D&D 5E Next (3rd book of the year) endless speculation thread

[Eyes of Nine]

The real reason for this thread is to see how many pages it can get to before the third book is announced (presumably months from now, or at least sometime around or after Ravenloft comes out in May). The secondary (OK, real) purpose is to speculate (baselessly, mostly) on what that third book might be.

Feywild. How much weight do we put into the latest UA? From there are several branches: A sylvan based adventure/setting; a feywild/planar book; a Magic fey-adjacent setting.

Dragons. They're always lurking. This could mean Draconomicon and/or a monster book (it has been a few years). Dragonlance.

Planes. The Big Kahuna of major domains of D&D Land left mostly untouched, but perhaps also one of the riskiest. Still, it's got to happen at some point. Right?

"Three classic settings." Ravenloft is announced, which leaves us two. But will they do two in one year? Seems unlikely. Further, there's no certainty that they actually publish three setting books; "support" could come in different ways. And I think we should be hesitant to solidify the number "three" - it could be less, it could be more.

We know that there are new Dragonlance novels, possibly/probably starting later this year. That means that there's a good chance of a Dragonlance adventure and/or setting book (box set?).

And then there's speculation possible based upon product type: So far this year we have one adventure collection and one setting book. That would likely mean that we'll get at least one full adventure path, a splat of some kind (probably DM-focused, ala monsters), and another setting book.

Anything else?

I won't speculate as to when, but my guess is that over the next almost two years (2021-22) we'll see:
*A Dragonlance product or two of some kind (probably needs two: adventure and setting/sourcebook)
*An adventure path or two (one possibly being DL)
*A monster book (possibly focusing on dragons)
*A sylvan/fey-based book
*A planes book
*A classic setting book (DL or another)
*A Magic setting book

p.s. A note about the D&D movie. I imagine they'll come out with some kind of supporting product, but given that the movie isn't coming out until late 2022 at the earliest, and a lot can happen between now and then to push it back, and they'll likely want to assess how well it is received, I'm guessing we won't see something until 2023).

Hot take - I'd love for them to publish the 4e Scales of War megadventure updated for 5e.

I also think Feywild in UA now means something in 2022, not 2021.

Personally, I expect a Planescape-ish thingy.

 

[teitan]

I wouldn't compare anything to 4E... their books are so small in scope (as they published more books per year), when you compare them to 5e.

I’d disagree compared to previous editions. Fiends get a PORTION of a small book compared to the Demonomicon for example. Not a lot of scope. And again two books is better than a portion of a smallish book.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

If you going to pass on it unless it is dragonlance, why do you care if they do Greyhawk or Mystara?

Reason hasn't changes since last thread asking about "What's the next setting book?".

Greyhawk because I don't think they "get" Greyhawk. They'd try and prop up 'big bad guys' like Iuz, Tharizdon, Vecna, etc. as "world shaking threats"....when they aren't. Not in a Greyhawk sense. Greyhawk is MUCH more about "shadows, shades and all that in between". Greyhawk is about a lowly 1st level adventurer going out into the world to get rich....or die trying. It's not (necessarily) about a lowly 1st level adventurer "thrust into the dangers of world-spanning bad guys, forced to rise to be the hero everyone needs to save the world!". In short, Greyhawk isn't about "being a hero", it's about "being a successful adventurer". I don't think WotC would be able to 'sell' an authentic Greyhawk feel and they'd resort to trying to make the default PC be "a hero destined for greatness".

Mystara, similar reasons, but also.... there is NO WAY they would be able to do Mystara, The Known World, justice in a single 256pg hardback. They'd need at least, by my estimate, about 1200 pages to even remotely do it justice...and that's being conservative! Mystara is made up of 13 Gazetteers, each with between 75 and 110 or so pages, plus Champions of Mystara (another 250+ pages), Dawn of the Emperors (230+ pages) and Wrath of the Immortals (another 230+ pages). Don't even mention the Creature Crucible books (more demihuman and nonhuman 'classes' to play) or the entirety of the Hollow World part of Mystara.

