D&D 5E New Year speculation thread!

[LuisCarlos17f]

My opinion is future books about monsters will be linked with other sourcebook, for example planar creatures with a compilation of Planescape modules, Libris Mortis with something of Ravenloft or Innistrad, Draconomicon with Dragonlance or Chris Perkin's Iomandra, the reboot of Councyl of Wyrms.

Nothing has been said about psionic powers and Dark Sun.

In the last years a plane from Magic: the Gathering has been added as a new setting, but the translater publishers into other languages need both licences to can publish. For example Edgeent can't translate Guids of Ranivca because other company, Devir Iberia, has got the licence of M:tG.

More modules wouldn't be a surprise at all. Maybe the return of Dragonlance will be only the compilation of the modules,

 

[akr71]

I'm going with the same prediction I made last year (which ended up being true):
WotC will release something I will definitely want, something I'm indifferent about, and something I definitely do not want to buy.

Although Dragonlance/Krynn seems like a surefire bet.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My theory is the metaplot of those worlds will be frozen, stopped, until an event about a multiverse crisis, causing a reboot or partial retcon of those settings, to allow lots of things from the last editions (classes, PC races..) to be added.

I feel a special interest about Asian speculative fiction, and not only manganime. I wonder about how WotC could introduce D&D into the "otaku" market. (here in my land we are allowed to say otaku, or "friki" as synonime of geeks/fanboys). But China and Japan have got different rules, even China and Taiwan have got different rules, for example "Chinese Ghost Story", an IP by and for Chinese, today wouldn't be welcomme by the Chinese censure. (really it was from pre-reunification Hong Kong).

WotC talked about the return of old lines. The worlds with most ballots to be the winner are Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, Dragonlance and Ravenloft. My theory is some old glory will return with a videogame to promote the franchise. Planescape may be the easiest option to be recovered, at least in a DLC where PC from Baldur's Gate could visit Sigil. If I say DLC also I can say standalone expansion.

 

[Marc_C]

I'm going with the same prediction I made last year (which ended up being true):
WotC will release something I will definitely want, something I'm indifferent about, and something I definitely do not want to buy.

Although Dragonlance/Krynn seems like a surefire bet.

That is a very good way to look at it. I only bought one book in 2020. Tasha's. My bet is that I'll buy only one book in 2021. I don't use official 5e adventures and I have no interest in MTG settings. A Greyhawk book will make me spend money IF it is good. I play other RPGs. I spread the $$$ around!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm thinking four books a year, roughly one a fiscal Quarter, is what WotC is aiming for these days. Crawford did say on Twitter last month that they were just finishing the next hardcover before Christmas break, so we'll see something soon at any rate.

My pulled from thin air predictions:

• Q1: A new Monster book, or an old Adventure compilation
• Q2: Bit of a wild card (pun intended, I am so sorry), but I expect a Magic: the Gathering Forgotten Realms tie in of some sort, a full FRCG tying into the cards coming to M:tG.
• Q3: A new storyline. Haven't really been tracking Dragon Talk lately, so dunno if any clues are current, but I'll go with Neverwinter or the Moonshae Isles as the microsetting.
• Q4: Innistrad Campaign Setting.

I'm going to jump on this comment, because there's a lot I agree with here, and a little I don't agree with.

Q1: Definitely agree it will either be a Monster Book, or an Adventure Compilation.
Q2: IF Q1 was the Monster book, Q2 will be the Adventure Compilation (or reverse).
Q3: New storyline. Still thing Lantan/Spelljammer is a strong possibility (and I hope it's what is happening) but could just as easily be anything else.
Q4: Legacy Campaign Setting, either Dark Sun, Ravenloft (with maybe some Innistrad tied in), or Dragonlance.

Monster book, specifically a 5E Dragonomicon (it may have an entirely different name, but a Volo's style book themed around dragons) seems like a no-brainer. The monster books sell very well, and there hasn't been one in a while. Dragon material is being teased in recent UA, and Gem Dragon statblocks have been teased last year. So this seems like one of the "definitely happening" for 2021.

Adventure Compilation; not old adventures, but original adventures collected from various DMsGuild and other D&D-adjacent people. Kate Welch teased this a while ago, and although I thought it may be shelved, it was again teased in one of last year's streams (I can't remember which one, but it was very much a confirmation it was still happening). So this seems like another "definitely happening" for 2021.

Not going to speculate too much on the adventure, other than hints at Lantan that haven't yet materialized. Lantan seems like a great jump-off point to Spelljammer, but that's just my optimism.

