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.

 

[embee]

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[Parmandur]

Off-topic.

 

[embee]

deleted by author

 

[Aldarc]

Maybe discussing Mormonism is not appropriate for this thread topic.

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe discussing Mormonism is not appropriate for this thread topic.

Indubitably.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Monte Cook is responsible for murdering the Factions.

He did so in an elaborate-but-bad late-2E adventure (Faction War) where he systematically murdered or exiled the Factions, and replaced them with incredibly boring three-letter acronym organisations, which made Sigil seem like a down-at-heel American city in the Midwest, rather than the nexus of the multiverse*. This was made even worse because he also removed everything that made Sigil chaotic, interesting, exciting, and so on, most of which was driven by the Factions and their interactions, and replaced it with the Lady of Pain being far more directly in-charge than previously.

(Adding insult to injury, in an earlier and much better PS adventure Cook wrote, the PCs managed to stop the titular faction war, but Cook apparently decided it was too brilliant and idea to leave alone. Sigh.)

It was an incredibly bad take. It's like if someone got Star Wars, removed the Empire and the Rebels (and variants thereof), and removed the Force (and all associated traditions), as well as the Mandalorians and basically anyone who wasn't "standard" and said "Tadaa, I fixed Star Wars!". I know someone would like that, but that person is a person of bad taste.

Now, Monte Cook's defence is the classic "I was gonna put the money back, yer honour, honest, but see them police stopped me before I could!".

Specifically he claims he had another mega-adventure planned (he'd done at least two already), where the Factions (or the ones he hadn't wiped out entirely, anyway) would be brought back to Sigil, and everything would be restored the glorious chaos and complexity of the original Sigil setting (as immortalized in Planescape: Torment). But WotC buying TSR stopped this from happening. As far as I know, we only have his word for this.

Worse, in Dragon 315, we have a piece (not by Cook admittedly) outlining WotC's idea of the results of Faction War, none of which involves any Factions going back to Sigil. Instead, it basically has several of the Factions just becoming totally different and much less interesting things, and the ones that don't change are all basically massively reduced in numbers.

Then 4E doubles-down on Cook's dreadful vision, when it briefly goes over Sigil. Together these make me skeptical there was any actual plan to bring the Factions back.

But there's no reason 5E couldn't go "To hell with that nonsense!" and bring back the Factions. None of that is "canon" in any true sense. It's just what previous editions have gone with.

* = I can't remember if this happens in the adventure of was a 4E "addition", if so, he's still bad, but the real vandalism is on whoever wrote the 4E bit.

look I have never played Planescape but I know what stupid sounds like, Planescape needs crazy in the same way I need air and the factions brought crazy ideally I would add more and improve the less well like factions.

 

[dave2008]

For fans of nearly every setting, there are those that think that it would be impossible to present a campaign setting in a single book - "at least 14 books," you say - but I don't see why WotC would need to cover the grand entirety in lavish detail. Eberron had its fair share of books, but it was released as a single book. Forgotten Realms had thousands upon thousands of pages dedicated to its lore, but it was nevertheless published in a highly celebrated single volume campaign setting book. In the case of Mystara, I imagine that all WotC would really need to do is focus on presenting a beloved region (e.g., Karameikos) and then provide a basic overview of lands outside of there.


I would not be surprised if they took notes from The Witcher for Greyhawk or frame Greyhawk in terms of being the setting most similar to the Witcher series.


The angle I would consider for the Vale is as a "blank slate" sandbox setting for GMs. Setting as GM toolkit, which is what it was in 4e. Though conceptually, the Nentir Vale is probably the most mythic-focused fantasy setting in D&D. (But don't let Mearls touch this setting. Bring back Rich Baker for this setting.)

I would also love to see Chris Perksins's Iomandra expanded to an official setting, but I'm not sure if Perkins would want to give it over to WotC.

I agree with just about everything you posted here. The one exception is Nentir Vale. I think they could bring that back as a setting and include a more detail set of tactical rules and a true 4e style warlord. Really lean into appealing to 4e fans. I don't think they will do this, but I think they could.

 

[dave2008]

If there is a good and well-received fan conversation or AP, it will be on DMs Guild and DriveThruRPG. WOTC will get a cut and if there is a problem, they can say that it is fan-generated content.

Just two quick comments:

1. WotC has to open Dark Sun to DMsGuild to do that, which they could do but have chosen not to.
2. WotC doesn't get a cut of DriveThruRPG sales (and onything there has to be OGL and could not be DS)

 

[Mind of tempest]

I agree with just about everything you posted here. The one exception is fascism. Nentir Vale I think they could bring that back as a setting and include a more detail set of tactical rules and a true 4e style warlord. Really lean into appealing to 4e fans. I don't think they will do this, but I think they could.

but will I get thri kreen as they were integrated into Nentir Vale?

 

[dave2008]

but will I get thri kreen as they were integrated into Nentir Vale?

I would think they would be in a DS setting book (which I see as more likely than a Nentir Vale book)