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.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Also, Van Richten was alive when he shouldn't be. (Curse of Strahd is either set way before his birth (see Ireena Kolyana being there rather than Tara Kolyana, Barovia being the smaller version, pre annexation of Gundarak) or after his death, with no explanation of how he came back to life.

Also no Thaani or Forfarian inhabitants.

The explanation is the same than for how Joker is alive in the the Dark Knight (2008) even though he died in Batman (1989).

 

[QuentinGeorge]

The explanation is the same than for how Joker is alive in the the Dark Knight (2008) even though he died in Batman (1989).

Right, so, as I've been saying all along, Curse of Strahd is not the Ravenloft Setting.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Right, so, as I've been saying all along, Curse of Strahd is not the Ravenloft Setting.

It is a version of it. The latest one.

 

[M.L. Martin]

The explanation is the same than for how Joker is alive in the the Dark Knight (2008) even though he died in Batman (1989).

Which is the very point of the argument--Curse of Strahd, whatever its merits (I found it unimpressive on a readthrough), is not in 'continuity' with the 2E or 3E incarnations of the setting. For most people, that doesn't matter, but there are a few of us who prefer the earlier to the latter, and it shouldn't be considered 'the same' when it isn't.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Which is the very point of the argument--Curse of Strahd, whatever its merits (I found it unimpressive on a readthrough), is not in 'continuity' with the 2E or 3E incarnations of the setting.

So what?

 

[Hatmatter]

Curse of Strahd let the PCs, literally,

Spoiler

discover the Dark Powers sealed in little coffins in a lost temple in Barovia

Fair to say it makes no attempt to adhere to Ravenloft Canon at all. I suspect it'd be an excellent adventure to play with a good DM, but when it comes to canonicity it's rhyming slang of the 2e/3e Ravenloft setting, at best.

Wow! Really? Well, to be fair, that sounds more like a development of canon rather than actually contradicting canon. Contradicting canon would be pretending that Dark Powers never existed or something like that. But, just to be clear here, I not only haven't read Curse of Strahd, but it has been a while since I read through my old Ravenloft books.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Wow! Really? Well, to be fair, that sounds more like a development of canon rather than actually contradicting canon. Contradicting canon would be pretending that Dark Powers never existed or something like that. But, just to be clear here, I not only haven't read Curse of Strahd, but it has been a while since I read through my old Ravenloft books.

It goes against the spirit of the 2E/3E setting, at least, where the Dark Powers were supposed to forever remain undefined. The one product that tried to define them is one of the only Ravenloft products ever declared 'non-canonical' (the novel Lord of the Necropolis, written in an era when TSR had erected overly strong firewalls between Games and Novels, as I understand it).

If you like the 5E version, fine. If not, you can join the rest of us retrogrades to be banished from the hobby when 6E comes out and requires oaths of fealty and apostasy from all previous loyalties to game, God, or country.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I don't know that that's ever happened. The 1E/2E changeover was accomplished with no events, not even on the level of Greyhawk's Fate of Istus module. The Fifth Age and the changeover to the SAGA System came after Dragons of Summer Flame was written and turned in with no input from anyone on the game side, and the first design was actually a standalone AD&D 2E variant until management said 'no AD&D, and card-based.' The one thing that might fit this criteria was the War of Souls, which was more about letting Weis & Hickman take control of the setting back.

It's possible you know more about all this than I do; my statements are based on observation rather than data.

It's true that the 1e-2e change had no novelization, but then the official 2e DL setting was the new Taladas.

I find it challenging to believe that Weis & Hickman proposed a new trilogy that ended with the Chaos War and TSR brass took that as inspiration to plan the whole SAGA system, but I suppose it's possible.

War Of Souls was clearly a means of "fixing" the SAGA misstep and returning Dragonlance to the D&D fold. Again, it's possible that the story idea came from Weis & Hickman and WotC brass fell in step, but I find that challenging to believe. Especially since Weis & Hickman were only ever "in control" of the stories during the DL Legends series AFAIK, which had no in-game tie in.

Again, I haven't even asked Margaret Weis about all this (which would be easy enough to do, honestly), but it's a remarkably consistent pattern that fits the data at least from a longtime customer's viewpoint.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I would love to hear some of the insights that you gathered from your advisor regarding the insensitivity of Al-Qadim.

Even aside from mishmashing multiple Middle Eastern cultures into a single religiously fanatical whole, the original setting is rife with stereotypes. Much weight/press given to multitudes of wives, extremism, and gross intolerance even under the guise of being welcoming to all.

It makes sense - the setting is based on the Arabian Nights, which is a French author's take on various folk tales from across East Asia and India, coupled with various American movies from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Written by more white guys with token assistance from an American professor of Middle Eastern studies.

We even reached out to Jeff Grubb himself for clarification on a number points and inspirations.

It's been an interesting minefield to navigate.

 

[Hatmatter]

Depends. If they retcon the 2e retcons back out of the setting (like where they changed King Kol to be an elf since in 2e there was no RAW way for a kobold to cast wizard spells), I'd consider it. Especially if they used Mystara as a means of introducing epic levels and paths to Immortality/godhood.

If they leave the 2e goofiness on there, they can keep it.

That's a great idea, Ath-kethin. If they ever wanted to do a higher-than 20th level book, to present it through Mystara (or Dark Sun, for that matter), it would be terrific!