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!

 

[Hussar]

/snip

So why let yourself get so bent out of shape over it when they say it?

Swimming way upthread because I'm still catching up on this long thread, but, I just wanted to comment on this.

I get "bent out of shape" when they say it because it gets forced upon every single publication. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of unique (for a given level of uniqueness) settings for D&D. Every setting has its own schtick. But, no matter what setting you start on, as soon as you leave that setting and travel into the planes, you land slap dab in Planescape.

And it's a setting that has been ossified over the years and nothing is allowed to change it. Despite virtually every monster in D&D being given reinterpretations over the editions, the planar stuff is pretty much cut and paste exactly the same as it was back in the 70's. Never minding that it makes zero sense that in a setting like, say, Dragonlance, that devils and Hell exists. The second you jump out of Krynn, poof, you're in the Great Wheel whether you like it or not.

Despite the fact that we have all these incredibly creative settings, for some reason, we're not allowed to have any planar setting that isn't Planescape. Every monster writeup, every module, everything, must adhere, lockstep to Planescape lore, no matter what.

So, that's why I let myself get bent out of shape. I want D&D to be free of the restrictions that Planescape has placed on D&D.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I get "bent out of shape" when they say it because it gets forced upon every single publication. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of unique (for a given level of uniqueness) settings for D&D. Every setting has its own schtick. But, no matter what setting you start on, as soon as you leave that setting and travel into the planes, you land slap dab in Planescape.

The D&D Multiverse is not Planescape, this was also clear back even back in 2e when Planescape was published. In Planescape philosophy and personal agendas matter a lot, and there's a different tone everything takes under Planescape. It's like the various published campaign settings that take place in Earth, just because one is on Earth doesn't mean they're playing Dark*Matter or Masque of the Red Death.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Swimming way upthread because I'm still catching up on this long thread, but, I just wanted to comment on this.

I get "bent out of shape" when they say it because it gets forced upon every single publication. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of unique (for a given level of uniqueness) settings for D&D. Every setting has its own schtick. But, no matter what setting you start on, as soon as you leave that setting and travel into the planes, you land slap dab in Planescape.

And it's a setting that has been ossified over the years and nothing is allowed to change it. Despite virtually every monster in D&D being given reinterpretations over the editions, the planar stuff is pretty much cut and paste exactly the same as it was back in the 70's. Never minding that it makes zero sense that in a setting like, say, Dragonlance, that devils and Hell exists. The second you jump out of Krynn, poof, you're in the Great Wheel whether you like it or not.

Despite the fact that we have all these incredibly creative settings, for some reason, we're not allowed to have any planar setting that isn't Planescape. Every monster writeup, every module, everything, must adhere, lockstep to Planescape lore, no matter what.

So, that's why I let myself get bent out of shape. I want D&D to be free of the restrictions that Planescape has placed on D&D.

Rutterkin in MToF is completely different than the rutterkin in Planescape. So much for "Every monster writeup, every module, everything, must adhere, lockstep to Planescape lore, no matter what." The trouble with making that type of argument is that you only need one counterexample to disprove it. It is hardly the only one. Even in 3e, they changed the names back to devils and demons and angels. I guess you must have missed 4e altogether.

 

[Von Ether]

All the easy stuff she can do herself (and has probably done so already, considering how 5E has existed for so long already). What she would be interested in parting with money for, is the hard stuff. Not the light reskinning, but the deep retooling. The new classes, subclasses, spells and feats. The official answer to hard questions "no halflings in Z."

I think you'll be disappointed to find out how many gamers DO want something very close to that. The lure of getting "official" rules is very strong for some* and if the official rule is a simple reskin, then that means more compatibility with less rules.
*I hsve seen posts where gamers refuse to buy Guild Adept DM's Guild stuff because if the writer isn't getting directly paid by WotC, it's not official enough to use.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So, that's why I let myself get bent out of shape. I want D&D to be free of the restrictions that Planescape has placed on D&D.

Hey, if you want to be constantly miserable about what happens in D&D, that's you're prerogative. Enjoy your misery.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Even the Manual of the Planes (in 3rd and 4th edition for sure) had lengthy sections on how to break away from the Planescape Great Wheel, and 4E massively revamped the planes. Even 5E starts off its chapter on the Planes in the DMG by talking about how to build your own and what you need to consider.

The presentation of the planes has been simultaneously well defined and extremely fluid....it's not described as an effectively infinite realm of existence for nothing, after all....to accommodate literally any interpretation of planar concepts you want.

 

[guachi]

Seven players. Interesting . . . the 5e DMG lists seven known worlds of the Material Plane: Forgotten Realms (Toril), Greyhawk (Oerth), Dragonlance (Krynn), Dark Sun (Athas), Eberron, Birthright (Aebrynis), and Mystara.

Just to hypothesize, but it would be kinda neat if each of the seven player characters hailed from a different setting.