And lastly, a Legacy Setting. Again in last year's stream, they teased that more settings are coming, including old ones. And I think since the last setting released was Theros, WotC will maintain their pattern of now releasing a Legacy one (Ravnica, Eberron, Theros, etc.) The most popular of these that haven't been released are Dark Sun and Ravenloft, but with all the Dragonlance stuff swirling, it is a possibility as well.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Confident:
Dragonlance and monster book

wild hopes:
UA classes for shaman and warlord that make it into a new splatbook

 

[Mecheon]

Obviously something Dragonlance related, either Dragonlance proper or built from its skeleton given the legal mess, plus the 5E Draconomicon, as per the dragon-themed player options and, every edition since 2E having one.

I hope eternally for Dark Sun as always but there's no hints either way thus far. Additionally following the historic trend of 'kickstarters exist and are popular' that seemed to coincide with Theros after Arkadia and Dragonlords, I'm a bit curious if they might look at the idea of some variety of Asian-esque setting, given Sina Una and some other bits and bobs I've seen floating around Twitter. Not that they're all copying one another (because let's be honest, odds of WotC releasing a Philippenes-inspired setting is nil, so no competition for Sina Una), just that the pendulum of D&D settings may be near the "Let's look at Asia" point again. Mind, this also would be incredibly ready for controversy, but given how much has been stired up by OA's existence I do wonder if they'd try the idea of 'hey ignore that historic stuff, look at this newer stuff along similar themes that isn't decades old'. Or, just move over Tarkir which, honestly, would probably be for the best and also would tie into the dragon theme. Also time travel.

On the riskier side, Spelljammer and my eternal hope for a Warlord

 

[Parmandur]

I'm going to jump on this comment, because there's a lot I agree with here, and a little I don't agree with.

Q1: Definitely agree it will either be a Monster Book, or an Adventure Compilation.
Q2: IF Q1 was the Monster book, Q2 will be the Adventure Compilation (or reverse).
Q3: New storyline. Still thing Lantan/Spelljammer is a strong possibility (and I hope it's what is happening) but could just as easily be anything else.
Q4: Legacy Campaign Setting, either Dark Sun, Ravenloft (with maybe some Innistrad tied in), or Dragonlance.

Monster book, specifically a 5E Dragonomicon (it may have an entirely different name, but a Volo's style book themed around dragons) seems like a no-brainer. The monster books sell very well, and there hasn't been one in a while. Dragon material is being teased in recent UA, and Gem Dragon statblocks have been teased last year. So this seems like one of the "definitely happening" for 2021.

Adventure Compilation; not old adventures, but original adventures collected from various DMsGuild and other D&D-adjacent people. Kate Welch teased this a while ago, and although I thought it may be shelved, it was again teased in one of last year's streams (I can't remember which one, but it was very much a confirmation it was still happening). So this seems like another "definitely happening" for 2021.

Not going to speculate too much on the adventure, other than hints at Lantan that haven't yet materialized. Lantan seems like a great jump-off point to Spelljammer, but that's just my optimism.

And lastly, a Legacy Setting. Again in last year's stream, they teased that more settings are coming, including old ones. And I think since the last setting released was Theros, WotC will maintain their pattern of now releasing a Legacy one (Ravnica, Eberron, Theros, etc.) The most popular of these that haven't been released are Dark Sun and Ravenloft, but with all the Dragonlance stuff swirling, it is a possibility as well.

All quite reasonable. A Draconomicon Volo-type book would sell, and sell hard. It would rocket to my five year old son's favorite book instantly: he loves flipping through beastiaries and copying the pictures in his notebooks (as a result of which my wife put the 1E MM in time out...), and he loves dragons. When I got the Theros book he demanded I show him the pictures of dragons, and fun fact, there are no dragon pictures in Theros...

There is easily enough material from across D&D history to fill an entire Volo sized or longer length book focused on dragon stats and lore. The original Volo's came out two years after the original Core books, with MToF coming a year and a half later, which is almost three years ago now. It's about time.

 

[Remathilis]

Thinking back to this line: (emphasis mine)

To rectify that, we’ve not only made changes to Curse of Strahd, but in two upcoming books, we will also show—working with a Romani consultant—the Vistani in a way that doesn’t rely on reductive tropes.

Tasha was one of them, Luba's Tarokka of Souls and its sidebar on Luba (which seemed to borrow from 4e's idea that Vistani are a cultural/organization rather than a race as Luba was a halfling) clearly shows deviation from CoS's depiction. But that does leave a second book with Vistani ties in the mix. It's not CoS ReVamped (as that is implied in the errata for CoS referenced in the sentence) and it would tie in nicely to the Horror UA we had late last year (the bard and warlock subs). I think we're due for one more Ravenloftish project; either a proper RL setting, a second module set in the Demiplane, or a generic horror-themed sourcebook cribbing from it and Innistrad.

 

[Stormonu]

An Elminster's Ecology monster book.

Planescape/Spelljammer remix, based on the planar & spelljamming content we've been treated to in recent books.