D&D 5E 3 Classic Settings Coming To 5E?

On the D&D Celebration – Sunday, Inside the D&D Studio with Liz Schuh and Ray Winninger, Winninger said that WotC will be shifting to a greater emphasis on settings in the coming years.

This includes three classic settings getting active attention, including some that fans have been actively asking for. He was cagey about which ones, though.

The video below is an 11-hour video, but the information comes in the last hour for those who want to scrub through.



Additionally, Liz Schuh said there would be more anthologies, as well as more products to enhance game play that are not books.

Winninger mentioned more products aimed at the mainstream player who can't spend immense amount of time absorbing 3 tomes.

Ray and Liz confirmed there will be more Magic: The Gathering collaborations.

 

[Coroc]

There's obviously a place for grimdark fantasy -- Abercrombie is still popular, among other authors -- and I think that's the place Dark Sun could sit in the D&D canon. Now, I don't know if WotC would do a grimdark setting. And I also don't think WotC should worry to much about "older fans" -- they likely omprise a pretty small slice of the purchasing customers these days just by way of demographics.

just by demographics surely the younger guys buy more digital content, but with books? I heavily doubt that. Also there is no incentive to present them ds. Back then it was something really different, a big thing.

if today it would be yet another storyline but bring along everything you are used to, then it will be much work either way.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Planescape. Dark Sun. Eberron. Probably the three most popular settings after FR, and none of them are wild pastiches of Earth cultures.

Dark Sun earth cultures for each city state.
Balic used greece
Gulg used subsaharan Africa
Urik used Fertile Crescent city states
Draj was Aztec/Mayan
Nibenay was SE Asia
Tons of copy paste with some flavor on top.

Where they tried inventing ones they were not full fledged, used the random syllable convention of place names, leaving everyone to plug in the gaps with what they think they know.

 

[ChaosOS]

I think it's a really-FR centric viewpoint to insist that fantasy cultures have to just by expys of IRL cultures. While other settings might seem that way on the surface, if you actually dig in there's lots of nuance and good writing. The Dark Sun City States yes clearly have themes and ideas that tie them to various ancient cultures, but the integration of magic and psionics strongly differentiates them. Eberron of course goes even farther, where the nations have some passing similarities but lots of important differences as well. In play of course these nuances can get erased, but that's not the writers - that's a DMing choice.

As for the original topic, I sincerely doubt any of the three classic settings will be another region in FR - so no Kara Tur, Al Qadim, etc. I think it's far more likely that MTG returns to Tarkir in 2022 and we get a D&D sourcebook with it. As for middle eastern themes, that's a lot harder. I'd love to see a good take on them, but I'm not particularly persuaded there's a devouring market demanding them

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I think it's a really-FR centric viewpoint to insist that fantasy cultures have to just by expys of IRL cultures.

For my point, I was noting that a lot of good material about cultures, that people have enjoyed as fantastical, has been created by borrowing from real world cultures. Using something actual real world eras as inspiration is an art, and has been done terribly. Done well, it feels fresh.

However, in my perspective, the FR-centric way at the start was just Ed making up names without a sense of culture, just stuff for his stories and own game. Basicially Faerun = FR to me. I’ve not been a fan how the other settings we tacked on and have never gotten used to FR being meant to include the entire planet.

 

[Nymrod]

For my point, I was noting that a lot of good material about cultures, that people have enjoyed as fantastical, has been created by borrowing from real world cultures. Using something actual real world eras as inspiration is an art, and has been done terribly. Done well, it feels fresh.

However, in my perspective, the FR-centric way at the start was just Ed making up names without a sense of culture, just stuff for his stories and own game. Basicially Faerun = FR to me. I’ve not been a fan how the other settings we tacked on and have never gotten used to FR being meant to include the entire planet.

I mean the Old Empires was a relatively early addition and it was pretty much a poor way of trying to add Egyptian and Mesopotamian gods (and not really even culture) into the setting; A;-Qadim was vastly better (and the worst of all was probably Maztica were they did not even make an effort). Calimshan though is brilliant and CRIMINALLY underused. The effort in building the history and the stories of Calimshan, the endless intrigue and yet so few adventures there.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Yep. Most writers struggle to even come up with vaguely convincing system of names for an "invented" culture, let alone the rest of it. There's more than just chuckin' a few apostrophes in it and calling it a day.

Jorune and Talislanta come to mind to disprove this.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Jorune and Talislanta come to mind to disprove this.

Not familiar with either of these but I can't comment.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

With all due respect, the Hickmans are not at the centre of Ravenloft. They wrote the original novels, but once it became a setting in 2nd edition and outgrew its Dracula pastiche beginnings they had nothing more to do with it. Ravenloft the setting was driven by Bruce Nesmith, Andria Hayday, William W Conners, Steve Miller and the rest of the Kargat. Hickman created a lich named "Azalin" in Ravenloft II: House of Gryphon Hill, but the Kargat gave him his history, personality and character. Powers checks, the concept of domains and darklords, Rudolph van Richten - all of this was post Hickman. I know Wizards of the Coast seems to have decided from 3rd edition onwards that Ravenloft was Strahd and Barovia and not much more, but there really was a very rich and detailed setting there and giving Hickman sole credit for it is a very strange thing to do.

I didn't say the Hickman's were the center of Ravenloft, did I? They certainly are the brains who first conceived of Strahd and Ravenloft, so maybe they're not the "center" but they're the progenitors. They wrote both the original Ravenloft and it's sequel.

I'm not sure why you keep attacking the Hickman's work, because obviously they aren't responsible for every piece of work created in Ravenloft or Dragonlance. But they were the two who first devised the settings, and without them they would not exist. I would argue that they are the most important designers in both settings, though obviously not the only designers.

Anyway, my point was that the Hickman's consulted with WotC on Curse of Strahd, so the possibility that they would do so again for Dragonlance is not impossible.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Not familiar with either of these but I can't comment.

I wouldn’t say that two examples, much less a good handful, counters an argument that most aren’t. But i have heard good things about those two.

 

[Reynard]

I wouldn’t say that two examples, much less a good handful, counters an argument that most aren’t. But i have heard good things about those two.

Have you given any examples of where it didn't work?