D&D 5E Chris Perkins drops 2020 hint!

[Demetrios1453]

I love Lantan for that reason.

In my current campaign the heroes are in Abeir, which is also where Lantan has been for the last 100 years or so, andtheyve come to Lantan. How I’ve described the port city they came to (also named Lantan) is that the city is structured much like an amphitheater with enormous towers of scaling height around the outside of the bowl, and the center pointing toward the harbor. The harbor has giant chains on geared mechanism kept magically unrusted, allow the city to close the harbor.

The towers are “scaling” in that they increase in height incrementally as the go counter clockwise from the right hand side as you come into port. They resemble the pipes of a pipe organ.

Going back to this, the hints of a Lantan-to-Spelljammer and mind flayers adventure(s), I just remembered that one of the planets of Realmspace, Glyth, is inhabited by various mind flayer factions. If they are also hinting about horror here, a planet ruled by mind flayers would be pretty horrific!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Going back to this, the hints of a Lantan-to-Spelljammer and mind flayers adventure(s), I just remembered that one of the planets of Realmspace, Glyth, is inhabited by various mind flayer factions. If they are also hinting about horror here, a planet ruled by mind flayers would be pretty horrific!

Seeing an updated Illithid Spelljammer fleet would blow my mind.

 

[generic]

Seeing an updated Illithid Spelljammer fleet would blow my mind.

As long as cosmic horror enters the 5e canon at some point, I'll be happy. I do love the Illithid/Gith conflict and its associated storylines, though.

 

[Arnwolf666]

I loved Soth in ravenloft. Apparently the Hickman’s and Weis hated the idea. Seth was moved back tonrave

Domains of Dread did some soft shifts in continuity to make every setting (that was in print by TSR at the time) have a Ravenloft darklord. Usually, there were smaller domains (from Darklords, Islands of Terror, or the like) that got retro-fitted as coming from Birthright, Mystara, or (most surprisingly) Gothic Earth. Aside from some interesting facts and possible 'this domain is like home" element, there is very little these additions added.

(As an aside, I'm not a giagantic fan of the "this domain is a dark version of [insert campaign settting]" domains, even the OG ones like Sithicus. It felt lazy, esp when actual villains (like Vecna, Soth, and Kas) were made darklords. Like, why would the Dark Powers grab Vecna or Soth but not Orcus or Accerack? But I digress...)

That said, I think MotRD 5e would be an amazing product (I've tried working on a home conversion several times myself) but it is a massive project to get right; its not as easy as putting paladins or gnomes into 1890's clothing and calling it done. It probably would require a massive re-write of classes, backgrounds, combat (for firearms), and then all the gothic/Ravenloft changes on top. I keep hoping the DMs Guild gets around to it (there has been talk of such a project at some point) but I really doubt we'll see a full-blown Ravenloft book*, let along MotRD.


* I mean, I WANT one, but since the end of the 2e book cycle, WotC has only ever considered Ravenloft to be about Strahd and Barovia. The only official books have both been redone versions of the classic module (Expeditions and CoS) with only a few Dragon articles to expand the campaign setting. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see WotC getting off its duff and actually even acknowledging the greater CS beyond casual references.

That’s the whole beauty of ravenloft. The dark powers create domains and islands as they see fit. Also gives the dm the ability to create his own domain and discard it when he wants. There are always new things being added to ravenloft. And old things leaving or dissolving.

 

[Arnwolf666]

As long as cosmic horror enters the 5e canon at some point, I'll be happy. I do love the Illithid/Gith conflict and its associated storylines, though.

You have try to do a bad job with that combo.

 

[Arnwolf666]

Seeing an updated Illithid Spelljammer fleet would blow my mind.

View attachment 115855

imagine a fleet of those hovering above your world.

 

[generic]

You have try to do a bad job with that combo.

Exactly. If you manage to make Illithids only as frightening as humanoid villains (particularly by removing the aspect which makes them perhaps the most frightening, their non-individualistic hive mind), then you have done something incredibly wrong in my opinion.

I worry that, and I have seen this in certain DM's Guild adventures, the adventures written for 5e will shy too far away from the horror, making Illithids either comical or too sympathetic.