Even better if the PC had a name that could be clearly associated with a specific world in the absence of outright saying where the PCs were from. That way, you can leave a hint as to the world without it being said outright.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

All the worlds

I'm making a list of all D&D worlds and all other TSR/WotC TRPG settings, not counting settings owned by other companies (Star Wars, Wheel of Time, Indiana Jones, Lankhmar, Conan). I'd like to see each and every one of these worlds at least mentioned in any upcoming Planescape/Spelljammer(?) text which is slated to be announced this summer. Oh, and would you give us a "galactic" (planar/phlogistonic) map (http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/articles/SphereGuide/Guide to the Spheres.pdfsee p.6 here) showing where all of these are?

Did I miss any?

D&D "Megaverse": other in-house Hasbro settings which have received TRPG treatment, or D&D Multiverse settings which were developed only by a WotC licensee:

• Dominaria (M:TG Multiverse) is owned by WotC, but no setting cross-over yet, only 5E rules adaptation.
• Aldrazar / Garweeze Wurld contained comedic versions of several D&D worlds, crystal spheres, and locales, under a license agreement between WotC and KenzerCo. I wonder what WotC are rights to that material? Can it be reprinted or referred to by WotC as being a part of the 5E D&D Multiverse, or a parallel "comedic continuity" thereof? There is actually a lot of relevant material, such as a name given for the Rock of Bral's crystal sphere: Casaspace.
• Dreamblade (miniatures game). Not D&D, but were referred to in online articles, with suggestions of how to use with D&D.
• My Little Pony: Tales of Equestria
• (Note: Potential for connecting with the wider Hasbro Universe.)

D&D Multiverse: Worlds and Meta-Settings (main worlds or planar domains in bold)

Planescape (meta-setting): Sigil
Spelljammer (meta-setting): Rock of Bral
Chronomancer (meta-setting)
Tangents (meta-setting from Alternity)
Dimension X (meta-setting from d20 Future)

Abeir-Toril: The D&D World of Forgotten Realms
​

• Abeir (split off from Toril during 4E era)
• Toril (during 4E era)

Oerth: The D&D World of Greyhawk

• Yarth (an alternate Oerth)
• Uerth (an alternate Oerth)
• Greyhawk 2000 (future timeline)
• "Joerth" (unofficial designation for the "joke Greyhawk", seen in the 1988 Castle Greyhawk spoof. Perhaps a part of the "comedic continuity" seen in WotC's licensed Hackmaster spoofs)

The D&D World of Blackmoor (was retconned into the ancient past of Mystara, but, as originally printed in OD&D, was not a part of Mystara, and as presented in the 3E Blackmoor line, was not part of Mystara either. So Blackmoor exists in two different WotC continuities. Gygax said that he only borrowed the name for the Blackmoor of Oerth.)

Krynn: The D&D World of Dragonlance

• various timelines in the River of Time

Ravenloft: The Demiplane of Dread

• Classic Ravenloft Timeline
• Curse of Strahd Timeline (essentially a reboot, combining iconic characters from different eras of the Classic RL Timeline)

The D&D World of Eberron​

Mystara: The D&D Known World (incl. Red Steel/Savage Coast, Hollow World, Thunder Rift (D&D Black Box setting), Ghyr (setting of the LJN Action Figures), Karawenn (setting of the First Quest novels), Islandia (vaporware); see also Blackmoor)

• Urt (Mentzer and Froideval's BECMI setting, with the Master Set world map, and Gold Box cosmology, prior to the map be drastically reconceived in the Voyage of the Princess Ark stories, and the cosmology revised in WotI)
• Classic Mystara Timeline (extending all the way to the last products: Joshuan's Almanac and Red Steel/Savage Coast)
• "3000 BC Blackmoor Timeline" The Blackmoor adventures were at first presented in DA series and GAZ1 as taking place in 3000 BC, but then in GAZ2 were retconned to 4000 BC.
• "AC 1000 Quagmire Timeline". As originally presented, X6 took place c.1000AC, but was retconned in Champions of Mystara to have taken place in the prehistoric past. Reportedly X9: Savage Coast was suggested to be retconned as well.
• "AC 1150 X13 Timeline". GAZ7 retconned X13 to happen 150 years in the future, yet PWA1010 and Joshuan's Almanac places it 30-some years in the past)
• "AC 1200 Great War Timeline". The Great War of the Desert Nomads event from X4, X5, and X10 was retconned twice: once from c.1000 AC to two hundred years in the future (1200 AC), and then again (in WotI) to 1005-1006 AC.

