D&D 5E Which Classic Settings do you think WotC will publish?

[Sithlord]

Dragonlance is a weird beast. It was a phenomenon but has not been in the public eye very much for almost 2 decades. The 3E incarnation was a fraction of the exposure and it was more of a novel presence than game system presence. And some of the recent DL is bad. The animated movie is not even MST3K level of entertainment.
That said, DL is a solid narrative of cream cheese 80's fantasy. You have Draconians, the wizard trials, and the 3 different moon/schools for wizards. Lots o' dragons. It could stand to be updated out of the 1880s, let alone out of the 1980s. The premise of an overarching epic series of adventures involving lots of dragons for the fate of the world? It just might sell. Factor in a sure-fire NYT bestseller new series from Weiss and Hickman. There is enough there to take a risk, even if it brings little new mechanics to the table.

Personally I would rather read something from the 1880s than anything after the 1950s. So I don’t see that as a criticism of dragonlance. But then again I am getting old.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Which at the time of traditional Greyhawk didn't include Dragonborn or Tieflings.

would that demon empire not have teiflings by now?

 

[Parmandur]

Dragonlance is a weird beast. It was a phenomenon but has not been in the public eye very much for almost 2 decades. The 3E incarnation was a fraction of the exposure and it was more of a novel presence than game system presence. And some of the recent DL is bad. The animated movie is not even MST3K level of entertainment.
That said, DL is a solid narrative of cream cheese 80's fantasy. You have Draconians, the wizard trials, and the 3 different moon/schools for wizards. Lots o' dragons. It could stand to be updated out of the 1880s, let alone out of the 1980s. The premise of an overarching epic series of adventures involving lots of dragons for the fate of the world? It just might sell. Factor in a sure-fire NYT bestseller new series from Weiss and Hickman. There is enough there to take a risk, even if it brings little new mechanics to the table.

Most of the stated disadvantages seem like business opportunities to me, honestly.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you really want to go gangbusters with young people, bringing back Playboy tracings will do more for you than seeking the coveted Middle School Principal Seal of Approval. Bowlderization has more to do with corporate risk aversion than consumer demand.

It turns out kids have these devices in their pockets that give them more than Playboy ever could, on demand. Cheesecake art is for neckbeards.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

okay. I think jakandor is awesome beyond belief but will never see the light of day again. If it does they need to just update the mechanics and copy and paste the setting material.

They honestly should just open Jakandor and Thunder Rift up on the DMs Guild, as an experiment. Neither of them would threaten any of WotC's plans, and it'd be fun to see what fan creators would do with them.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's an ambiguous example, in terms of sex selling.

The difference between Dragonlance and Jakandor or Hhostwalk is approximately 22 million novels sold. The original books are not lighting the charts on fire, but they are still selling. Abstractly, taken outside of pop culture and commercial possiblity, it might not seem the best choice. But that commercial potential has to factor in for WotC decision process.

Re: RE Village - I don't think it's ambiguous, but I'm not saying sex sells, I'm saying, people's desires sell, so long as they're sold with sufficient subtlety. It helps with the Village lady that she's the villain and hasn't been "sexed up" - so long as the audience is doing it, not the company, the audience is into it. But we're probably not disagreeing much.

With RE8, I dunno what the issue is in Japan, but my guess would be censorship. RE8 got hit pretty hard with violence-related censorship in Japan (most REs largely avoid this, perhaps surprisingly, IIRC - last one I recall was RE4, which also got hit pretty hard this way). The Japanese version is heavily censored.

So what I strongly suspect is happening is that hardcore RE fans in Japan are importing NA/EU versions of the RE8 (or just not buying it), because modern consoles are region-free.

Re: Jakandor/Ghostwalk, sure but it's pretty funny that these two "peak weirdness" D&D settings would probably be easier to get adapted to 5E than DL. I honestly think Jakandor might even sell better, with the meme factor taken into account.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Dragonlance is perfect for the public who knows nothing about D&D mythology, but now as TTRPG setting is too "small" if you want to add new elements from the last editions, for example the subclasses, the warlocks or the dragonborn. A serious good reason for a very possible delay is the revival of the line may too linked with some multimedia project, for example a cartoon miniserie (in Paramount+ streaming service?) or videogame. I guess to be very fun the characters of Wreck-It-Ralph (3) in a MMO based in Dragonlance. (only a stupid excuse to sell action figures).

