Chris Perkins: Reintroducing Settings in Ways that Surprise People

WotC's D&D Story Manager, Chris Perkins, was the subject of an interview by a chap called Chris "Wacksteven" Iannitti. One of the topics covered is campaign setting books; Perkins says that they want to reintroduce settings in "surprising" ways, and that they're not guaranteed to be books. (thanks to Mistwell for the scoop)

The video is below, but if you can't watch it right now, here are the highlights as listed by pukunui on WotC's website:

• He can't talk about products that haven't been announced yet
• They value all of their worlds, as each one has "tons of fans"
• They are focusing on specific areas within settings to detail and "codify" via their story bibles
• Their goal is to "challenge people's expectations" re: sourcebooks
• They're "not interested in releasing books for the sake of releasing books anymore"
• They want book releases to be events that will "surprise and delight people"; they also want to put out books that people will actually use rather than books that will just get put on a shelf to "stay there and slowly rot"
• "One of our creative challenges is to package [setting] material - reintroduce facts and important details about our worlds - in a way that we know that DMs and players are going to use, that's going to excite them, that's actually going to surprise them. We may get that content out, but I'm not going to guarantee it's going to be a book. I'm not going to guarantee that it's going to be anything that you've seen before. But it will be something."

[video=youtube;alnwC34qUFs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alnwC34qUFs&feature=youtu.be[/video]
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[pukunui]

Not everyone who plays 5e has access to the old setting material either ...

Maybe not in print, but WotC has made most of them available as pdfs via dndclassics.

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3e)
Eberron Campaign Setting (3e)
Dark Sun Boxed Set (2e)
Dark Sun Campaign Setting (4e)
Birthright Campaign Setting (2e)
Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Revised (2e)
Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures (2e)
World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (1e)
Planescape Campaign Setting (2e)
Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (2e)

Looks like the only ones that are missing are the older FR boxes and the Dragonlance box set.

 

[DMZ2112]

If I were a share holder, I'd be seriously troubled if I thought WotC actually wanted that.

If I were a shareholder, I'd say, "Yeah, yeah, Dungeons & Dragons, that's cute. Tell us again about the 2015 projections for Magic: the Gathering."

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Maybe not in print, but WotC has made most of them available as pdfs via dndclassics.

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3e)
Eberron Campaign Setting (3e)
Dark Sun Boxed Set (2e)
Dark Sun Campaign Setting (4e)
Birthright Campaign Setting (2e)
Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Revised (2e)
Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures (2e)
World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (1e)
Planescape Campaign Setting (2e)
Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (2e)

Looks like the only ones that are missing are the older FR boxes and the Dragonlance box set.

Of course, they still haven't put out the original boxed sets for Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft. Maybe that means we'll get premium reprints... (Or they just haven't gotten to them yet.)

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] [MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION] [MENTION=6776322]HobbitFan[/MENTION] Thanks for the scoop! I have enjoyed greatly enjoyed Chris' work ever since his DUNGEON adventure "Umbra" back in the early 90's before becoming employed by Wizards of the Coast. His DM advice is great and I enjoyed the interview a lot. Looking forward to whatever surprises he and his team come up with.

One thing I didn't see folks mention yet in this thread was his emphasis on continuity when discussing Tyranny of Dragons. It sounds like they want events from past storylines to reverberate thru to future storylines...the feel I took away was something akin to how EA/Bioware do the Dragon Age games, with certain assumed canonical results (which may map to many gamers playthrus but not all). I'm not sure how comfortable I am applying that logic to D&D. Maybe I am misreading Chris' statement? There *was* a fair amount of artfully nebulous language

 

[Von Ether]

If I were a shareholder, I'd say, "Yeah, yeah, Dungeons & Dragons, that's cute. Tell us again about the 2015 projections for Magic: the Gathering."

Harsh for this crowd, but true.

 

[pukunui]

One thing I didn't see folks mention yet in this thread was his emphasis on continuity when discussing Tyranny of Dragons. It sounds like they want events from past storylines to reverberate thru to future storylines...the feel I took away was something akin to how EA/Bioware do the Dragon Age games, with certain assumed canonical results (which may map to many gamers playthrus but not all). I'm not sure how comfortable I am applying that logic to D&D. Maybe I am misreading Chris' statement? There *was* a fair amount of artfully nebulous language

I'm not sure that's what he meant. I think he was talking about continuity across products within a given storyline. I could be wrong, though. But just look at the evidence we have so far. Lost Mine of Phandelver makes no mention of the events of the Sundering. The Rise of Tiamat has a single reference to the Sundering. As far as I know, Princes of the Apocalypse makes no mention of the events from Tyranny of Dragons.

The novels, however, will undoubtedly involve more obvious continuity. The Neverwinter MMO probably does too. Perhaps Sword Coast Legends will make references to recent events like the Tyranny of Dragons? It might also get expansions that incorporate material from future storylines.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

If I were a shareholder, I'd say, "Yeah, yeah, Dungeons & Dragons, that's cute. Tell us again about the 2015 projections for Magic: the Gathering."

Total.

It's like comparing Monopoly to crack.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

Total.

It's like comparing Monopoly to crack.

Yeah, fewer people die from disputes over crack.

 

[Gundan Shadeslinger]

This just isn't good enough for me. Not really sure who they've been speaking with but I wouldn't say it's with the majority of gamers out there. Sounds like they going with what their few employees want and I say it won't have good results.

Guess I will be giving my money to someone else. Shame really.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm not sure that's what he meant. I think he was talking about continuity across products within a given storyline. I could be wrong, though. But just look at the evidence we have so far. Lost Mine of Phandelver makes no mention of the events of the Sundering. The Rise of Tiamat has a single reference to the Sundering. As far as I know, Princes of the Apocalypse makes no mention of the events from Tyranny of Dragons.

The novels, however, will undoubtedly involve more obvious continuity. The Neverwinter MMO probably does too. Perhaps Sword Coast Legends will make references to recent events like the Tyranny of Dragons? It might also get expansions that incorporate material from future storylines.

Ah, the trans-media thing we've heard so much about. That makes more sense. It was hard to figure out that's what he was saying, but now that you point it out that fits better.