D&D 5E D&D "Core" Settings

[Mistwell]

Ah yes, Greyhawk Adventurers. I'd say it left a lot to be desired. Sort of a hodge podge of different authors, different tones, some heavy crunch, other heavy fluff, not a lot of rhyme or reasons to why one section would be one way and another different. I mean, it's useful, just not what I would say is a good definitive Greyhawk support product.

 

[DMZ2112]

It kinda is insufficient, if you're looking for a complete treatment of the Greyhawk setting - it covers some out of the way locales, NPCs, gods and 0 level characters, but doesn't really cover the main setting at all.

To clarify, I've never read the book, but I was always kind of disappointed by the level of compression in Dragonlance Adventures. The only reason why I called attention to it was that TC said he liked FR Adventures.

 

[tsadkiel]

To clarify, I've never read the book, but I was always kind of disappointed by the level of compression in Dragonlance Adventures. The only reason why I called attention to it was that TC said he liked FR Adventures.

All three of the [Setting} Adventures books take different approaches - Dragonlance Adventures is the only one that even pretends to cover the setting as a whole, Forgotten Realms Adventures is more of an update book - with cities! - and Greyhawk Adventures is just a random grab bag of stuff, some of which involves Greyhawk.

FRA is certainly the prettiest of the three, though.

 

[delericho]

To be honest, I'll be surprised if we ever see a dedicated in-print product for any setting other than FR. They'll probably include some conversion notes in adventures, and may well support the other settings in whatever remains of DDI, but that's it.

 

[Li Shenron]

Not sure what you mean by "supported", but here I give my guesses for "will get a campaign sourcebook published" (i.e. I am not counting having an article or a couple of classes and feats in Dragon magazine for instance).

* Forgotten Realms (100%) - pretty obviously since this is the default setting or at least the closest to being it
* Eberron (100%) - it's the latest of the bunch and it still sells high
* Ravenloft (70%) - they mentioned it too many times already, so something for it has probably already been written
* Dragonlance (50%) - IIRC this has been neglected in 4e and at least there's some demand and rumors from the developers
* Dark Sun (50%) - probably continues from 4e with same level of support, but might also be cut
* Kara-Tur (30%) - quite high chance to get an Oriental Adventures sourcebook (70%), in which case it remains to see if it will have Kara-Tur as default setting, a brand new oriental setting, or no default setting at all
* Planescape (10%) - I seriously doubt they will publish books about this, but some scattered material may appear in generic supplements
* Greyhawk (10%) - if there's still a Living Greyhawk going on somewhere, they might get a booklet/gazetteer and that's all
* Al-qadim (10%) - maybe in the form of FR regional books, although it would make sense as a full-fledged setting
* Mystara (0%) - too old, too normal, too few fans
* Birthright (0%) - too old, too few fans, although this would certainly have enough distinguished features, but perhaps doesn't need enough mechanics and character material to make a setting book
* Spelljammer (0%) - too old, too weird, too few fans

I'd buy Al-Qadim in a heartbeat, but other re-hashes of old settings I'm not sure I'm interested, unless they are very faithful to their originals.

 

[Shiroiken]

FR and Eberron are locks. Failure to support either of these two would probably be a financial disaster for the entire edition, as these are pretty much the two main settings (other than homebrew settings).

I could see Dragonlance being supported, as it offsets FR nicely. FR is High Fantasy, while DL is Low Fantasy. However, due to the radical changes to the setting (mostly 5th Age), anyone signing up to be the designer is going to have a hard time with it.

I suspect an Oriental Adventures, but I don't know if it would be Kara-Tur or not. I would bet against full support.

I could see Dark Sun getting support, but it's definitely a maybe. It's got a cult following, and it fits a niche not filled by another setting.

Greyhawk is very iffy. Lots of fans (mostly grognards), but it really doesn't fit a role that isn't filled by either FR or DL. It's Middle Fantasy, but if DL isn't supported, it could become the Low Fantasy setting by default. Also, I have heard rumors that Mearls is a fan of Greyhawk, which could give it the push it needs to reach the finish line.

I don't think Ravenloft, Planescape, or Spelljammer will return as a Setting format. From everything they've said, elements of all three will be included in the default cosmology setup. A Horror module will pretty much then wrap up Ravenloft, so fans of the three settings can use older edition sources to play these settings, but I don't see support beyond this.

Al-Qdim, Birthright, and Mystara are probably resigned to the dustbin of history.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I just hope Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Eberron, Ravenloft and Dark Sun are supported for D&D Next!

 

[TarionzCousin]

You know about (Greyhawk Adventures), right? Is it insufficient for some reason?

It's insufficient for my purposes. FR Adventures has great summaries and maps of over a dozen cities. I've used those many times.

Greyhawk Adventures doesn't.

 

[Blackbrrd]

* Birthright (0%) - too old, too few fans, although this would certainly have enough distinguished features, but perhaps doesn't need enough mechanics and character material to make a setting book

I think that if they wanted to add a rules expansion that handles PC's becoming rulers of a domain, Birthright would be an interesting setting to use.

If they also tied it in with the already existing material they have published (that's available from dndclassics.com, I think it might very well be a good idea.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think that if they wanted to add a rules expansion that handles PC's becoming rulers of a domain, Birthright would be an interesting setting to use.

Yes, I am not familiar with the settings, but from what I've heard it was a really good one. Such rules expansion would be useful for potentially every other setting as well, so I would certainly be positive about WotC working on something like that. But to fully support a setting, I really think they need to release at least a campaign setting sourcebook, I don't think a softcover supplement dedicated to domain management rules would contain enough information about Birthright to say it's "supported".

At least, when I think "supported setting", I expect to find everything I need to run as many campaigns I want (assuming the DM can design the adventures) in the current edition's format. Requiring books written for 3 editions ago (even if available digitally) does not feel to me it's fully supported.