D&D 5E Tracy & Laura Hickman Announce Skyraiders of Abarax

Tracy and Laura Hickman, known for the Dragonlance setting and the original Ravenloft module, have announced a D&D 5E setting called Skyraiders of Abarax. It will be coming to Kickstarter this fall. There's not much more information yet, other than a mailing list for updates and a single (stunning) art piece.

Their Facebook page actually says "AD&D 5E", rather than "D&D 5E", although I'm not sure whether that's significant.

"Tracy & Laura Hickman's first adventure world since Dragonlance ... coming to AD&D 5E through Kickstarter this fall! Join us in the creation of Sky-high Fantasy discovered through magical books brought to life our unique 'Living Tome System'."

Skyraiders

www.skyraiders.net

There's also a couple of other art pieces floating about on social media.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Let me get my foot outta my mouth before I dig any further…

I’m just impressed, digging with a foot in your mouth is impressive

 

[Gradine]

"The mythic place called home"

Anyone else getting Battlestar Galactica vibes?

This is actually a pretty common reference to Mormon stricture, which isn't all that surprising, considering the creators of both of those properties are Mormon.

 

[Dire Bare]

You're gonna need another edit. You’re thinking of Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. This is Tracy and Laura Hickman. Larry Elmore was the cover artist.

Yeah . . . it's a common misconception. To add . . .

Tracy and Laura Hickman are married to each other, and responsible for some classic D&D modules like Ravenloft. And the genesis of what became Dragonlance.

Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis are co-authors of the original Dragonlance trilogy, plus many other books down the road, both Dragonlance and others.

And Tracy's a guy. Not that it matters really, but it's also a common misconception that all of the above are women.

 

[Aldarc]

This is actually a pretty common reference to Mormon stricture, which isn't all that surprising, considering the creators of both of those properties are Mormon.

There are forum rules about things we can talk about on this forum and things we cannot, so I didn't necessarily want to explicitly name the background vibes I was getting.

 

[Dire Bare]

This is actually a pretty common reference to Mormon stricture, which isn't all that surprising, considering the creators of both of those properties are Mormon.

Yup. Although I'll add . . . it's not just a Mormon thing. The whole "lost tribes of Israel" is a mythology trope that goes back much further than Mormonism, it just happened to be popular in the zeitgeist of the time when Joseph Smith founded Mormonism.

 

[Dire Bare]

There are forum rules about things we can talk about on this forum and things we cannot, so I didn't necessarily want to explicitly name the background vibes I was getting.

Well, we don't want to argue whether any particular religion is right or wrong, good or bad . . . . but we can certainly identify tropes and from which they spring.

 

[Wardook]

You heard it here first Advanced Dungeon and Dragons, coming soon.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I wonder if the AD&D5e is similar to the O5R tag, a term to imply “ad&d style play in 5e!”

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So sort of a fantasy Australia, except contact was lost with the homeland that sent all the prisoners there, who eventually set themselves free and the PCs will be their descendants.

 

[pukunui]

Skyraiders in flight!
Afternoon delight!


I like the art. Tagline could use some work, though.

 

[J.Quondam]

Lovely looking project! But for the life of me, I'm not parsing this sentence:

"On dragon’s sylph to find our lost way back​

To that mythic place called home."​

Probably just a brain hiccup, but I can't figure out what "on dragon's sylph" means here.

 

[Mercador]

Airships? Final Fantasy VI vibes?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Airships? Final Fantasy VI vibes?

More FFIV and it's fleets of military airships. Or any of another number of JRPGs with lots of airships. Or Eberron and it's airships, to stay in a D&D vibe?

@J.Quondam sylphs are air spirits, so maybe these airships were powered by the spirits of wind dragons?

 

[Samurai]

What is a "Dragon's sylph?" Google says it's either an imaginary spirit of the air (Sylphs are a fae creature in D&D) or a green and blue humming bird. Neither of those would seem to belong to a dragon or be able to carry a crew of air-pirates/adventurers.

 

[Ath-kethin]

The artwork looks great, but the fonts make me feel like I'm reading the opening splash screens to an early-90's LucasArts adventure game

I literally didn't even notice the art at first; my brain saw the text and filled in pixellated '90s images around the words.

 

[pukunui]

Lovely looking project! But for the life of me, I'm not parsing this sentence:

"On dragon’s sylph to find our lost way back​

To that mythic place called home."​

Probably just a brain hiccup, but I can't figure out what "on dragon's sylph" means here.

Not only that, but "lost" feels redundant. If the way back wasn't lost, they wouldn't need to find it, right?

 

[Gradine]

I literally didn't even notice the art at first; my brain saw the text and filled in pixellated '90s images around the words.

Right? Like I've just built a party of heroes and I'm about to be dropped into a first-person dungeon crawler

 

[TerraDave]

Great, but....

Bruce Heard pioneered the flying ship in D&D thing some time ago (with furries!).

I guess you could combine them.

 

[Zaukrie]

Great, but....

Bruce Heard pioneered the flying ship in D&D thing some time ago (with furries!).

I guess you could combine them.

He doesn't really use 5e rules much......I own pretty much all of it, and it is good, but not my favorite world....

 

[NaturalZero]

I've got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the art looks great, I'm sure the budget is great, and it's from people who are essentially legends in the RPG world.

On the other hand, everything about this gives me a, "I forced a bot to look at 10,000 hours of D&D pitches and this is what the AI came up with."