Listen to the full Gamehole Con Panel from WotC's Mearls, Perkins, and Crawford

Much of the information which has filtered through here to the community has been from reports of snippets from the panel held by WotC's Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, and Chris Perkins. Now, the whole panel has been released in full by Gaming and BS RPG Podcast. It's a couple of hours long -- "Recorded at Gamehole Con 2016, a tabletop gaming convention held in Madison, Wisconsin, this bonus episode features Mike Mearls, Christopher Perkins and Jeremy Crawford from Wizards of the Coast. This is the unedited seminar that they hosted. They discuss Volo’s Guide to Monsters, the differences in settings and the design approach to each one, field Q&A’s from the audience where someone asks about their own home rules that they use in their own D&D games." Thanks to Sean P Kelley for the scoop!

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[Parmandur]

Giant lord plots in SKT actually beyond their capabilities to accomplish, so they are not time sensitive per se.

Design goal is to make each new AP different from what has been done in 5E so far.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Multiverse as unified, single setting: no seperation between FR, Greyhawk, Ebereon, Athas, etc. Try to bring them all in, all the time.

I wouldn't say no separation, but instead minimal. Make it so travel between settings is made much easier (although it may be going to Athas is easy, but leaving isn't - otherwise that setting loses some of its uniqueness...)

 

[Parmandur]

I wouldn't say no separation, but instead minimal. Make it so travel between settings is made much easier (although it may be going to Athas is easy, but leaving isn't - otherwise that setting loses some of its uniqueness...)

Going off of what they are saying, the core setting is "all of then, together," so Athas is to Greyhawk as Waterseep is to Baldurs Gate, different locales with maybe a harder travel plan.

 

[AmerginLiath]

I like the subclasses, personally; makes me wonder what the cleric domains coming out will be like (should be next week, since they seem to be going alphabetically).

I wonder if, like with the bladesinger breaking out of the sphere-specialist mold, we might see any cleric specializations defined differently than by the sorts of domains that we've seen so far..

 

[gyor]

Novel line hasn't been officially cancelled, but they have nothing to announced right now.

Races in Volo's guide were designed to be stereotypes that are aimed at the most likely fans of that race. So Tabaxi were designed for cat lovers and other would are realky into playing cat people, same with other races. Humans intended to be the ones who are diverse. They really did seem to try and make races very focused and specialized. Kobolds normally cowards, but service to the tribe can make them brave and their proud of their culture, Aasimar are tormented by Angellic Guides and are the Paladin archtype, Bugbears are basically male lions in big gobliniod form.

They actually called Tabaxi feline kender in personality which I don't think they were originally. Mike Mearls points out that Tabaxi names are very Maztica in convention, they are intended to convey a Aztec feel, I don't know if that comes through in practice.

I think that Bugbears and Tabaxi are closest of the races in temperment and personality, although Tabaxi are more curious and Bugbears tend to be more savage, with Tritons and Aasimar the next closest in personality.

 

[Parmandur]

Perkins, Crawford and [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] all copped to not tracking XPnin their home games, just milestone leveling.

 

[Parmandur]

Also, Survey results for Neo-Ranger were very positive, so it will be the basis for what appears in a book most likely.

 

[gweinel]

Also, Survey results for Neo-Ranger were very positive, so it will be the basis for what appears in a book most likely.

Do you have any link with the results or the survey? Seems i have missed it.

 

[flametitan]

Do you have any link with the results or the survey? Seems i have missed it.

All we have is the panel, where they've said the current UA Ranger has received a warm reception.

 

[Dire Bare]

I have to say, recylcling old adventurers from other settings, not even FR adventurers and dumping them in the Forgotten Realms isn't cool and clever and I'm unimpressed.

To each his own. I find what WotC is doing very cool, clever, and I am impressed. Purchased everything so far and haven't been disappointed yet. If we do get a Tome of Horrors set in the Realms, I can't wait! Should be fun!

 

[Dire Bare]

Greyhawk needs to stay Greyhawk, it sucks that they are limiting the official adventures to Forgotten Realms and one foray into Ravenloft (which is kinda a sub-setting anyway).

Why? Why does Greyhawk need to stay Greyhawk? Actually, Greyhawk is staying Greyhawk, the setting hasn't changed. Even if an upcoming Tomb of Horrors re-imagining takes place in the Realms, that doesn't take anything away from Greyhawk.

