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.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Alright, my bets:

1. Dragonlance

You've got automatic cash-cow tie-ins with both new novels and classic novel reprints, and content that was born to be reworked for 5E. It's mentioned more in the core books than any setting other than Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. It hasn't been touched yet - nor licensed for a classic treatment elsewhere, despite 5E now being out for six years. It's practically inevitable.

Also, it does fill a distinct niche - the adventure paths, to date, have all been done at what I call "Faerun Scale"- what the heroes accomplish may be a big deal, but it hardly makes them or their achievements the center of the setting. But doesn't everyone, at some point, want to play out a world-saving epic - be their own Fellowship of the Ring? DL fills this naturally. I hope they use the Backgrounds system to create backgrounds to fill the classic roles of the Heroes of the Lance, and then tie-in the events in the story to those backgrounds (which was basically what I did back when I tried to run it in 3E - had everyone make characters with certain events or traits in their background, so that the roles would be filled).

2. Dark Sun

Psionics is coming out in two months. Everyone's been asking for it - and it was the only non-FR setting to get the treatment in 4E. It has distinct hooks and a distinct identity. It's pretty obvious.

3. Planescape

See Dark Sun. Ravnica seems like a test run for this, really.


Dark Horses:

Spelljammer - a strong "maybe". The Spelljammer Helm in Dungeon of the Mad Mage seems like a tease. Still think Planescape is more likely, as Planescape's lore tie-ins and direct mentions have been stronger over the years.

Mystara - weirder things have happened. What makes me think this is a possibility is that it is mentioned several times in the 5E Core Books. I just wonder what the 5E "hook" for it's identity would be... which is an interesting question in of itself...

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Possible Mystara Hook:

The airship setting. While airships have been a thing in Eberron and the Realms, they're just another conveyance. With Bruce Heard's classic Heroes of the Princess Ark boxed set, airships and their crews were put front and center. So just as the "hook" of an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign is running a franchise, and the hook of a hypothetical 5E Dragonlance game is playing your own company of the Heroes of the Lance, the Mystara hook could be playing the crew of an airship, and the adventures could be something like "Fantasy Star Trek" as the crew travels from land to land, righting wrongs and fighting evils....

Again, just a possibility. But a distinctly interesting one...

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Oooh, great idea taking the Princess Ark for a Mystara product.

Though I could see a theme like Princess Ark‘s fantasy Star Trek being rolled into a 5e Spelljammer/Planescape. It worked in Mystara because the crew were from a multicontintent arcane superpower (Alphatia), something like such a multi-ethnic backing culture would need to be put in.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

2. Dark Sun

Psionics is coming out in two months. Everyone's been asking for it - and it was the only non-FR setting to get the treatment in 4E. It has distinct hooks and a distinct identity. It's pretty obvious.

I’m pretty sure Eberron had a 4e book, of course that is already out in 5e.

 

[ChaosOS]

Yeah the three 4e settings were FR, Eberron, then Dark Sun. But as noted, Eberron is very popular and already got a full setting book last year and had playtest mechanics long before that. (First UA was Eberron, and WGTE came out summer 2018)

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Yes, massively different, mostly because of availability and cargo capacity.

On cargo capacity, using the 2e "tactical movement" rules, a spelljammer helmed by a first-level spellcaster (the only "specialized talent" involved) moves at 17 MPH. Using the 5e Dungeon of the Mad Mage, a spelljammer helmed by someone with one unexpended first-level spell slot moves at 10 MPH. If you use the 2e rules, the mass of the cargo doesn't matter, but a maximum-sized ship for a minor helm can carry 2,500 cubic yards of cargo; using the 5e Dungeon of the Mad Mage helm, you can move a ship up to 100 tons mass with a helm, which means at least 50 tons of cargo.

When you run the numbers against even passingly realistic numbers for overland caravans, the result is that one spelljammer can ship quantities of cargo in a year that would take tens of thousands of horses to move, all while not eating anything. They're incredibly valuable.

And, well, Spelljammer assumes that helms are common enough for, say, a group of fifth-level PCs to own one without having to be paranoid about every powerful wizard, kingdom, and church that hears about trying to seize it. If they're that common, then they're common enough to completely warp Oerth, Krynn, or Toril. If you make helms rare enough that 5th-level PCs can't reasonably let anyone know they have one, you've made something that isn't Spelljammer. (The helm in Dungeon of the Mad Mage being a legendary item implies rarity enough to not warp the FR setting, but also rarity enough that you can't do Spelljammer.)

As far as a "specialized talent", it requires somebody with a caster level (2e) or a spell slot (5e writeup). That isn't everyone, but it's a lot more common than people able to cast teleportation circle. (And if you use a caster able to cast fifth-level spells like teleportation circle as a helmsman, your speed increases to 50 mph [5e] or 51 mph [2e minor helm].)

