D&D 5E Mike Schley hints at something bigger than Phandelver, The Book of Many Things, and even Planescape!

[DarkCrisis]

BG3 has sold millions, and will have even more with the console releases. Its Twitch Stats where very based on a quick look, though they are decreasing. It is a huge success.

Unless Wizards massively fails, they have a MOUNTAIN of content they could leverage with minimal investment, in terms of FR.

It would be insanity to me, for them to abandon it now. Before the movie, before the game? Yeah sure, it wasnt long ago I was saying Wizards should start over.

Now? No way does it make sense.

BG3 isn’t a success because it’s set in Faerun or even because it s a sequel to a game from 20 years ago

 

[Scribe]

BG3 isn’t a success because it’s set in Faerun or even because it s a sequel to a game from 20 years ago

I think its more than that. Quite a bit more.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

BG3 isn’t a success because it’s set in Faerun or even because it s a sequel to a game from 20 years ago

Sure, but it's leveraging both the D&D and Forgotten Realms brands pretty hard.

It's not a game that could be set anywhere else. It's not a game that could not be D&D - indeed, a whole bunch of what they focus on is D&D-specific stuff that Pathfinder or the like doesn't have. And it's really cool stuff. It's also Planescape-adjacent.

I mean, Critical Role is absolutely NOT a success because it's set in Tal'Dorei or Wildemount, indeed, those are two settings that possibly exceed the FR in terms of generic-ness. And yet it's success helps sell those settings, and make them valuable IPs.

 

[Birmy]

I'm honestly surprised WotC hasn't pulled a 4th ed and just kicked Faerun ahead another hundred years or more to get a more clean slate. I have some DC comics level "wiping the slate clean" start over event.

I don't think they'll try something that drastic again any time soon after how badly they got burned with it on 4E. I'm in favor of the method Paizo employed in their edition transition: Advance it, say, a year (or five or whatever)--just long enough to keep whatever they wanted to stay in play but long enough to justify tweaks, curveballs, and whatever new story and character hooks they want to deploy to keep things fresh. That way you get an influx of new ideas, the ability to change things that haven't aged well or never worked to begin with, and you don't have to throw out all the characters/locations/concepts people already liked (remember the narrative contortions they made to justify advancing popular characters to the present timeline [Heroes of Mithral Hall, Farideh, Durnan, Mirt, etc.]).

I think they really missed an opportunity to buy Mercer's world (with him lead designer etc) and run that as THE flagship setting. But that ship has long since sailed.

I like CR and Tal'Dorei just fine, but I personally wouldn't be interested in it as the default setting. The masses of CR fans would probably prove me wrong on that. Of course, as you suggest, positing such an idea is purely academic at this point anyway.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I don't think they'll try something that drastic again any time soon after how badly they got burned with it on 4E. I'm in favor of the method Paizo employed in their edition transition: Advance it, say, a year (or five or whatever)--just long enough to keep whatever they wanted to stay in play but long enough to justify tweaks, curveballs, and whatever new story and character hooks they want to deploy to keep things fresh. That way you get an influx of new ideas, the ability to change things that haven't aged well or never worked to begin with, and you don't have to throw out all the characters/locations/concepts people already liked (remember the narrative contortions they made to justify advancing popular characters to the present timeline [Heroes of Mithral Hall, Farideh, Durnan, Mirt, etc.]).


I like CR and Tal'Dorei just fine, but I personally wouldn't be interested in it as the default setting. The masses of CR fans would probably prove me wrong on that. Of course, as you suggest, positing such an idea is purely academic at this point anyway.

Yeah the 4th ed obliteration of Faerun is what got me drop the product until 5E. I still havent read that era of Drizzt novels. Didnt pick him up again until the books about bringing everyone back started coming out.

And the story Salvatore tells about him and Greenwood trying to stop it. Sadness.

 

[Demetrios1453]

BG3 isn’t a success because it’s set in Faerun or even because it s a sequel to a game from 20 years ago

What we're saying is the opposite - millions of BG3 players are new to the Realms and many (if all the posts in the BG3 subreddit are to go by) are interested in learning more about the setting. So it's not that BG3 is popular because it's set in FR - it's that BG3 is popular, so WotC should capitalize on the renewed interest in the setting.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I have a horrible feeling both "completely new" settings, the one which was definitely going ahead and the one was being considered, perished when Ray Winninger was fired, because they were something he seemed keen on.

Whereas the super-corporate Microsoft guy now in charge of D&D I suspect is only interested in settings as far as there is "cross-marketing synergy", so existing settings or MtG ones or the like. Obviously I'd be very happy to be wrong.

Hopefully this particular thing means a big FR book. As pointed out, the FR got tremendous pop-culture coverage this year, including literally the best-reviewed PC game in history (!!!) which seems to be selling insane copies. More likely though it is just something we neither expect nor care about.

Could the new settings have been Radiant Citadel and Witchlight: Domains of Delight?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Could the new settings have been Radiant Citadel and Witchlight: Domains of Delight?

I would say Radiant Citadel was, as it presents a brand new setting hub with about a dozen sub-settings. Witchlight, on the other hand, is just an adventure in the Feywild, with no real setting-type info.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I would say Radiant Citadel was, as it presents a brand new setting hub with about a dozen sub-settings. Witchlight, on the other hand, is just an adventure in the Feywild, with no real setting-type info.

We get explore a big Feywild Domain of Delight and the basics of what Domains of Delight are, it's more then Spelljammer got.

 

[Parmandur]

What we're saying is the opposite - millions of BG3 players are new to the Realms and many (if all the posts in the BG3 subreddit are to go by) are interested in learning more about the setting. So it's not that BG3 is popular because it's set in FR - it's that BG3 is popular, so WotC should capitalize on the renewed interest in the setting.

I will say, in favor if the Faerun hypothesis, that Schley has probably been fielding questions about a Whole Realms map for 8 years, since the iconic Sword Coast map he did. Could be that "bigger" is wordplay on doing that?