Keith Baker has written 5E Eberron! Now who would you choose to write the other Classic D&D Worldbooks?

[Tales and Chronicles]

Nentir's Vale by Mike Mearl? I dont know if the Vale was worked on by a particular author, but Mearl's the one who talked about it the most in the past year and I loved what he did with some 4e supplement like Hammerfast (re-read it yesterday, really original take on the classic dwarf hold).

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Nentir's Vale by Mike Mearl? I dont know if the Vale was worked on by a particular author, but Mearl's the one who talked about it the most in the past year and I loved what he did with some 4e supplement like Hammerfast (re-read it yesterday, really original take on the classic dwarf hold).

Yeah true - I believe Mike was the impetus behind 4E and Nerath. Yep, it'd be cool for him to be the one to fully bring Nentir Vale/Nerath into the 5E Multiverse. Wonder what Nerath's crystal sphere is like?

 

[Pauper]

Can’t think of anyone for Ravenloft sadly. They’ve all seemed to have left gaming.

One of the nice things about Ravenloft is that it avoided the 'rockstar designer' trope by cloaking its developers in the shadows, metaphorically. The TSR/WotC team responsible for approving line materials became known as the Kargat, while the largely freelance development staff writing the materials took up the mantle of the Kargatane. This was super-fruitful, not least because the Kargatane were all motivated folks, but also because, as a team, they could divide the work amongst those who were most excited about it -- I might not care much for Souragne or Odiare, but I can hand off work on adventures in those domains to teammates who are more passionate for the settings while I focus on an adventure set in Nidala, for example.

For that reason, I'd probably want to recruit a new Kargatane, with knowledge of the history of Ravenloft and the Dread Realms, but motivated to updating that history to reflect the different design aesthetic of 5th Edition. (And the new aesthetic is not all hostile to classic Ravenloft -- consider that there is no canonical way in 5E to determine a character's alignment, or if creatures other than fiends, undead, or celestials are good or evil.)

I'd probably start the new Kargatane with Ken Hart, the author of the Season 4 AL module "The Ghost" and a contributor to the Fraternity of Shadows fansite, and by all accounts a tremendous Ravenloft fan and booster. Not sure where we'd go from there, but I'd hope Ken had some ideas.

--
Pauper

 

[Gradine]

I don't know what kind of tabletop game writing chops Chris Avellone has, but I'd read any sort of Planescape/Spelljammer/Planejammer supplement with him on the writing team (not even lead!)

 

[Shiroiken]

I would love Luke Gygax (and Ernie) write Greyhawk.

I wouldn't mind Rob Kuntz either, assuming we can't get the ghost of Gary to do it himself.

 

[bmfrosty]

If they brought in Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner to help write the lore of Spelljammer 5e, that might be interesting.

Seth Macfarlane.

 

[gyor]

Ed’s already started doing that. He’s got a Border Kingdoms PDF up on the Guild.

They've also going to have one for the Moonshaes.

I really want for the Lands of Intrigue and Old Empires Regions, I think such Settings would be among the most exciting.

 

[sgt-d]

If 5E Eberron is a model and template for how WotC might approach the other Classic D&D Worlds...then a central designer of each world would be tapped to write the other 5E worldbooks too. Who would you nominate?

My nominations:

For 5E Greyhawk: Eric Mona? Allan Grohe?
For 5E Dragonlance: Weis and Hickman. (Along with Cam Banks)
For 5E Mystara: Bruce Heard.
For 5E Blackmoor. Dustin Clingman? (Headed up the 3E Blackmoor line.) and/or James Mishler (a Blackmoor expert, and licensed publisher of the Wilderlands of High Adventure)

Who else? Who do you nominate? Who'd you choose to write the other settings? (Planescape, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Birthright, Nerath, others?)

Greyhawk: Luke & Ernie Gygax, James Ward.
Dragonlance: Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, Doug Niles
Dark Sun: Troy Denning
Birthright: Richard Baker
Mystara: Bruce Heard, David Cook, Frank Mentzer
Ravenloft (properly): Tracy Hickman & Bruce Nesmith
Spelljammer: Jeff Grubb
Planescape: David Cook

 

[Storyteller Hero]

Seth Macfarlane.

I'll see your Seth MacFarlane and raise you a Seth Green.

 

[sgt-d]

I would also kind of like to get a 5th edition Campaign setting book from Alex Starapoli & Luca Truilli based on their Chronicles of Algalord, the basis of the story in the first 10 albums by Rhapsody of Fire. And then you could use the albums as background music, with narrations by Mr. Christopher Lee.