D&D General Melf's Guide to Greyhawk Coming From Luke Gygax & WotC

[Mecheon]

I think we're seeing a return to classic, pulpy, Tolkien/Howard fantasy

There is exactly 0% evidence of this, and given pulp fantasy is basically dead and buried in the modern day, I think its a bit of a leap too far for that one.

D&D's at its most popular when its about heroes doing heroic things, so the game responds accordingly. The death kneel for pulp in D&D was Dragonlance getting popular, its not even modern stuff that took it out

 

[Parmandur]

lol no.

I think you're seeing what you're wanting to see. Given their publication history, the increasingly diverse and young composition of the player base, and the absolute explosion of the romantasy genre, all indications are that WotC will continue to pursue its current strategy of inclusive settings that emphasize roleplay and story.

I mean, even their talk of bringing in Luke Gygax and Greyhawk was done in the Name of inclusovity, "One Party".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

D&D's at its most popular when its about heroes doing heroic things, so the game responds accordingly. The death kneel for pulp in D&D was Dragonlance getting popular, its not even modern stuff that took it out

I'm reading the wonderful Appendix N fiction anthology and it's kind of a shock to the system.

While a lot of it definitely prefigures D&D -- the Excellent Prismatic Spray, the gameplay loop of Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser's lives in the every D&D campaign city of Lankhmar, etc. -- it's shocking how little of this resembles any fantasy properties that came out after the Hickman Revolution.

Anyone hoping to return to this kind of flavor in their RPG games should -- obligatory plug here -- be looking for it in the OSR, where you will have multiple well-supported games competing for your business. But it's absolutely not what the biggest name in fantasy RPGs is going to be worrying about today, because it's separated by multiple generations from what's popular today.