D&D 5E D&D Lore Changes: Multiversal Focus & Fey Goblins of Prehistory

WotC's Jeremy Crawford revealed a couple of the lore changes in Monsters of the Multiverse.

• The big shift is toward the multiverse as the game's main perspective rather than a specific setting. The game is shifting towards a multiversal focus, with a variety of worlds and settings.
• Universe-spanning mythical story beats, such as deep lore on goblinoids going back to 1st Edition, and the gods they had before Maglubiyet. Prior to Magulbiyet unifying them, goblinoids were folk of the feywild in keeping with 'real-world' folklore.
• Changelings aren't just Eberron, but they've been everywhere -- you just don't necessarily know it. Their origin is also in the realm of the fey.

D&D 5E - A Compilation of all the Race Changes in Monsters of the Multiverse

Over on Reddit, user KingJackel went through the video leak which came out a few days ago and manually compiled a list of all the changes to races in the book. The changes are quite extensive, with only the fairy and harengon remaining unchanged. The book contains 33 races in total, compiled and...

www.enworld.org

 

[Parmandur]

Not just that - Crawford states in the video that Ability Score Adjustments at character creation is no longer a part of the choice of race - Ability Score Adjustments are now a part of assigning ability scores. That's a shift that I was expecting, but I didn't realize it was in this book (I figured it would be in whatever they're planning for the anniversary release).

It's effectively what's in Tasha's, but yeah, he tipped his hand on the new Core rules there.

 

[darjr]

Also the new race abilities? Are they new in this book?

 

[Nikosandros]

It's effectively what's in Tasha's, but yeah, he tipped his hand on the new Core rules there.

I don't think anyone was surprised by this. I'm fine with the floating bonuses; I wouldn't mind a suggested assignment, but they are clearly not interested in doing it.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't think anyone was surprised by this. I'm fine with the floating bonuses; I wouldn't mind a suggested assignment, but they are clearly non interested in doing it.

If anything, I'd reassign them to suggestions based on Background.

 

[Reynard]

I read it 180 degrees from you two. Saying this means that there are worlds where goblins are like X, some like Y and some like Z. That implies that they can be like 1987320 also.....before, there was "only one" type of goblin (not true, see Eberron)......

I mean, we have worlds from WotC with different cosmologies already, I really don't understand this post.

Right, but it appears they are eliminating those different cosmologies in favor of the idea if the First World that then had some sort of splintering event. So Eberron with its completely unique cosmogy is just another Prime world (possibly contained in a crystal sphere) and its cosmogy is either wrong or demiplanes or something else in the regular, WotC approved cosmology.

 

[Zaukrie]

Right, but it appears they are eliminating those different cosmologies in favor of the idea if the First World that then had some sort of splintering event. So Eberron with its completely unique cosmogy is just another Prime world (possibly contained in a crystal sphere) and its cosmogy is either wrong or demiplanes or something else in the regular, WotC approved cosmology.

Ya, I don't read it as "wrong" at all.....I think people sometimes read stuff that isn't stated. But, I suppose I could be wrong. What is the effect on gameplay if it is one of the things you say?

 

[Blue]

You know one of the things I despise about the Forgotten Realms? The file-off-the-serial numbers kitchen sink nature of it.

To give an example, in Eberron the Warforged have a rich (albeit short) history and strong connection to the state of the world. In FR, they are just living golems (or worse yet, mechanical men played like robots).

The idea of making the default that all of the settings are connected in a multiverse means more kitchen sink, and more "lowest common denominators" as opposed to making up settings that are unique and different. It's like bringing divinity to Dark Sun.

5e started this, even sneaking things about connecting to the non-Eberron planes into the 5e book. I dislike the concept of this direction, but I will wait to see the implementation.

 

[Dire Bare]

how very... MCU... I'm not sure I like this, at all.

"Multiversal" storytelling or franchise building is certainly more accepted these days, and it's not just the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sci-fi and fantasy fans are beginning to see different takes on the same or similar subjects as normal.

D&D, like its counterparts in comics, has long enjoyed a "multiverse", it's nothing new. Just a slight shift in focus. The difference is that there is no D&D "core" setting like Greyhawk, the Realms, or the Nentir Vale. Those setting all still exist, but none of them are the default setting anymore.

 

[Faolyn]

No Planescape options were tested, just Spelljammer (and Thri-Kreen). There is no particular reason to suspect Planescape is in the cards just yet, and way less for a hypothetical "Planesjammer."

The thri-kreen they listed were almost certainly supposed to be the xichil, a Spelljammer mantid race of extreme body-modders and transhumanists (transmantidists?). But people who haven't been exposed to Spelljammer would be confused at the inclusion of the xichil if they weren't called thri-kreen.

 

[Zaukrie]

A goblin campaign where goblins from a world where Maglubiyet didn't win, trying to free, and convince, a world of goblins where he did that they can be different and free.... That would be an original idea....

Replying to myself....It really should be a ship travelling from world to world, you know, like jamming somehow.....

 

[Parmandur]

The thri-kreen they listed were almost certainly supposed to be the xichil, a Spelljammer mantid race of extreme body-modders and transhumanists (transmantidists?). But people who haven't been exposed to Spelljammer would be confused at the inclusion of the xichil if they weren't called thri-kreen.

