D&D 5E Further Future D&D Product Speculation

[overgeeked]

I'm all for re-visioning old stuff, but I also wonder if there's a point where it is just best to move on and create something new. This critique can be waged at Hollywood, which seems far more interested on re-booting (or re-re-booting) old franchises than it is in creating new ones. And each re-boot is remade with new sensibilities in mind. To me this is just creatively lazy.

Sure. And the lesson is the same. As long as people buy recycled stuff, they'll keep making recycled stuff. If you want originality and creativity, Hollywood and WotC are not the places to be looking. The most creative thing WotC has done, in my opinion, is to give a book slot to writers of color and let them create something. Most of the other stuff is rehashing or reiterating things we've seen before. Well, old grogs have seen before. I'm sure a lot of it is new and shiny for new fans, which is great, but it seems like a treadmill akin to the Hollywood re-re-reboot machine.

 

[darjr]

Greyhawk may very well not maje sense as a Ravnica/Eberron style book. But q Spelljammer-like slipcase product? That may change things, and appeal to the oddball children who like black & white movies and such. Really, I constantly find myself amazed at what random old things my kids take a liking to.

Records, my kids were buying records.

Not anymore, but they love the ones they got and loved the experience of playing them.

 

[Quickleaf]

Our first trip to GaryCon, I signed up to run 30+ hours of games over the long weekend. My two friends also. When we arrived the hotel had given out rooms away.

Through no fault of the convention, we were homeless. Luke found out. He put us up in the resort in the guest wing, we were a room away from Tim Kask and others.

Yea, Luke is awesome.

What an awesome story! I've only heard great things about GaryCon. Hopefully when I'm finally out of grad school I can make the trip and maybe see you there.

 

[Quickleaf]

One factor to consider about the slipcases: most people aren't going to pay FLGS prices, they will be paying Target and Amazon prices, which will probably be closet to $40.

I support my FLGS Pair a Dice Games!

...I just buy everything else on Amazon.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Records, my kids were buying records.

Not anymore, but they love the ones they got and loved the experience of playing them.

Makes sense. When I was a kid there wasn't much I loved more than second-hand book shops, and I particularly loved books so old my parents weren't even born when they came out - especially if they were just wildly outdated scientific/zoological stuff. Kids often like old weird stuff, especially if its fun.

 

[Parmandur]

Wheeeee setting speculation, my favorite thing!

I know, right??

Greyhawk: It got Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but this was a few years back so a new book seems possible. I don't think a slipcase is a good fit here; doesn't have a ton of unique monsters or PC options to me. I think an adventure of some kind, or another update of old adventures set here, makes a lot of sense. Revisiting mass combat or domain management here makes sense too, and it works for the 50th anniversary. A lot of promise but also not a lot of uniqueness, so mixed bag.

Not a lot of PC options, but a world that was originally fully detailed in 32 pages, which can still work as a very light Setting for a DM. The Monsters, more than you think, if you look at the stuff from the Greyhawk Monstrous Compendium from 2E, or Gygaxes own Monster Manual 2 in 1E. Oddball stuff, rooted in Gygaxes pulp tastes. Enough to add that old school edge. And the marketing opportunity of a small intro to Castle Greyhawk, one of the OG Megadungeons? Potential there.

Eberron: It's got a chunky setting book. It can be expanded to other continents, maybe more adventures, but with Keith Baker making DMsGuild material I don't see why the D&D Team wants to tackle this material themselves. Pretty unlikely for a revisit IMO.

I could see an Adventure st some point, or q Battle Game tied into the Last War.

Dark Sun: Now the good stuff. Yes, this settings got its blemishes, most notably slavery. However, this is something D&D hasn't shied away from (Out of the Abyss has too much of it frankly), and I believe if the setting is developed with cultural consultation, it can be updated pretty easily. Well it be rebooted entirely? It's happened before, and I think it's fairly likely so it meets some 5E rules standards. It's got loads of potential PC options, psionics are a potential new class, loads of new monsters, easy to write a new unique adventure for... compared to Mystara, I think this is medium risk, high reward. Easy contender for slipcase format. I don't think it makes much sense for mass combat (armies exist but they don't clash frequently), but ironically D&D Onslaught (kind of gladatorial in some ways) weirdly fits. And it's one of the two remaining most popular settings, I think it's happening it's just a question of when not if.

Agreed.

Planescape: This is an easy homerun. Not that problematic, everyone seems to love it, lots of potential PC options and adventure opportunities... easily can be made a slipcase. Doesn't fit mass combat at all. So much to love, it's low risk and high reward. Very likely the next classic setting.

Agreed.

 

[Parmandur]

How many would have bet WotC thought Spelljammer would make them lots of money?

Me, I did!

 

[Parmandur]

I support my FLGS Pair a Dice Games!

...I just buy everything else on Amazon.

Same here, on both counts. But let's be real, many of the people who buy this will pay the near wholesale price: look at what Target charges for new books like Call of the Netherdeep or Strixhaven on the shelf. And to be fair, for a lot of people Target may be their FLGS, or the at least the only game store in 200 miles.

 

[Parmandur]

Records, my kids were buying records.

Not anymore, but they love the ones they got and loved the experience of playing them.

I know of teenagers doing that right now, too. I'm about the youngest person on Earth who remembers vinyl being normative (I was 7 when my dad got a CD player for the stero, and my sister doesn't remember listening to Vinyl though I know she was there), but kids still go for it as an experience. The same kids who are into D&D from my observations.

 

[Bitbrain]

I’m hoping for Dark Sun next year, but I fully expect it to be Planescape (which I dislike).

As for this current year, I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Dragonlance adventure.