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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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Maxperson

Morkus from Orkus
My personal recommendation: Kingdoms of Kalamar for 3.X. The guys who made that were seriously into developing their setting, and it shows in their work.
I'll check that out. Are the Scarred Lands books still around or are they out of print? I really like the concept of that setting.
 


Alzrius

The EN World kitten
I'll check that out. Are the Scarred Lands books still around or are they out of print? I really like the concept of that setting.
They had a few products updated for Pathfinder 1E; these days, I'm pretty sure the setting has had a few 5E products made for it.
 



CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
One of these days I need to pick this book up. Folks seem to consider it a very good setting even if you aren't a Critter.
Well I'm definitely a fan of Critical Role, but I'm probably not enthusiastic enough to call myself a "critter." :) It's just a very well-written campaign setting...it feels big for its size, ya know? Like, it's only 304 pages but it somehow feels more complete than much larger, older settings. Now I don't know how you feel about 4th Edition's default setting, but both Tal'Dorei and Wildemount have a lot of that old "Points of Light" feel to them, in my opinion. (I hope that doesn't talk you out of giving it a try. Whatever else I could say about 4E, I can't deny that 4E had the best setting and lore of all the editions.)
 
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Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
Would you explain that last one in more detail? I'm curious about what assumptions it makes.
Blue Rose is "romantic fantasy," inspired by the fiction of Mercedes Lackey. Combat isn't the right way to resolve most problems, psychic powers (including among sentient animals) are as common as magic is elsewhere and it was the first setting that I know of (back in the 3E era) to emphatically abandon the bioessentialism that some peoples are born evil.

It may actually be to the left of Radiant Citadel, which means it's got a definite political point of view, but it's also a wildly different setting than most D&D worlds.

Available for True20, AGE and 5E.
 
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