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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[Majoru Oakheart]

What I'm saying is that none of this matters. Farts in the wind, my son. I know there were changes. You can expect them all to be ignored and to never be mentioned again once 12 months have passed.

Not entirely convinced of this. The fact that the Starer Set bothered to mention the eruption of Mount Hotenow and the ash zombies were included in the adventure means SOMEONE at WOTC felt the need to reassure everyone that the lore from 4e still existed.

No, my child, when you saw only one set of footprints in the sand, it was then that they were walking in single file, to hide their numbers. Like sandpeople.

Not actually sure what you mean here. We know some gods came back. But we don't know how many or which ones. If your point is that nobody knows, then you are correct.

They didn't, they didn't, and they haven't.

It's fairly apparent that they have. Genasi exist. There are stats for them. The novels that take place after the Sundering mention they exist. Dragonborn definitely exist. I'd like to know how they fit into the FR now that the Sundering is complete.

'Spellplague,' 'Spellplague,' 'Spellplague!' That's all you talk about! Stop it Majoru, you're scaring the children!

Don't tell me you are one of those Spellplague deniers.

 

[HobbitFan]

It's a confusing, frustrating time to be a Realms fan. If this was going to be their method of handling settings, why did they do the Sundering?
It doesn't make any sense to me at all.

I don't understand their model for presenting settings as they haven't laid it out for us.
I understand neither what they are doing nor what they plan to do.

The interview is interesting for sure, but it raises alot more questions than it even attempts to answer.
It's frustrating. WOTC seems unable or unwilling to answer direct questions unless its a rules one.

 

[pukunui]

We know some gods came back. But we don't know how many or which ones.

The list of FR deities in the back of the PHB is a good place to start.

If this was going to be their method of handling settings, why did they do the Sundering?

To keep Ed and Bob happy? To make it so fans of the grey and gold boxes could continue to use the AD&D lore with the 5e rules? While at the same time not invalidating the things that had happened during the 4e period so as not to completely alienate those fans.

I understand neither what they are doing nor what they plan to do.

Neither do I, and I'm an alpha tester with access to more content than most fans are.

It's frustrating. WOTC seems unable or unwilling to answer direct questions unless its a rules one.

Thrice bitten, six times as shy? Or is it even more than that by now?

 

[DMZ2112]

Don't tell me you are one of those Spellplague deniers.

Oh, thank the gods, I thought my humor was going to be completely wasted. Well played.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

The list of FR deities in the back of the PHB is a good place to start.

True, but I have a feeling that list is far from complete.

 

[Stormonu]

You can do a campaign world twice. Even then, the second time around you'll only pick up the folks who want an expounded version with more detail and better maps. Everyone else will simply be those who heard about how great the first printing, that they missed, was.

If the D&D folks want this to work, they need to couple the world with something to do with it.

Most of the campaign sets they've released in the past come with one pathetic, forgettable adventure that rarely showcases what the world can do. That needs to change - some way, some how. Personally, I'd like to see them take a page from Savage Worlds.

Screw a fully fleshed adventure. In the back of the book, give me 10-12 pages, each page being an adventure outline. I can go dig the monster stats out of the MM and roll the treasure up in the DMG. Put in a small rough map of the most important locale for the adventure, a paragraph or two for a story outline and the rest a bullet-point list of the major encounters. Perhaps end it with a couple of ideas which direction the adventure could go when its completed.

 

[SirAntoine]

It sounds terrible. The point of a pre-published setting is to include what fans enjoy from it, not to surprise them with changes that may not be well received.

 

[transtemporal]

If I'm making stuff up, why do I need to buy books at all? I buy books /because/ they tell me that the Elemental Evils are related to the Dawn Titans who fought the gods at the beginning of time yadda yadda. If they didn't, why would I bother?

I agree... for a Forgotten Realms Gazetteer. Which this is not. This is an adventure.

I don't want 10 pages of setting-story followed by 20 pages of Silmarillion-like background about the Elemental Evils and their relationship to the Dawn Titans before the bloody adventure begins. That's just annoying.

Put that in a setting book and I'm totally cool. But not in an adventure.

 

[pukunui]

True, but I have a feeling that list is far from complete.

I'd say it's more or less complete as far as the human deities are concerned. What we don't know is how many of the dead demihuman gods and demigods have been resurrected, like the dwarves' Haela Brightaxe and the two duergar deities and the entirety (?) of the drow pantheon aside from Lolth and the like.

 

[Schmoe]

I had a couple of thoughts on the video, some relevant, some maybe not so much

First, Chris Perkins seems like a really good guy. He was gracious in the interview and took the time to connect with his interviewer. Awesome.

Second, I was disappointed in the interviewer. It seemed like he didn't have much knowledge about some of the things Perkins was talking about (conflating the Ravenloft adventure with the setting), and he kept turning the topic back to his experiences rather than digging more into what Perkins was saying.

As far as campaign settings go, it really felt to me like Perkins was saying that they were using the stories as vehicles to bring back some of their campaign settings. One one level that seems ironic, as the official setting of the stories we've seen so far is FR. It also pretty clearly indicates to me there won't be a big boxed campaign setting coming out of 5E.

Finally, WotC/Hasbro sounds like a poorly managed company. 5+ hours a day of cross-functional meetings is incompetent.