Of course, it's okay to sympathize with Illithids, as it is only natural to sympathize with even the villains in tales (imagine Ravenloft without the tragedy of Strahd's fall from grace). But, I do worry that horror won't be taken seriously at all (there is room for levity, of course) if an Illithid versus Gith storyline is released.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Domains of Dread did some soft shifts in continuity to make every setting (that was in print by TSR at the time) have a Ravenloft darklord. Usually, there were smaller domains (from Darklords, Islands of Terror, or the like) that got retro-fitted as coming from Birthright, Mystara, or (most surprisingly) Gothic Earth. Aside from some interesting facts and possible 'this domain is like home" element, there is very little these additions added.

(As an aside, I'm not a giagantic fan of the "this domain is a dark version of [insert campaign settting]" domains, even the OG ones like Sithicus. It felt lazy, esp when actual villains (like Vecna, Soth, and Kas) were made darklords. Like, why would the Dark Powers grab Vecna or Soth but not Orcus or Accerack? But I digress...)

That said, I think MotRD 5e would be an amazing product (I've tried working on a home conversion several times myself) but it is a massive project to get right; its not as easy as putting paladins or gnomes into 1890's clothing and calling it done. It probably would require a massive re-write of classes, backgrounds, combat (for firearms), and then all the gothic/Ravenloft changes on top. I keep hoping the DMs Guild gets around to it (there has been talk of such a project at some point) but I really doubt we'll see a full-blown Ravenloft book*, let along MotRD.


* I mean, I WANT one, but since the end of the 2e book cycle, WotC has only ever considered Ravenloft to be about Strahd and Barovia. The only official books have both been redone versions of the classic module (Expeditions and CoS) with only a few Dragon articles to expand the campaign setting. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see WotC getting off its duff and actually even acknowledging the greater CS beyond casual references.

In my opinion the Kargatane Gazetteers are the definitive description of the Ravenloft "core realm" (incuding Barovia). While Curse of Strahd was a fine product and provided a lot of enjoyment to many people it doesn't "feel" right to me. And I am annoyed by the tendency to want to return some of the settings to their most primitive incarnations. The most interesting parts of Ravenloft were always outside of Barovia, and Cure of Strahd didn't even include the parts of Barovia that elevated it above a Transylvania with the numbers filed off.

(You can (and I would) supplement CoS with the info from the Gazetteers, but you'd have to ignore a whole bunch of problematic timeline issues. Curse of Strahd is sort of set in the same time as the original module, which means neither Van Richten nor Mordenkainen should be running around there. But that's probably not as big an issue as the whole "not everyone in Barovia has a soul" business, which is really problematic.

 

[Arnwolf666]

In my opinion the Kargatane Gazetteers are the definitive description of the Ravenloft "core realm" (incuding Barovia). While Curse of Strahd was a fine product and provided a lot of enjoyment to many people it doesn't "feel" right to me. And I am annoyed by the tendency to want to return some of the settings to their most primitive incarnations. The most interesting parts of Ravenloft were always outside of Barovia, and Cure of Strahd didn't even include the parts of Barovia that elevated it above a Transylvania with the numbers filed off.

(You can (and I would) supplement CoS with the info from the Gazetteers, but you'd have to ignore a whole bunch of problematic timeline issues. Curse of Strahd is sort of set in the same time as the original module, which means neither Van Richten nor Mordenkainen should be running around there. But that's probably not as big an issue as the whole "not everyone in Barovia has a soul" business, which is really problematic.

just remember my friend they can pry our copies of domains of dread from our undead hands. It’s easy to convert for us that have played that long.

 

[GreyLord]

So, just like Curse of Strahd basically incorporated the Ravenloft Setting in with the Campaign Adventure, as well as being a basic revival of that property in a singular form, why couldn't Perkins be working on something similar now?

I'm not sure it just has to be some adventure, or some campaign setting...could there be a possibility of it being a little of both to a small degree?

Of course it could easily be something entirely different, but I'm just wondering why everyone is figuring it has to be solely only an adventure or campaign setting?