D&D 5E So, Forgotten Realms...

[SigmaOne]

I sincerely hope that WotC will eventually do a few new settings for 5th edition. They haven't come out with a brand new setting since Eberron and every other setting they still use came out pre millennium, mainly AD&D 2e times.

WotC needs fresh new stuff and while using the Realms is smart as far as it is recognized, people do know it, and it's been their most popular setting for probably 30 years... they are doing this in part because it's the only setting where the novels probably make them money and that's probably the main reason why they are focusing on it first.

I'd wish the Realms would become Forgotten. I'd much rather see Spelljammer, Placescape, Dark Sun, Ravenloft and Eberron personally. All of them are way more interesting than FR.

Interesting, maybe. But appropriate as the baseline generic fantasy setting that new players will expect? None of them are. Further, since any new setting they created would have to be relatively generic, there's no point in recreating the wheel. Most of the above will ultimately be supported in 5e, I believe.

I really do hope we see a brand new setting in the next couple of years. I was not around during the time Eberron came out, but (if I remember correctly) I understand a contest was held and Eberron was voted the best? It seems like a quite popular setting, and so I hope it has been commercially viable for them as well; because I'd like to see a similar kind of contest in the future. Seems like one of the best ways to get really fresh interesting ideas.

 

[Lord Blackstone]

If I remember correctly, Ed Greenwood is authoring the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 5E. Per rumor, Margaret Weis and Co are doing Dragonlance and Keith Baker is probably working on Eberron. Pretty sure a lot of settings are being down out of house. If they are going to outsource, it might as well be the creators doing the job.

And there was talk about some of the settings that were runner-ups in the Campaign Settings Contest a few years ago finally seeing the light of day.

 

[doctorhook]

FWIW, my players are using the referenced Greek and Norse gods, so I can definitely confirm it is setting agnostic. The Dark Sun references are well done and make me excited for the eventual Dark Sun book(s).

Awesome!

If I remember correctly, Ed Greenwood is authoring the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 5E. Per rumor, Margaret Weis and Co are doing Dragonlance and Keith Baker is probably working on Eberron. Pretty sure a lot of settings are being down out of house. If they are going to outsource, it might as well be the creators doing the job.

Well I guess that means Greyhawk is out. *ba-dum-tzzz*

...What, too soon?

And there was talk about some of the settings that were runner-ups in the Campaign Settings Contest a few years ago finally seeing the light of day.

The OotS setting! Actually, if what I remember reading is correct, Eberron killed the other winning settings and took their stuff. Mind you, all the winners were under NDA, so as far as I know nobody has every talked about which parts came from who.

Can I get a 5E Gamma World?

 

[Lord Blackstone]

Can I get a 5E Gamma World?

That would be really effing cool.... I LOVE GAMMA WORLD.... Seriously that would ROCK

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Personally I'm excited for 5E in the Forgotten Realms. I've played D&D since the early 90's but, apart from a short campaign, have not played much in the Realms. I have read about a dozen of the Salvatore novels, so I have a fair idea of the Realms though.

With it sort of being the default setting it will probably mean that's where we base our 5E campaign, especially as we're likely to play the Tyranny of Dragons adventures.

So I'm happy for 5E Forgotton Realms.

 

[ren1999]

5E includes all campaign setting worlds. But it depends on the authors. You probably won't see a lot of DragonLance and Conan's Hyboria. But the Lords of Waterdeep are still around. I'm just hoping we'll see a revival of 1st Edition Dieities and Demigods, and other alternate-Earth settings.

 

[Desdichado]

Don't really much care either way (and not just because I'm not particularly interested in 5e.) I like new settings for their own sake. I liked Eberron as something new. I liked the 4e Points of Light setting, as it gradually developed.

But I didn't necessarily pay too much attention to them. I've played in one 3.x campaign that was nominally set in the default setting of Greyhawk (because it was the Age of Worms adventure path, which is also nominally set in Greyhawk) but it really didn't matter much.

As long as the books don't go out of their way to push a setting on you, it doesn't really make much difference which one is picked as the "default." Since WotC goes out of their way to make the default setting rather unobtrusive, the only thing that I'm marginally disappointed in is the fact that I don't have another setting to rummage around in for good ideas. But by the same token, there's so many settings now that they're kind of a dime a dozen. It's not a big deal.

 

[TerraDave]

Having complained about this elsewhere (and still preferring a pre 2000 approach where the "default" setting isn't or barely noticeable) I will take a different approach here.

The "main" setting for 5E, the one they tend to refer to if they have to refer to just 1, has to be pretty generic vanilla high fantasy. They could do a new one, but they already have several high fantasy (I count at least 5), and given they have several, its hard to justify one more. So they choose one of those, and then yes, go with the ones that is best supported and known. Nentir and the Birthright World are just not in the same league, Oerth and the Known World aren't quite as well known or developed, and while Krynn is well known, relatively, it has been blown up more times then even FR, and has not received nearly the same development on the game side.

So that leaves one...