Ravnica: Is This The New D&D Setting? [UPDATED & CONFIRMED!]

If so... meh?

 

[Sunseeker]

blue....but I hear yah!

Gideon gets some of my ire here too.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

Fantastic news. I for one am tired of them rehashing the same materials over and over. You can buy the old settings very easily now and 5E is easy to convert to.

 

[Jester David]

I agree - presumably any other setting book would be next year, hopefully in the first half (which during that span this year there was a dearth of books). Would it being released early next year be that much of a disappointment? I know I have enough to spend on D&D this year, even without this book...

As I said above, it seems super unlikely they'll releasing setting books back-to-back. First, because they don't want the two books competing for new player's attentions. And second, because they don't know if they first setting will be a success or demonstrate a market. They'll want to see sales first.
Good odds, we won't see another hardcover setting book before 2020 or 2021. If ever.

Very likely, this is the sole hardcover setting book we will get for 5e.

 

[Kite474]

Gideon gets some of my ire here too.

Aw but Chads so fun to be with

 

[Sunseeker]

On paper, nothing.

In practice, it's marketing to a theoretical audience. It's releasing a product not for your actual fans, but fans who might exist.
The book is gambling that MtG fans want this book and will be swayed by it buy said book and then play D&D.

It also assumes that large numbers of MtG fans are somehow unaware of D&D. Which seems unlikely. And that they will have both the free time and money to invest in D&D over MtG.
More likely the money for this book will have to come at the expense of MtG cards as the player chooses which to spend their disposable income on OR will not play D&D because they're spending their limited free time playing MtG.

It's not theoretical. Anecdotal but...I know numerous MTG players and D&D players who have started with one and gone to the other. Surprisingly, we are quite capable of managing two or more hobbies.

Also, your issue is with marketing in general. You always want NEW people buying your product. Because if for no other reason, OLD people die. If you always cater to the same group, you're catering to an ever-shrinking group of people. Products that don't draw in new players are produts that inevitably don't sell well and don't further your product line.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Very likely, this is the sole hardcover setting book we will get for 5e.

And your reasoning for that is...?

 

[Mercurius]

They've also referenced Curse of Strahd as the model.
So at most I'm expecting a 30-page PDF that is mostly an introductory adventure with very limited new crunch, followed by opening up the DMsGuild and letting the fans do it. At very likely just the latter with the Guild and fans doing the work.
Which is okay, but hasn't exactly resulted in a whole lot of support for the setting or really introduced the setting to new fans as the vast, vast majority of D&D players don't visit the Guild.

Yeah, I could see the 30-page PDFs this year - as in, this summer. But that doesn't mean they won't publish actual books next year, or that "this is it for 5e published settings."

I do think we'll see at least a Spelljammer/Planescape book, and probably some kind of book for Dark Sun, maybe Eberron - a Curse of Strahd type book makes sense.

I would also assume that the Ravnica book has at least a starter adventure or two, as it seems counter-productive to publish a new setting and not offer ways to run games in it.

 

[Remathilis]

What happens in 2019 is still unknown. But everything for 2018 has now been announced.

Everything in the form of hardcover books has been announced, but I still wager that there are alternative methods of distribution we don't know the full extent of.

 

[machineelf]

It's not that we don't want something new, it's that we don't want MtG in our D&D.

And technically it's not a new setting, since it already exists in MtG, it's just "new" to D&D.

How about something actually new and original?

This. I would have been happy with an actually new setting

Because this setting seems to be magepunk, I am now thinking Eberron is unlikely. Hopefully the other option is Dark Sun. I'd also be excited about a continuation of 5e Ravenloft.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I skipped 3e and 4e, and also have never played a single hand of M:tG, so I have no history or emotional connection/baggage with most of these settings. I was around during the original Dragonlance (and boy am I glad we're not getting THAT one), and although I loved the original Ravenloft I never really cared for the demi-plane campaign setting that grew out of it.

So given what I can glean about the premises of all these different settings...Eberron, Spelljammer, Planescape, etc...Ravnica sounds the most interesting to me. I see this as good news.