D&D 5E Ray Winninger mentions third project!

WotC's Ray Winninger has confirmed that another D&D release, by James Wyatt, will be released in between Witchlight (September) and Strixhaven (November). Strixhaven was Amanda Hamon's project, while Witchlight is Chris Perkins'. That assumes he's not referring to the Feywild accessory kit in September.

A lot of people are asking Qs about the [D&D] releases for the rest of this year.

Yes, WILD BEYOND THE WITCHLIGHT is the [Chris Perkins] story product I referenced in our dev blog. STRIXHAVEN is [Amanda Hamon's] project. We have not yet announced [James Wyatt's] project, which releases between WITCHLIGHT and STRIXHAVEN.

Why did we announce STRIXHAVEN so early? Pretty simple--there was no way to release the STRIX-related Unearthed Arcana without letting the cat out of the bag.

You'll learn a lot more about all of these products at D&D Live on G4, July 16 and 17. And yes, there is still a little surprise or two ahead.

D&D 5E - Two New D&D Books Revealed: Feywild & Strixhaven Mage School

Amazon has revealed the next two D&D hardcovers! The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is a feywild adventure due in September, and Curriculum of Chaos is a Magic: the Gathering setting of Strixhaven, which looks like a Harry Potter-esque mage school, set for November...

www.enworld.org

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Sadly, all I know about Taladas is that Vlad Drakov is from there.

OH MY GOD I had no idea - I always skipped that guy because he sounded so dull, but he's a Thenolian from Taladas. The Thenolians are basically the ERE - i.e. Byzantine Empire - but like clearly evil and using a ton of necromancy. The Byzantine Empire once stretched up to Transylvania/Romania, so I guess it makes sense for a Vlad Drakov to be from there, even though it's not exactly a typical Thenolian name.

This has got an easy solution. Pam awakes and she discover Sturm, the Solamnian knight, in the shower. He is not dead, only a nightmare!

Like five years younger and I'd be like "wtf is he talking about?" lol.

 

[Faolyn]

What about Hollow World? They could easily up the weirdness factor, bring in rules for being Immortal, and say that it could be on the inside of any world, including Toril or Eberron.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

A reboot of Dragonlance is possible, but too risky. The modules, a possible videogame, or even a future production for a streaming service, could alter the canon, but they are too many novels to be "descanoniced", become non-canon now. Maybe the idea of parallel timelines in the comple D&D multiverse could fix some retcons, but a mistake is enough to cause a "jumping the shark effect".

Another idea? Opening Dragonlance in the DM-Guild, and allowing non-canon alternate timelines to test the reaction by the fandom. Other idea is to insert the "isekai" option. Characters from Gamma World or some d20 Modern setting know the books, believeing they are only fiction. Then something happen and they appear "within the novels". Really they aren't in the original Krynn, but an "akashic realm", a demiplane (within the Feywild?) working as a "theme park". Then the "visitors" or intruders can interfere with the events of the books (Do you know the miniserie "Lost in Austin"? You can imagine the consequences) but the original timeline isn't altered by these "isekai".

If we chat about retcons, I wonder how would be Raitslin with tribal tatoos on the face, caused by Fistandantilus' curse. (And this becomes dark lord of Neo-Sithicus).

You say that rebooting Dragonlance is too risky, but then list out a whole bunch of stuff that would be far riskier.

 

[Faolyn]

I agree.

I also hope it's Planesjammer, outright. The two work so incredibly well together that separating them out would just feel... weird... after all this time.

I really don't see how they work together. They're so totally different, except that you can use them to get from world (setting) to world.

Spelljammer is weird science fantasy/space opera/planetary romance with tons of references and in-jokes; part of its charm is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, except when it comes to losing your air supply. I mean, it has giant space hamsters. And Aristocratic hippos. And "mudd women," for goodness sakes.

