D&D 5E Revisited Setting News: Its not the 2023 Classic setting, but rather for 2024

[Marandahir]

I love different settings. It's what got me excited about D&D in the first place back in 2nd ed. And WotC will publish other settings for 5e because people are clamoring for them. But they also have a brand they are heavily invested in, and modern sensibilities to live up to, and for those reasons I don't expect these new products to convey differences like the old ones did. They're going to want everything to pretty much look the same as base D&D, with all the same core options and values, and a mild flavoring of the setting in question. I have no belief that WotC will reconstruct the old settings faithfully. The only advantage to publishing them at all i can see is opening the settings up to the DMs Guild, where the fans can do it properly.

I just don't think WotC will spend money publishing a setting unless they can emphasize its own identity.

Critical Role may be kitchen-sink fantasy like FR, but it's Critical Role. Greyhawk may have started it all (Blackmoor aside), but it's REALLY hard to sell it as why you should play in Greyhawk and not FR if you want Kitchensink High fantasy. And there just aren't the same number of fans clamouring to play in it the way Critical Role has. So the incentives are lower for Greyhawk than they are for exploring other parts of the Realms.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Critical Role may be kitchen-sink fantasy like FR, but it's Critical Role. Greyhawk may have started it all (Blackmoor aside), but it's REALLY hard to sell it as why you should play in Greyhawk and not FR if you want Kitchensink High fantasy. And there just aren't the same number of fans clamouring to play in it the way Critical Role has. So the incentives are lower for Greyhawk than they are for exploring other parts of the Realms.

I think you're definitely correct in that if you simply pointed at a piece of art and say "That's Greyhawk" it's not immediately apparent what's different about Greyhawk from FR. You can do that with Dark Sun, Spelljammer etc. That all being said I hope you're right and they just make more Realms stuff because I doubt they'll do Greyhawk right (any hope I had for that died when Mearls left) and because history has shown that FR is pretty resilient in terms of major changes over and over again, so Wizard's can kinda just do what they want.

 

[Marandahir]

I think you're definitely correct in that if you simply pointed at a piece of art and say "That's Greyhawk" it's not immediately apparent what's different about Greyhawk from FR. You can do that with Dark Sun, Spelljammer etc. That all being said I hope you're right and they just make more Realms stuff because I doubt they'll do Greyhawk right (any hope I had for that died when Mearls left) and because history has shown that FR is pretty resilient in terms of major changes over and over again, so Wizard's can kinda just do what they want.

Has he actually left? I thought he just faded into the WotC background because every time he tweeted led to reminders of how he defended a bad person and thus was hurting the brand more than helping.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Has he actually left? I thought he just faded into the WotC background because every time he tweeted led to reminders of how he defended a bad person and thus was hurting the brand more than helping.

He works on Magic now.

 

[Marandahir]

He works on Magic now.

Lot of overlap between the two brands, and it's still WotC. There's nothing preventing him from being involved.

But that's neither here nor there. Greyhawk can be done justice, methinks, it doesn't rely on a single individual for that to happen. But whether WotC WILL touch Greyhawk outside of a few multiversal references, I don't think it makes financial sense.

 

[Parmandur]

Are we sure that Fizban's Treasury of Dragons doesn't count as the "very slight nod to a classic setting" book? I'm pretty sure that counts as a Dragonlance book, given the DL lore in it and finally getting 5e Draconians (holding out for DL Draconians was why WotC-published Critical Role books have to call their Dragonborn imperial spellcaster subrace Draconbloods instead of Draconians).

So if it does, then could the 2024 setting be "revisiting" Dragonlance? Couldn't that be possible?

The "cameo" is a 2022 product, per what Winninger was laying down. So, not Fizban's...but what? We'll know soon enough, I suppose.

 

[Marandahir]

The "cameo" is a 2022 product, per what Winninger was laying down. So, not Fizban's...but what? We'll know soon enough, I suppose.

Thanks, I forgot that timing. I wouldn't be surprised if the cameo is no bigger than what Fizban had for Dragonlance, though. Maybe Planescape or Greyhawk cameoing within Spelljammer?

Could also be another Adventure Anthology a la Tales From the Yawning Portal or Candlekeep Mysteries, or something more along the lines of Ghosts of Saltmarsh (more than an anthology, less than an adventure path or setting guide).

 

[dave2008]

Greyhawk is not a grimdark setting like The Old World. It's just simply darker than say, FR or Eberron. I think that works in its favor. If Greyhawk is really just generic fantasy (which it's not) why bother with it at all instead of just making more FR stuff, you know?

More broadly, what's the point in having different settings at all if they aren't markedly different from one another?

My current guess for the 2024 revisit is in fact Greyhawk, but with the following caveats:

1. They will make it more generic
2. It will be less grimdark
3. It will become the default setting for 5.5e,
4. Number 3 is the reason for #1 and #2

 

[dave2008]

That's my point. They don't want to go with darker grittier fantasy with upsetting elements. I would argue that's the opposite direction they're moving. Dark Sun 5e will very much be in name only.

I get that thought; however, Descent into Avernus was a pretty dark adventure. I mean you are expected to drive war machines that use souls for fuel! I think WotC is willing to go pretty dark, but they don't see it as the default setting. I think a darker gritter campaign setting is still a possiblity.

 

[dave2008]

There's the rub. After seeing what happened to the Domains of Dread, as a fan of Greyhawk, do I want that sort of treatment? To be clear, I am not advocating for a 5e version of Greyhawk for that very reason.

I think that is what we are getting. Which I am personally fine with as it should open it up for the DM;s guild which is were the interesting 5e content is IMO.