Spring's D&D Release Will Be Ship-Themed

So they talked about it a little bit on today's Fireside Chat. They mentioned that the full reveal are coming at a later date, but it will be a ship based product. It's almost done, but cover and title are not yet finalized.

Not much else was mentioned except some joke titles!

Not too surprising, given the UA, the upcoming seafaring comic book, the ship mini set, etc.

 

[JPL]

Huh. I must have missed all that. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I was under the impression that it had been well-received.

I thought it was a missed opportunity in that "Black Panther" gave Afrocentric nerdery a big shot in the arm in 2018, and I was hoping for something more like the Forgotten Realms equivalent of Wakanda.

 

[WaterRabbit]

I thought it was a missed opportunity in that "Black Panther" gave Afrocentric nerdery a big shot in the arm in 2018, and I was hoping for something more like the Forgotten Realms equivalent of Wakanda.

I would prefer a bit more verisimilitude in my fantasy. Wakanda cannot exist for basic economic reasons -- an isolationist country with an autocratic government and a rare resource. That country exist in the real world -- Venezuela.

 

[JPL]

I would prefer a bit more verisimilitude in my fantasy. Wakanda cannot exist for basic economic reasons -- an isolationist country with an autocratic government and a rare resource. That country exist in the real world -- Venezuela.

I meant "Forgotten Realms equivalent of Wakanda" more in the general sense of "place that is really awesome and really African." But I'd go a step further, and say, "place that is every bit as awesome as Sharn or Waterdeep."

But a rare resource is not a bad hook. Maybe this region has some unusual forms of magic --- Incarnum? Something more like the 4th Edition "primal" power source?

By the same token . . . what if one of the new products for 2019 is an India / Nepal / Tibet kinda thing, and they are based around psionics rather than arcane magic?

And we can go there in our Boats and .

 

[generic]

I do not understand how people keep making this mistake. WotC and/or WizKids did not invent The Falling Star. It was created by Chris Perkins long before he became a professional game writer. There is a nice, long article about the ship in the current issue of Dragon+, talking about how Chris Perkins created the ship back when he was a teenager and how it eventually became the design for the miniature. The ship was first announced at the beginning of August, so it was in the planning stages for months before that and, from the article, was in the planning stages before it ended up becoming a miniature of The Falling Star.

Perhaps you should have induced enough of a ratiocination to realize that some may be ignorant to your sources before utilizing caustic rudeness.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Amn or Calimshan would seem like the best choices for a "rival empire" for a Sword Coast adventure, with Waterdeap as the "Royal Navy" equivalent.

The Zhents might back a pirate fleet, but they would hardly muster a fleet of their own (unless it's a reanimated fleet of ghost ships).

I like Calimshan too much for that, but I do like the idea of being Calishite merchant marines, caught between an expanding "Royal Navy" and "Spanish Armada" of the upper Sword Coast and Amn.

Which brings me to this. You don't need to be on a vessel whose purpose is to get into fights to have adventures on the whale roads.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I would prefer a bit more verisimilitude in my fantasy. Wakanda cannot exist for basic economic reasons -- an isolationist country with an autocratic government and a rare resource. That country exist in the real world -- Venezuela.

Sure it can. Venezuela was doing great until it's leader started dipping into the rainy day fund while also not paying into it, and then died, and was succeeded by an imbecile that doesn't seem to actually care if his people literally starve while he eats cake.

Wakanda has magic spirits helping it avoid that kind of leadership stupidity, and a much rarer and more valuable resource than oil, which is found in large quantities in dozens of countries spread around the world. The unrealistic part (other than the spirits and the magical metal, obviously) is the notion that you can be isolationist and gain wealth and advancement like Wakanda has. It doesn't work.

A fantasy version might simply have residuum, or it might have oricalcum, which has some fancy properties that make it worth shipfulls of gold per ounce.