When looking for classic D&D adventures to update, why be limited to stories already told in the Realms only?

Greyhawk, Mystara, and the Realms certainly have their own flavors, but they aren't different enough to justify a major publishing effort for all of them. And, like it or not, the Realms is the most popular of the three settings. WotC would be foolish to do other than they are doing right now.

 

[gyor]

Why? Why does Greyhawk need to stay Greyhawk? Actually, Greyhawk is staying Greyhawk, the setting hasn't changed. Even if an upcoming Tomb of Horrors re-imagining takes place in the Realms, that doesn't take anything away from Greyhawk.

When looking for classic D&D adventures to update, why be limited to stories already told in the Realms only?

Greyhawk, Mystara, and the Realms certainly have their own flavors, but they aren't different enough to justify a major publishing effort for all of them. And, like it or not, the Realms is the most popular of the three settings. WotC would be foolish to do other than they are doing right now.

Many fans of all three settings would disagree that these settings are essentially the same.

 

[Dire Bare]

Many fans of all three settings would disagree that these settings are essentially the same.

Note that isn't what I said. In fact, I quite clearly stated that the three settings, heck, throw Dragonlance in there as well, are different from each other. However, they aren't different ENOUGH. They are all pretty standard high fantasy. Nothing wrong with that, it just is what it is.

They are all pretty awesome and bring something a bit different to the table. And long time fans all have their favorites for various reasons. I love them all, and my favorite is Mystara. I long for the days when TSR was publishing material for all of those fantastic settings.

But I'm enough of a grown up to realize that doing so is part of what killed TSR, and WotC doesn't want to repeat that mistake. If WotC took a classic Mystara adventure, let's say Castle Amber, and re-imagined it for the Realms, I'd buy that sucker in a heartbeat! It doesn't diminish the Mystara setting in any way, and brings something that I enjoyed back in the day back into focus front-and-center. Win-win in my opinion.

I'm not dissing your favorite setting, whatever that is. I'm not dissing Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Mystara, or any other setting. Just pointing out the realities of the situation. Accept it or not, but it won't change anything.

 

[Shasarak]

Novel line hasn't been officially cancelled, but they have nothing to announced right now.

Ah, the good old "can not cancel something that you do not announce" tactic.

Does that ever work?

 

[Barantor]

Note that isn't what I said. In fact, I quite clearly stated that the three settings, heck, throw Dragonlance in there as well, are different from each other. However, they aren't different ENOUGH. They are all pretty standard high fantasy. Nothing wrong with that, it just is what it is.

They are all pretty awesome and bring something a bit different to the table. And long time fans all have their favorites for various reasons. I love them all, and my favorite is Mystara. I long for the days when TSR was publishing material for all of those fantastic settings.

But I'm enough of a grown up to realize that doing so is part of what killed TSR, and WotC doesn't want to repeat that mistake. If WotC took a classic Mystara adventure, let's say Castle Amber, and re-imagined it for the Realms, I'd buy that sucker in a heartbeat! It doesn't diminish the Mystara setting in any way, and brings something that I enjoyed back in the day back into focus front-and-center. Win-win in my opinion.

I'm not dissing your favorite setting, whatever that is. I'm not dissing Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Mystara, or any other setting. Just pointing out the realities of the situation. Accept it or not, but it won't change anything.

First, this is my last response until enworld gets the spacebar thing fixed, dunno what is causing it but it's just here on Enworld.


Second, I realize the situation. They killed off their other settings so that D&D can thrive via other mediums like books and video games.


It seems cheap to me to take something popular from another setting, make an adventure very loosely based on the concept, but put it into a different setting. Make new original content, not copycat from the past.


I realize they own the IPs and whatnot, just seems lame to me, so I hope they continue making original FR stuff, not porting old favorites into FR.


Enough 'member berries.

 

[gyor]

Note that isn't what I said. In fact, I quite clearly stated that the three settings, heck, throw Dragonlance in there as well, are different from each other. However, they aren't different ENOUGH. They are all pretty standard high fantasy. Nothing wrong with that, it just is what it is.

