D&D 5E (2014) Tracy & Laura Hickman Announce Skyraiders of Abarax

Tracy and Laura Hickman, known for the Dragonlance setting and the original Ravenloft module, have announced a D&D 5E setting called Skyraiders of Abarax. It will be coming to Kickstarter this fall. There's not much more information yet, other than a mailing list for updates and a single (stunning) art piece.

Their Facebook page actually says "AD&D 5E", rather than "D&D 5E", although I'm not sure whether that's significant.

"Tracy & Laura Hickman's first adventure world since Dragonlance ... coming to AD&D 5E through Kickstarter this fall! Join us in the creation of Sky-high Fantasy discovered through magical books brought to life our unique 'Living Tome System'."

Skyraiders

www.skyraiders.net

There's also a couple of other art pieces floating about on social media.

 

[RangerWickett]

Great, but....

Bruce Heard pioneered the flying ship in D&D thing some time ago (with furries!).

I guess you could combine them.

I'm sure there are even earlier iterations, but I recall Talislanta having skyships going back to 1989.

Good luck to the Hickmans. I look forward to more information.

 

[pukunui]

On the other hand, everything about this gives me a, "I forced a bot to look at 10,000 hours of D&D pitches and this is what the AI came up with."

Yes, that's it! The tagline sounds like something a neural network came up with!

 

[TerraDave]

I'm sure there are even earlier iterations, but I recall Talislanta having skyships going back to 1989.

I mean for D&D (starting in 1990) and 5e.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Lovely looking project! But for the life of me, I'm not parsing this sentence:

"On dragon’s sylph to find our lost way back​

To that mythic place called home."​

Probably just a brain hiccup, but I can't figure out what "on dragon's sylph" means here.

I'm thinking Dragon Sylph is the name of a flying ship

Not only that, but "lost" feels redundant. If the way back wasn't lost, they wouldn't need to find it, right?

The wording is odd because it's part of a poem, which you can see by checking out the other images.

This is effectively a teaser trailer, more to whet the appetite than give a clear explanation.

 

[R_Chance]

I see airborne skyships and I think Lin Carter's Callisto books. Very derivative of Burroughs Barsoom books but a fun read in the 1970s when I was way younger than I am now. They included sky ships used by the "Sky Pirates" which included pressed paper (!) hollow hulls and hydrogen (? or helium) gas, wings and masts iirc. I suspect I'd be horrified if I re-read them now

 

[Guest 7031328]

Gorgeous artwork and they most certainly have the cred, but not enough detail yet to really be excited. Look forward to when the kickstarter goes up and they put out more information.

Hopefully that font choice on those social media images are not used extensively on any final product, it really detracts from everything else.

 

[Umbran]

Yes, that's it! The tagline sounds like something a neural network came up with!

Yes, well... each of us is a neural network, so...

 

[Umbran]

Not only that, but "lost" feels redundant. If the way back wasn't lost, they wouldn't need to find it, right?

Um... poetry? Not known for concise wording...

 

[Dire Bare]

Great, but....

Bruce Heard pioneered the flying ship in D&D thing some time ago (with furries!).

I guess you could combine them.

Well . . . . sure, skyships aren't new to fantasy or new to D&D. But the ad-copy for Skyraiders isn't claiming that. It's just one element of the setting, a central one. Basically, if you like skyships, you'll like Skyraiders of Abarax! Bruce Heard didn't invent skyships either.

 

[pukunui]

The wording is odd because it's part of a poem, which you can see by checking out the other images.

Um... poetry? Not known for concise wording...

Let me just say that I’ve never been a big fan of their poetry.