D&D 5E 3 Classic Settings Coming To 5E?

On the D&D Celebration – Sunday, Inside the D&D Studio with Liz Schuh and Ray Winninger, Winninger said that WotC will be shifting to a greater emphasis on settings in the coming years.

This includes three classic settings getting active attention, including some that fans have been actively asking for. He was cagey about which ones, though.

The video below is an 11-hour video, but the information comes in the last hour for those who want to scrub through.



Additionally, Liz Schuh said there would be more anthologies, as well as more products to enhance game play that are not books.

Winninger mentioned more products aimed at the mainstream player who can't spend immense amount of time absorbing 3 tomes.

Ray and Liz confirmed there will be more Magic: The Gathering collaborations.

 

[Bitbrain]

Dragon Lance IS EVEN MORE set for good vs evil storytelling adventures. (You actually have good here unlike Dark Sun.) Soth is basically Vader. Raistlin is every emo wizard/jedi/whatever/character ever. Weiss and Hickman are women who legit made the setting. (These things matter these days.) Players riding Dragon Mounts with possible Dragon Mount PC side characters = the 2nd D in D&D. Also brand. This is even more of a no brainer than Dark Sun from a marketing perspective. Wouldn't be surprised to see Takhisis cast in a more favorable light here either to create "depth/grittiness."

raises hand

Umm... I thought Tracy Hickman was a guy.

Unless I missed something in the news?

Spelljammer is to wacky to be released alone. Planescape too weirdly highbrow. I think they will combine the settings somehow. Sigil as the hub. Spelljammer vessels sail out into the astral sea to wind up in other spaces. Mind Flayers everywhere.

Sounds good to me. I believe 4e did something similar, with spelljamming taking place on the Astral Sea.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Spelljammer had it's own distinct campaign setting and metaplot, much like how Planescape had it's own distinct setting and plot materials.

Sure the big thing about Spelljammer was about travelling around space in magical ships. But it had it's own (proto) factions, the Rock of Bral as a campaign hub, various space empires, and it's plot involving the Unhuman Wars. Actually I'd like to see how they'd deal with the Inhuman War with a new revisionist outlook which was a conflict with the upstart Scro leading Orcs and Goblinoids in a war against the Elven Imperial Navy. It was a quite a black and white conflict back then, so I'd like to see how they'd have that plot now with their recent ideas on how humanoids would be more nuanced.

 

[wingsandsword]

WotC owns the rights to Dragonlance.

Margaret Weis Productions had the license to do Dragonlance D&D products in 3.5, but that license ended about 2008.

IIRC, with Dragonlance 3.5, they had the Dragonlance Campaign Setting written by Weis and some others, then published as a D&D-branded book by WotC. . . .but the deal was that Margaret Weis Productions had the rights to keep making 3.5e Dragonlance books (but with only the Dragonlance and not the D&D brand) after that.

So, the core book was an official D&D book, but the supplements past the core book were officially 3rd party, due to some quirky licensing.

 

[Sunsword]

"Winninger mentioned more products aimed at the mainstream player who can't spend immense amount of time absorbing 3 tomes."

I like this point. I'm not a mainstream player as I play twice a week and buy a ton of RPG books but I'm still busy as a business owner, husband, father, grandfather, and look forward to this.

 

[Ludovino]

raises hand

Umm... I thought Tracy Hickman was a guy.

Unless I missed something in the news?

OOOOPS

 

[bulletmeat]

I also agree on the Planescape & Spelljammer settings. Especially since they are unique ways to explore/move to other settings. The can create WotC's MEU.

My question would be, though, is Dark Sun still cut off? Not even the gods could arrive, but maybe through the inner planes?

Also, I know there is (or was) a fair amount of Greyhawk IP that Gary's widow or kids still had. If that is still the case I'm not sure the setting can give WotC the greatest availability for profits. Granted Hasbro really wants $ from old players but it may be too much trouble.

And as much as I would like to see Mystara have a decent treatment, I think the possible backlash is too great with the focus on cultural appropriation being so heightened at this time.

I still would like a good Nentir Vale setting, if possible.

 

[Bolongo]

I think redoing the adventures so that you play your characters and are no longer beholden to following the novels would be glorious.

So, in other words... re-writing the whole thing from the ground up?

Because those railroad tracks are solid steel and don't bend easily.

 

[Aldarc]

I still would like a good Nentir Vale setting, if possible.

...as written by Rich Baker.

 

[Stormonu]

The only difficulty with Dragonlance is that it is not a "your guys" setting - though you can certainly make your own characters for the game, everyone I know who wants to play in it wants to use the novel characters and adventures - especially the twins.

My guess for release is for Dark Sun, Spelljammer and Birthright (Though my personal choices would be Dark Sun, Spelljammer and one of the four "defaults" - Greyhawk, Mystara, Forgotten Realms, Nentir Vale - in that order).

 

[Pixelllance]

"Winninger mentioned more products aimed at the mainstream player who can't spend immense amount of time absorbing 3 tomes."

I like this point. I'm not a mainstream player as I play twice a week and buy a ton of RPG books but I'm still busy as a business owner, husband, father, grandfather, and look forward to this.

thats also my hope. With real life job familiy etc I now play more PbtA / OSR Stuff cause it needs so few prep ruleswise