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

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Add the de emphasis on alignment and Planescape is looking either further away, or changed in a way I won't like anyways.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. The philosophers of Sigil can exist independently of alignment -- and the rules about patrons and piety in recent books could be used to mechanically support them better -- and everyone on the Outer Planes are, by their very nature, alien beings. They could be 1E-level invested in their alignments without interfering with how 5E treats alignment outside of that environment.

Your player character being unaligned doesn't mean that there aren't guardinals practically vibrating with Neutral Goodness.

 

[overgeeked]

Do we?

I love Mystara, but I have trouble seeing how it fits into WotC's line-up in 2021.

What’s WotC’s line up for 2021? We know there’s an adventure anthology releasing on Tuesday and we know there’s a setting releasing in May. Beyond that, what do we know?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Unless there's a mid-summer release, the 3rd book would be in September, and that's been reserved for the major adventure book for the last few years.

Didn't Theros come out mid-summer? Although its publication date may have been interfered with more than we knew about by the pandemic.

In any case, Hasbro's investor call said they were going to be increasing their output. A summertime release seems like a good candidate, given that much of the entertainment industry sees that as prime time for products.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What’s WotC’s line up for 2021? We know there’s an adventure anthology releasing on Tuesday and we know there’s a setting releasing in May. Beyond that, what do we know?

We know that WotC has one kitchen sink setting they're heavily invested in: the Forgotten Realms. They've shown no hesitation in moving Mystara creatures into the core monster books for several editions now.

I don't know what, from a commercial standpoint, would make them want to publish something in Mystara instead of the Forgotten Realms. (And no, I am not a fan of the Forgotten Realms, myself, but clearly, that's the decision WotC has been sticking with in this edition.)

 

[Scribe]

I don't know if that's necessarily true. The philosophers of Sigil can exist independently of alignment -- and the rules about patrons and piety in recent books could be used to mechanically support them better -- and everyone on the Outer Planes are, by their very nature, alien beings. They could be 1E-level invested in their alignments without interfering with how 5E treats alignment outside of that environment.

Your player character being unaligned doesn't mean that there aren't guardinals practically vibrating with Neutral Goodness.

I think eventually yes, this Guardinals will vibrate with something not call Neutral Goodness. Monster profiles now lack alignments right? That's where they are taking things.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think eventually yes, this Guardinals will vibrate with something not call Neutral Goodness. Monster profiles now lack alignments right? That's where they are taking things.

I thought they explicitly said that outsiders and other alien beings would retain the ability to be evil or good by default.

 

[overgeeked]

We know that WotC has one kitchen sink setting they're heavily invested in: the Forgotten Realms. They've shown no hesitation in moving Mystara creatures into the core monster books for several editions now.

I don't know what, from a commercial standpoint, would make them want to publish something in Mystara instead of the Forgotten Realms. (And no, I am not a fan of the Forgotten Realms, myself, but clearly, that's the decision WotC has been sticking with in this edition.)

Your initial response seemed like you were indicating you knew what their line-up was for 2021. So I was asking if you knew their planned line-up.

I agree, FR is wildly more popular than any of the settings I mentioned. It’s also wildly more popular than Ravenloft...yet we have an announced Ravenloft book incoming but still no FR setting book even announced.

So, in reality, those two other classic settings are most likely FR and Dragonlance. Which is a bummer because there’s more FR and Drangonlance material already out there than there is for all the other settings combined. So it’s not like we actually need any more. I’m just not a fan of either so hold out hope they’ll give us something interesting like Al-Qadim, Dark Sun, Mystara, Nentir Vale, Planescape, or Spelljammer.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm thinking monster book (like Volo's/Mordenkainen's) with both Dragon and Feywild material.

It would fit the mold well. A Dragonomicon would be pretty small in scope for a 5e book, but a Dragon + Feywild book combined would match the varied material in Mordenkainen's. Having both new monsters like the Sapphire Dragon, and new Fey, plus the Fey and Dragon themed players options.

It meets several criteria for me;

1. Haven't had a monster book in a while.
2. Is different than the confirmed 2021 releases (Adventure Compilation, Setting).
3. Fits neatly in July, between Ravenloft (May) and annual adventure (September).
4. Covers recent UA.

So I'm not certain, but it makes more sense than other things I can think of.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, in reality, those two other classic settings are most likely FR and Dragonlance. Which is a bummer because there’s more FR and Drangonlance material already out there than there is for all the other settings combined. So it’s not like we actually need any more. I’m just not a fan of either so hold out hope they’ll give us something interesting like Al-Qadim, Dark Sun, Mystara, Nentir Vale, Planescape, or Spelljammer.

I could see them bringing back Al-Qadim in the form of a Desert of Desolation (which, no, was not in Al-Qadim originally) in a Ghosts of Saltmarsh-style book. Instead of the mini-gazetteer being about Saltmarsh, we'd instead get an overview of Al-Qadim and maybe a tighter zoom in on one region, along with a touch of player-facing combat. If the genie warlock wasn't in Tasha's, I would say that was meant for an Al-Qadim book.

That said, they could reprint that in the book and we never have much indication of what future adventures will be -- the ship rules were in UA, but I don't think many people jumped to the conclusion that we were about to see a Saltmarsh reprint.

But a Desert of Desolation/Al-Qadim book next spring would also check off a classic setting box, as well as being both part of the Forgotten Realms and something portable enough to use elsewhere.

 

[Stormonu]

I’m going to put my two bits in for Gamma World or Spelljammer.