So...I'd rather not have to suffer the knowledge of the indignant "reimagining" of either of my two favourite settings. Selfish of me? Yup. But I don't care.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Mind of tempest]

Hiya!

Reason hasn't changes since last thread asking about "What's the next setting book?".

Greyhawk because I don't think they "get" Greyhawk. They'd try and prop up 'big bad guys' like Iuz, Tharizdon, Vecna, etc. as "world shaking threats"....when they aren't. Not in a Greyhawk sense. Greyhawk is MUCH more about "shadows, shades and all that in between". Greyhawk is about a lowly 1st level adventurer going out into the world to get rich....or die trying. It's not (necessarily) about a lowly 1st level adventurer "thrust into the dangers of world-spanning bad guys, forced to rise to be the hero everyone needs to save the world!". In short, Greyhawk isn't about "being a hero", it's about "being a successful adventurer". I don't think WotC would be able to 'sell' an authentic Greyhawk feel and they'd resort to trying to make the default PC be "a hero destined for greatness".

Mystara, similar reasons, but also.... there is NO WAY they would be able to do Mystara, The Known World, justice in a single 256pg hardback. They'd need at least, by my estimate, about 1200 pages to even remotely do it justice...and that's being conservative! Mystara is made up of 13 Gazetteers, each with between 75 and 110 or so pages, plus Champions of Mystara (another 250+ pages), Dawn of the Emperors (230+ pages) and Wrath of the Immortals (another 230+ pages). Don't even mention the Creature Crucible books (more demihuman and nonhuman 'classes' to play) or the entirety of the Hollow World part of Mystara.

So...I'd rather not have to suffer the knowledge of the indignant "reimagining" of either of my two favourite settings. Selfish of me? Yup. But I don't care.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

but without making new books for them the settings will die from lack of new blood and be lost to history.

 

[hopeless]

Maybe an adventure similar to the Curse of Strahd linked to that setting perhaps?

Temple of Elemental Evil is a noted example of this, sorry for the repetition but it is a possible choice if they were going to test the waters for this setting.

That boxed set for Karameikos might be worth a look, I doubt that's their thing, but as boxed sets go it was pretty good!

I'm not sure Dragonlance would work, but that doesn't mean I'm against it, it should have the same problems as the two above except there isn't as much material for that setting other than the novels.
Now if this new setting is based on their new books however...

 

[TwiceBorn2]

I sincerely doubt they will do anything with the Temple of Elemental Evil.

After all, Princes of the Apocalypse was inspired by the ToEE, and Goodman Games (under license from WotC) is set to release a two-volume slipcase edition of the Temple of Elemental Evil this year featuring the original module as well as an expanded 5e conversion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

but without making new books for them the settings will die from lack of new blood and be lost to history.

They won't be lost to history, since there is plenty of documentation.

No one might use them for their D&D games. But the only people who care will be dead, so it doesn't matter.

 

[Marc_C]

They won't be lost to history, since there is plenty of documentation.

No one might use them for their D&D games. But the only people who care will be dead, so it doesn't matter.

A setting can get new fans any day, moreso with pdfs on DMGuild. Ghost of Saltmarsh triggered renewed interest in Greyhawk. It's not in the economic interest of WoTC to tell Greyhawk die. Greyhawk will be remembered long after you die.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I also think Feywild in UA now means something in 2022, not 2021.

The Ravenloft UAs where 1 year and 4 months ahead of publication. On that basis whatever book or boxed set the "Feywild" UAs are for will be sometime between July 2021 and March 2022. I think it's far more likely to be this year than next.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A setting can get new fans any day, moreso with pdfs on DMGuild. Ghost of Saltmarsh triggered renewed interest in Greyhawk. It's not in the economic interest of WoTC to tell Greyhawk die. Greyhawk will be remembered long after you die.

Economically, Greyhawk is irrelevant. WotC does not have to "tell" it to die. If it's not popular it will die. If it is popular it won't die. Either way, it doesn't matter.