But the point of Wakanda is to have a highly advanced African nation that is unscathed by imperialism. That's easily translated to dnd.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Sure it can. Venezuela was doing great until it's leader started dipping into the rainy day fund while also not paying into it, and then died, and was succeeded by an imbecile that doesn't seem to actually care if his people literally starve while he eats cake.

Wakanda has magic spirits helping it avoid that kind of leadership stupidity, and a much rarer and more valuable resource than oil, which is found in large quantities in dozens of countries spread around the world. The unrealistic part (other than the spirits and the magical metal, obviously) is the notion that you can be isolationist and gain wealth and advancement like Wakanda has. It doesn't work.

A fantasy version might simply have residuum, or it might have oricalcum, which has some fancy properties that make it worth shipfulls of gold per ounce.

But the point of Wakanda is to have a highly advanced African nation that is unscathed by imperialism. That's easily translated to dnd.

For the purpose of D&D I'd much rather they'd be inspired by real world African empires like Mali, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia than superhero nonsense like Wakanda. Those places were on par with European and Asian countries in the late medieval period that most closely aligns with the D&D technology and societal level.

 

[WaterRabbit]

Sure it can. Venezuela was doing great until it's leader started dipping into the rainy day fund while also not paying into it, and then died, and was succeeded by an imbecile that doesn't seem to actually care if his people literally starve while he eats cake.

Wakanda has magic spirits helping it avoid that kind of leadership stupidity, and a much rarer and more valuable resource than oil, which is found in large quantities in dozens of countries spread around the world. The unrealistic part (other than the spirits and the magical metal, obviously) is the notion that you can be isolationist and gain wealth and advancement like Wakanda has. It doesn't work.

A fantasy version might simply have residuum, or it might have oricalcum, which has some fancy properties that make it worth shipfulls of gold per ounce.

But the point of Wakanda is to have a highly advanced African nation that is unscathed by imperialism. That's easily translated to dnd.

Nope, it has never happened in history -- not even once. If you believe Venezuela was doing great before Maduro then your definition of great must have a really, really low bar. But if you are in love with Venezuela pick Cuba or North Korea instead as examples. Or African examples such as Zimbabwe -- pick your poison really. Even the Soviet Union looked good for a while (at least to those that never looked to hard).

But beside that, there are better fantasy Africa sources to provide inspiration and still maintain the feel of a pre-colonial version of Africa.

But one has to go quite a bit back in history to find that. The difficulty with Africa is really finding a time in which indigenous cultures were not dramatically influenced by outside civilizations. Even going back to Pharaonic Egypt they were involved in sub-Saharan Africa.

Now there are a lot of people that are silly enough to make this about "race" -- it isn't. There are simple geographic factors that can been seen in many other locales that dramatically influence how civilizations develop.

The problem with trying to create a cultures that just are analogs to real world cultures is that they tend to ignore the climate, geography, flora, and fauna that influences the culture development. One of the biggest factors ignored by fantasy works such as D&D is the difficulty of obtaining food.

Finally if you want Wakanda in D&D you have to look no further than Halruaa in the Forgotten Realms.

 

[JPL]

I like Calimshan too much for that, but I do like the idea of being Calishite merchant marines, caught between an expanding "Royal Navy" and "Spanish Armada" of the upper Sword Coast and Amn.

Which brings me to this. You don't need to be on a vessel whose purpose is to get into fights to have adventures on the whale roads.

Nice kenning, son!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

For the purpose of D&D I'd much rather they'd be inspired by real world African empires like Mali, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia than superhero nonsense like Wakanda. Those places were on par with European and Asian countries in the late medieval period that most closely aligns with the D&D technology and societal level.

I’m fine with any of those, or much better, a mix of them and some new stuff, written by people steeped in the lore of the people of those regions.

I don’t know why you’re calling Wakanda “superhero nonsense”, though. You don’t...you don’t think that what we’re doing here in DnD land is above superheroes in the hierarchy of serious creative media, do you?

Because it ain’t. It’s all silly nonsense we do for fun. Elves and wizards aren’t any less silly than Black Panther and Storm.