True, but it also wouldn't surprise me if it was a stealth test for Dark Sun, but time will tell.

 

[Weiley31]

Keith Baker still publishes original Eberron material on DMs Guild. I have a physical copy of Exploring Eberron, it's easily the best 5e setting book made thus far. If you want to support a creator that's actually passionate for their setting and a highly talented game designer I'd suggest trying out some of the stuff he's made for the system.

It's a great book. I have a physical copy too. And I love Baker's blog entries on various things as well. Thanks to those, I have lore I can use for 5E playable Gnolls from Exploring Eberron. And now due to a recent article, I learned about how I can have Lawful Good Yuan-Ti in my 5E Forgotten Realms via the Shulassakar

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

If it was not the last book in whatever deal CR has with WotC, wouldn't Tal'Dorei Reborn have been published by WotC also?

I figured it had to do with any kind of legal deal CR had with Green Ronin when they released Tal'dorei originally, and this is an updated version.

 

[humble minion]

I rather hate this whole multiversal focus. TSR did it in 2e and it sucked then too. You end up with random poorly-suited bits of setting A shoehorned into setting B for the sake of 'crossover easter egg OMG', and you dilute the uniqueness and flavour of every setting. The Feywild is simply a bad fit in Athas and shouldn't be there, for instance - and neither do planes-travelling multiversal great wyrm dragons, any more than they fit in Krynn. We've continually heard from WotC that most campaigns don't make it past the level 10 mark or so, and at that point gameplay is still very local. So why the obsessive multiversal focus, given it'll only start to matter at high levels once Plane Shift etc comes into play? But the mega crossover always a popular angle with the sort of manager who hears the words 'synergy', 'leverage' and 'cross-promotion' and salivates like Pavlov's dog, and who refers to settings as 'properties' rather than 'settings'.

Plus, not every world SHOULD be in a multiverse. It always dilutes a big epic 'save the world' campaign when at some point the PCs just casually bop over to Sigil and everyone there is 'what, you're on a quest to save your tiny insignificant Prime world from a local Dark Lord, yaaaawn, big deal, there's an infinite number of other Prime worlds where that came from, and besides, the Outer Planes are where the action is anyway'.

Yeah, i hate this. It was a bad idea when TSR did it, and it's a bad idea now. The devs should know better, but I guess when you have the sort of staff turnover that WotC seems to, learning from the past is a bit hard.

 

[Faolyn]

True, but it also wouldn't surprise me if it was a stealth test for Dark Sun, but time will tell.

Sure. They may have subraces, or it just might be different cultures for each of those settings.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, i hate this. It was a bad idea when TSR did it, and it's a bad idea now. The devs should know better, but I guess when you have the sort of staff turnover that WotC seems to, learning from the past is a bit hard.

Whether this is a good idea or bad seems a matter of taste, but...what turnover? The D&D team has been extremely stable for the past decade, and the designer of the next Setting book has been there for 25 years.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Every single setting in D&D has been connected to every single other setting since the very beginning. The Multiverse is just naming what's already been here.

That's why every single setting has the exact same Classes... every single setting has predominantly the exact same Races, all of which have the exact same abilities and the exact same focus on what those Races do and behave and believe... the settings all have the exact same spells that are called the exact same names that produce the exact same results... they all have the exact same types of monsters that all have the same skills and the same combat abilities and almost always the same basic lore... every setting has predominantly the exact same magic items that have the exact same names and do the exact same functions... they all produce the same types of combat, with weapons that do the exact same damage and combat abilities that all are triggered the exact same way and have the same back-and-forth action that results in people falling down and dying in the exact same manner... they almost all have the exact same types of planes and names of planes and alignments to those planes and extraplanar beings * in * those planes... so on and so forth.

When we look at all our games through the prism of how much of our stuff matches what is and what is happening in every other D&D game out there... every single world both published and created by every one of us is practically a mirror image of each other. Why? Because we all are using the exact same books and the exact same rulesets to produce the exact same game experiences. Like it or not, all our worlds and games are connected because we are all using and playing D&D.

And thus the designers calling that phenomenon the "D&D Multiverse" is just identifying it for what it already is.

 

[Scribe]

And thus the designers calling that phenomenon the "D&D Multiverse" is just identifying it for what it already is.

I believe there is a difference in intent, or feel, in having a baseline for mechanical reasons, applied across multiple settings, and an interconnected, 'multiverse' approach, where an Elf in Setting A, could go and visit Setting B, and be perplexed at how backward it appears in relation to its own Setting.

I hope for the sake of the well (singular, sadly) supported distinct setting (Eberron) that it remains unimpacted by what appears to be a change at a high level.

 

[overgeeked]

I wasn't complaining, but please Morrus, you are smarter than that. Two small paragraphs that are generic is not what that person, or what other people who want lore, are asking for. Adding it all up and saying there's a lot of text is a meaningless gesture and only serves to invalidate the desires of other people. This doesn't mean their desires are worth more, and isn't a commentary on the text in question, but what you replied with me was basically like trying to use a loophole to proven argument.

So...stereotypical gamer behavior.

 

[overgeeked]

The tealeaves suggest that straight, gonzo Spelljammer is incoming.

We can only hope. Oh my stars.