D&D 5E (2014) Next (3rd book of the year) endless speculation thread
- Thread starter Mercurius
- Start date
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Just as you say. Those who care, the stuff is available. WotC have no reason to do anything.
grimslade
Krampus ate my d20s
I don't see what setting will be released. I love Greyhawk, but I am old and frequently wrong. There is no champion for Greyhawk at WotC. No Erik Mona level of interest like in 3E. I don't see what stories can't be told without a Greyhawk campaign book. A setting book needs to enable new stories that are only hinted at in the base game. Eberron has a hook. Greyhawk is what the game was based on.
So settings that enable wider storytelling:
Dragonlance: This is the classic fantasy epic with a tight central story, The War of the Lance, and enough differences from straight D&D to seem different, without overwhelming. I see more of a Campaign Adventure Path book tying in with the new DL fiction books coming out.
Planescape: Expands the boundaries of the game. Introduces a new annoying cant to annoy berks with. Planescape book would be a springboard for planar adventures of all types.
Spelljammer: So much weird fun. Ptolemaic physics and ship battles in Sppaaaaaacccee! I don't think there is enough story to Spelljammer to warrant a campaign setting. I love the Scro and Imperial Elves, but it was always thin. I see mechanics being molded into another monster/theme book. Planejammer could be a thing, but those Hammerheads and Nautiloids don't have to stay in the Astral.
Dark Sun: Doubtful. No coherent psionics yet. No wild talents. WotC adverse to having any sort of limitations to core races/classes in PHB. If it is released it will be a very different setting to 2E and 4E versions. I don't see it this year.
Setting search Part Deux? Why not do another contest to find the next Eberron? Nah I don't see this.
I don't see other settings being resurrected as campaign settings. I can see many being used as references for Ghost of Salt Marsh collections, but actual settings?
So settings that enable wider storytelling:
Dragonlance: This is the classic fantasy epic with a tight central story, The War of the Lance, and enough differences from straight D&D to seem different, without overwhelming. I see more of a Campaign Adventure Path book tying in with the new DL fiction books coming out.
Planescape: Expands the boundaries of the game. Introduces a new annoying cant to annoy berks with. Planescape book would be a springboard for planar adventures of all types.
Spelljammer: So much weird fun. Ptolemaic physics and ship battles in Sppaaaaaacccee! I don't think there is enough story to Spelljammer to warrant a campaign setting. I love the Scro and Imperial Elves, but it was always thin. I see mechanics being molded into another monster/theme book. Planejammer could be a thing, but those Hammerheads and Nautiloids don't have to stay in the Astral.
Dark Sun: Doubtful. No coherent psionics yet. No wild talents. WotC adverse to having any sort of limitations to core races/classes in PHB. If it is released it will be a very different setting to 2E and 4E versions. I don't see it this year.
Setting search Part Deux? Why not do another contest to find the next Eberron? Nah I don't see this.
I don't see other settings being resurrected as campaign settings. I can see many being used as references for Ghost of Salt Marsh collections, but actual settings?
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Quite right, though slight correction, the Gothic Subclasses were put out 9 months before the Ravenloft book is releasing In May this year, in Unearthed Arcana last August. I will again note that the October Subclass UA would then line up with July this year...four months after this Lineage material, the same turnaround as for Ravenloft.
At any rate, 3-9 months is the usual turnaround if an option from UA gets published, with a couple outliers for Tasha's and Xanathar's on the higher end.
The Glen
Legend
You'd need about 200 pages for a player's guide to introduce people to the setting. DMG would add secrets of the nations, new magic items, give additional information on the outlying regions of the setting like the hollow world/red coast/good kingdom etc. Then throw out some nation books, bundle them into books of about 300 pages compiling a few nations each. A monster manual would be 400 pages alone. It would be a dozen books easily at the end. You could take the opportunity to fix the setting's glaring continuity problems, rework the weaker gazetteers into a similar style as the others. Reset the timeline so it doesn't end up with the post wrath malaise that ruined large chunks of 2nd edition. It would take some work, but it could be done. Just give us the chance.
