D&D 5E Roundup: Check Out These Previews from D&D Celebration

I think Strixhaven will be the first WotC 5e book that I won’t buy

Magical Academy is one D&D concept I've never thought to run. Strixhaven may be the first setting book I've ever bought.

The Guild stream right now is funny stuff. Fun seeing them back together.

Is it troublesome and offensive if I say this looks like utter poo?

I so miss when D&D was darker and more Tolkien-inspired. Now it's Harry Potter, but as an anime.
Makes sense however, since the majority of D&D players in general either choose to play as their favorite anime character or as their idealized waifu/husbando.

Don't forget, Strixhaven is a Magic the Gathering setting, directly inspired by Harry Potter.

I'm glad D&D has a diverse fanbase, and I dont fault WOTC for making products for demographics other than mine.

But yeah, I'm not buying strixhaven either.

Bird Of Play said:

Is it troublesome and offensive if I say this looks like utter poo?

I so miss when D&D was darker and more Tolkien-inspired. Now it's Harry Potter, but as an anime.
Makes sense however, since the majority of D&D players in general either choose to play as their favorite anime character or as their idealized waifu/husbando.

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Nostalgia for your personal aesthetic preferences is fine, but D&D has been different from standard Tolkien fare for quite some time. 2e gave us Planescape, Dark Sun, Planejammer, and more. Even then I don't think Tolkien is the primary influence on D&D when compared to other writers. The world of fantasy has changed. I don't think that younger gamers particularly care or know about the fantasy of Fritz Lieber, Michael Moorcock, or Robert Howard, which inspired Gygax. That's (mostly*) fine. Our sense of fantasy adventure has changed.

* "That's not a Witcher or Arthas clone, younglings! That's an Elric clone!"

Bird Of Play said:

Is it troublesome and offensive if I say this looks like utter poo?

I so miss when D&D was darker and more Tolkien-inspired. Now it's Harry Potter, but as an anime.
Makes sense however, since the majority of D&D players in general either choose to play as their favorite anime character or as their idealized waifu/husbando.

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Am I the only one who find Harry Potter to be darker then LotRs?

Anyways I watched both the Strixhaven and Fizban Panels.

For Strixhaven there are 5 new spells, one for each college, like Barrowed Knowledge which gives you a skill prof, but these spells are also added to class lists.

They built this relationship system, it doesn't have to be romantic, but they really went whole hog on the social pillar, but there is still combat and stuff.

Everybody, even fighter gets magic.

Strixhaven is much more designed to be self contained then Theros or Ravnica, so it can be dropped into any D&D world like FR or Greyhawk or MtG setting like Theros or Ravnica or it's actual plane.

For Fizban's they have 3 feats tied to main Dragon Families, 15 Lair maps, they mention some of the other monsters like some kind of a Sacrab that looks like a gold coin, champions of the Dragon Gods. One thing they really emphasis is the whole First World thing, but as a mythology, so it's not completely presented as absolute truth. 80+ monsters. Dyson Logos did the Lair maps, so they will be practical and functional, but not pretty.

All 20 of the Dragon types that get 3-6 page deep dive have a table with one if the things being different from the typical behavior for the Dragon type, so like you can have a Gold Dragon villain.

I add stuff as I remember it
and it occurs to me

Henadic Theologian said:

Am I the only one who find Harry Potter to be darker then LotRs?

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I associate old school Hobbit media with little cartoony people with hairy feet. It's weird to claim that Tolkien was grim-dark compared to 5e.

Remember when DnD was sooooo dark??

Bird Of Play said:

Is it troublesome and offensive if I say this looks like utter poo?

I so miss when D&D was darker and more Tolkien-inspired. Now it's Harry Potter, but as an anime.
Makes sense however, since the majority of D&D players in general either choose to play as their favorite anime character or as their idealized waifu/husbando.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you might need to find people who prefer a game more in the style you do; they're not particularly rare from how you've described your tastes. It's a big tent game, not everything is there for everybody.

There are also lots of games that constrain the genre more, some to a "darker and more Tolkien-inspired" mode. If you actually want something with a Tolkien feel, D&D has always been a poor prospect for that, even when the race options were basically "Tolkien +gnomes" because the magic level and magic system just doesn't correlate at all.