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

[Paul Farquhar]

The kids wanted to read horror comics, it's the parents who freaked out.

It's natural for parents to be overprotective, it's something WotC have to allow for.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I see a definite difference between Otus, Rosloff, Etc and how later artists interpreted the GH setting than the Realms or Dragonlance styles. It’s modern art that seems to have genericized it.

as far as dark fantasy… descent into Avernus is really dark people. I’m not sure why you all think WOTC is afraid to do dark or people don’t want to play dark. Cthulhu is huge, the majority of successful Kickstarters tend toward a darker aesthetic. There is a lot of confirmation bias. Hammer horror isn’t that dark while Ravenloft has some much darker stuff than hammer ever touched upon. I say that as a big hammer fan but they did move Ravenloft to a very Castlevania style vs the Hammer treatment of 2e.

Kickstarters are 3rd party. We are talking about WotC and what they are willing to do.

 

[Parmandur]

Right. Which was the point being made that launched this whole tangent. Adults marketing things to kids often sanitize things beyond where the kids actually want them to be. Hence my comment about thinking "young teenager" but instead landing squarely in the 6-10 year old range. Those teenagers are horror fans. They're also Marvel fans. And they're also My Little Pony fans. And RWBY fans. And Helluva Boss fans. And anime fans. Etc. So targeting just the fantasy superhero demographic is a bit short sighted. It's clearly working gangbusters for them, but that's also causing cognitive dissonance when dealing with older, more mature-themed settings. Like say the Disney theme park that is 5E Ravenloft.

I think your idea of what is G. PG, or PG-13 is being soon yhrough R-tint3d glasses here. PG-13, as a category, is precisely where that teenage demographic is finding enjoyment, also in D&D these days. The PG-13 approach is part of the secret sauc for the current success of 5E, not holding WotC back.

 

[dave2008]

No, I get it. I just don't have the booklet nearby and read it years ago. Broad strokes, it's got tons of cool random tables, especially for generating hell vehicles and for deciding what kind of soulgrub you are.

OK, your response was odd to me as I don't have Descent and I am not very familiar with it. It just wasn't helpful, that was why I didn't ask for the comparison. Regardless, thank you for the follow up!

 

[Mind of tempest]

so that ask the question what settings are we likely to get and what are they likely to be warped into?

 

[tetrasodium]

Soul coins and the machines consume the souls… you left out the dark bit.

So does a lich. The soul coin-op vehicles aren't raising the bar any. a lich & all kinds of other stuff does that. check the grimdark entry on tvtropes

A Tone Shift that seeks to make a work of fiction more serious, cynical or gritty.

In theory, this means that archetypes which we are accustomed to see acting in a more noble setting will have to act in one where they must think and act grimly in order to make progress, thus forcing re-examination of the tropes involved, or the use of new tropes and expansion of the setting, utilizing different sorts of characters and stories. In practice, however, writers can be too lazy to realize all that potential and end up randomly "spicing up" a work with gratuitous gore, cursing, and sex to make it more "adult" — often overdoing it in the process. This is not to be confused with Tough Love.

When done right, Darker and Edgier works are a case of Tropes Are Tools. When a show uses this trope as a tagline, you can expect a mixture of: awful things happening to the characters, twisted backstories giving them a reason to angst, good and bad becoming less obvious, and the setting becoming much bleaker. However, this all works IF it's done right.

As one could predict, this is fairly easy to screw up and poor use of these tropes may just result in Too Bleak, Stopped Caring if the setting gets too depressing, or Narm if the edginess becomes just silly.

DiA falls squarely in the bold bits. The few exceptions like the page106unicorn torture cage powered barrier are lost in the absolute morality silliness. Players aren't trying to cajole sapient creatures into a similar murderbox they need to watch slowly suck the victim dry while driving around, they just pop a coin in the slot. It's not even difficult to carry the coins around to activate as magic items or pop them in the slot to power the car.

 

[overgeeked]

so that ask the question what settings are we likely to get

Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms, and either Planescape or Greyhawk. Though I'm leaning more toward Planescape than Greyhawk.

and what are they likely to be warped into?

The Disney theme park version of themselves same as we saw with Ravenloft.

Though that works perfectly for Spelljammer. The more outlandish and goofy and ridiculous they go with that the better. I mean autognomes, plasmoids, and miniature giant space hamsters. Ships powered by giant space hamsters in exercise wheels and space whales and D&D in spaaaace and ships shaped like hammerhead sharks and manta rays. It's about as pitch perfect for 5E as any setting could be. Guardians of the Galaxy eat your heart out.

And Mystara. That would be amazing. But I'm doubtful that will happen. I hope it does, but we'll see.

 

[dave2008]

Seriously, just wait for the Guild once whatever WotC publishes comes out.

I agree with this, but...

Releasing the IP is all WotC is good for at this point.

...I disagree with this. An official WotC version of a setting has value even if it is not what you want from it.

 

[Remathilis]

as far as dark fantasy… descent into Avernus is really dark people. I’m not sure why you all think WOTC is afraid to do dark or people don’t want to play dark. Cthulhu is huge, the majority of successful Kickstarters tend toward a darker aesthetic. There is a lot of confirmation bias. Hammer horror isn’t that dark while Ravenloft has some much darker stuff than hammer ever touched upon. I say that as a big hammer fan but they did move Ravenloft to a very Castlevania style vs the Hammer treatment of 2e.

Dark and Grim are two separate things, and WotC will go dark, but not grim.

Ask any GH fan what makes their setting different than Forgotten Realms. You'll get a lot of answers ranging from nostalgic to smug, but the big one seems to be Greyhawk is grim. Races are very segregated, nations are isolationist. There are plenty of "monsters" but "PC races" are few. Groups like the Scarlet Brotherhood are forged around racial identity and purity, slavery is accepted in several areas, and every statement about orcs, drow, and the like are true. It flies in the face of the current trend towards more inclusive settings, less overt fantasy racism, and the notion of "play what you want" that is immensely popular with newer players. You could make Greyhawk start to resemble that kind of setting, but you run into the 3e problem of "It's like the Realms, only less well known".

FWIW: I think their Dark Sun will continue down the trend of 4e's take on the setting, with maybe even more concessions. The core of the setting (brutal survival, psionics, desert wastes, distant gods, corrupted magic) all work simply fine even if you're a tiefling bard. They can lighten up Athas and keep the flavor correct, much like how they lightened up Ravenloft and kept it on flavor.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I agree with this, but...

...I disagree with this. An official WotC version of a setting has value even if it is not what you want from it.

Not to me. I simply don't trust the company to make a 5e version of any setting with an edge to it. Maybe Spelljammer. As has been said, its pretty silly already. And even there, I expect them to oversimplify it.