D&D 5E D&D's Classic Settings Are Not 'One Shots'

In an interview with ComicBook.com, WotC's Jeremy Crawford talked about the visits to Ravenloft, Eberron, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and (the upcoming) Planescape we've seen over the last couple of years, and their intentions for the future.

He indicated that they plan to revisit some of these settings again in the future, noting that the setting books are among their most popular books.

We love [the campaign setting books], because they help highlight just how wonderfully rich D&D is. They highlight that D&D can be gothic horror. D&D can be fantasy in space. D&D can be trippy adventures in the afterlife, in terms of Planescape. D&D can be classic high fantasy, in the form of the Forgotten Realms. It can be sort of a steampunk-like fantasy, like in Eberron. We feel it's vital to visit these settings, to tell stories in them. And we look forward to returning to them. So we do not view these as one-shots.

- Jeremy Crawford​

The whole 'multiverse' concept that D&D is currently exploring plays into this, giving them opportunities to resist worlds.

When asked about the release schedule of these books, Crawford noted that the company plans its release schedule so that players get chance to play the material, not just read it, and they don't want to swamp people with too much content to use.

Our approach to how we design for the game and how we plan out the books for it is a play-first approach. At certain times in D&D's history, it's really been a read-first approach. Because we've had points in our history where we were producing so many books each year, there was no way anyone could play all of it. In some years it would be hard to play even a small percentage of the number of things that come out. Because we have a play-first approach, we want to make sure we're coming out with things at a pace where if you really wanted to, and even that would require a lot of weekends and evenings dedicated to D&D play, you could play a lot of it.

- Jeremy Crawford​

You can read more in the interview at ComicBook.com.

 

[Stormonu]

Oh. I have no problem with them doing that. Not at all. I am just weirded out that it seems there's not much else - especially when I see this massive amount of releases for other games. Like Games Workshop is making more money than ever and they're releasing tons of books - even their licensed RPGs have a ton of releases. And there's a massive amount of indie companies putting out very high production quality material. With things like Critical Role and the apparent uptick in popularity for RPGs and D&D in particular I'd just expected to come back to a much more exciting wealth of material. But it's like someone else said - books seem aimed at having players switch campaign worlds all the time and just buy everything that comes out. Maybe that works well, and D&D is just a homebrew game for me these days - but I am envious when I look at the material other publishers put out for their worlds.

And really the job of the executive management at WOTC is to keep stock prices up and that's not always connected to profitability at all, but rather the potential for growth and all that. Their jobs aren't really about profitability in the current economy - although it does matter more in recent days than just a few years back. But that's a very different discussion. And as a consumer and returning veteran I'm just disappointed. They seem to have the player base and the enthusiasm to put out more books. Why not do it? People aren't buying them, or?

Budgets are limited, throwing out a ton of books isn't a guarantee they'll be profitable. TSR's model even showed it could severely hurt profit for the company by putting things out willy-nilly. Often, quality suffers because writers don't have the time to playtest or focus on tightening up a product before it's supposed to be on the shelf.

Honestly, after the book glut of 2E (& 3E, & 4E), I'm relieved with the slower pace of product being put out. Gives me more time to appreciate, peruse and plan to use the content rather than racing through it and shelving it so I can delve into the next release.

If you're feeling starved for content, just hop on over to DM's Guild or 3rd party publishers. There's plenty of supplement content by other authors to fill the need for content - and there's a lot of that blows WotC's tepid offerings out of the water.

 

[Shardstone]

I hope so. I honestly cannot wait for more games to be even more explicitly anime-themed.

It's literally what everyone playing 5E wants, but most of them just don't know it yet, or don't want to believe it b/c of stigma or something. But yeah, the various flavors of shounen and seinen are pretty much what D&D will probably evolve towards next. Pretty much everyone born in the 90s onwards in the West was raised by anime lmao

 

[overgeeked]

It's literally what everyone playing 5E wants, but most of them just don't know it yet, or don't want to believe it b/c of stigma or something. But yeah, the various flavors of shounen and seinen are pretty much what D&D will probably evolve towards next. Pretty much everyone born in the 90s onwards in the West was raised by anime lmao

Absolutely. I'm talking more about the designers. I can't wait for them to embrace it. A few indie games are, but not the bigger dogs.

 

[Shardstone]

Absolutely. I'm talking more about the designers. I can't wait for them to embrace it. A few indie games are, but not the bigger dogs.

Working on one right now myself that's almost done. Here's hoping I end up being part of a bigger zeitgeist, because I'd enjoy a lot more games that way!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

See, adventures are where I lean into 3rd party content. There are lots and lots and lots and lots and...you get the point...people who are willing and capable of making adventure content. I'd much rather WotC give us quality settings instead of giving us adventures I can easily get somewhere else, unlike official lore content.

Why are you in the market for third party adventures but not third party settings? I've bought a lot of each and, IMO, the third party settings are often amazing and better than than the third party adventures, which in my experience, cap out a little below that. (Although still ahead of a lot of WotC adventures.)

 

[Maxperson]

Why are you in the market for third party adventures but not third party settings? I've bought a lot of each and, IMO, the third party settings are often amazing and better than than the third party adventures, which in my experience, cap out a little below that. (Although still ahead of a lot of WotC adventures.)

1. Adventures are usually much less expensive, so getting a bad one doesn't cost much.
2. In my experience people are much more capable at creating an adventure than full and cohesive lore for a setting, so it's much more likely that I'm going to be throwing my money away on a setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

1. Adventures are usually much less expensive, so getting a bad one doesn't cost much.

That makes sense.

2. In my experience people are much more capable at creating an adventure than full and cohesive lore for a setting, so it's much more likely that I'm going to be throwing my money away on a setting.

That's a good reason to not back some rando's Kickstarter, but are you ever tempted after hearing a third party setting getting rave reviews after the fact? There's certainly enough information out there by now on Midgard and Ptolus, for instance, both of which I think not only stand up to any WotC setting, but eclipse them.

Midgard in particular has something for pretty much everyone, similar to the Forgotten Realms and Golarion, but with lots and lots and lots of support.

 

[Maxperson]

That makes sense.

That's a good reason to not back some rando's Kickstarter, but are you ever tempted after hearing a third party setting getting rave reviews after the fact? There's certainly enough information out there by now on Midgard and Ptolus, for instance, both of which I think not only stand up to any WotC setting, but eclipse them.

Midgard in particular has something for pretty much everyone, similar to the Forgotten Realms and Golarion, but with lots and lots and lots of support.

I can't bring myself to trust reviews. Too many fake ones abound. The 3e setting the Scarred Lands looked good, though. I need to be able to look through them myself OR get a review from someone I know or can believe(many here on the site for instance).

 

[Incenjucar]

It seems like it might make sense for 3Ps to have "demo" samples of their setting to get the idea across, like the kind of stuff you pass out on Free RPG Day.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I can't bring myself to trust reviews. Too many fake ones abound. The 3e setting the Scarred Lands looked good, though. I need to be able to look through them myself OR get a review from someone I know or can believe(many here on the site for instance).

I will be happy to go on endlessly about Ptolus, and I believe the Alexandrian has been chronicling his game on his blog for years.

I'm not sure where the Midgard die-hards congregate, if not here. Maybe there's a subreddit.