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

[Parmandur]

Possibly. Most of the D&D dollars are licensing aren't they? I think the slip case format for Spelljammer though is a bigger loss than one $50 192 page book. Same page count, same signature count, slip case isn't cheap, the hardcover binding isn't cheap either. Money is they're banking on digital sells on DDB and VTT sales.

Well, they already did the slipcases with the Core and Rules Expansion, they probably have the cost structure worked out. Winninger said last year that the prices would be increasing in the next year or so, and here it is.

 

[Faolyn]

• Greyhawk would be a good setting choice for the 50th anniversary, but either way of handling it poses risks. Make it authentic to the old-school version, and you risk offending newer gamers; revise the setting for newer gamers, and you risk offending old-school fans. What I think we could see instead is something like the Dragonlance adventure - a Castle Greyhawk adventure, as you suggest, with minimal attention to the setting proper. (This is also how the well-regarded Ghosts of Saltmarsh worked for the most part, just define a small section of the setting as an adventure backdrop.)

Does Greyhawk have all that much that's problematic in it? Because if it doesn't have that many problems and just needs a bit of tidying up and making it more inclusive, then I'm pretty sure that it could remain quite authentic.

 

[Parmandur]

Does Greyhawk have all that much that's problematic in it? Because if it doesn't have that many problems and just needs a bit of tidying up and making it more inclusive, then I'm pretty sure that it could remain quite authentic.

There are some discussions of ethnic mixtures of various kingdoms that have aged badly, but easy enough to fix. Pretty sure WotC already did 20 years ago.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My opinion is FR is more popular than Greyhawk thanks videogames(Baldur's Gate, Newerwinter Nights and others).

Greyhawk could be perfect as setting for the famous iconic characters from 3rd Ed.

About Maztica somebody could say it needs more PC races and creatures based in the native American folklore but others would complain about cultural appropiation. My opinion is "cultural appropiation" shouldn't be wrong if it used as a hook to introduce other cultures. Last Disney movies have been based in no-Western cultures to try teach us to love them.

About Kara-Tur my fear is a Chinese, a Japanese and a Korean sit together in the same table, they may disagree about how should be the reboot of the franchise, because everybody would want to add more elements based in their own culture. I don't blame them, but we need diplomacy.

* Should be the "sha'ir" the D&D summoner class, and not only a spellcaster subclass for al-Qadim? And the nagual (shifter spellcaster) as class for Maztica?

* The guilds or factions in Sigil are too potential interesting as adventure hooks to be not used. And their interventions shouldn't be only in Sigil.

* In my game I imagine the Outlands like a torus shape, like Sigil, and there is portal to "private" demiplanes in the Gate-towns. In the core of this torus there is something like an asteroids belt, and most of those rocks are "cavorite" a special mineral with anti-gravity propieties.

 

[teitan]

Does Greyhawk have all that much that's problematic in it? Because if it doesn't have that many problems and just needs a bit of tidying up and making it more inclusive, then I'm pretty sure that it could remain quite authentic.

It's got a racist order of monks that some might cringe at but handled intelligently and as villains, like in every other setting they've got, it's a non-issue because TTRPG players are more mature than people want to act like they are.

 

[teitan]

There are some discussions of ethnic mixtures of various kingdoms that have aged badly, but easy enough to fix. Pretty sure WotC already did 20 years ago.

Cake to ignore though, just don't put it in the book. It was a common theme in old fantasy back in the day so an understandable carry over but yes, I even winced at that back when I got my Red & Gold Greyhawk box.

 

[JEB]

Does Greyhawk have all that much that's problematic in it? Because if it doesn't have that many problems and just needs a bit of tidying up and making it more inclusive, then I'm pretty sure that it could remain quite authentic.

There are some issues with elements of the setting, as @Parmandur and @teitan have referenced, though those are probably manageable. But the basic (or advanced, ha ha) problem is that Greyhawk is very tied up with the classic D&D tropes in their original form, and veteran Greyhawk fans are likely to be extra sensitive to any deviation from that. If Wizards changes elements of the setting to include core 5E elements - especially elements that have only become core in the last few years - it's likely to at least greatly disappoint that fanbase, if not turn them off altogether. Keep in mind that setting changes from the 2E era are considered controversial among some Greyhawk fans...

Putting it simply, Wizards would have to be willing to either take the risk of walking back some of the philosophical shifts they've made in recent years, or be willing to take the risk of producing a neo-Greyhawk that pleases neither old nor new fans.

Hence my prediction that Greyhawk is more likely to receive a limited Saltmarsh treatment (as, significantly, it already has), and the Realms will be the featured setting for the "revisit."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are some issues with elements of the setting, as @Parmandur and @teitan have referenced, though those are probably manageable. But the basic (or advanced, ha ha) problem is that Greyhawk is very tied up with the classic D&D tropes in their original form, and veteran Greyhawk fans are likely to be extra sensitive to any deviation from that. If Wizards changes elements of the setting to include core 5E elements - especially elements that have only become core in the last few years - it's likely to at least greatly disappoint that fanbase, if not turn them off altogether. Keep in mind that setting changes from the 2E era are considered controversial among some Greyhawk fans...

Putting it simply, Wizards would have to be willing to either take the risk of walking back some of the philosophical shifts they've made in recent years, or be willing to take the risk of producing a neo-Greyhawk that pleases neither old nor new fans.

Hence my prediction that Greyhawk is more likely to receive a limited Saltmarsh treatment (as, significantly, it already has), and the Realms will be the featured setting for the "revisit."

Yup, we saw with with Tieflings and Dragonborn in Ghosts of Saltmash. Greyhawk is a core rules setting, but when it was current, tieflings and dragonborn where not part of the core rules. Thus, you either have to change the setting so it's not core rules, or change the setting to include everything that is in the current core rules. It simply not possible to change nothing.

 

[teitan]

I’m revising my order. Planescape as a sourcebook like campaign setting then Forgotten Realms will be the big classic setting next year. It’s been in demand for years. They’ve de-emphasized them a bit in the adventures and they have a contract with Ed. Big product for next year. Then Greyhawk launching with the revision, Dark Sun in 2025.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some times I have wonderer about the idea of alternate timelines for the end of conflicts about what should be canon. Then if you don't like anything, it can changed in your tabletop, avoiding troubles with the other players. Or because the DM wants to use an alternate plot because some player have read some books and the original story is too spoilered.

OMG! I had forgotten the updated version of the chronomancer class (and subclasses for others) should need UA articles for playtesting.

I wonder if there are some D&D cosmopolis as big as real life megacities, for example Tokio, Delhi, Shangai, Mexico DC, Sao Paulo, Cairo or Los Angeles.