D&D 5E Next (3rd book of the year) endless speculation thread

[Paul Farquhar]

I think this is a good assessment, though I think DL is a lot less likely than you do. If it was 2015 I'd say DL was about as likely as you say, but the idea that they're going to do a white people-centric (with all non-white cultures as "barbarians" no less!) setting in 2021 (part inspired by a religion which has its struggles with race, even!) after all their public commitments and work on diversity seems... unlikely. As I've noted before, Taladas might work, it's a vastly more diverse setting, but Dragonlance it ain't.

They could retcon out those problems (yes I know purists would object), and since there is a new DL novel on it's way I think a DL setting book is fairly likely.

 

[tetrasodium]

Lantan, modrons, and spelljammers are probably around the corner in some capacity.

Back in 2017 September, Chris Perkins and Matt Sernett had a Dragon Talk where they discussed the significance of Lantan being included on the poster map included with Tomb of Annihilation, and got into how they'd like to see it used, and Chris dropped that it (Lantan) would appear in a future product.

They talk a lot about mechs too. 5e has a published mech already. They also talk about them wanting to be apart fro. Frs wars it ready to step in & stop them ... the mech we have is more on the "tell gort Klatu barraza nikto" end of the scale than the modron end. The later discussion on morons not being there, the other world with murder bots all over, and spelljamming stuff not being able to land just anywhere with the prime directivey work around hints at a lot and givessome clarity in that light.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

They could retcon out those problems (yes I know purists would object), and since there is a new DL novel on it's way I think a DL setting book is fairly likely.

Yeah I was considering that. Basically you'd need a "full-spectrum" retcon where all the peoples who were white in Dragonlance were multi-racial all along, in some implausible-but-who-cares kind of way. I mean, you could retroactively justify it with the Cataclysm easily enough. That's how Wheel of Time did it (though half the readers seem to have missed that most of the characters are not "white"). You'd also really want to think twice about stuff like Kender, Tinker Gnomes and Gully Dwarves and so on, because they're all sort of "Learning Disability Short-Person" (I know, I know can we not have the "Tasslehoff isn't a klepto..." discussion - he's certainly not genuinely written as someone who merely doesn't understand property).

Aside from that I just don't really see what Dragonlance would bring to 5E. The under-40 audience largely won't have read the books (soz but they won't), so there's no nostalgia or excitement for them. The over-40 audience is tiny and only a fraction of them even like DL. It doesn't have any unique mechanics that actually work with 5E well or that are even remotely interesting or generally applicable (I say this having run games set in DL in 5E, note). Solamnic Knights were kinda cool in like the 1980s, but they're very "bleh" by 2020s standards. There's no real room for actual dragon-back combat in any routine way. There's also no media interest in the setting despite virtually every other major fantasy property getting a new show at least considered.

 

[dave2008]

I hadn't noticed this previously, but this seems relevant to future timing:

That also basically confirms that it was not three classic settings this year. So we have one down, maybe 2 more over the next 18-24 months?

 

[Parmandur]

That also basically confirms that it was not three classic settings this year. So we have one down, maybe 2 more over the next 18-24 months?

I would say 12-18, but basically, yes.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah I was considering that. Basically you'd need a "full-spectrum" retcon where all the peoples who were white in Dragonlance were multi-racial all along, in some implausible-but-who-cares kind of way.

I think you're right - the only way to do Dragonlance these days is to drastically update the original story, with sweeping modernizations to the cultural diversity. (And just tell purists to SHADDAP). If I were them, I'd reboot the whole thing and just make the adventure an update of the War of the Lance, like how Curse of Strahd repeated the original Ravenloft adventure, only one step further.

With all of that, I'm not entirely sure why they'd bother, though I expect that product would sell quite well, (I'd buy it), so maybe it would be worth it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think you're right - the only way to do Dragonlance these days is to drastically update the original story, with sweeping modernizations to the cultural diversity. (And just tell purists to SHADDAP). If I were them, I'd reboot the whole thing and just make the adventure an update of the War of the Lance, like how Curse of Strahd repeated the original Ravenloft adventure, only one step further.

With all of that, I'm not entirely sure why they'd bother, though I expect that product would sell quite well, (I'd buy it), so maybe it would be worth it.

They'd need diversity to extend beyond just human races too. If the only races available were Human/Elf/HElf/Kender/Dwarf/Tinker Gnome, I don't think that'd cut it with people these days (which is not a criticism of anyone, note). I mean, I've actually run and played a fair bit of DL in the 1990s and a bit in the '00s, and even by then, you could see over the 1990s how people moved away and away from just like humans/elves/half-elves and how like Irda went from being this obscure deal no-one cared about in 1E to suddenly kind of vital to have in the book in 3E and so on.

I'm not sure it'd even sell well with all these concessions/changes, that's the thing, because it's like who would be into this? Not kids today which is most people playing D&D according to WotC's figures. I suspect even most grogs wouldn't be interested.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

They'd need diversity to extend beyond just human races too. If the only races available were Human/Elf/HElf/Kender/Dwarf/Tinker Gnome, I don't think that'd cut it with people these days (which is not a criticism of anyone, note). I mean, I've actually run and played a fair bit of DL in the 1990s and a bit in the '00s, and even by then, you could see over the 1990s how people moved away and away from just like humans/elves/half-elves and how like Irda went from being this obscure deal no-one cared about in 1E to suddenly kind of vital to have in the book in 3E and so on.

I'm not sure it'd even sell well with all these concessions/changes, that's the thing, because it's like who would be into this? Not kids today which is most people playing D&D according to WotC's figures. I suspect even most grogs wouldn't be interested.

I don't think they need nostalgia for it to sell, though. Current D&D fans will take a good solid look at anything they publish. For example, my kids (teenagers) would be thrilled for Dragonlance, and they've never heard of it. All you need to say is "A war with Dragonriders and a dragon-slaying lance set in a particular D&D world with evil dragon-folk that explode when you kill them". And they are IN.

A lot of the audience would be happy to hear that it was popular back in the day and they'd check out the new product, without knowing what has been changed. As long as the new product is good and doesn't have anything offensive in it, they'd like it.

Heck, I read the books myself 30+ years ago, and I played a few games of it somewhere around then, but if they updated it the way we've been talking about, I wouldn't have known what was new and what wasn't without talking to people here about it. Updating it certainly wouldn't turn me off of it.

 

[Laurefindel]

Ironically, the fact that you had to do a write-in Planescape is probably pretty good evidence that Planescape is on the way. It's one of the more popular settings, certainly vastly more so than Birthright or Mystara, and by listing them and not it, they may have tipped their hand. Definitely now seeing PS or something very like it as the most likely next setting.

Yeah, I have a feeling the famous "two next settings" won't be any of those listed above; those are votes for what will be in the works next.

(I still think Birthright would be the perfect avenue to introduce stronghold/realm-keeping rules, mass combat rules, in-dept riding rules, and low(er) magic, but I'm not keeping my hopes up...)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah, I have a feeling the famous "two next settings" won't be any of those listed above; those are votes for what will be in the works next.

(I still think Birthright would be the perfect avenue to introduce stronghold/realm-keeping rules, mass combat rules, in-dept riding rules, and low(er) magic, but I'm not keeping my hopes up...)

I think you'd need to rename it and change the setting to something broader and less specifically European, but a setting about getting temporal power and using temporal power could do very well.