D&D (2024) What older setting do you want to see next?

[eyeheartawk]

With what's going on in Ukraine a bit of nostalgia for evil Russians might be in order.

It's weird how the new version of Birthright has this different kind of Javelin in it.

Huh.

 

[Digdude]

With what's going on in Ukraine a bit of nostalgia for evil Russians might be in order.

Currently started a game with two empires roughly based off of these current events.

 

[Bagpuss]

It's weird how the new version of Birthright has this different kind of Javelin in it.

I did like the Battle Magic in Birthright, where you could have a Rain of Magic Missiles or a conflagration of multiple Fireballs. A Javelin would fit right in as battle magic.

 

[Remathilis]

There is the problem of the Vos who are written as a evil Rus type of people dedicated to murder and conquest. They might need to be adjusted.

Give them the orc image rehab treatment.

 

[Parmandur]

So it reminds people of nasty 1920s-style racist ethnographies so people see it as problematic? You know, I could see that--Gygax was definitely going for a pseudoacademic 'false document' style, and if the texts he's imitating are now considered bad, well, it would give people the willies.

Yeah, and I don't think it was an explicit racist move back in the day, Gygax was trying to create an immersive scientific-y history for his world...but that was based in some pretty questionable real world anthropology that has been severely overthrown as fields such as genetics have developed since the 80's.

So to loop this around to the main point again, is this something so ingrained in Oerth that it cannot be ignored or changed without irreparable harm to the setting? Do we get rid of the Scarlet Brotherhood, do we just never mention the ethnic origins of the Suel again, or is it so tainted by the past that Greyhawk itself is unsalvageable?

Neither the Scarlet Brotherhood or the existence of the Suel or any other group is a problem, and I donthink there are any issues which can't be massaged away gently. But sections such as "Characteristics of the Races of the Flannaes" on page 12 of the main book in the original box set, which goes into uncomfortable detail about the Human ethnography in super outdated ways, shouldn't stay the same.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Forgotten Realms

 

[eyeheartawk]

Forgotten Realms

What, was SCAG insufficient or something?

 

[Parmandur]

To be fair, the Sword Coast region as described in SCAG is larger than Europe. And the rest is on the DMsGuild.

 

[eyeheartawk]

To be fair, the Sword Coast region as described in SCAG is larger than Europe. And the rest is on the DMsGuild.

Both true.

I wasn't specifically talking about the relative lack of content in SCAG itself (though it is lacking even in the areas it does cover) but rather the lack of coverage for anything outside the Sword Coast.

Also, I really think the argument that any deficiency in a full price official product can simply be rectified by buying more material from third parties is deeply flawed.

 

[Haplo781]

Re: Birthright, it's a cool setting with a valid niche to fill. I don't know if it has sufficient brand recognition to convince WotC not to just use Eldraine to fill the same niche.