Mercurius
Legend
This could be considered Take 2 of this thread I started about a month ago. From that thread, and the Settings Tournament I ran (congrats to Greyhawk), I came to the conclusion that publishing new versions of old settings would not only be well-received, but a good thing. I was resistant at first, wanting a new setting to explore, but that's another matter.
As for 5E's setting(s), the only thing we know is that the Forgotten Realms will be central to 5E, possibly the default setting (whatever that means), and that Ed Greenwood is involved. There's been hints, or perhaps only speculation, that they have a clever way to support all time periods of the Realms, but that could just be a rumor. That's about it, I think.
So here's an idea: Go ahead and support the FR in whatever way seems right (although I'm not sure another round of supplements covering the same regions once again makes sense, but that's just me). That said, I'd also like to see the following:
Classic Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons - This would be a line of high quality hardcover books in the $50-60 range (maybe more) - similar in quality and size to the classic 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book, or Pathfinder's Inner Sea - a big, glossy, beautiful hardcover tome for each of the major campaign settings in D&D's history. By "major" I mean: Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Planescape, and Eberron. Other possibilities include Mystara, Dragonlance, and Ravenloft, but these would be the next round, if the first round is successful. After that they could do lesser known settings like Birthright and Spelljammer, Nentir Vale, Blackmoor, etc (wouldn't we love to see a fuller treatment of Nentir Vale/Nerath?).
Now realistically its hard to imagine them actually doing this for many settings. But what if they did one or two books per year, in addition to whatever setting is central to Next? So we could see something like this:
2014: Forgotten Realms
2015: Greyhawk, Planescape
2016: Dark Sun, Eberron
2017: Mystara, Dragonlance
2018: Ravenloft, Birthright
2019: 6th ed....just kidding (sorta)
But you get the point.
Why does this make sense? Because 5E is supposed to be the "edition for everyone," and that means all of the great worlds that have been created over the last 40 years. They wouldn't have to provide further support for these settings, except for in Dragon and Dungeon. And they could hire [MENTION=9849]Echohawk[/MENTION] to put together an appendix, which would be a guide to all product ever published on that world.
Now I'd personally love to see them do this and produce a new setting every year or two, but that doesn't seem likely. But one can dream...
Anyhow, what do you think? Would you spend $60ish (or $40ish on Amazon) on a beautiful hardcover once or twice a year on a classic setting? Do you think WotC would do something like this?
As for 5E's setting(s), the only thing we know is that the Forgotten Realms will be central to 5E, possibly the default setting (whatever that means), and that Ed Greenwood is involved. There's been hints, or perhaps only speculation, that they have a clever way to support all time periods of the Realms, but that could just be a rumor. That's about it, I think.
So here's an idea: Go ahead and support the FR in whatever way seems right (although I'm not sure another round of supplements covering the same regions once again makes sense, but that's just me). That said, I'd also like to see the following:
Classic Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons - This would be a line of high quality hardcover books in the $50-60 range (maybe more) - similar in quality and size to the classic 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book, or Pathfinder's Inner Sea - a big, glossy, beautiful hardcover tome for each of the major campaign settings in D&D's history. By "major" I mean: Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Planescape, and Eberron. Other possibilities include Mystara, Dragonlance, and Ravenloft, but these would be the next round, if the first round is successful. After that they could do lesser known settings like Birthright and Spelljammer, Nentir Vale, Blackmoor, etc (wouldn't we love to see a fuller treatment of Nentir Vale/Nerath?).
Now realistically its hard to imagine them actually doing this for many settings. But what if they did one or two books per year, in addition to whatever setting is central to Next? So we could see something like this:
2014: Forgotten Realms
2015: Greyhawk, Planescape
2016: Dark Sun, Eberron
2017: Mystara, Dragonlance
2018: Ravenloft, Birthright
2019: 6th ed....just kidding (sorta)
But you get the point.
Why does this make sense? Because 5E is supposed to be the "edition for everyone," and that means all of the great worlds that have been created over the last 40 years. They wouldn't have to provide further support for these settings, except for in Dragon and Dungeon. And they could hire [MENTION=9849]Echohawk[/MENTION] to put together an appendix, which would be a guide to all product ever published on that world.
Now I'd personally love to see them do this and produce a new setting every year or two, but that doesn't seem likely. But one can dream...
Anyhow, what do you think? Would you spend $60ish (or $40ish on Amazon) on a beautiful hardcover once or twice a year on a classic setting? Do you think WotC would do something like this?