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
Despise the cartoon movie to have been a total flop Dragonlance is one of the best D&D worlds to be adapted into a multimedia franchise. I guess the first step will be not a setting, but an updated version of the original compilation of modules, with some new options, for example Theros Ironfeld as an artificier, or his sister as one of the PCs. And the kender personality to be softed.
I guess Greyhawk and Mystara are going to be rebooted, to allow more space for new elements, not only the new classes, races and monsters.
I guess Greyhawk and Mystara are going to be rebooted, to allow more space for new elements, not only the new classes, races and monsters.
Mercurius
Legend
Does anyone honestly think that there is any real chance that WotC publishes a Mystara book? I could maybe see Greyhawk for a 50th anniversary commemorative product as the "first" big D&D setting (with apologies to Blackmoor; it never had the product presence of the major settings), but I just don't see it for Mystara.
When was the last Mystara book published? I'm not absolutely certain but I think it was 1996, with the Savage Coast line. That's 25 years. They didn't republish it for 3E, 3.5, or 4E. What makes the current context ripe for a Mystara revival? What does it add, in a significant way, that says to WotC, "this is a goldmine"?
I'm not bagging on Mystara as a game world or its fans. I just think there is a common cognitive dissonance among fans of specific (generally older) properties that has trouble reconciling personal preference and taste with the realities of publishing - that WotC, in the end, will make their publishing choices based upon what they think will sell right now - and to the current fan base, which is younger. We grognards and quasi-grognards (basically, anyone who started playing during TSR's tenure) still exist and have some buying power, but far less than we did a decade or two ago - and even then, we didn't see a Mystara revival.
Greyhawk is a bit different because of its historical significance - as the first "big" D&D setting. But even then I'm not sure whether there's really a place for it now in WotC's product line. As I said, I could see a 50th anniversary product, either a big setting book (or box set), or something like a Ruins of Castle Greyhawk product that can be used in other worlds (ala Saltmarsh). But still...they could make a deluxe box set for $100 and grognards would gobble it up. But would that sell to the larger fan base? If they made a hardcover or less expensive box set, would it have the appeal and fit the current cultural context? I'm not so sure. But I think there's a decent chance - unlike Mystara, which would be very surprising.
When was the last Mystara book published? I'm not absolutely certain but I think it was 1996, with the Savage Coast line. That's 25 years. They didn't republish it for 3E, 3.5, or 4E. What makes the current context ripe for a Mystara revival? What does it add, in a significant way, that says to WotC, "this is a goldmine"?
I'm not bagging on Mystara as a game world or its fans. I just think there is a common cognitive dissonance among fans of specific (generally older) properties that has trouble reconciling personal preference and taste with the realities of publishing - that WotC, in the end, will make their publishing choices based upon what they think will sell right now - and to the current fan base, which is younger. We grognards and quasi-grognards (basically, anyone who started playing during TSR's tenure) still exist and have some buying power, but far less than we did a decade or two ago - and even then, we didn't see a Mystara revival.
Greyhawk is a bit different because of its historical significance - as the first "big" D&D setting. But even then I'm not sure whether there's really a place for it now in WotC's product line. As I said, I could see a 50th anniversary product, either a big setting book (or box set), or something like a Ruins of Castle Greyhawk product that can be used in other worlds (ala Saltmarsh). But still...they could make a deluxe box set for $100 and grognards would gobble it up. But would that sell to the larger fan base? If they made a hardcover or less expensive box set, would it have the appeal and fit the current cultural context? I'm not so sure. But I think there's a decent chance - unlike Mystara, which would be very surprising.
Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
what is the function of greyhawk anymore?
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
Greyhawk will come back but it will need a lot of work to be showed as a multimedia franchise. Have you thought about future plans to continue the metaplot? Not only races visitors from Sigil(Planescape) but also from Spelljammer. And the possible reboot of the "twin worlds" of Oerth.
* We have forgotten "Councyl of Wyrms". In the past I said maybe this would return as Iomandra, Cris Perkins' version. A book about dragons but not a new Draconomicon.
* We have forgotten "Councyl of Wyrms". In the past I said maybe this would return as Iomandra, Cris Perkins' version. A book about dragons but not a new Draconomicon.
Faolyn
(she/her)
I know that people have said Mystara is too big to be properly rebooted in a single book, but I think that doesn't take into consideration that a lot of the information can be condensed or would be considered unnecessary for a 5e book.
