D&D 4E Settings for 4E?

[The Grumpy Celt]

I’m behind the curve here, so to speak. What is the status with the published settings for 4E?

Forgotten Realms – Made quasi-post-apocalyptic, jumped the time-line up 100+ years.

Eberron – I don’t know. What is the official word?

Grayhawk – I don’t know. Is there any official word? It was the “default” setting for 3.0 and 3.5? But I get the feeling that is no longer the case.

Ravenloft – Taken out of White Wolf hands a couple of years ago, and besides that I don’t know.

Al-Qadim - I don’t know. What is the official word?

Planescape - I don’t know. What is the official word?

Spelljammer - I don’t know. What is the official word?

Dragonlance - I don’t know. What is the official word?

 

[The Lost Muse]

Well, Eberron comes out in 2009. The timeline hasn't been advanced, and I imagine the changes will be minimal (incorporating dragonborn/eladrin, etc)

WotC has announced that the support for each setting will be a player's guide, a DM guide, and a third book (most likely a module), along with support in the form of articles on DDI.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

WotC has announced that the support for each setting...

I know all of that. I was wondering what else anyone knows beyond this.

 

[arscott]

Realms: The timeline's advance, but that doesn't make it quasi post-apocalyptic. I had a chance to run "Escape from Sembia" at Gamex this weekend. The adventure includes descriptions of Sembia, Cormyr, and the Dalelands, and none of the areas seems to have undergone any kind of apocalypse. (That's not to say that certain areas haven't experienced any sort of political change, but that's another story.)

As far as Eberron goes, Keith Baker's posted a little bit on his blog. He describes the new edition as being additions rather than revisions. Specific examples include more information about how the common people of Eberron were effected by the last war, something that made the gnomes of zilargo even more dangerous (without invalidating or contradicting anything that has come before), and new important npcs (including a magebred human and a villain that has "sailed out of Eberron's past"). The actual change he admits to is the removing of superfluous apostrophes from some of the setting's proper nouns (though Q'barra stays as is).

I seem to remember a designer saying that he'd begun work on Greyhawk material, but I don't recall any specifics. Given that the next setting book after FR and Eberron comes out in 2010, I assume that whatever he's working on will be for DDI. It's definately not the default setting anymore (though certain aspects of the new default Points-of-Light setting are lifted directly from greyhawk, including the Temple of Elemental Evil.)

Planescape, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer were described as being on the list of settings being considered by WotC. Dragonlance, interestingly, was not. I don't think Al-Qadim was either, but I could be wrong there.

 

[Emirikol]

Warhammer Old World.

It's essentially pure D&D that can absorb anything that 4e throws at it.

WARHAMMER 4TH EDITION DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CAMPAIGN

Setting: The Empire of Sigmar, WARHAMMER FANTASY WORLD.

CHARACTER LIST
Dwarf Fighter ~ Scott (Choose to be either from the dwarvish mountains or the Empire)
Half-Elf Cleric ~ Chad (choose to be from either the Laurelorn Forest or Empire). Your god is either Sigmar (cool god of the Empire) or the "Elf Religion"
Human Wizard ~ Barney (choose to be from one of the human lands; choose a "college")
Halfling Rogue ~ Jason (choose to be either from The Moot or from the Empire); I recommend being from the city of Nuln (Wiki it to see more)

Things that will be added:
* You will have a "career" that you did before becomming an adventurer. it will be things like: soldier, hedge wizard, templar, ratcatcher, etc. We will roll for it.
* Some magic will have a chance of a "Chaos effect"
* Languages: "Reikspiel" is the language of the Empire (it's also known as D&D "Common")

THE OLD WORLD Background
Empire - Holy Roman Empire - German Sounding Names
Brettonia - Knights and culture..akin to an Arthurian France
Central Mountains - A land that seperates the orcs from humans; the dwarven borderland
The Moot - Land of the Halflings
Laurelorn Forest - The land of the elves on the main continent. It is east of The Empire.

GREENSKINS = Anything non-human. Orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc.
CHAOS = Chaos is the demons and devils (and their spawn, followers and converts). There are rifts to THE OLD WORLD from whence DEMONS are spawned..it is from THE CHAOS that these things come. Think of it as HELL and the ABYSS. It is where magic comes from. Using magic carries an inherent chance of bringing chaos (works exactly like TAINT that we used in the CONAN games).

Here is a map of the continent. We will be starting in THE EMPIRE: http://nexusx.wanadooadsl.net/ayudas/Warhammer_World_Map.jpg

OK, we're ready to go.

jh

jh