D&D 5E Speculation Thread: the "Wonderful, Scary, Terrifying" book being announced this month

[Urriak Uruk]

Maybe a sourcebook/adventure set in the plane-spanning Illithid Empire before the Gith uprising? Or perhaps set in the Court of the Githyanki Lich Queen Vlaakith.
An Empire of the Spider Throne adventure during the rule of Vecna and Kas would be fun as well.

Damn I'd love either of these so much. Although it's hard for me to imagine either as a "wonderful" place. But maybe that line is just hyperbole?

 

[Scribe]

Damn I'd love either of these so much. Although it's hard for me to imagine either as a "wonderful" place. But maybe that line is just hyperbole?

Something full of wonder doesn't have to be positive does it? Like, mind boggling, over the top, awe inspiring.

Just how I'm looking at it.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Something full of wonder doesn't have to be positive does it? Like, mind boggling, over the top, awe inspiring.

Just how I'm looking at it.

personally, I find aberrations wonderful as they make me wonder.

 

[R_J_K75]

It’s Florida.

Dont forget Texas and Ohio.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If it is a horror setting for young adult players (and perfect to be adapted into action-live productions for no-fandom audence) my theory is neither classic undead nor Lovecraftian aberrations because there is enough space in the previous settings, but my "bet" is about something more "grimm fairy", something like mixing "Game of Thrones", "Changeling: the Lost" by Onyx Path/White Wolf and some books of supernatural romances about noble bloodlines with wicked magic gifts, something like "Throne of Eldraine" and a softer teen version of "Kult: lost divinity". Something like Victoria Averyard's novels (Red Queen, for example) or Sarah J. Maas(the Throne of Glass and the Court and Throns). Something allowing space for shojo(female young) audenge and shonen (male young). Let's imagine the fae lords, cute as the Disney princesses but with the bad intentions of the sorcerer-kings from Athas/Dark Sun.

 

[tetrasodium]

I find 5e's Ravenloft to be pretty freaking scary. Sometimes I feel like I bought a different book from everyone else, because people always talk smack about Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and saying it's not actually a scary/horror book, but my experience with it has been the complete opposite.

Though I do think that there are some places in D&D that are just plain scarier than Ravenloft. The Far Realm is probably the most prominent of those places, because it's on an entirely different than Ravenloft. It's got the Lovecraftian cosmic horror bit, like Bluetspur from Ravenloft does, but it dives completely into it, because the Far Realm is the home of the Eldritch Abominations. Some of the most notorious, iconic, and horrific monsters in D&D come from the Far Realm, like Beholders, Aboleths, and Illithids.

The o5e system is built for one very specific flavor of heroic epic fantasy cranked to eleven and because of a design decision to design around a baseline of no fears no magic items there simply isn't room to adjust that baseline by adding more power to pcs like dark gifts. Without mechanics changes to claw back the dial below eleven it's still going to be epic fantasy not horror. Here are a couple great recent videos. That illuminate the problem with how system limits the types of games you can play with it.



The world described in vrgtr should be scary sure... but without mechanics changes to support that even survivor pcs aren't going to be all that scary. This new book will likewise need mechanics changes in order to fit the bill of players being "absolutely terrified" of.

As much as wotc's optimism might hope otherwise, a gm simply can not expect their players to read an entire book cover to cover any more than they can expect a gm to invest the kind of table time needed to build to "players" feeling terrified without mechanics to support it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The o5e system is built for one very specific flavor of heroic epic fantasy cranked to eleven and because of a design decision to design around a baseline of no fears no magic items there simply isn't room to adjust that baseline by adding more power to pcs like dark gifts. Without mechanics changes to claw back the dial below eleven it's still going to be epic fantasy not horror. Here are a couple great recent videos. That illuminate the problem with how system limits the types of games you can play with it.



The world descended in vrgtr should be scary sure... but without mechanics changes to support that even survivor pcs aren't going to be all that scary. This new book will likewise need mechanics changes in order to fit the bill of players being "absolutely terrified" of.

As much as wotc's optimism might hope otherwise, a gm simply can not expect their players to read an entire book cover to cover any more than they can expect a gm to invest the kind of table time needed to build to "players" feeling terrified without mechanics to support it.

Yeah, yeah, I've seen both of those videos. My problem with your argument is that you're acting as if WotC did nothing to promote the mechanics that would make Ravenloft actually scary to play in. They did include Fear and Stress mechanics (Stress is very nasty if you get too much of it), and even created a new system for Survivor characters. Go run and adventure for a PC who uses the Survivor stat blocks, add in the Fear and Stress mechanics, include some of the horrifying implications and monsters from Ravenloft, and you've got a great horror game.

There are mechanics to support the horror theme of Ravenloft. Yes, other games may be better built for being horror, but that doesn't mean D&D 5e literally cannot do horror at all.

 

[darjr]

Taking your own analogies literally is pretty funny lol.

What are you implying? antenna twitch

 

[tetrasodium]

Yeah, yeah, I've seen both of those videos. My problem with your argument is that you're acting as if WotC did nothing to promote the mechanics that would make Ravenloft actually scary to play it. They indeed did include Fear and Stress mechanics (Stress is very nasty if you get too much of it), and even created a new system for Survivor characters. Go run and adventure for a PC who uses the Survivor stat blocks, add in the Fear and Stress mechanics, include some of the horrifying implications and monsters from Ravenloft, and you've got a great horror game.

There are mechanics to support the horror theme of Ravenloft. Yes, other games may be better built for being horror, but that doesn't mean D&D 5e literally cannot do horror at all.

No there are a few postit notes that are stuck to a core system that is still massively overtuned in some areas & completely lacking in others. You need only look at any of the recent exploration megathreads or all of the many areas Level Up builds from scratch for examples wotc has completely ignored. VGTR's fear & stress mechanics are a ferrari body kit on an old bottom rung ford focus that remains stock in every way uderneath right down to the suncracked plastic dash & covered empty radio slot

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No there are a few postit notes that are stuck to a core system that is still massively overtuned in some areas & completely lacking in others. You need only look at any of the recent exploration megathreads or all of the many areas Level Up builds from scratch for examples wotc has completely ignored. VGTR's fear & stress mechanics are a ferrari body kit on an old bottom rung ford focus that remains stock in every way uderneath right down to the suncracked plastic dash & covered empty radio slot

I don't know what the heck you're talking about. I ran a mini adventure using Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft for my group, and it was plenty scary, especially using the Survivor mechanics (which you ignored my mention of). The tools to have a great horror adventure are in the book. Just because you don't think 5e is good for horror doesn't negate that or my personal experiences with using the book's tools at my table.