They are all pretty awesome and bring something a bit different to the table. And long time fans all have their favorites for various reasons. I love them all, and my favorite is Mystara. I long for the days when TSR was publishing material for all of those fantastic settings.

But I'm enough of a grown up to realize that doing so is part of what killed TSR, and WotC doesn't want to repeat that mistake. If WotC took a classic Mystara adventure, let's say Castle Amber, and re-imagined it for the Realms, I'd buy that sucker in a heartbeat! It doesn't diminish the Mystara setting in any way, and brings something that I enjoyed back in the day back into focus front-and-center. Win-win in my opinion.

I'm not dissing your favorite setting, whatever that is. I'm not dissing Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Mystara, or any other setting. Just pointing out the realities of the situation. Accept it or not, but it won't change anything.

I think if TSR had todays options and technologies, like PDFs, Print on Demand, Kickstarter, it would have thrived. Imagine 2e eras vision and imagination couples to modern internet tools. A kickstarter for ever major setting.

I'd love a FRCG even if it was just a PDF.

 

[Dire Bare]

I realize the situation. They killed off their other settings so that D&D can thrive via other mediums like books and video games.

Sorta. They didn't "kill off" other settings for books, video games, and other media to thrive. They ceased supporting multiple, very similar, settings so that the D&D roleplaying game could thrive. Period.

At the moment, it looks like the novel line is dead. The video game scene isn't looking so hot either, although there are two MMOs that are tying their content into the adventure path releases. We keep hearing a movie is going to be made, but the details are scarce.

But D&D, the game itself, is thriving like never before.

It seems cheap to me to take something popular from another setting, make an adventure very loosely based on the concept, but put it into a different setting. Make new original content, not copycat from the past.

I realize they own the IPs and whatnot, just seems lame to me, so I hope they continue making original FR stuff, not porting old favorites into FR.

Why is it cheap? They aren't doing it to save time or money, they are doing it to cash in on nostalgia. And that seems to be working pretty well so far.

I would like to see some original, never-before-seen adventures also . . . . but that's risky. Just like Hollywood likes to make sequels, remakes, movies based on existing properties (Helllloooo Marvel and DC!) rather than give us completely original films, WotC is re-imagining classic adventures to mine that nostalgia gold. New is risky. Of course, we do occasionally get something truly new out of Hollywood (looking forward to "Arrival"), and it would be nice if the D&D team did take a risk every once in a while with story content. They are, however, taking a risk with how D&D is delivered, Volo's Guide being the latest example of a new format.

 

[Dire Bare]

I think if TSR had todays options and technologies, like PDFs, Print on Demand, Kickstarter, it would have thrived. Imagine 2e eras vision and imagination couples to modern internet tools. A kickstarter for ever major setting.

I'd love a FRCG even if it was just a PDF.

Name one modern tabletop game company that is producing different game lines at the pace that TSR did in the "golden years" but today, right now. None. Despite ebooks, print-on-demand, and crowd-funding.

It's easy to armchair quarterback and to accuse WotC of "leaving money on the table" and such, but their current releases are working VERY well for them. Pushing up the release schedule to anywhere close to 2E days, or even 3E days, isn't going to increase profit and will decrease quality.

In TSR and WotC's huge D&D back catalog, there are some classic, beautiful products . . . but there are a LOT of stinkers as well. Many, many sub-par releases in all of those "classic" settings. I don't want to go back to those days.

I personally think that WotC could pick up the pace with product releases and even take advantage of some of the resources you mention, at least to a small degree . . . . but then again, it's no skin off my back if I'm wrong. The D&D team is severely scaled back and simply cannot produce the level of output you're suggesting here, even if they threw quality to the winds. If they opened up licences on some of those older product lines, they would have trouble managing the quality (the 3E licensed Ravenloft and Dragonlance product lines were, IMO, all over the place in quality).

 

[Charles Rampant]

Name one modern tabletop game company that is producing different game lines at the pace that TSR did in the "golden years" but today, right now. None. Despite ebooks, print-on-demand, and crowd-funding.

Fantasy Flight Games, Obsidian Path. Both churn out the books! I broadly agree with your points overall, but thought that I'd chime in with this counterpoint.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

So Halaster and Undermountain is next.

The barriers between worlds are weakening so we can, eventually, expect... Planescape!