D&D 5E Am I no longer WoTC's target audience?

[Parmandur]

I think they'd do a full Ravenloft setting before Dark Sun, and probably well before Greyhawk, and I'd probably slot My Little Pony in somewhere after Dark Sun but before Greyhawk.

Here's Mearls (who after his promotion has even more say in product direction) talking about Greyhawk, secretly setting up Ghosts of Saltmarsh and hinting at wanting to work on Greyhawk with Luke Gygax. More recently than the below video, at the recent Gameholecon panel, Mearls said that Ghosts of Saltmarsh was a test to see if people would get confused or upset by venturing outside the Realms, and the test was a success.

 

[Parmandur]

I know they love Greyhawk, but that doesn't mean it's way up the design queue. Dark Sun, well, yeah, given the psionic play testing that does seem likely. Ravenloft would let them so a nice set of Gothic/horror rules and whatnot, which would set it apart nicely from the other stuff they've done. That said, maybe they're ok with having done CoS and that's it for now. IDK. Greyhawk though, for a bunch of reasons, is going to be tough for them to market to new players IMO. It depends on how much juice they think they can wring out of second hand nostalgia I guess, because right now, without anything else, that's about all Greyhawk has going for it for the new player.

It's all in how they market it: second hand nostalgia is actually somewhat important to the D&D marketing strategy, frankly, and Luke Gygax has built up a reputation of his own separate from his father, with GaryCon and his streaming games. A return to Classical D&D, with the son of the founder, playing on more old school Sword & Sorcery tropes....yeah, that can sell. Setting books are genre booster packs now, and Greyhawk has something to offer.

 

[Fenris-77]

The fact that that might sell it is why I brought it up. The addition of a Gygax, any Gygax frankly, but especially one with a gaming rep, would indeed go a long way to upping the profile and tenor of the release. I still think they'd need to find a crunch angle for the book as well, as the crunch is something that sells books to people who don't actually care about the setting. Maybe if they saved a couple of sacred cows to toss in that might work, although I can't think of what might fit the bill there. Huh, actually, now that I think of it, the UA class options stuff would be a grand thing to add - if that was the official place to get that everyone would buy it. Hmm...

Dammit, now you've got me excited. I've worked hard at being resigned to a long wait for Greyhawk.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Instead we get Ravnica, Tal'dorei and Wildemount.

angry Eberron noises

Tal'dorei was 3rd Party by Green Ronin, not WotC. None of it is official.

 

[oreofox]

When I ran the latest Ravenloft campaign I only allowed races that were found in the PHB. I didn't feel the Aaracockra had a place in the setting. I don't really feel Dragonborn have a place either but I'm loathed to restrict the basic races from the PHB because most players have an expectation that they'll be available. I don't experience nerd rage but I don't think every race belongs in every setting.

It's rather easy to fit in dragonborn and tieflings (the two most mentioned races from the PHB), since Ravenloft has stuff from everything (Lord Soth from Dragonlance is in it). Of course, the CoS adventure was basically just Barovia and didn't include all the other demiplanes within the Mists. There's also the part about the adventure starting in Faerun, too. But I can understand the desire to not want something that was introduced in a later PHB to be included in an old setting. Like you said, it's easy to disallow the bird people, since they don't appear in the PHB. Just by saying "PHB only". But I have seen nerd rage about people wanting to play a tiefling in Grayhawk, or a dragonborn.

There's the big chance WotC would include some new NPCs of those races in a Grayhawk book, because they exist in the PHB. Just like how they kinda hamfisted the dragonborn into FR. If WotC would be smart, they'd leave those races out (are the dragonborn even included in the new Eberron book?), and have a little appendix on how to include those races into the setting if the DM is so inclined (kinda like how they did the same with the adventure books on how to place the adventure in a different setting).

 

[PsyzhranV2]

are the dragonborn even included in the new Eberron book?

Yes. Nothing about their lore has changed from 4e.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Here's Mearls (who after his promotion has even more say in product direction) talking about Greyhawk, secretly setting up Ghosts of Saltmarsh and hinting at wanting to work on Greyhawk with Luke Gygax. More recently than the below video, at the recent Gameholecon panel, Mearls said that Ghosts of Saltmarsh was a test to see if people would get confused or upset by venturing outside the Realms, and the test was a success.

Hmmm... interesting. My takeaway from that interview is that Greyhawk was never going to happen (it being too much of a sandbox for Mearls to want to tackle) but the recent comments provide some evidence to your theory... would be very cool if it ever happens!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You don't need to put setting related content in a "Setting Book". Much of the highly detailed, actually useful (what are the stats of that innkeeper) setting information is in the adventures. Ghosts of Saltmarsh has everything you need to start a Greyhawk campaign. And if the players eventually move outside of the region described, there is Google.

 

[Azzy]

But I have seen nerd rage about people wanting to play a tiefling in Grayhawk, or a dragonborn.

There's the big chance WotC would include some new NPCs of those races in a Grayhawk book, because they exist in the PHB. Just like how they kinda hamfisted the dragonborn into FR. If WotC would be smart, they'd leave those races out (are the dragonborn even included in the new Eberron book?), and have a little appendix on how to include those races into the setting if the DM is so inclined (kinda like how they did the same with the adventure books on how to place the adventure in a different setting).

As a Greyhawk fan, I don't get the hate for inluding tieflings and dragonborn—they're absolutey easy to plug and play into the setting. Sure tthere are the lands of Iuz, but the Great Kingdom (and its former realms) are the most logical spot for tieflings considering that the line oof House Naelax (spelling?) has been consorting with devils for centuries. Dragonborn, are easy to drop into any remote location like the Amedio Jungle, the Vast Swamp, the Sea of Dust, the Bright Desert, the Hellfurnace Mountains, the Drachesgrab Hills, etc. You don't need an empire for either of these races or have them as common as elves and dwarves, but it's real easy to find a spot for them. :/

(are the dragonborn even included in the new Eberron book?

Yep, right there in the character creation chapter

 

[Zardnaar]

As a Greyhawk fan, I don't get the hate for inluding tieflings and dragonborn—they're absolutey easy to plug and play into the setting. Sure tthere are the lands of Iuz, but the Great Kingdom (and its former realms) are the most logical spot for tieflings considering that the line oof House Naelax (spelling?) has been consorting with devils for centuries. Dragonborn, are easy to drop into any remote location like the Amedio Jungle, the Vast Swamp, the Sea of Dust, the Bright Desert, the Hellfurnace Mountains, the Drachesgrab Hills, etc. You don't need an empire for either of these races or have them as common as elves and dwarves, but it's real easy to find a spot for them. :/



Yep, right there in the character creation chapter

It's because they're not the classic demihumans. Demihumans are accepted although people don't like half orcs.

Anything more monstrous than a half orc not going to go over to well.

Tiefling at least organically make sense in the setting. Not convinced as a PC race though same with Drow.

Drow lose a lot of mystery when you can be one and be interviewed by other players.