D&D 5E Planescape shows up in the wild. Tease from Chris Perkins.

[mamba]

Not a point in their favor, that.

it wasn’t meant as a defense

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No disagreement here. Bit that reality being different than 1993 foes a long way towards explaining WotC product development choices.

Oh absolutely. I could maybe see a second setting book set in the region around the Inner Sea, or something, but nothing like Szass Tam’s Census of Thay or whatever. Five people would buy it, and three of them only because they buy everything FR.

And they’ve made it clear that they can and will use people from the entire FR in The Sword Coast, and only venture outside it for adventures that still have some tie to the Sword Coast.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

SCAG covers a full quarter of the 1E Grey Box and 2E box set maps. Eventually, they may move on to another area, but there is no need to be hasty.

A full quarter of the tiny first product for FR the predates everything else, that is not impressive, it's bare minimum.

And the SCAG was published in 2015, I've seen glacier move faster, by 2024 it'll be 9 years old!

 

[Parmandur]

A full quarter of the tiny first product for FR the predates everything else, that is not impressive, it's bare minimum.

And the SCAG was published in 2015, I've seen glacier move faster, by 2024 it'll be 9 years old!

Another way if looking at it is "it's only been 9 years to cover an area larger than Europe," because the broader sword Coast they've been working on is larger than Europe. And the game isn't going anywhere, plenty of time to get around more.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I've been thinking about the weakest outer planes from a story perspective and give them something more then a vague between like Neutral Good/Lawful Good alignment, a philosophy that is more tangible and distinct from its neighbours.

Like Bytopia good as a priority with neutral and law as minor alignments, so it's a plane that is about understanding laws to use them to help people, but as a means to an ends, the law is the means, good the ends, and the Petitioners generally put the good before the law if no better means presents itself. Arcadia's the opposite, good is the means, because less suffering means fewer folks desperate enough to break the law, protecting the law, with good the means, but the ultimate goal is law.

Plus I'd find mythological roots and explore them more, like play up the inflounce of Heliopolis on Arcadia.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh absolutely. I could maybe see a second setting book set in the region around the Inner Sea, or something, but nothing like Szass Tam’s Census of Thay or whatever. Five people would buy it, and three of them only because they buy everything FR.

And they’ve made it clear that they can and will use people from the entire FR in The Sword Coast, and only venture outside it for adventures that still have some tie to the Sword Coast.

I do think they will transition slightly away from the Sword Coast towards the Eastern Heartlands and mayhe the Inner Sea writ large: there isn't a lot if room left in the Sword Coast area for big Adventures.

 

[dave2008]

wait, so you are saying through all of this, you are the only one that cared, the % differ because the number of other people differ, it is either 1 out of 6 or 1 out of 11 (across two groups), with the 1 being you…

Quite the poll

That is correct. That is why I said I didn't put any stock in my anecdotal evidence.

 

[darjr]

I really don’t know if WotC is leaving profits on the table. Do you have any thing that leads in that direction?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I do think they will transition slightly.away from the Sword Coast towards the Eastern Heartlands and mayhe the Inner Wea writ large: there isn't a lot if room left in the Sword Coast area for big Adventures.

Makes sense.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Just chiming in to point out that…kids literally still read books. Like that hasn’t gone away, books for kids still do numbers, kids still prefer paper books when surveyed about digital vs paper…like the idea they don’t want to “wade theough” paper books is just false.

Novels, yes. Reference books, no. Who wants to faff about with an index when you can just tell your phone what you want to know?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I do think they will transition slightly away from the Sword Coast towards the Eastern Heartlands and mayhe the Inner Sea writ large: there isn't a lot if room left in the Sword Coast area for big Adventures.

I don't see any reason to do so long as it's generic fantasyland adventure. Being well known, with lots of content, movies and video games is a huge advantage.

It's only when the adventure does not have a generic fantasy setting that they use other parts of the FR, as they do in Radiant Citadel for example.

 

[Remathilis]

No one is saying the new stuff is bad, but it isn't the same as it was, and as using him in the new product was clearly because he was associated with the brand originally, his presence here now serves no purpose other than to entice fans of his older style to buy something they otherwise might not.

I felt the same way when they trotted out Wiess and Hickman for new Dragonlance novels.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Novels, yes. Reference books, no. Who wants to faff about with an index when you can just tell your phone what you want to know?

Setting books are only partly reference books. They are just as much books meant to be read for their own sake.

And either way, again, any issue with setting books is not about younger gens not wanting to read.

Anything beyond that, I didn’t comment on.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Setting books are only partly reference books. They are just as much books meant to be read for their own sake.

People who enjoy reading about imaginary worlds, and people who enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons are two different markets, with only limited overlap. As a toy company, Hasbro are interested in the latter, not the former.

 

[mamba]

I felt the same way when they trotted out Wiess and Hickman for new Dragonlance novels.

was that WotC asking them, or did Weiss and Hickman want to write some and checked with WotC for permission?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

People who enjoy reading about imaginary worlds, and people who enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons are two different markets, with only limited overlap. As a toy company, Hasbro are interested in the latter, not the former.

I very much doubt your idea that there is little overlap. I think it’s much closer to a circle on that Venn diagram than it is to two separate circles.

 

[Remathilis]

was that WotC asking them, or did Weiss and Hickman want to write some and checked with WotC for permission?

Considering the hubbub that came with the lawsuit, I dare not speculate.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I very much doubt your idea that there is little overlap. I think it’s much closer to a circle on that Venn diagram than it is to two separate circles.

My experience tells me you are very wrong.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My experience tells me you are very wrong.

Your experience isn’t compelling outside your own life, nor is anyone else’s.

My experience tells me the opposite.

 

[Micah Sweet]

People who enjoy reading about imaginary worlds, and people who enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons are two different markets, with only limited overlap. As a toy company, Hasbro are interested in the latter, not the former.

I can't emphasize enough how little I care about what Hasbro wants. I never saw any benefit to the game coming from Hasbro.