Two New Settings For D&D This Year

if it comes out this year i would agree with you. Possibly published by a third party company that has a good reputation (Green Ronin etc)

However if it’s coming next year I would stake all the money in my pockets that it will be a Curse of Strahd style book. Campaign with background and new monsters etc. Curse of Strahd was too successful not to repeat!

 

[Beleriphon]

Insufferable cant?

There's more than that. One of the ideas that suffuses Planescape is that belief has real, genuine, plane-shaking power. Get enough people to believe something and it becomes true. Its one of the reason I recommend Planescape: Torment so much, it does a really, really good job of showing Planescape as a setting.

The other thing Planescape does is subvert expectations, although that's more of a Sigil thing. Also, Factions in the setting. They have a huge role in Planescape and make up a tremendous amount of the material for the setting. Plus, the whole thing from the ground up was designed as a way for even low level characters to participate in planar adventures.

 

[TheSword]

It’s easy to see why Mystara, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms all feel very similar. They all grew organically out of home games over a period of time. It is ever likely they are all a mishmash of fantasy tropes, retired adventurers, city states, ancient empires and their dungeons.

Athas, Planescape, Birthright and Ravenloft are all far more coherent in the vision of that particular setting.

Eberron is unusual in that it was designed and had unique theme, but also has that mish mash feel. Probably because a design goal was to be a one size fits all campaign setting for 3rd edition.

 

[gyor]

• warfare is common
• magic is tied to the land ... rituals and mythals
• evil humanoids have culture and kingdoms ... drow, many-arrows, et al
• magical bloodlines ... tiefling, sorcerer, feats, background (!), etc



... ‘arcane magic is highly restricted (elves and blooded only)’. Heh, you got me here. The 5e elf sucks at wizard! If only the elf got +2 to Intelligence/Charisma to excel at arcane magic!



Despite the unsatisfactory elf magic, all these features are Forgotten Realms.

The 5e Elf doesn't suck at Wizardry and in fact the High Elf is along with Gnomes and certain types of Tiefling, the best Wizards. A Cantrip, +1 Intel, +2 Dex, an Elf only Wizard Subclass (Bladesinger), and a Feat that gives them Misty step as a spell known that can be used slotless once per short/long rest and give a +1 to Intelligence or Charisma, and the Sylvan language (which ironically Eladarin don't get themselves anymore). They can also take Elven accuracy.

Honestly even the other Elves make good wizards, just not as good as the high Elf.

 

[Yaarel]

It’s easy to see why Mystara, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms all feel very similar. They all grew organically out of home games over a period of time. It is ever likely they are all a mishmash of fantasy tropes, retired adventurers, city states, ancient empires and their dungeons.

Athas, Planescape, Birthright and Ravenloft are all far more coherent in the vision of that particular setting.

Eberron is unusual in that it was designed and had unique theme, but also has that mish mash feel. Probably because a design goal was to be a one size fits all campaign setting for 3rd edition.

‘Mystara, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms all feel very similar.’ To me they are identical and interchangeable.

Indeed, the 5e Forgotten Realms eliminated the sun elf, replaced the moon elf with the Greyhawk high elf, and few seem to even notice.

The settings are identical.



But Planescape is also the 5e Forgotten Realms. Its cosmology now becomes regional settings within the Forgotten Realms setting. Arborea is a regional setting, like Kara Tur. The gods that populate the great wheel, are the same gods that populate the clerics. To me it feels like the same setting. Being in the material plane or in the great wheel is like being outside looking at the castle versus being inside the castle. It is the same setting.



Eberron is a truly different setting. Its design is to use all official mechanics but with significantly different flavor. It has a different cosmology and feels different.



Dark Sun feels different. Again because its cosmology feels different. It has much that I like, psionics, nontheistic clerics, and so on. Unfortunately, I dont get into the post-apocalyptic genre. To me it feels oppressive and ... luddite. Maybe if Dark Sun was more like points of light, where there are ‘oases’ with positive influence and high magic, I could get more into it. Or at least give me the tools to create these oases. If Dark Sun is strictly unrelated to the Forgotten Realms multiverse, then the undesirable polytheism lacks existence anywhere.

