D&D 5E Dragon Talk with James Wyatt about Glory of the Giants.

[darjr]

Dragon Talk - An Official Dungeons & Dragons Podcast | Dragon Talk #397 - James Wyatt on Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants

James Wyatt is a Senior Game Designer on the creative team for Magic: The Gathering. His work at Wizards of the Coast since 2000 includes five novels, more than 20 short stories, one poem, dozens of Dungeons & Dragons game sourcebooks, and nine Magic art books. He was a lead writer for the 5th...

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Cool little bits about making the book and what’s in it.

Also mystery solved. Bigby got killed by giants and was brought back to life by Mordenkainen and that may be why he became a gnome.

See @Demetrios1453 post for more details.

Just finished listening to the entire podcast. Lots of interesting stuff in there:

The giant goose mentioned in previous posts is the goose that laid the golden eggs (after all, Jack climbs the beanstalk and steals one from a cloud giant in the original tale). Wyatt apparently sat down and figured out how much the golden shell is worth by calculating its volume and translating that to a gp value.

There are monumentally huge giants called "giant scions" who are basically the near descendants of Annam. Wyatt suggests that they could be used in stories like a town being accidentally built on a long-sleeping one, or that some hold up the dome of the sky. Interestingly enough, they weren't among the creatures listed in the bestiary description a couple of months ago, so it's still left in the air if they are going to be statted out (I would imagine upper 20s CRs if they are) .

There will be guides on creating whole giant ecosystems, where giants, their giant pets, and other huge creatures such as dinosaurs dwell, and where human-sized visitors will be the equivalent to the size of house pets compared to everything else around them. I find this very intriguing and definitely look into reading this part!

 

[darjr]

There is a giant goose!!!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's going to be crazy if Dragon Talk goes back to talking about D&D products and not, say, how D&D makes a random barista better at their job.

 

[Parmandur]

Ah, excellent, confirmation thst this book is, indeed, a James Wyatt joint! Thst was a big part of my excitement for the book.

So the book starts out with a Norse/Anglo-Saxon style saga poem about the Giants cosmological conception of the First World, as opposed to the Honeroc Hymn of the Dragons in Fizban's.

Really liking the talk about the Scions of Ammman as cosmic mega-Giants, and the LostEorld megafauna. I can't wait to see the Giant Goose with a sword in it's mouth, great Untitled Gooose Game reference.

 

[Dyson Logos]

I LOVE working with James Wyatt on books. This one is no exception.

 

[Parmandur]

I LOVE working with James Wyatt on books. This one is no exception.

Your maps plus Wyatt's text is a great combo.

 

[Zaukrie]

Really a fan of Wyatt's work....so this may move up my list...

 

[Demetrios1453]

Dragon Talk - An Official Dungeons & Dragons Podcast | Dragon Talk #397 - James Wyatt on Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants

James Wyatt is a Senior Game Designer on the creative team for Magic: The Gathering. His work at Wizards of the Coast since 2000 includes five novels, more than 20 short stories, one poem, dozens of Dungeons & Dragons game sourcebooks, and nine Magic art books. He was a lead writer for the 5th...

share.transistor.fm

Cool little bits about making the book and what’s in it.

Also mystery solved. Bigby got killed by giants and was brought back to life by Mordenkainen and that may be why he became a gnome.

That was probably the main theory - some sort of resurrection/reincarnation gone awry.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Ah, excellent, confirmation thst this book is, indeed, a James Wyatt joint! Thst was a big part of my excitement for the book.

So the book starts out with a Norse/Anglo-Saxon style saga poem about the Giants cosmological conception of the First World, as opposed to the Honeroc Hymn of the Dragons in Fizban's.

Really liking the talk about the Scions of Ammman as cosmic mega-Giants, and the LostEorld megafauna. I can't wait to see the Giant Goose with a sword in it's mouth, great Untitled Gooose Game reference.

I'm glad it's confirmed that we'll be seeing the giants' riff on the First World, although it seemed to be pretty inevitable once this book was announced. I really can't wait to see what similarities and, especially, what differences, the giants have in their foundational myth compared to that of dragons.

It's interesting to speculate which other themed monster book could feature its own version of the First World myth. Obviously, any based on humanoid creatures would work, and I can see elementals and fey working as well, but would it work for, say, undead? Celestials and fiends would be more focused on the Outer Planes, unless the First World encompasses that as well. Aberrations would seem to focus on the Far Realm, but perhaps the Far Realm was whatever was outside the First World, and their myths cover how they would want to break and destroy it?

 

[Parmandur]

I'm glad it's confirmed that we'll be seeing the giants' riff on the First World, although it seemed to be pretty inevitable once this book was announced. I really can't wait to see what similarities and, especially, what differences, the giants have in their foundational myth compared to that of dragons.

It's interesting to speculate which other themed monster book could feature its own version of the First World myth. Obviously, any based on humanoid creatures would work, and I can see elementals and fey working as well, but would it work for, say, undead? Celestials and fiends would be more focused on the Outer Planes, unless the First World encompasses that as well. Aberrations would seem to focus on the Far Realm, but perhaps the Far Realm was whatever was outside the First World, and their myths cover how they would want to break and destroy it?

I could see Celestials and Fiends having a mythos about the cosmic order...it would of necessity be super different from the Draconic and Giantish points of view, but a Dawn War seems plausible...

Undead may be concerned with the First World as a transcendent Platonic Ideal (which Wyatt discussed a bit here), as a path to achieve immortality. Perhaps the nature of the Shadowfell in relation to the Material Plane?

Genies/Elementals would probavly be neck-deep in the origin of the Material Plane from the Elemental Chaos.

Similarly, a Fey book would be concerned with the Feywild, but providing context for how thar works in the cosmos would be awesome.