Jackandor is one of the easiest option to risk some crossover with some other no-fantasy franchise. As videogame is perfect for a survival sandbox about you start as a shipwreck survivor and you have to hunt, craft traps, built a refugee and explore the jungle and the dungeons.

Dragonborn are oficially in Greyhawk as chosen champions by bahamut. The 3.5 Races of Dragon gave them a different origin. The tielflings are from Planescape.

* Now my opinion is Spelljammer will be "eaten" by Planescape, but with an opened door for the return of the crystal spheres in a future, maybe with a reboot after some cosmic event as a multiverse crisis. I love the idea of "crystal spheres", alternate timelines or "parallel worlds". I guessed the concept was from Chronomancers but now I am not too sure about it.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Dragonlance is perfect for the public who knows nothing about D&D mythology, but now as TTRPG setting is too "small" if you want to add new elements from the last editions, for example the subclasses, the warlocks or the dragonborn. A serious good reason for a very possible delay is the revival of the line may too linked with some multimedia project, for example a cartoon miniserie (in Paramount+ streaming service?) or videogame. I guess to be very fun the characters of Wreck-It-Ralph (3) in a MMO based in Dragonlance. (only a stupid excuse to sell action figures).

Jackandor is one of the easiest option to risk some crossover with some other no-fantasy franchise. As videogame is perfect for a survival sandbox about you start as a shipwreck survivor and you have to hunt, craft traps, built a refugee and explore the jungle and the dungeons.

Dragonborn are oficially in Greyhawk as chosen champions by bahamut. The 3.5 Races of Dragon gave them a different origin. The tielflings are from Planescape.

* Now my opinion is Spelljammer will be "eaten" by Planescape, but with an opened door for the return of the crystal spheres in a future, maybe with a reboot after some cosmic event as a multiverse crisis. I love the idea of "crystal spheres", alternate timelines or "parallel worlds". I guessed the concept was from Chronomancers but now I am not too sure about it.

Both Planescape and Spelljammer got eaten by the Forgotten Realms years ago, its why there is now more Aasimar, Tiefling, and Genasi lore in FR then Planescape now, with old school Planescape style Tieflings showing up in an FR book in 5e. Planescape and Spelljammer crossover far more with the Forgotten Realms then they ever did with each other by far.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It turns out kids have these devices in their pockets that give them more than Playboy ever could, on demand. Cheesecake art is for neckbeards.

Oh please, have you seen the CW, homeland of Millenial Cheese Cake? That channel has more six packs on display then The Beer Store and more gorgeous actresses then well old beer commercials used to. Neckbeard fantasies have nothing on that. Human nature is human nature.

 

[Parmandur]

Re: RE Village - I don't think it's ambiguous, but I'm not saying sex sells, I'm saying, people's desires sell, so long as they're sold with sufficient subtlety. It helps with the Village lady that she's the villain and hasn't been "sexed up" - so long as the audience is doing it, not the company, the audience is into it. But we're probably not disagreeing much.

With RE8, I dunno what the issue is in Japan, but my guess would be censorship. RE8 got hit pretty hard with violence-related censorship in Japan (most REs largely avoid this, perhaps surprisingly, IIRC - last one I recall was RE4, which also got hit pretty hard this way). The Japanese version is heavily censored.

So what I strongly suspect is happening is that hardcore RE fans in Japan are importing NA/EU versions of the RE8 (or just not buying it), because modern consoles are region-free.

Re: Jakandor/Ghostwalk, sure but it's pretty funny that these two "peak weirdness" D&D settings would probably be easier to get adapted to 5E than DL. I honestly think Jakandor might even sell better, with the meme factor taken into account.

Actually, the problem in Japan is that RE8 isn't on the Switch, PS games are dead in Japanese retail (digital is an open question).

Not a lot disagreement here, no, just shooting the breeze.

Dragonlance is one of the best selling novel lines of all time. Y'all are underestimating the commercial potential.