D&D 5E Hypothetical Zendikar Campaign Guide

[Urriak Uruk]

They've done three Setting books in 3 Fiscal Quarters now: spacing might not be their concern if there is money to be made.

I personally think this is a unique situation. The Eberron book, as good as it is, had a lot of content already completed and tested from the Wayfinder's Guide. The second book, Wildemount, had been developed for a long time by Mercer himself. Only the third, Theros, is one I think has fallen the traditional development route of Wizard's.

That said, I think we will see at least one setting book every year from now on. I just doubt we'll see a MtG setting every year (every other year, the pattern so far, seems logical).

 

[gyor]

Wizard's is pretty well known for their glacier release pace, and in the past couple years that hasn't really changed much. I'd be extremely surprised if they start making annual setting books for Magic the Gathering; that takes away a lot of their bandwidth from other projects being worked on by the core Wizard's team, especially since a big adventure every year is something they also consistently deliver.

I do think that Wizard's is planning on releasing an annual setting book, but the pattern they've set so far, alternating between a Magic setting and an established D&D setting like Eberron makes more sense to me. We also know that Eberron has had a pretty successful sales launch (Tito mentioned its sales on a livestream).

I also think this year, getting two settings, Wildemount and Theros, is an anomaly. Wildemount is a work of love that looks like almost all of the writing effort belongs to Mercer himself, and that the Wizard's team really only did art layouts and editing. So minimal effort on the core Wizard's team.

Now, I don't know what setting will be released after Theros. I'm personally hoping for Planescape, and a lot of the UA material released recently seems to hint at that, but there's no concrete proof for anything.

Things change, you can't just rely on hold patterns, if you did we won't have any settings.

Anyways, I think we will have another setting later this year, although it won't be the next book released and maybe not until the winter release, and this one won't be for MtG.

Depending upon the MtG settings that come out, I can see an Annual MtG setting and an Annual Traditional Setting book and one big Annual AP, and a miscellanous slot per year, most years, but with the occasional extra thing tossed in here and there thanks to partnerships which don't take up a slot (for example Wildemount did not take the spring slot this year, just as the Aquisitions Inc book/Stranger Things/Rick and Morty didn't take a slot last year). The Miscellanous slot could go to anything, player options, regional book, a second AP, Adventure Anthologies, another setting, depending what they need in a given year.

I mean it makes sense, at least for a few years, maybe it will get adjusted yet again.

But setting books allow them to tap more markets, to add a mix of lore, player options, Monsters, DM tools and whatever else they think fits the setting, which they like, they don't do focused books since the core. And because all the setting are apart of the D&D metasetting, the base doesn't split. Plus future crossover opportunities.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Things change, you can't just rely on hold patterns, if you did we won't have any settings.

Anyways, I think we will have another setting later this year, although it won't be the next book released and maybe not until the winter release, and this one won't be for MtG.

Depending upon the MtG settings that come out, I can see an Annual MtG setting and an Annual Traditional Setting book and one big Annual AP, and a miscellanous slot per year, most years, but with the occasional extra thing tossed in here and there thanks to partnerships which don't take up a slot (for example Wildemount did not take the spring slot this year, just as the Aquisitions Inc book/Stranger Things/Rick and Morty didn't take a slot last year). The Miscellanous slot could go to anything, player options, regional book, a second AP, Adventure Anthologies, another setting, depending what they need in a given year.

I mean it makes sense, at least for a few years, maybe it will get adjusted yet again.

But setting books allow them to tap more markets, to add a mix of lore, player options, Monsters, DM tools and whatever else they think fits the setting, which they like, they don't do focused books since the core. And because all the setting are apart of the D&D metasetting, the base doesn't split. Plus future crossover opportunities.

Last year, 2019, there was only one "rules book" printed by the core D&D team; Eberron.

The year before there were two, including Ravnica, but the other was Mordenkainen's, which is mostly a monster book.

Before that, it was always just one rulebook. They take more development and community feedback, and simply put I don't think Wizard's has the team in place to push out more than one rules book every year.

Now, do I want another setting book this year? Absolutely, especially since the last UA now points to Dark Sun. But the idea of Wizard's publishing a setting book in 2020 Q2, another in 2020 Q4, and another before 2021 Q2... color me skeptical.