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.

 

[Demetrios1453]

To be fair, the Dales in particular are not unproblematic from a design perspective. Not because of any cultural insensitivity issues, but because you're still stuck with Elminster and Storm Silverhand and the usual suspects there - the old FR problem that people have been complaining about for decades about the uberpowerful NPCs who could/should have solved the problem the PCs are working on. Greenwood did a lot of great work designing that part of the Realms, but when it comes to the whole Chosen of Mystra thing someone badly needs to rein him in. YMMV of course, but I always found the whole 'whole 'hail fellow well met' and 'all the hot magic women want crumbly old randy goat Elminster' Dalelands shtick pretty twee and annoying, and the way the WotC toned down of the centrality of Elminster and co to the setting is one thing about 5e FR that I've actually liked. But that's the 'avoid talking about stuff which is too hard to fix' WotC philosophy of legacy settings in action again. If you're covering this part of the world, you can't just ignore the guy.

Annoyingly, the Spellplague left Storm Silverhand (a good-aligned proactive adventurer in direct competition with PCs for the limelight) alive, but killed off the Simbul (who was actually a useful game character, being a preoccupied ruler of a small nation constantly at loggerheads with a much-larger Thay, and being considerably more dangerous, capricious, and morally ambiguous than the usual Shadowdale faces in the bargain).

Of course, there's more to the North than just the Dalelands. I'd probably find a way to bring back the Simbul though. Aglarond was cooler with her in it.

High-level NPCs have never bothered me. It's simply a matter of action economy - there's simply not enough time in the day to go traipsing off after the 10 kobold warrens in the area, deal with multiple goblin camps, stave off the orcish raiders, investigate the rumors of drow sightings, kill all the giant rats in all the tavern basements in the area, and have to deal with the actual high-level threats that they're the only ones capable of dealing with. It's like saying a CEO of a fast food company should spend all their time taking orders from customers and doing the accounting for every franchise location - no, they have their own job to do and have to delegate the activities down in the trenches to others (although some periodic time down in said trenches probably wouldn't hurt). So, Elminster can't deal with the sudden gnoll infestation; he's discovered a plot to make Faerûn the next front of the Blood War, so those new adventurers in town will need to take care of it.

As you said in another post, you don't find it satisfying. It isn't. But, in any system where responsibilities are divided by level of skill, it's just how things work.

 

[Remathilis]

Sure, provided they replace them with actually new settings and not knock-off versions of their old ones.

That's the real trick, isn't it?

There is nothing new under the sun, so everything will be comparable to something in the past. Doing a horror setting? "That's just Ravenloft". Dragon focused? "Yawn, Dragonlance called." Kitchen sink? "We got dozens of them, why do we need another?" Heck, how many people thought Ravinca and Radiant Citadel were basically Sigil speaks to how quickly people will compare new stuff unfavourably to the old.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's the real trick, isn't it?

There is nothing new under the sun, so everything will be comparable to something in the past. Doing a horror setting? "That's just Ravenloft". Dragon focused? "Yawn, Dragonlance called." Kitchen sink? "We got dozens of them, why do we need another?" Heck, how many people thought Ravinca and Radiant Citadel were basically Sigil speaks to how quickly people will compare new stuff unfavourably to the old.

It doesn't matter if it shows similar themes. New places, new maps, new threats, new NPCs. My understanding is that Ravnica and Radiant Citadel were reasonably well-received, after all.

 

[Reynard]

Is there a current market for highly detailed setting material?

 

[mamba]

There is nothing new under the sun, so everything will be comparable to something in the past. Doing a horror setting? "That's just Ravenloft".

not every horror setting is Ravenloft, even if they have similar themes. Do not use the same BBEGs, use different maps, do not have the different domains, and you have something different.

You could easily have a Cuthulhu based setting that has fish-people raiding coastal towns and worse evil lurking everywhere without it resembling Ravenloft at all

Dragon focused? "Yawn, Dragonlance called."

dragons are everywhere, not sure how many people considered Tyranny of Dragons just DL, even though thematically it was somewhat close.

To me DL is more a world spanning war against an evil overlord than dragons. Lord of the Rings fits the DL theme in that way, stay clear of that, and you can be dragon themed as much as you want.

Have floating sky islands as the world with dragonriders traveling between them and you have very little relation to DL.

Kitchen sink? "We got dozens of them, why do we need another?"

agreed, we do not need more kitchen sink

 

[Vaalingrade]

Let's still have way less Lovecraft stuff, just in case.

 

[Remathilis]

not every horror setting is Ravenloft, even if they have similar themes. Do not use the same BBEGs, use different maps, do not have the different domains, and you have something different.

You could easily have a Cuthulhu based setting that has fish-people raiding coastal towns and worse evil lurking everywhere without it resembling Ravenloft at all


dragons are everywhere, not sure how many people considered Tyranny of Dragons just DL, even though thematically it was somewhat close.

To me DL is more a world spanning war against an evil overlord than dragons. Lord of the Rings fits the DL theme in that way, stay clear of that, and you can be dragon themed as much as you want.

Have floating sky islands as the world with dragonriders traveling between them and you have very little relation to DL.


agreed, we do not need more kitchen sink

My point is that there is significant friction between "if you're going to change it, do something new" and "why are you doing this, we already have X" theory. WotC could make a new setting set in a barren desert world with real Conan vibes, but it would immediately be scorned for being Fake Dark Sun. Of course, if they release a Dark Sun that is very different from the 2e one (and they would) they would be getting the Ravenloft/Spelljammer "you changed it and now it sucks" and if the release Dark Sun faithfully, it would be a PR nightmare. There is no move that doesn't end up a fecestorm.

 

[Maxperson]

Elminster travels the whole world, and is normally up to something. Just cause you go to his home region does not mean he will be involved in the plot there.

You're undercutting his travels. He also travels to other planes, AND other settings, including our real world Earth. He's gone a lot.

 

[Maxperson]

The "Elminster is unable to respond to your sending right now because he's busy dealing with something MUCH more cosmically important than your trifling quest, please leave a message after the beep" solution isn't really any more satisfying now than it was 20 years ago, IMHO. And you can't really do a sourcebook that covers the Dales and completely bypass him. He's iconic, but intrusive.

You don't have to bypass him. If you are running a Dales centric campaign he's going to be present on occasion, but why on earth is he going to get off his porch to go handle a goblin den? And if the PCs try to turn him into their personal library and solve all of their problems, he's going to shut his door to them. He's got better things to do than be used by a party of PCs.

He's going to be only as intrusive as the DM allows and/or the players want him to be.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Just say he's been imprisoned by Nergal again - give us a narrative justification for an Elminster's Guide to the Nine Hells down the road to pair up with an Iggwilv's Demonomicon covering the Abyss.

Probably more likely to just get a unified Fiend deep dive book a la Fizban's/Bigby's, but seriously... Give me Fiendish Codices 2.0 WotC!