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.

 

[Maxperson]

Different editions of D&D are clearly different continuities.

Can you show where in the books it says this explicitly? Otherwise it is not clear.

 

[JEB]

Can you show where in the books it says this explicitly? Otherwise it is not clear.

It's not in the books - it's part of a policy statement Wizards released in 2021: D&D Canon | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

 

[Maxperson]

It's not in the books - it's part of a policy statement Wizards released in 2021: D&D Canon | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

And now none if the editions is canon! There is no canon. Which is why I disregard their statements. Coming up with an excuse after the fact to explain why they are doing things differently now doesn't sit well with me. Prior to that statement 1e-4e were not "different timelines" or whatever.

 

[Hussar]

There is no way WotC comes out of this ahead.

A) Publish new settings. Fans endlessly bitch that their per setting isn’t getting any love.

B) continue the setting. Potential new fans bounce off the wall of lore surrounding the setting. Any addition is immediately pilloried for not being “true” to the setting.

C) reboot. Why do you hate fans WotC? You are destroying our beloved setting.

They absolutely cannot please everyone here so by and large they’ve gone with C. Because other than vocal super fans that seems to be the safest course.

 

[mamba]

In any case, Eberron was designed from the ground up to be static in its timeline. Those other settings were not, and they need to be taken in that context or not taken at all.

I for one am glad they returned Dragonlance to the war, if they had continued on from where things were at in the 5th Age, I'd have hated that

I think a static setting turns out to be a better idea, let the table advance it, not WotC.

 

[Remathilis]

Sure, but people will complain much more about existing things being rebooted, than they do about old things simply being left out. It's the direct replacement of the old version in favor of a new version that tends to bother such fans.

Besides, fans of Lamordia or whatever could simply assume such domains were out there in the Mists, in their classic form, if there wasn't a new version explicitly replacing it.

EDIT: Also, we have a concrete example of this phenomenon in 5E Dragonlance. Some things were changed and some formerly conspicuous elements were left out. Of what complaints there have been (much less overall than Ravenloft), it's the changes that attract the most attention, less so the omissions.


The Core was broken up in 5E, so that would have been a moot point. And even if they did have a Core in 5E, it would hardly be the first time it had been reshuffled.

The funny thing is, it's implied that the older versions of domains DO still exist out in the Mists. The domain of Klorr implies old domains end up in the grand recycling bin (with Sithicus and Calvitis hinted at) and it's implied you could go to alternate versions of a domain with different history by wandering the Mists.

And that's the beauty of the "no core" structure; you can use whatever version of a domain you want. If you prefer Victor to Viktra, you can use him.

 

[Parmandur]

Besides, fans of Lamordia or whatever could simply assume such domains were out there in the Mists, in their classic form, if there wasn't a new version explicitly replacing it.

Except Van Richten's Guide explicitly allows for such a thing to be out there in the mists."

 

[Remathilis]

There is no way WotC comes out of this ahead.

A) Publish new settings. Fans endlessly bitch that their per setting isn’t getting any love.

B) continue the setting. Potential new fans bounce off the wall of lore surrounding the setting. Any addition is immediately pilloried for not being “true” to the setting.

C) reboot. Why do you hate fans WotC? You are destroying our beloved setting.

They absolutely cannot please everyone here so by and large they’ve gone with C. Because other than vocal super fans that seems to be the safest course.

As much as I'm loving the fact I have 5e Eberron, Ravenloft and Planescape books, I would have completely understood if WotC opted to forgo that headache and print 10 years of Realms stuff.

 

[JEB]

The funny thing is, it's implied that the older versions of domains DO still exist out in the Mists. The domain of Klorr implies old domains end up in the grand recycling bin (with Sithicus and Calvitis hinted at) and it's implied you could go to alternate versions of a domain with different history by wandering the Mists.

Oh sure. Fans are absolutely capable of ignoring the new version and using the old. Not that they needed an implied endorsement for that - classic Ravenloft stuff was already getting updated before the 5E reboot, based on some DM Guild material. But when the new official default is explicitly incompatible with the old, it very clearly upsets some fans, who now feel that Wizards isn't supporting their version of the setting. (It does admittedly make more work for such fans, too.)

By contrast, 5E Dragonlance seems to confirm that it's better to route around setting lore they don't want to bring forward, rather than trying to reinvent and replace it. You still get some complaints about the omissions, but it's way less. As such, I expect this to be the norm going forward - but we'll see when Planescape is released.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

See this is why advancing the timeline is bad on any setting is bad.

People wanted a living setting. So when they did something bold, shocking, and daring, fans whined until the group of super fans that got the rights to it put it all back to the way it was. (I know, I was one of them in the day). The only reason Soth was kept out of Ravenloft was rights issues or he'd have been back in Sithicus too.

Meh. If every metaplot event is going to be undone or have zero impact on the setting, give me a static year like Eberron.

No Soth was taken out of Ravenloft because Tracy Hickman whined and chucked a hissy fit about it over and over again, so they gave him back to Dragonlance, where Hickman could have him pointlessly killed.

Then WoTC decided to get his advice on Ravenloft because of his love for the setting.