D&D 5E Is there even a new D&D setting?

Though we’ve been speculating about what the new setting recently pre-announced for D&D might or might not be (Icewind Dale being one suggestion), there's some doubt about whether it exists at all!

The press release that was sent out said:

Fans of D&D will learn all about the new setting and storyline as well as accompanying new products

The web page for the event says:

Fans of D&D will learn all about the new storyline as well as accompanying new products

The word “setting” is missing from the web page, but exists in the press release. The text is the same otherwise.

I don’t know which order the two were written in, or if the latter changed, or if the former contains extra information.

 

[teitan]

I wonder what the timescale of those sales are. I don't see many at book stores nowadays.

I see them at all my local bookstores but they seem to be left overs from WOTC backroom. I don't think anyone has the Dragonlance license for novels. WOTC is still selling Ebooks though.

 

[Mercurius]

The thing with literature we enjoyed as a child/adolescent is when we return to them as adults we see things we didn't see before, for good or ill. It maybe things that the author put in intentionally, but sometimes the author unintentionally revels part of their own soul.

And we can also learn about the times when they where written. Dragonlance was ahead of it's time in a way. It was intentionally "YA" before publishers invented the category. It was soppy teen romance long before Twilight, reflecting a generation who grew up with nothing more important to worry about apart from who was dating whom.

Yes, and as a middle schooler/young teen with a romantic bent, I ate up the very adolescent romantic struggles of Tanis, and the soap opera of Claremont's X-Men. When I revisited Dragonlance years later, I didn't as much react to the adolescent nature of it, or even the relatively thin characterization (which, at worst, were stereotypes, but occasionally veered into decent archetypes), but more the poor writing style. Dragons of Winter Night was a solid improvement to at least passable mediocrity, but Autumn Twilight was abysmal. And I say this as someone who isn't super snobby about "prose stylings" .

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You know Hollywood always is trying to produce a new blockbuster based in some IPs from comics, videogames or toys. Who would bet the first Michael Bay's Transformers would be a smashing-hit? Thanks him Transformers is now a good cash-cow for Hasbro. Who would be the remake of My Little Pony would be even more popular than the first generation? I say Dragonlance, even with its flaws, still deserves a new opportunity. It will not be in this phase but maybe in the next, because they want to find the right hands to push the right keys.

Maybe a new idea for a setting would a patchworld demiplaned based in the maya, a hinduism concept from Hinduism. This "mayasphere" had created by the gods for three goals. One as decoy to trick time-travelers who trie to alter the past, as a "library" for chornomancers who only want to learn, and the third and most important, it's a illusory prison for souls who almost don't remember in the past their were titans (and lord faes) who lost a titanomachy (and the prisoners who keep this illusion they are also prisons, but they are too busy with their conspiracies to stop and notice). This may be a transitional setting what allow officially crazy ideas, for example a crossover G.I.Joe-Gamma World.

 

[Ravenbrook]

Kudos to whoever is keeping on top of that list! It seem pretty update, good job!

Besides the settings proper, there is also the mainly Greek-themed rules supplement Age of Myth by Knucklebones Publishing

 

[Urriak Uruk]

You know Hollywood always is trying to produce a new blockbuster based in some IPs from comics, videogames or toys. Who would bet the first Michael Bay's Transformers would be a smashing-hit? Thanks him Transformers is now a good cash-cow for Hasbro. Who would be the remake of My Little Pony would be even more popular than the first generation? I say Dragonlance, even with its flaws, still deserves a new opportunity. It will not be in this phase but maybe in the next, because they want to find the right hands to push the right keys.

This is actually untrue; nowadays, Hollywood is less likely to take a risk on a big-budget film if it doesn't have a track record of success. They can become huge losses if they don't have impressive returns.

So seeing development of a big film that is on a property with no box-office track-record is actually unlikely, compared to things with a record of success like Transformers, DC and Marvel.

 

[Fenris-77]

Or a property with a history of some pretty serious box office flops, say? Not to single out any franchise in particular there, of course. cough D&D cough I think it's an uphill battle, but aided by the recent explosion of popularity, so perhaps not as Sisyphean as it might have once seemed.

 

[Chronos96]

If I log in to watch their stream on the day to find the 'new' setting they talked about was one we've known about for months, I'll be pretty disappointed.

It won't be Theros dude. 1. That would be incredibly stupid on Wizard's part and a horrible marketing strategy. It says in the press release we'll be getting a new setting/adventure and accompanying products (Read) Volo's, Xanathars, Mordenkainen's, etc.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It won't be Theros dude. 1. That would be incredibly stupid on Wizard's part and a horrible marketing strategy. It says in the press release we'll be getting a new setting/adventure and accompanying products (Read) Volo's, Xanathars, Mordenkainen's, etc.

I sure hope you're right.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It won't be Theros dude. 1. That would be incredibly stupid on Wizard's part and a horrible marketing strategy. It says in the press release we'll be getting a new setting/adventure and accompanying products (Read) Volo's, Xanathars, Mordenkainen's, etc.

It's two words on a single statement ("new setting"). It's less indicative of a strategy if it's just a mistake if they meant the word setting in the "it's a place where you are."

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's two words on a single statement ("new setting"). It's less indicative of a strategy if it's just a mistake if they meant the word setting in the "it's a place where you are."

Which is particularly possible when you take into account that they edited it to not include the word "setting" anymore.