D&D 5E Old settings coming back?

[Nellisir]

I've got absolutely no solid evidence this is what they're going to do other than my gut feeling and extrapolating from the various interviews and Q&As going on.

I would be very on board with what you've outlined.

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

How about - publish a setting guide, and possibly setting monster book. Then publish a single adventure guide that contains (a) one full length adventure (b) a handful of encounters (c) several extensive but undeveloped plot summaries and (d) a bunch of one-sentence plot hooks, all of which are specifically chosen because they evoke the feel/experience of the setting. No adventure from the Planescape book should be just as easily published in the Ravenloft book, for example.

What you described is pretty much how Dark Sun was handled for 4th Edition: World Book, Monster Book, Adventure. I wonder how it went over (as far as sales & reception) inside WOTC?

As far as the "bringing back the creators to work on their settings" well, I think that lessens our chances of getting a Greyhawk book. : ( Clearly FR is the priority, I would guess Eberron and Dragonlance to be the next likely candidates.

I wonder if we might see something closer to what Paizo is doing: new "Mythic Campaigns" rulebook launches alongside an adventure path that features Mythic Campaigns stuff in it. If WOTC decides to do a "Keeps and Kingdoms" rules module in a year or two, it would be a perfect time to launch a Birthright setting and maybe even some adventures.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I would like Mystara, Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Greyhawk.

The problem is that you need adventures to support the settings.

What if they didn't release any setting books, but instead just released a set of adventures for each? I think that would be much more awesome than picking up another Dark Sun core book. Have something with real teeth to it, ya know? I'd love that!

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I think something similar to the Paizo approach would be wise. Forgotten Realms should probably get regular support for the forseeable future. But every year or two, a new setting should get a core product and support with adventure paths and the like. These additional settings would get supported in rotation. So one year, it's Forgotten Realms + Ebberon. The next, it's Forgotten Realms + Dark Sun. And so on.

 

[Abstruse]

What you described is pretty much how Dark Sun was handled for 4th Edition: World Book, Monster Book, Adventure. I wonder how it went over (as far as sales & reception) inside WOTC?

Not very well from the looks of things. They had a perfect release cycle that they completely threw out after about two years because something was seriously not working in sales. They were supposed to do Ravenloft for 4e, but it all got scrapped and they went with the Essentials release pattern and all the work that had been done on Ravenloft got pushed into Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond instead.

 

[Aldeon]

I'm getting tired of Forgotten Realms. I would prefer the default setting be Points of Light like 4th edition, just leaving the vast majority up to the DM. Even if Forgotten Realms is the default, I'm never going to use it.

I'd be interested in seeing a few titles again:
Eberron
Dark Sun/Dragon King
Spelljammer, if possible
Planescape

Please, never again with Greyhawk. That setting was so boring.

 

[Abstruse]

Again, my bet is one setting book a year (maybe two), which will be generic with no rules and edition-neutral. You'll also get 2ish genre books a year that are the actual crunch, where you get your new classes/races/feats/spells/monsters/etc. Forgotten Realms will be the default setting because they've got too many eggs in that basket. As far as other settings, I'm betting this is the release order:

Dragonlance
Dragonlance
Ebberon
Ravenloft
Planescape
Something original, probably very dragon oriented
Greyhawk
Gamma World
Something licensed (Conan or Cthulhu or something like that)
Something original, probably something with heavy politics but not Birthright
Mystara (if they still have the license)

When they're completely out of ideas, they'll do Spelljammer and Birthright and all that wacky stuff. I'd expect a sci-fi or urban fantasy port of the rules long before then.

 

[vagabundo]

Not very well from the looks of things. They had a perfect release cycle that they completely threw out after about two years because something was seriously not working in sales. They were supposed to do Ravenloft for 4e, but it all got scrapped and they went with the Essentials release pattern and all the work that had been done on Ravenloft got pushed into Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond instead.