Regardless of my complex feelings about Dark Sun, it is a setting that feels different from Forgotten Realms.

Significantly, it is the cosmological backdrop that makes Dark Sun ‘feel’ different.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Obviously, I have my own preferences for which settings I'd like to see and which I could do without. I definitely want to encourage more expansion into other settings, so I'll probably buy these no matter what settings they choose to go with.

(Except possibly Krynn. No offense to those who want it, but there's just nothing in Dragonlance that appeals to me as a game setting that I can't already accomplish with what we have.)

I'm personally very interested in domain rules and very curious about Birthright, but I think the current real-world climate is ill-suited to a new setting in which the different races are all at each other's throats and the world is ruled by an elite class with superior abilities.

I'd personally be thrilled with Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Al-Qadim, Eberron, Nentir Vale, or more Ravenloft (though I know the latter is exceedingly unlikely). But as I said, I'll be at least somewhat satisfied with most of the others.

In terms of a new setting? I don't expect we'll be seeing one any time soon, but I do think there are a few things D&D hasn't yet tackled that it could work really well for. What comes most immediately to mind is science-fantasy. Athas has some of the pulp overlap and aesthetics, and Eberron is sort of the reverse--more of a fantasy-science--but I'd love to see a full-fledged sci-fan setting. But I wouldn't be surprised if it would be too much of a niche for the modern market.

 

[Yaarel]

Al Qadim can easily come across as Antisemitic. Jews and Samaritans are aborigines of the region (as are Phoenicians, Coptics, Chaldeans, and others), but the ‘Arabic’ flavor effectively genocides and erases all of them.

I noticed this already in Xanathars, where Christian (Greek, Roman, Celtic) names and Muslim (Arabic) names are present, while Jewish (Hebrew) names were noticeably absent.

 

[kenmarable]

Exactly what is missing from Planescape that isnt already in the official 5e books published so far?

Flavor and story are major things missing.

That’s like asking what is missing from Strahd and Ravenloft that isn’t already in the vampire write up in the 5e MM? I mean, castles are a dime a dozen, why do we need a special one for Ravenloft?

Obviously, this is absurd, but it’s just as absurd as thinking the DMG list of planes is Planescape. No flavor and no story means no setting.

Not to mention it leaves out Factions which are a fundamental aspect of Planescape. And the NPCs. And the other organizations and major races. And on and on.

 

[TwoSix]

‘Mystara, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms all feel very similar.’ To me they are identical and interchangeable.

Indeed, the 5e Forgotten Realms eliminated the sun elf, replaced the moon elf with the Greyhawk high elf, and few seem to even notice.

The settings are identical.

Adolf Hitler and Abraham Lincoln are the same person. They both have two arms, two legs, 99.9% of the same DNA, and were both national leaders who led their country during wartime.

These people are identical.

 

[kenmarable]

But Planescape is also the 5e Forgotten Realms. Its cosmology now becomes regional settings within the Forgotten Realms setting. Arborea is a regional setting, like Kara Tur. The gods that populate the great wheel, are the same gods that populate the clerics. To me it feels like the same setting. Being in the material plane or in the great wheel is like being outside looking at the castle versus being inside the castle. It is the same setting.

So if you change all of the Planes to no longer be Planes, and add things to the Forgotten Realms that were not parts of the Forgotten Realms, then... they are the same setting? Uh... I guess? But what’s the point?

I can take apart a car and a boat, then build them into something new, but that doesn’t mean my boat was already a car.

Combine settings if you want, but that has zero relevance on what the original settings actually are and why people like them or what they feel like to all the rest of us.

 

[TheSword]

Al Qadim can easily come across as Antisemitic. Jews and Samaritans are aborigines of the region (as are Phoenicians, Coptics, Chaldeans, and others), but the ‘Arabic’ flavor effectively genocides and erases all of them.

I noticed this already in Xanathars, where Christian (Greek, Roman, Celtic) names and Muslim (Arabic) names are present, while Jewish (Hebrew) names were noticeably absent.

Are you talking about the real world region that was used as part inspiration for the Al Qadim setting?