D&D 5E Further Future D&D Product Speculation

[overgeeked]

In 5e, with the right tools, I think they could kill a CR 20-23 creature at level 14. Don’t forget an 18th level Archmage is a CR 12 creature.

Sure. But a sorcerer-king is a 20th-level wizard, 20th-level psionicist, and 1-10 levels into becoming a dragon. I know that’s 2E stats, but that’s no reason to make them pushovers in 5E.

 

[Parmandur]

What I think they could do is assign the domains to the various elements in the same way they assign them to gods. If you're a cleric of water, you can pick from the Life, Nature, or Tempest domains; if you're a cleric of Fire, you can pick Forge, Light, or War. They could even create expanded spell lists for each element and say that you can, should, or even have to replace the expanded domains spells in the existing domains with the elemental ones. E.g., it doesn't matter what domain you take. If you're an Air cleric, your 1st-level domain spells are feather fall and thunderwave (or whatever). If they include the paraelements, then they have even more options. Some of the existing domains, like Trickery or Death, might be hard to place, but they might represent rogue clerics (not rogue/clerics!) who eschew the traditional elemental setup or follow a twisted version of a normal elemental or something like that.

They actually already did this in Princes of the Apocalypse, in the section about running in Dark Sun.

 

[Mercurius]

WotC has absolutely started hiring cultural consultants everytime they cover material that is not Europe-inspired. The criticism of Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd largely cemented that it needed to be constant going forward.

I mean, just recently MTG released Kamigawa, and a cultural consultant was one of the speakers in the announcement event/video. The company takes this stuff very seriously now.

And please, don't say "oh this area is too big, you'd need to hire a cultural consultant for every culture is impossible" (wrong) or "what-about-EUROPE" (who cares). Not debating these logic fallacies, not worth my time.

I'm confused. Why "who cares" for Europe? My question remains unanswered: Why are American game designers more qualified to design Europe-inspired settings than non-European settings? I'm not sure how this is a logical fallacy, or why this is "not worth your time."

 

[Azzy]

Wanna do an Avatar bet? Anyone else want in on this action? Team Greyhawk versus Team Reqlms?

I don't know about the annyversery release, but I believe that the Realms will be the "revisited" setting.

 

[Azzy]

I’m hoping for Dark Sun next year, but I fully expect it to be Planescape (which I dislike).

I'm calling Dark Sun for next year.

 

[Mercurius]

Planescape surely is too close to Radiant Citadel and Spelljammer. That’s three books in two years based on extra-planar weirdness. Surely they need something a bit more grounded in place.

I’m dying for something like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, that takes a finite place or perhaps two or three and develops it over the course of a campaign. Rather than recreating the D&D equivalent of Star Trek or The Librarians.

That's a good point re: Planescape. Hmm. That said, with the Magic influence, they seem to be very much into "other planes," so maybe they'd add in PS to add a fuller picture of planar gaming. Meaning, it would be strange to do RC and SJ, before and instead of PS.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know about the annyversery release, but I believe that the Realms will be the "revisited" setting.

The "revisit" has specifically been teased by Winninger as a 50th Anniversary release. Come over to the Bet thread!

 

[Malmuria]

I'm confused. Why "who cares" for Europe? My question remains unanswered: Why are American game designers more qualified to design Europe-inspired settings than non-European settings? I'm not sure how this is a logical fallacy, or why this is "not worth your time."

1. If someone was making a game that was very deeply inspired by the folk lore, culture, and natural environment of, say, Scandinavia, then I do think the project would benefit from people who were more closely connected to the culture. Many Free League games, for example, have a sensibility that would be hard for a company like wotc to capture

2. There are other geographies other than strictly national ones. The United States was obviously an English settler colony and dominant American culture is inundated with European cultural references. We read english literature in school, learn about European history, learn European languages (often poorly, but still). Politically, America is part of the "global north," and culturally associates itself with the geography of "the West."

3. Historically, "the West," including both Europe and the United States, has viewed the economies, cultures, and peoples of the rest of the world through an extractive lens--taking land, enslaving populations, but also taking the stories and culture of people from around the world. Sometimes these cultures (including languages, mythologies, histories) have been outright destroyed, sometimes they have been put in museums in the west to be viewed as artifacts, and sometimes these cultures have been turned into very reductive stereotypes. That last bit is known as exoticisation and orientalism.

4. So when people in "the West" create something, they should be aware of the above history and the way that it allows for and impacts what they do, both for the sake of producing a better product and for having an ethical relation to their creators and audiences. Game companies should consider whether they have minorities on their staff, not just as writers but in all areas. They should consider hiring writers from the global south who both have more knowledge of their cultures (and access to knowledge through their knowledge of language) and who face structural obstacles to making a living as a game designer. And they should consider how audiences--all audiences--might receive their product.

 

[TwoSix]

As a broad idea, sure. Though I’d argue with the specifics. To even have a chance against a sorcerer-king the PCs would need to be 20th level. A sorcerer-king would laugh and wipe the floor with a 14th-level party. The sorcerer-kings are seven of the eight most powerful beings on the planet.

Don’t forget that gathering powerful magic items that specifically target a powerful bad guy’s weak points is a time honored fantasy trope. Sorcerer kings are killable if that’s the plot the DM wants to tell.

 

[Maxperson]

The sorcerer-kings are seven of the eight most powerful beings on the planet.

Do we actually know that? Serious question. The city state region is fairly small and the Sorcerer-Kings and the Dragon are all in it. Do we know for certain that there aren't any more Sorcerer-Kings or other powerful beings somewhere else on the planet?