Planescape is about philosophy, religion, and the nature of reality and takes itself very seriously. The goofiest monsters in it are biomechanical horrors that represent pure and unwavering order. (Lets face it, if modrons looked like this:

instead of this:

nobody would think of them as funny.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

I really don't see how they work together. They're so totally different, except that you can use them to get from world (setting) to world.

Spelljammer is weird science fantasy/space opera/planetary romance with tons of references and in-jokes; part of its charm is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, except when it comes to losing your air supply. I mean, it has giant space hamsters. And Aristocratic hippos. And "mudd women," for goodness sakes.

Planescape is about philosophy, religion, and the nature of reality and takes itself very seriously. The goofiest monsters in it are biomechanical horrors that represent pure and unwavering order. (Lets face it, if modrons looked like this:

View attachment 138321

instead of this:

View attachment 138322

nobody would think of them as funny.)

ah, those things have more in common than you would think but that might be because I am insane.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What about Hollow World? They could easily up the weirdness factor, bring in rules for being Immortal, and say that it could be on the inside of any world, including Toril or Eberron.

It's full of expys for various groups of indigenous peoples (plus ancient Egypt, which they could also manage to make offensive). Unless you stripped out the human and near-human residents, and just filled it with dinosaurs and other "extinct" animals, I think it's as tough to do right as many other TSR settings with non-Western characters in the mix.

 

[Rob Kuntz]

Paging @Rob Kuntz.

The idea that some players and designers stay rooted to a past is still a predominant one; and with some good reasons. A setting's name has no consequence to how one plays in that setting. Both of these topics, above, are well worn and less than desirable to pursue. There's much more in common with the editions and settings than most would agree to. It's boiled down to styles and nuances, picking around and posing minutia to define such. My final thought is the more D&D changes the more it remains the same.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

(plus ancient Egypt, which they could also manage to make offensive). Unless you stripped out the human and near-human residents, and just filled it with dinosaurs and other "extinct" animals, I think it's as tough to do right as many other TSR settings with non-Western characters in the mix.

Ancient Egypt is pre-Islam and should be able to be done without offending modern beliefs and senses. Now, trying to redo Al-Qadim is a lot trickier, depending on the real-world time period you want to recreate with it. There can be a lot of bad blurring of the lines between the pre-Islam days of Arabian Nights and the early days of the existence of the religion. Making it about the same as the rest of the Realms for real world approximate centuries and there will need to be a lot of careful and thoughtful writing that has to be done to bring it up to 2021 standards.

 

[Kurotowa]

Spelljammer is weird science fantasy/space opera/planetary romance with tons of references and in-jokes; part of its charm is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, except when it comes to losing your air supply. I mean, it has giant space hamsters. And Aristocratic hippos. And "mudd women," for goodness sakes.

Spelljammer was like three different things at the same time, smashed together in a way that didn't integrate them particularly well. One part was expanding the 2e setting collection into outer space and giving an excuse to travel between them, one part was the grab bag of new Spelljammer races and locales that could be interesting but didn't hold to a clear thematic through line, and one was the Magic Navel Combat: In Space! rules and material.

There were some really cool pieces in that mess but it never really came together to a clear thematic point and purpose. The three legs don't particularly synergize and there wasn't a clear idea of what was supposed to make the setting special. Half the time you're just fighting Space Orcs like it was any other D&D campaign, only they're called Scro because it's the 90s and backwards names are cool.

I can see a Planescape update work because there's a lot of potential in focusing on Sigil and the Factions. Spelljammer doesn't have that, IMO. Some cute bits, some good factoids for a deep dive D&D trivia quiz, but not enough to really carry a setting.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Ancient Egypt is pre-Islam and should be able to be done without offending modern beliefs and senses. Now, trying to redo Al-Qadim is a lot trickier, depending on the real-world time period you want to recreate with it. There can be a lot of bad blurring of the lines between the pre-Islam days of Arabian Nights and the early days of the existence of the religion. Making it about the same as the rest of the Realms for real world approximate centuries and there will need to be a lot of careful and thoughtful writing that has to be done to bring it up to 2021 standards.

go ancient Babilon and Persia those are safer.