D&D 5E Mike Mearls interview - states that they may be getting off of the 2 AP/year train.

[Jester David]

Let me hit you a little closer to home.

We don't need a Ravenloft setting book. All the 2e box sets or 3e Gazetteers work just fine with the 5e rules. Curse of Strahd showed Ravenloft works just fine without fear, horror, or madness checks, Powers checks, curses, modified spells and magic items, half-Vistani and Calibans, or psionics. In fact, The Red Box only has a few spells and magic items to convert, plus the domain lords themselves (and some of those are just MM monsters with a tweak; if Strahd can be a caster-vampire with a higher int, surely Azalin is just a lich or Soth a death knight). Reprinting a Ravenloft book is a waste when I can run the setting with just the red box.

Right?

Exactly!!

I own all the Ravenloft material, and in more detail than a single book can provide. Or even a trilogy of 320-page hardcover books. And they were written by fans who really loved the setting and gave it their all: a feat the couple people at WotC are unlikely to be able to replicate.
All I need is a few races. And *maybe* some magic items and spells. And I can do that pretty darn easily myself. All the rest is gravy.

And with some unique races & mechanics Ravenloft is more different from base D&D than the Realms. Both the Realms and Greyhawk need almost no mechanical updates for the worlds to function.
Not compared to Dragonlance (moon magic, kender, tinkerer gnomes & devices, minotaurs, irda, draconicans) or Eberron (dragonmarks, kalashtar, changelings, shifters, warforged) or Dark Sun (defiling, templars, elemenral priests, thri-kreen, mul, half-giants).

That depends, really. The Eberron setting, in particular, is rather strongly based on 3e's rules, particularly for magic. As in "Well, it's rather easy if somewhat expensive to make magic items - and not that expensive for low-level spells. And the prestidigitation cantrip can be used to clean things - you should be able to create a magic items based on prestidigitation that cleans clothes for only a few hundred gp. So, it makes sense that many villages would have a central location where people could take their dirty laundry and get it cleaned with magic instead of doing it by hand themselves."

And that level of "wide" magic would make little sense when used with other rules, but it's a big part of what makes Eberron tick.

Agreed. But we're talking about the Realms and not Eberron, which would require a little more work to get the right tone. Mostly races and dragonmarks.

Of course, it's pretty easy to make common magic items in 5e. Easier than it was in 3e, as you don't need to expend experience.

 

[bmfrosty]

Exactly!!

I own all the Ravenloft material, and in more detail than a single book can provide. Or even a trilogy of 320-page hardcover books. And they were written by fans who really loved the setting and gave it their all: a feat the couple people at WotC are unlikely to be able to replicate.
All I need is a few races. And *maybe* some magic items and spells. And I can do that pretty darn easily myself. All the rest is gravy.

And with some unique races & mechanics Ravenloft is more different from base D&D than the Realms. Both the Realms and Greyhawk need almost no mechanical updates for the worlds to function.
Not compared to Dragonlance (moon magic, kender, tinkerer gnomes & devices, minotaurs, irda, draconicans) or Eberron (dragonmarks, kalashtar, changelings, shifters, warforged) or Dark Sun (defiling, templars, elemenral priests, thri-kreen, mul, half-giants).

Maybe the answer is something somewhere between what they did for Elemental Evil and Ravenloft in 5e.

Put out an adventure (lvl 1-10 or 5-16 with a short adventure to boost to 5), and then include a "Players Companion" style softcover as a free download or $10 purchase in a shop. The companion covers what you need to know (no Dragonborn or Tieflings or here's the Artificer and Warforged or only these Wizard Subclasses and here are the new spell lists) as a player, and the adventure sets the tone and covers a good chunk of geography.

If your group runs this adventure and really wants to do more in the world, they can pick up some PDF sourcebooks on DM's Guild and easily adjust.

 

[Satyrn]

Maybe the answer is something somewhere between what they did for Elemental Evil and Ravenloft in 5e.

I'm confused. Are you suggesting that they do for Forgotten Realms what they did for Forgotten Realms with Elemental Evil?


Or, more likely, did I lose the track of this conversation completely?

 

[Charles Rampant]

He's suggesting a big book adventure, perhaos with a ten page pdf supplement to accompany it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That depends, really. The Eberron setting, in particular, is rather strongly based on 3e's rules, particularly for magic. As in "Well, it's rather easy if somewhat expensive to make magic items - and not that expensive for low-level spells. And the prestidigitation cantrip can be used to clean things - you should be able to create a magic items based on prestidigitation that cleans clothes for only a few hundred gp. So, it makes sense that many villages would have a central location where people could take their dirty laundry and get it cleaned with magic instead of doing it by hand themselves."

And that level of "wide" magic would make little sense when used with other rules, but it's a big part of what makes Eberron tick.

I've run Eberron in at least 5 systems, and others have done in some I haven't. It runs fine.

 

[Jester David]

Maybe the answer is something somewhere between what they did for Elemental Evil and Ravenloft in 5e.

Put out an adventure (lvl 1-10 or 5-16 with a short adventure to boost to 5), and then include a "Players Companion" style softcover as a free download or $10 purchase in a shop. The companion covers what you need to know (no Dragonborn or Tieflings or here's the Artificer and Warforged or only these Wizard Subclasses and here are the new spell lists) as a player, and the adventure sets the tone and covers a good chunk of geography.

If your group runs this adventure and really wants to do more in the world, they can pick up some PDF sourcebooks on DM's Guild and easily adjust.

Personally, I'd love to see a big hardcover that does all the small rules updates for all the settings: kender, warforged, defiling, moon magic, the artificer, kalashtar, etc. Just get all the mechanics out of the way at once along with other content and then let people play whatever setting they want.

Alternatively, they could open the DMsGuild for a couple more and let the fans make all that rules content.

 

[Azzy]

Personally, I'd love to see a big hardcover that does all the small rules updates for all the settings: kender, warforged, defiling, moon magic, the artificer, kalashtar, etc. Just get all the mechanics out of the way at once along with other content and then let people play whatever setting they want.

That would be great. Get it all knocked out of the way, so fans of different settings would have their mechanical support to play that setting, and homebrewers can mix and match to their hearts content.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh, no! Third grade math! It's terrifying! TERRIFYING!

Lol point has never been difficulty. It's just a silly, counter intuitive, system.

 

[bmfrosty]

Lol point has never been difficulty. It's just a silly, counter intuitive, system.

It feels like the AC is upside down. Maybe that's why they put it right-side up for 3e.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It feels like the AC is upside down. Maybe that's why they put it right-side up for 3e.

Heh, that was literally my first reaction once I opened the 3e PHB on release day back in 2000 (I had purposely kept myself unspoiled on the changes). "Oh wow! They've flipped AC upside down - and it makes soooo much more sense now!"