What you need is a rule to nerf this option. Perhaps if a helm stays too close to any one world, it starts losing connection to the ether/phlogiston/astral plane.

 

[TrainedMunkee]

Oooh, great idea taking the Princess Ark for a Mystara product.

Though I could see a theme like Princess Ark‘s fantasy Star Trek being rolled into a 5e Spelljammer/Planescape. It worked in Mystara because the crew were from a multicontintent arcane superpower (Alphatia), something like such a multi-ethnic backing culture would need to be put in.

Loved Mystara back in the day and still support Heard's products. I believe that he just id a kickstarter, but could be wrong. So while an official Mystara setting would be a dream come true, I have my doubts.

 

[TrainedMunkee]

Dragonlance - best released as a War of the Lance adventure, that's what the majority know, however they don't do novels anymore. Certain celebs have been pushing for this one, so we could see this one. Could be done well, but see War of the Lance above. Not on my list for a full setting.

Planescape - As the 2e setting, way too complicated and way too morally ambiguous for WotC, see The Lady of Pain. They could totally revamp and take the ambiguity out, which would make it not Planescape. A WotC version, not on my wish list.

Dark Sun- Possibly, love this setting, but too complicated for current politics. Could remove the slavery aspect or gloss over it, but doubtful. Then again psionics and they release this setting every edition pretty much. On my wish list.

Spelljammer- Need a lot of rework but guessing we will get this, just to keep up with the Joneses. The bones of it are great, but redo spheres and such, or go 4e route and combine with planesape. Not crazy what they did there. I like to keep my Space Opera separate. Who doesn't love space hamsters and talking hippos. The chair mechanic was terrible. What player wants to use all their spells flying the fraking ship. Wizard player spends session on their phone. On my wish list.

Mystara - Yes please, but very doubtful. Probably one of the deepest most imaginative settings ever done for D&D. Hasn't been done since the early days. They would have to pick a region, as in Sword Coast for Realms. Top of my wish list, for nostalgia reasons perhaps.

Greyhawk- A main developer loves this one. So do I, you rock Gord the Rogue. Don't know that this offers anything new over the Realms in most minds. Being an aficionado I know it would, but most don't, i.e. most customers who would buy it. The Realms has already beaten up and stolen most of it's best adventures. Doubtful we will get it. On my hopeful list.

Ravenloft- The favorite 2e setting for edgy boys. There has already been an adventure set here and might not fair the best with a younger crowd, no conflicted, sparkly vampires. I ran 2e setting several times, very fun to run, but doubt we will get it. On my wish list however.

The Realms- Please no more. I still have my Grey box and loved the setting in 2e, but it has been beaten to death, then it's bloody corpse has been reanimated, beaten to death again and then it turned into a lich. Nearly impossible to kill now. I believe you know where this falls on my list.

 

[Rygar]

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

Um...Dragonlance lasted almost 30 years, spanned well over 100 novels (more than 150?), pulled in people who would never play an RPG in their lives, several video games, and has been shopped around Hollywood several times. Puzzles, Calendars, board game, miniature lines, gamebooks, comic books, graphic novels, and more.

Planescape lasted roughly one edition, had one video game that took decades to become a cult-hit, and never tied into anything else.

Dark Sun lasted roughly one edition, was released during an edition that largely tanked, had two video games, and little else.

Eberron largely fizzled in 3rd edition, was released during an edition that largely tanked, and has almost no other tie-ins.

Dragonlance is arguably either WOTC's second most popular product, or quite possibly its first. The only reason Dragonlance isn't the main setting is because TSR never figured out how to convert the huge interest in the stories into RPG players and WOTC didn't try.

 

[humble minion]

Dragonlance is arguably either WOTC's second most popular product, or quite possibly its first. The only reason Dragonlance isn't the main setting is because TSR never figured out how to convert the huge interest in the stories into RPG players and WOTC didn't try.

Dragonlance was never WotCs second, first, or anythingth most popular product. Even in 3rd ed, they licenced it out to Sovereign i believe. It certainly was TSRs for a while, but that's a very long time ago now, and as you say, the novels drove it much more than the RPG products. And that's a line of business that modern WotC has expressed no interest in being involved in.

I don't know how successful the Sovereign line was, but i do know that WotC never found it attractive to do a 4e iteration of DL once the rights reverted to them. Strong (but completely unscientific) feeling i get is that DL is seen as something with a strong history, but perhaps less modern saleability outside of its existing loyal fanbase. Especially when they've already done the 'return of Tiamat/Takhisis' storyline in the Dragon Queen adventure modules (which would have been a much better fit in DL than FR, to be honest)