D&D 5E (2014) New products featuring Vistani will be?

[cbwjm]

I would assume that it would be primarily something to do with Ravenloft. They are unique to that setting aren't they?

 

[Horacio]

The only advantage if ancestry is that it comes with ancestral, which is easier to use than any alternative in the same tense for folk or people.

Yeah, a character from Elven ancestry, an ancestral heritage...
I like it a lot. But you cannot say the Elven ancestry as you say the Elven people.
In fact, I am not sure...

Let's say we have a Dwarf orphan adopted as a baby into an Elven community (let's say some Elven adventurers found her as the only survivor from an massacre). She grows in the elven community, and for all cultural effects, se is as Elven as Legolas...

I can say she has Dwarven ancestry. I wouldn't say she is from Darwen people, as for me she would belong to the Elven people, even is genetically she is a Dwarf... Or not?

 

[Mercurius]

Yeah, a character from Elven ancestry, an ancestral heritage...
I like it a lot. But you cannot say the Elven ancestry as you say the Elven people.
In fact, I am not sure...

Let's say we have a Dwarf orphan adopted as a baby into an Elven community (let's say some Elven adventurers found her as the only survivor from an massacre). She grows in the elven community, and for all cultural effects, se is as Elven as Legolas...

I can say she has Dwarven ancestry. I wouldn't say she is from Darwen people, as for me she would belong to the Elven people, even is genetically she is a Dwarf... Or not?

We can use words however we want, especially in a fantasy game. Of course the word has a certain poetry to it, and feels pre-modern--like folk or kindred. But "ancestry" isn't linguistically accurate, not at all synonymous with race. Dwarves and elves are races, species, and peoples. But an ancestry exists within a race. It is a family, a lineage, not a species or sub-species.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Since the other thread, about the announcement itself, seems entirely focused on the sensitivity question, and not at all on the implications for new publications, I'll re-post here:

I like the previous ideas about the Vistani being guides to the planes. What I'm picturing is that for mysterious "reasons" the Vistani just happen to be around whenever/wherever weird planar events are happening. Sort of like Angela Lansbury just happening to be around whenever somebody is murdered. (Anybody else find that suspicious? And don't get me started on Doctors Without Borders: wherever they go, trouble just seems to follow.)

So the Vistani have some relationship, through an unspecified connection to time and space or fate or some deity, to planar anomalies. That explains why they are exceptions to Barovia's laws, and why they are there in the first place, and why they seem to have an affinity for seeing the future.

Then they can show up in all sorts of unexpected places, and those who have a good relationship with them will find that beneficial.

And maybe they...or their mysterious patron...are actually playing some really long game. (Anybody else think that "Vistani" sounds kinda sorta like "Istari"?)

 

[Coroc]

Since the other thread, about the announcement itself, seems entirely focused on the sensitivity question, and not at all on the implications for new publications, I'll re-post here:



So the Vistani have some relationship, through an unspecified connection to time and space or fate or some deity, to planar anomalies. That explains why they are exceptions to Barovia's laws, and why they are there in the first place, and why they seem to have an affinity for seeing the future.

Then they can show up in all sorts of unexpected places, and those who have a good relationship with them will find that beneficial.

And maybe they...or their mysterious patron...are actually playing some really long game. (Anybody else think that "Vistani" sounds kinda sorta like "Istari"?)

for me it sounds a bit like gitanes, which is French for gypsies

 

[Charlaquin]

for me it sounds a bit like gitanes, which is French for gypsies

I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to sound like romani. Even uses the same suffixes: romani/roma, vistani/vistana... In fact, I always thought they just replaced the “rom” (which is a false cognate with “roam”) with “vist” as an intentional cognate of “visit.”

 

[Coroc]

I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to sound like romani. Even uses the same suffixes: romani/roma, vistani/vistana... In fact, I always thought they just replaced the “rom” (which is a false cognate with “roam”) with “vist” as an intentional cognate of “visit.”

yeah might also be, when did they appear first btw. aka who invented them?

 

[Coroc]

yeah might also be, when did they appear first btw. aka who invented them?

edit i just read it up it was the hickmans

 

[Charlaquin]

yeah might also be, when did they appear first btw. aka who invented them?

They first appeared in the original Ravenloft module, which was adapted from the home game of Tracy and Laura Hickman.

As the story goes, they originally designed and ran the adventure as a Halloween one-shot, and their players liked it so much they wanted to play it again every year. So, the fortune-telling element was added to make the experience less predictable on repeat playthroughs.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I've got a couple of thought here, leading to two very different conclusions.

The first, is that Vistani will be revisited with a whole selection of "planar racial variants" in a Planescape book. When I say "Planescape Book" I don't necessarily mean a setting book, just a book that is themed around the planes, and adds a bunch of new player options, racial options, monster statblocks, etc. This aligns with a bunch of tidbits we've gotten, including the many UA player options being tested, psionics, and gem dragons. Vistani are of course tied usually to Ravenloft and the Shadowfel, so they would fit in such a book as another racial option.

The second idea, and this is a little more remote, is that Kate Welch once teased how she was developing a book with many authors from various corners submitting their own adventures; these authors included those from the DMsGuild, but also had Marisha Ray and Deborah Ann Woll. I haven't heard any hints since to this product so it could well be dead, but I find it more likely it was simply postponed to fill the next available "release timeslot" (as we know 5E loathes rushing things, and there were clearly many books like Wildemount/Theros that needed a release date). Perkins also gave a hint that if you like Curse of Strahd, you'll love what he's working on. That Perkins hint could just be for Rime of the Frostmaiden (has a horror theme) but it would be interesting if this "Adventure Compilation" is specifically a compilation of horror adventures, set in the Domains of Dread where Vistani have a role.

These are just theories of course, and could both be completely off base.

Also noticed that both Descent in Avernus and now Rime of the Frostmaiden re-use material printed for D&D Next (Murder in Baldur's Gate and Legacy of the Crystal Shard respectively). It would be interesting if next year the adventure reuses material from the last D&D Next adventure, Dreams of the Red Wizards. Part of it already got reprinted in Tales of the Yawning Portal so I doubt this personally, but actually having an adventure in Thay would be pretty dope.