

Greyhawk would make me very happy, though.

My first thought was "That's the format from the old Volo's Guides to the Realms"

 

[lichhouse]

I saw words like heraldry, population, and militia, and immediately got excited thinking this is it, finally getting 5E Greyhawk treatment, but that would be at the nation level (not rival towns). The old Greyhawk boxed set was full of that info. Sounds like a sub-region in FR like "Volo's Guide to Cormyr" is a more likely guess. Would get more excited for Icewind Dale than Cormyr.

 

[Prakriti]

Chris has already compared his 2020 book to Curse of Strahd, so Cormyr, the Dalelands, and Grayhawk seem unlikely.

(...especially with those ratings. Friendliness? What part of Cormyr or the Dalelands isn't friendly?)

I'm going to guess Planescape/the Planes, as I've been doing since 2017 and been wrong every time. It's a tradition.