D&D (2024) Anyone Else Find It Interesting How Different The Approaches to Setting Books Is Between 5e & 5.5e?

[Henadic Theologian]

And Greyhawk in the DMG.

It’s probably just the desire to keep content evergreen, Having released so many adventure books and already dumping a bunch of rules material through the revised core books, they needed to come up with something else that they hadn’t overdone.

Also adventurers league and the new Greyhawk league produce D&D adventures as do cons, so they have pretty good coverage on adventures. I mean the adventures are mostly solid still, of all the products from the 5e era, they are the most unaffected and still usable, followed by setting books ironically.

 

[Parmandur]

It really all seems to flow together pretty organically, IMO.

On the novel front, WotC is not producing anything at all, they have licensed to Penguin so that Penguin pays to make and market books while WotC collects a percentage, which is precisely what WotC said that they wanted to do with novels when they shut down their in-house fiction line.

Back in the early days of 5E, the WotC team always insisted that they wanted to do Settinfs, but were working to figure out to do it properly, and seems they cracked that with the 1-2 punch of Ravnica and Eberron, with all subsequent Settong products built off of their model to some extent or another.

I do agree that the October book smells like the return of Magic to D&Dz and the big D&D presence at MagicCon in a few weeks might be why the D&D team announce there is an October book yet hasn't said anything about it. It is also interesting note that Magic Sets and plotlines have a 4 year lifespan from conception to publication, which means that the current Magic storyline resetting the Cosmology was having the end planned out in laye 2021...when Strixhreleased for D&D, and the D&D team was working on the outlines for their 2024 rules change. It would have been a good time to plan a big Magic entry to the new rules.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It really all seems to flow together pretty organically, IMO.

On the novel front, WotC is not producing anything at all, they have licensed to Penguin so that Penguin pays to make and market books while WotC collects a percentage, which is precisely what WotC said that they wanted to do with novels when they shut down their in-house fiction line.

Back in the early days of 5E, the WotC team always insisted that they wanted to do Settinfs, but were working to figure out to do it properly, and seems they cracked that with the 1-2 punch of Ravnica and Eberron, with all subsequent Settong products built off of their model to some extent or another.

I do agree that the October book smells like the return of Magic to D&Dz and the big D&D presence at MagicCon in a few weeks might be why the D&D team announce there is an October book yet hasn't said anything about it. It is also interesting note that Magic Sets and plotlines have a 4 year lifespan from conception to publication, which means that the current Magic storyline resetting the Cosmology was having the end planned out in laye 2021...when Strixhreleased for D&D, and the D&D team was working on the outlines for their 2024 rules change. It would have been a good time to plan a big Magic entry to the new rules.

Still believe canceling the in-house novel line was a huge mistake, look at the success of the black library.

PS & SJ & DL or even Strixhaven products did in no way in shape or form resemble E: RftLW or VRGtR, very different products and that seems to be one of big issues those products had, the tiny book slipcases and big setting stuffed into an adventure book approaches were lore adverse and not popular and they we seem to be getting an approach more like E:RftLW mixed with 3e's FRCS+ for this years FR books instead of an meager books in an over priced slipcase like SJ & PS got. There might be an optional BIG book slip case for the FR books, but it'll be more like 2014 Gift Core Slipcase.

I don't think we will see an approach like SJ & PS again.

I do agree with you on the October Surprise, just too many hints to just ignore. Outside chance of a UB D&D version book, but I don't think they are ready for that yet.

 

[Azzy]

Start with solidifying a foundation for the game, and then build from there. Crawl, walk, run. Also, whats with the mile long thread title?

Yeah, I was beginning to think it was the name of a modern isekai anime.

 

[Parmandur]

Still believe canceling the in-house novel line was a huge mistake, look at the success of the black library.

Maybe, maybe not: if they felt they weren't making a good ROI on paying for the infrastructure of novels, they may very well do better in the long run to have someone else bear the risk of development.

PS & SJ & DL or even Strixhaven products did in no way in shape or form resemble E: RftLW or VRGtR, very different products and that seems to be one of big issues those products had, the tiny book slipcases and big setting stuffed into an adventure book approaches were lore adverse and not popular and they we seem to be getting an approach more like E:RftLW mixed with 3e's FRCS+ for this years FR books instead of an meager books in an over priced slipcase like SJ & PS got. There might be an optional BIG book slip case for the FR books, but it'll be more like 2014 Gift Core Slipcase.

Shadow of the Dragon Queen was an Advneture with a bit of Campaogn information, a different beast more like the FR Campaign books that were also Gazateers. Spelljammer and Planescpae, however, had basically thw same structure as Ravnica & Eberron, juat splot across three distinct books.

In terms of what will be different in the new Setting books this year, it seems they are patterning a lot after the Greyhawk example in the DMG, with detailed hubs and short hand Adventure outlines.

 

[Parmandur]

I have not seen any evidence that the mystery book for the year is a setting, especially a MtG one. Do you have a source for that?

It is definitely a wildcard, but the question is, if it is not a Magic book...what else are they hiding it for?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Maybe, maybe not: if they felt they weren't making a good ROI on paying for the infrastructure of novels, they may very well do better in the long run to have someone else bear the risk of development.

Shadow of the Dragon Queen was an Advneture with a bit of Campaogn information, a different beast more like the FR Campaign books that were also Gazateers. Spelljammer and Planescpae, however, had basically thw same structure as Ravnica & Eberron, juat splot across three distinct books.

In terms of what will be different in the new Setting books this year, it seems they are patterning a lot after the Greyhawk example in the DMG, with detailed hubs and short hand Adventure outlines.

That is likely for FRAG (but on a much bigger scale multiple times over), and maybe Eberron: Forge of the Artificer (+player options), but not for FRPG, which seems much more like E: RftLW or FRCS in 3e.

The October Surprise or Exodus is unknown.

 

[TiQuinn]

I’m gonna remain positive about this because it’s about time we got a new setting to delve into and pore over. What I’m really hoping is that they use the settings to highlights how the rules for the game can diverge from the core rules to create setting specific interpretations of classes, spells and monsters. That’s always been there but I hope they highlight it as a way to customize a setting.

 

[Parmandur]

That is likely for FRAG (but on a much bigger scale multiple times over), and maybe Eberron: Forge of the Artificer (+player options), but not for FRPG, which seems much more like E: RftLW or FRCS in 3e.

Some sort of mix there.

The October Surprise or Exodus is unknown.

Now, while thenWxpdus "Special Editon" is coming to early adaptors in a cojple months...one of the valid possibilities for the Octover Surprise is a full roll out of Exodus to the mas market.

 

[mamba]

They just released a new trilogy for DL, and a new DL trilogy starts next year.

'they' did not really do that, Weis and Hickman did, WotC just eventually stopped opposing it

I also would not see this as a 5.5 change, more a 'it's about time for 5e' and maybe to a degree something they needed to do because the actual 5.5 was in flux and that affected the APs