D&D 5E (2014) D&D Season 5 Speculation Station

[Jester David]

Tyranny of Dragons was classic in style but new.
Elemental Evil was an update of an old story.
Rage of Demons was all new.
Curse of Strahd is an update.

I think we'll see something odd and new for July/GenCon and a Giant revisit for Spring 2017.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

I think we'll see something odd and new for July/GenCon and a Giant revisit for Spring 2017.

I think you mean June, because WotC won't be at GenCon and they've stated that Origins Game Fair is going to be the major D&D event of this year in its place.

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/where-you-can-find-dd-team-2016

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Shakespearean Giants - I'm going with a King Lear storyline, with squabbling over the kingdom and a mad/dying giant king leading to open warfare which spills out into the 'human' world. Also the chance for some strong female big bads. Literally big. Because, Giants.

But I imagine they will throw in a witches coven who stir it all up in the first place a la Macbeth. Potentially those witches being priestesses of Lolth?

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Shakespearean Giants - I'm going with a King Lear storyline, with squabbling over the kingdom and a mad/dying giant king leading to open warfare which spills out into the 'human' world. Also the chance for some strong female big bads. Literally big. Because, Giants.

But I imagine they will throw in a witches coven who stir it all up in the first place a la Macbeth. Potentially those witches being priestesses of Lolth?

That sounds awesome. It'd be even better if the witches were working with one of the Giants, who turns out to be the uncle of the Giant who recruits the party into this whole mess. Doing so would add a little Hamlet into the mix as well.

I think that having a side quest that mixed Taming of the Shrew with Romeo & Juliet would be a good low level social encounter. You could have two Giants of rival clans be the star-crossed lovers, but the families won't let them get married unless there was also another marriage between the two clans with the pair being of opposite sexes to our Romeo & Juliet. You can fluff this as being a symbol of the two clans coming together on equal footing. That way, you can genderbend the story, by having the shrew be the older brother of Juliet and our Petruchio would be the female cousin of Romeo.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Romeo Hill Giant and Juliet Fire Giant could work, for sure.

Chances are it'll be Hamlet based - if set in the FR, and my Realmslore is shockingly poor by the way so apologies, something like the main Lord of Waterdeep dies and his wife is shagging his brother and his son goes ape. All set against the 'Norwegians' who could very well be Giants, invading.

 

[Shroomy]

Shakespearean Giants - I'm going with a King Lear storyline, with squabbling over the kingdom and a mad/dying giant king leading to open warfare which spills out into the 'human' world. Also the chance for some strong female big bads. Literally big. Because, Giants.

Interestingly, there's already a D&D adventure based on King Lear that features giants - albeit it is a 2e adventure. Check out "Lear the Giant-King" by Mike Selinker in Dungeon 78.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Romeo Hill Giant and Juliet Fire Giant could work, for sure.

Chances are it'll be Hamlet based - if set in the FR, and my Realmslore is shockingly poor by the way so apologies, something like the main Lord of Waterdeep dies and his wife is shagging his brother and his son goes ape. All set against the 'Norwegians' who could very well be Giants, invading.

As Waterdeep isn't a hereditary monarchy, that wouldn't work so well. On the other hand, SCAG paid close attention to Hartsvale, an area that was created way back in early 2e days and then mostly ignored afterwards, and the giants that live nearby (the giant theme was the region's "hook"). Either the Hamlet or King Lear scenarios could work well with the royal house of Hartsvale, and any problems there could easily bring the giants into play. Or vice versa of course...

 

[Demetrios1453]

Also, thinking on the main news of the thread, that this AL Season is going to be shorter, perhaps they are ramping up to a slightly faster release schedule? Since they are saying 5e exceeded all expectations, perhaps they originally planned on a conservative release schedule and are now willing to loosen that up a bit (maybe one more AP and/or one more monster book/campaign setting/rules expansion (i.e psionics) book per year?)

 

[Eltab]

and my Realmslore is shockingly poor by the way so apologies

The current Open Lord of Waterdeep is one of Mystra's former Seven Sisters, the widow of Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunson, and (in the faraway days of her youth) the former ruling Lady of a country in her own right. She won't get tangled up in a Hamlet-style affair.
Sorry to blow up your theorizing.

But she might decide to step down "because the current emergency has been overcome", in which case the competition to replace her can unleash ALL Shakespeare's plot twists.

If Giants ARE going to be a central theme, the focus will not be on Waterdeep.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Here's a thought. Back in October, as per this thread...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...e&p=6745842&highlight=Mongrelfolk#post6745842

...Perkins was quoted as working on two projects, code named Cloak, and Dagger.

'Cloak' sounds like a fair bet for Curse of Strahd...which could mean that 'Dagger', if the Shakespeare inspired thing is the next up, could refer to a Macbeth storyline...