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

 

[Neonchameleon]

Well, safety and risk-avoidance do seem to be WotC's watchword these days.

Given the backlash against 4e this shouldn't surprise anyone.

 

[Jer]

Thr latest UA, which was billed as "Multiversal," was all Spelljammer options.

Not "confirmed," but they are working on something with playable Giff and space oozes, soooo...soft confirmed.

Spelljammer, but the ships sail the space between universes.

 

[Parmandur]

So, Planejammer is still on the possibilities list. i know some people love Spelljammer, but I have a hard time seeing it made for 5E in its original form. There's a clear path to creating a usable, fun, fantastic and wild setting by marrying Spelljammer, Planescape and the 4E Astral Sea.

We do also know that the next Setting product is being designed by Christopher Perkins, and has a special edition cover with a hamster on it. Perkins has a very refined sense of humor that fits Spelljammer to a Tee. Take a look at Witchlight.

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."

 

[JThursby]

I don’t know what that means. Sorry.

From what I can tell, he means that putting the text amount in those terms is a spin to make a paltry quantity look large in aggregate. I'm of a similar mind to @Shardstone here, a small chunk of introductory lore each is insufficient, especially since many of these races were originally published with a page or two of lore each, sometimes more.

For the announced lore changes in general, I can't imagine that it will result in anything other than declarations of "this race is also on this plane!" That was their approach to the prominence of Tieflings and Dragonborn in SCAG, and in the present day it looks like they consider the expanded lore of books like Volos and Tome of Foes to be a mistake and want to return to presenting options and settings as generic as possible. This push for homogeneity in player options and setting lore works against their desire to support more settings IMO. If what makes a setting different has to be blasted away to allow for universal options, what's the point of playing in that setting? As an example, their most recent setting has magic schools with entirely different methods of spell-casting, yet mechanically they all function the same as spell casters in every other setting. If no setting can be different enough to call for an adjustment in mechanics or options they lack ways of expressing what makes them unique during play.

 

[Laurefindel]

There is plenty of space to innovate, I agree. And I just said that WotC has the legal right to allow or deny any of their IP to be used by others. But to be honest, I don't like what WotC has done with their campaign settings lately (I know others do, and good for them), and dont trust them to do better (read: more to my liking) moving forward.

On the plus side, you are now fully legitimized to say that your own Greyhawk/FR/Nenthil Vale/etc exist tangentially to the other 'verse and that in your version, things work like this instead.

The only reason I want them to release more setting material is so non-WotC folks can produce products for those settings on DM's Guild.

Amen to that

[edit] corrected not to now, which changes the meaning of the first sentence completely!

 

[Reynard]

Given the backlash against 4e this shouldn't surprise anyone.

That was ::checks watch:: 15 years ago, with a very different player cohort.

 

[Charlaquin]

WotC has been saying for years that the default 5e setting is “the multiverse,” in which all specific D&D settings exist as material planes. Nice to see them finally show us that, rather than just insisting it’s the case while continuing to publish nothing but Forgotten Realms.

 

[TwoSix]

It seems strange that they want to simultaneously broaden the available settings, and also enforce a universal lore. Isn't that counter productive? Is there anyone that wants a common prehistory for goblins between FR and Eberron? The only reason I can think this would be desirable is if WotC is planning a setting and/or an adventure that covers multiple worlds. "Planejammer" incoming?

Nah, it's just a best of both worlds approach. You can write core material with actual flavor attached to it, but individual settings can deviate from that flavor to whatever degree they desire.

I'm pretty sure they aren't going to "enforce" any universal lore, the lore they provide is simply going to be high-level stuff to define the overall trope; the individual details will vary widely for individual settings.

 

[Reynard]

We do also know that the next Setting product is being designed by Christopher Perkins, and has a special edition cover with a hamster on it. Perkins has a very refined sense of humor that fits Spelljammer to a Tee. Take a look at Wotchlight.

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."

One can hope. Spelljammer is the worst of all the D&D setting, IMO. But, much of recent D&D is not my cuppa, so it doesn't matter either way other than a theoretical "Planejammer" setting would net WotC dollars from me for the first time in a couple years.

 

[Neonchameleon]

That was ::checks watch:: 15 years ago, with a very different player cohort.

Once bitten twice shy. And it was still a merry bonfire in 2014 at the launch of 5e.