Hi so slight Necro, but we know that we’re getting the next adventure path and AL season in late summer, so I’ve been thinking of it.
It won’t be Moonsea, Monshae Isles, or Border Kingdoms because those are all claimed by AL. AL’s standard seasons have been developing the Moonsea and they’ve granted the CCC adventures on DMs Guild the chance to create their own tales and locations around the Moonsea. Developing it proper with WotC details would be counterproductive to the goals of a living, community-driven FR around the Moonsea.
Similarly, Baldman Games has the story claims to AL-legal adventures in the Moonshaes, and wrote a high quality regional gazetteer for it that you can print on demand. And Ed Greenwood has been doing the same with the Border Kingdoms.
And Calimshan wouldn’t have been given to Guild Adepts to write a regional guide that came out last year if there was a plan anytime soon to adventure there.
Neverwinter was a BIG focus for 4e FR, so I doubt we’re going back there. It’s been in the background of much of the earlier hardcover stories in 5e (such as Storm King’s Thunder).
While I’d love to visit the Sea of Fallen Stars, Ghosts of Saltmarsh sort of locks out maritime adventures in any major capacity. We’ll a storyline with themes we haven’t seen yet.
I also don’t think we’ll go to other continents, or too far off the Sword Coast+ map that was made so gorgeously for 5e. There are sensitivity issues with visiting “fantasy version of x culture” and the closer they stay to home base the easier it is to avoid racist depictions. If they’re going to do East Asian or Arabian Nights or Mesoamerican or Australian inspired fantasy, I imagine it will be with entirely new settings that are written by fans who come from those cultures that are being adapted from. Kara-Tur etc will still exist but by keeping it vague, they allow players to imagine those settings the ways the want.
So both Chult and Icewind Dale were just barely out of view from that big map of the North. I think they’ll go to similar margins or slightly off it next.
Personally, I’d like to see Amn, Cormyr, the Anauroch Desert & Netheril proper. I could one of those two big cities featured, or else a desert-based adventure in the Anauroch. We’ve had jungle, we’ve had ice, we’ve had water, we’ve had Hell, Shadowfell & desert adventures sounds about right for the next one.