I have my Explorer's Guide to Wildemont right in front of me. Opening to a random section, it gives an overview of a place called the Berleben. Now, I've never listened to/watched Critical Role and know nothing about it--to the point I don't even know if it's Youtube videos, podcasts, or something else entirely--so I have no idea how important Berleben is to the storyline (I like reading settings and it had archetypes and monsters and stuff). However, they're described as follows: Population, Government, Defenses, Commerce, and Organizations, which are each given one sentence. Then three paragraphs on a description, then a paragraph each for Government, Crime, Geography, and Adventures. I see a few sections also have a paragraph for important NPCs, although this one doesn't. The whole section is just about a page long.
Now, I know that Wildemont doesn't have as much stuff in it as Mystara did, but I can easily see them reducing each part of Mystara to an overview that's one to two pages long.
Now, even if they never touched Mystara, I would like Immortal rules instead of the more typical Epic rules. Or some combination of them. I think becoming a literal godling is a lot more interesting then just becoming super-high level and fighting godlings. But I also think that Immortal/Epic rules would likely end up as their own book rather than an appendix in a setting book.
As for monsters, there are a lot of them that really are just regular monsters but with a different name. Sure, Savage Coast had all those weird hybrids, but a lot of them feel like they could be made with a template. Take a beast, add one of these abilities to it: part frog, gets Standing Leap; part cat, is proficient in Stealth, gets Pounce, etc. A couple of Mystaran creatures were published in the Tortle Package, and Magen are in Icewind Dale. My personal list for being officially converted is: acteons, piranha bird swarms, brain collectors/neh-thalggu, Mystaran drakes (but as a single creature rather than four sub-types), dusanu/rot fiends, at least some of the Mystaran elementals, athachs, gray philosophers, mujina, nucklevee, aranea, thoul (for nostalgia's sake), wyrds, maybe a few others. Obviously, this is just my opinion, but a lot of the creatures I didn't name are, as I said, regular monsters that kinda look different. And, of course, some of them, specifically gyerians, phanatons, rakasta, hutaakan, and lupin, could easily become PC races.
I have my Explorer's Guide to Wildemont right in front of me. Opening to a random section, it gives an overview of a place called the Berleben. Now, I've never listened to/watched Critical Role and know nothing about it--to the point I don't even know if it's Youtube videos, podcasts, or something else entirely--so I have no idea how important Berleben is to the storyline (I like reading settings and it had archetypes and monsters and stuff). However, they're described as follows: Population, Government, Defenses, Commerce, and Organizations, which are each given one sentence. Then three paragraphs on a description, then a paragraph each for Government, Crime, Geography, and Adventures. I see a few sections also have a paragraph for important NPCs, although this one doesn't. The whole section is just about a page long.
Now, I know that Wildemont doesn't have as much stuff in it as Mystara did, but I can easily see them reducing each part of Mystara to an overview that's one to two pages long.
Now, even if they never touched Mystara, I would like Immortal rules instead of the more typical Epic rules. Or some combination of them. I think becoming a literal godling is a lot more interesting then just becoming super-high level and fighting godlings. But I also think that Immortal/Epic rules would likely end up as their own book rather than an appendix in a setting book.
As for monsters, there are a lot of them that really are just regular monsters but with a different name. Sure, Savage Coast had all those weird hybrids, but a lot of them feel like they could be made with a template. Take a beast, add one of these abilities to it: part frog, gets Standing Leap; part cat, is proficient in Stealth, gets Pounce, etc. A couple of Mystaran creatures were published in the Tortle Package, and Magen are in Icewind Dale. My personal list for being officially converted is: acteons, piranha bird swarms, brain collectors/neh-thalggu, Mystaran drakes (but as a single creature rather than four sub-types), dusanu/rot fiends, at least some of the Mystaran elementals, athachs, gray philosophers, mujina, nucklevee, aranea, thoul (for nostalgia's sake), wyrds, maybe a few others. Obviously, this is just my opinion, but a lot of the creatures I didn't name are, as I said, regular monsters that kinda look different. And, of course, some of them, specifically gyerians, phanatons, rakasta, hutaakan, and lupin, could easily become PC races.
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