D&D 5E D&D's Classic Settings Are Not 'One Shots'

Some of these classic settings will be revisited!

Spelljammer-ship-in-space-asteroid-city.jpeg

In an interview with ComicBook.com, WotC's Jeremy Crawford talked about the visits to Ravenloft, Eberron, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and (the upcoming) Planescape we've seen over the last couple of years, and their intentions for the future.

He indicated that they plan to revisit some of these settings again in the future, noting that the setting books are among their most popular books.

We love [the campaign setting books], because they help highlight just how wonderfully rich D&D is. They highlight that D&D can be gothic horror. D&D can be fantasy in space. D&D can be trippy adventures in the afterlife, in terms of Planescape. D&D can be classic high fantasy, in the form of the Forgotten Realms. It can be sort of a steampunk-like fantasy, like in Eberron. We feel it's vital to visit these settings, to tell stories in them. And we look forward to returning to them. So we do not view these as one-shots.
- Jeremy Crawford​

The whole 'multiverse' concept that D&D is currently exploring plays into this, giving them opportunities to resist worlds.

When asked about the release schedule of these books, Crawford noted that the company plans its release schedule so that players get chance to play the material, not just read it, and they don't want to swamp people with too much content to use.

Our approach to how we design for the game and how we plan out the books for it is a play-first approach. At certain times in D&D's history, it's really been a read-first approach. Because we've had points in our history where we were producing so many books each year, there was no way anyone could play all of it. In some years it would be hard to play even a small percentage of the number of things that come out. Because we have a play-first approach, we want to make sure we're coming out with things at a pace where if you really wanted to, and even that would require a lot of weekends and evenings dedicated to D&D play, you could play a lot of it.
- Jeremy Crawford​

You can read more in the interview at ComicBook.com.
 

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Reynard

Legend
I really wish they would stop calling Eberron steampunk. It is aetherpunk, which is both cooler and broader. By calling "steampunk-like" as a shorthand, Crawford is unintentionally limiting what I think is D&D best setting. I mean, is there even a Victorian trope in the entire setting? Or a single steam engine? Warforged aren't even clockwork, and airships are not the slightest bit like derigibles.

All that said, I might be inclined to give WotC money again if they put out a big campaign -- or better yet, an anthology -- set in Eberron.
 




Snarf Zagyg

Notorious Liquefactionist
"So we do not view these as one-shots."

Sure. We will release campaign settings that you will get to play once, with just enough setting information to play it once, and then release a different setting shortly thereafter that we will expect that you will move on to ....

But we don't view it as a one-shot. Because we don't believe our own lying eyes! ;)

(I kid, kind of. Mostly.)
 

Dragonlance is my favorite. But let’s face it all their settings are missed opportunities. They should be living settings where things happen like KP Midgard. Instead they make one dimensional settings forever stuck in time. The books lack worldbuilding and really only serve as a narrow slice, just a jump off point for an adventure that really has little context to the broader world.
 


Reynard

Legend
Dragonlance is my favorite. But let’s face it all their settings are missed opportunities. They should be living settings where things happen like KP Midgard. Instead they make one dimensional settings forever stuck in time. The books lack worldbuilding and really only serve as a narrow slice, just a jump off point for an adventure that really has little context to the broader world.
That is true of neither Eberron nor Ravenloft.
 

aco175

Legend
I like the code language in that they are not going to follow MagicTG in releasing new expansions and go from 2-3 a year and now they have, what 16. It's not the way to be a billion dollar business unless you churn out more books.

I can see some book come out each year with updates to these settings that are not core, but people will buy. Remember the old Dragon recaps with an article from each setting. People will buy a whole book for one article on some setting they like.
 

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