Dark Sun sold out as far as I know. It became very hard to find very soon after release. There may have been other factors at play not just sales of Dark Sun.

 

[Echohawk]

Mystara (if they still have the license)

Wait, what? Mystara isn't a licensed setting. That intellectual property belongs entirely to WotC.

 

[Herobizkit]

Spelljammer, yup.
Why not combine Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur into one big "Asia"-themed book?
I always thought Birthright WAS Mystara with Kingmaker-like rules...
Bring back those Gazetters! You know which ones I mean.

 

[Nikosandros]

Why not combine Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur into one big "Asia"-themed book?

They really don't have anything in common, do they? Would you combine mythic Greece and Vikings in an European book or Celts and Seminole in an Atlantic Ocean themed book?

 

[Abstruse]

Wait, what? Mystara isn't a licensed setting. That intellectual property belongs entirely to WotC.

I thought I remember reading somewhere Arneson got the rights back sometime around the end of TSR. Might be misremembering something.

 

[Abstruse]

They really don't have anything in common, do they? Would you combine mythic Greece and Vikings in an European book or Celts and Seminole in an Atlantic Ocean themed book?

And that's why they won't throw Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur into one setting. They also have to be careful about those settings in general because, frankly, they get a wee big close to the racist side of cultural insensitivity at times.

 

[Echohawk]

I thought I remember reading somewhere Arneson got the rights back sometime around the end of TSR. Might be misremembering something.

I think you may be confusing Blackmoor with Mystara.

If I'm remembering correctly, WotC gave Dave Arneson permission (not sure if it was as formal as a licence, per se) to release d20 Blackmoor products, which indeed happened. There was even a 4e compatible Blackmoor campaign setting published in 2009, although I suspect that was released after Arneson's death.

I think that the rights to Blackmoor may have now reverted to WotC. I'm not sure about that, but there don't seem to have been any new Blackmoor products released by anyone since 2009.

 

[Abstruse]

I think you may be confusing Blackmoor with Mystara.

That is exactly what happened. What I get for posting after four bourbons or at 7 AM before coffee.

 

[bigrobbie45]

Glad to hear that WoTC may be approaching other setting designers!

In addition to the Forgotten Realms, The 5 setting i'd like to see would be;

Greyhawk
Dragonlance
Eberron
Dark Sun
Mystara


With expansion options including;

Nentir Vale (as default setting)
Planescape (as Manuals of the Plane supplement)
Spelljammer (as Manuals of the Plane supplement)
Ravenloft (as Shadowfell supplement)
Maztica (as Forgotten Realms supplement)
Kara-Tur (as Forgotten Realms supplement)
Al-Quadim (as Forgotten Realms supplement)

Maybe just the core details.

 

[Herobizkit]

They really don't have anything in common, do they? Would you combine mythic Greece and Vikings in an European book or Celts and Seminole in an Atlantic Ocean themed book?

... yes? Greece, Vikings, and Medieval Europe *IS* D&D in every sense of the word... to me, anyway.

They DID combine many pantheons of the "real world" in the 1e Legends & Lore, and then again in the Deities & Demigods of 3e...

And the old Mystara setting was pretty much every Earthly culture slammed together.

 

[adamc]

Unless they are licensing them so that third-parties can work on them, I don't think I care. I haven't been that impressed with WoTC's own work on settings over the life of 4e.

 

[dwayne]

Always thought spelljammer was just dumb, if I want space will do a sci fi, but whatever. Think greyhawk would be a great move due to was the fist setting and all the wanting to get back to the basics would draw in the older die hard crowd if done right. Darksun another setting that needs some love and would also draw in a lot of the gaming community. Would love a planescape not dragonlance or the others due to been way overdone. I would like a new setting but not too far out the standard type such as eberron was, A dark horror setting with the heroes trying to survive. I have a personal setting which have been developing over 30 years but not posting any thing about it here its posted else where.

 

[BASHMAN]

For what it's worth, I think they should do Mystara and possibly Hollow World. Those were the best.