D&D 5E How do you hope WotC treats the upcoming classic settings?

[Scott Christian]

Planescape - A mix of everything: new adventure, classes, spells, and a esoteric rules.
Dragonlance - I really want them to just do an adventure. No need to go into detail about kinders or flying dragonborn. Just write an adventure path, and when writing it, show the differences within the setting. No need to explain. Try a different approach. I think Dragonlance is the perfect opportunity to show how a different realm works within the adventure without having the setting book.
Darksun - Just a setting book please. No adventure. Just maps, environment, areas, spells, classes, races, etc.

 

[Faolyn]

Absolutely. I loved those things about the old setting too. I just feel too much of that was lost in the reboot. But, like everyone says, I still have my old stuff. No reason to yuck anyone else's yum.

Earlier on, I had decided that I wasn't going to by any 5e Ravenloft books unless they were sufficiently different (I had gotten CoS and didn't really like it; I've had to make a lot of changes to make it sufficiently horrific for me, and at the time I was really shocked by the stuff they didn't include). So since the VGR is really different, it gives me two sources to draw from.

 

[Mercurius]

I am not the target audience for setting books, since I always make my own settings.

Oddly enough, I also always make my own settings, but my favorite type of D&D books are settings, as I enjoy reading them.

So to get me to buy a setting book, I think WotC would have to do what they are doing with Strixhaven:

Introduce a new mode of play.

For Strixhaven, the conceit of playing students in a magic academy is so different than base D&D that it actually makes me want to buy the book!

So if they focused Darksun on Survival, or Dragonlance on "novelistic, character-focused play," or Spelljammer as Exploration, it would get me interested.

To quote some posters, if it's just Forgotten Realms in a funny hat, I can do that on my own!

I like this - with "mode" being a broad term that could also include sub-genre, theme and flavor.

So Dark Sun isn't simply "survival," it is also post-apocalyptic, dark fantasy, and sword & sorcery.

Meaning, the "mode" arises from within a context of theme, genre, and flavor.

 

[Umbran]

The thing about Greyhawk is that the only thing that's really interesting today is that it's a perfect representation of early 80's DnD'isms.

You speaking for the world, then? You get to proclaim what is, and is not, interesting for... everyone? Or, do you want to leave some room for others to see things you don't?

So how do you update something like that to the modern edition?

I have no idea. But, if you asked me how to turn Shrek into a good Broadway musical, I wouldn't have known that, either - but someone did.

The job, for us, it not to know how to do it - the job for us is to not be closed-minded to the possibility.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You speaking for the world, then? You get to proclaim what is, and is not, interesting for... everyone? Or, do you want to leave some room for others to see things you don't?


I have no idea. But, if you asked me how to turn Shrek into a good Broadway musical, I wouldn't have known that, either - but someone did.

The job, for us, it not to know how to do it - the job for us is to not be closed-minded to the possibility.

You know, I get what you're saying, but it's impossible to have a decent debate if you're fine with any opinion and aren't allowed to express how you feel about something. If you feel Greyhawk is a perfect expression of 80's gaming and don't think it should be messed with, what's wrong with feeling that way? People having different opinions about something, as long as they're civil about it, is what forums are for, imo.

 

[Umbran]

Who am I insulting, Umbran?

The setting is an inanimate object - it cannot be lazy or industrious, as it has no animus at all. If there is laziness, it must be attached to a person. So, you are insulting someone.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

You speaking for the world, then?

I always do. Someone has to get the world out

 

[J.Quondam]

What do you mean "shift"? Dragonlance was ALWAYS very, very definitively YA fiction. It's in the same wheelhouse as Harry Potter. What adult themes are there in Dragonlance? There's no swearing, there's no drug or alcohol abuse, the morality is extremely simplistic, the language in the books is straight up 5th grade English. There's nothing adult at all about DL.

So, apropos of nothing, but this just reminded me of my only brush with DL in all these years...
I never read the DL books, except for the first one or two way back when I was in high school in the late 80s. I abandoned it only because that was all the library had, and I never got around to reading the rest. It left virtually no impression on me at all, except for one little scene/snippet of dialog. I don't even really recall the characters (one was a wizard type - Raistlin, I assume - and the other some sort of dragon-riding warrior). The exchange went something like this:

Her: What do wizards wear beneath their robes?
Him: Very little. What do dragon-riders wear beneath their armor?
Her: Nothing at all...

Bow chicka bow wow!
Perhaps I'm misremembering that? Anyway, that just popped into my mind when I read your post here, and it gave me a little chuckle.

 

[guachi]

Yeah, there's bad stuff in the setting. That's important to set the right tone. But the overall tone? 100% Kid Friendly.

I would -happily- hand Dragons of Autumn Twilight to an 8 year old. It's how old I was when I read it.

Like still write the children's book about a girl finding a dragon and going all "How to Train Your Dragon" and stuff. Make it hit harder by having the dragon be a Blue or a Green and the kid grow up to be a Dragonlord.

But the setting itself? Just hand it to young D&D players as their intro to the game. They don't -have- to play Sturm or Kitiara or Flint.

I was 10 when Dragons of Autumn Twilight was released. It is 100% a kid-friendly series of books. I agree that Dragonlance, more than most D&D settings, is great for younger players. I doubt WotC will go this route but it's a great way to play to the strengths of Dragonlance and separate it from other settings.

I even asked Tracy Hickman at Dragon Con a few years ago (where he signed my copies Rahasia, Pharaoh, and a Top Secret: SI adventure) if Dragonlance was aimed at younger readers and he said they basically were.

 

[Scribe]

Folks, I'm not saying it couldnt be appropriate for young readers. I was in Grade 5 or 6 when I first read it.

I'm saying 'Train your Dragon' isnt what I think of when I think of DL.

That said, going back to the original post that kicked off this tangent, I see now that I misread it, and yes you could totally have a split off line aimed at kids via books or comics.

So, I was incorrect in what the line was aiming to provide.