Athas: The D&D World of Dark Sun

• Classic Dark Sun Timeline
• 4E Dark Sun Timeline

Aebrynis: The D&D World of Birthright

Nerath: The D&D Points of Light World

The D&D World of Earth (each Earth-based RPG and d20 Modern campaign model is considered to be a distinct timeline)

• D&D Earth (the implicit present-day "non- or low-magical" Earth timeline in which most xD&D cross-overs have occurred (except for the Laterre-Mystara crossovers), such as: where Robilar got his six-shooters, the Wizards Three visit to Wisconin, the Mystaran Immortals visit to Chicago in one of the IM modules, and where the Egyptian and Mesopotamian peoples and pantheons of Toril came from. Urbana Arcana, as the default/core d20M campaign model, and the Historical Reference Guides from 2e, may be the closest representations of this continuity. Other campaign models (such as Boot Hill) may exist "off-screen", but each is assumed to be separate continuity.)
• Urban Arcana (d20 Modern campaign model)
• Historical Reference Earth (AD&D2e)
• Gothic Earth / Masque of the Red Death
• Laterre ("Magical Medieval Earth" which contains Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne in place of the French province of Auvergne - in the Dimension of Myth of the Classic D&D Reality.)
• Midgard (Earth as perceived by the Norse - mentioned in the CD&D Northlands Gazeteer)
• Bacchar (Earth as perceived by the Ancient Greeks - mentioned in Ravenloft)
• Boot Hill
• Gangbusters
• Dawn Patrol
• Top Secret/SI
• Dark•Matter (Alternity setting, d20M campaign model)
• Shadow Chasers (d20M campaign model)
• Agents of PSI (d20M campaign model)
• Genetech (d20M campaign model)
• Magitech (Alternity Universe Book)
• Pulp Heroes (d20 mini-game, later a campaign model for d20 Past)
• The Seedy Streets of Northport (setting for Pulp Heroes d20 mini-game in Polyhedron Magazine)
• Iron Lords of Jupiter (Polyhedron mag)
• Shadow Stalkers (d20 Past campaign model)
• V is for Victory (d20 Modern)
• For Faerie, Queen, and Country (Alternity Universe Book)
• Mecha Crusade (d20 Future)
• Remember the Alamo (TSR mini-game)
• Hi-Jinx (d20 Modern)
• Thunderball Rally (d20 Modern)
• Tabloid! (Amazing Engine Universe Book)
• They've Invaded Pleasantville (Amazing Engine Universe Book)
• Icebergs (TSR mini-game)
• CyberRave (d20 Cyberscape)
• Deathnet (d20 mini-game)
• Kromosome (Amazing Engine)
• Gamma World (various editions; including Omega World)
• The Wasteland (d20 Future)
• Atomic Sunrise (d20 Apocalypse)
• Earth Inherited (d20 Apocalypse)
• Plague World (d20 Apocalypse)
• Hallowmere (WotC's flagship novel series of its Mirrorstone young adult imprint. About feys and unfeys of Virginia and Scotland)
• Ravenloft: Domininion (novel series set in Earth)

Earth's Solar System or Milky Way Galaxy (Sci-Fi continuities (AFAIK) taking place in (some future version) of the Milky Way Galaxy):

• Star Frontiers (also encompassing Star Law campaign model from d20 Future)
• Star*Drive (Alternity)
• Bughunters (Amazing Engine and d20 Future)
• From the Dark Heart of Space (d20 Future)
• The Galactos Barrier (Amazing Engine)
• Once and Future King (Amazing Engine)
• Revolt on Antares (Tom Moldvay's TSR mini-game)
• Attack Force (TSR mini-game). Set on Arcturus.

Other Worlds:

• Pelinore (house setting of TSR UK's Imagine magazine)
• Aquaria (Though it's also Mentzer's person setting, WotC owns the rights to whatever is printed in the TSR Aquarian modules.)
• Jakandor
• Io's Blood Isles (Council of Wyrms)
• City of Manifest: Ghostwalk
• Kolhapur: quasi-Asian Indian setting from The Star of Kolhapur for 1e.
• Land of Arir: quasi-Arabian setting from I9: Day of Al-Akbar for 2e.
• The Realm (of the D&D Cartoon Show, includes Fantasy Forest boardgame and gamebooks)
• Empire of Izmer (1st and 2nd D&D Movie; 3rd was set in Nerath)
• The Vale (setting of the 1999 D&D Adventure Game)
• Pharagos, Aquela, Imperium Romanum, Night, Petroyeska, Mahasara: settings designed by James Wyatt which were featured in DRAGON and POLYHEDRON magazines, or in a WotC web enhancment (Mahasarpa).
• Wonderland: 1e cross-over with Alice in Wonderland.
• The Dream World of Symslvch (The setting of the Hebrew-language Basic D&D modules.)
• Alusia (the world of the TSR DragonQuest RPG)
• The world of Role-Aids (TSR purchased these from Mayfair Games)
• The world of the Endless Quest and HeartQuest gamebooks. Possibly placeable on Mystara (generic D&D gamebooks) and Oerth (generic AD&D gamebooks), or perhaps a distinct "gamebook world".
• The worlds of the generic DUNGEON magazine adventures.
• The worlds of the standalone TSR novels (Jewels of the Elvish, etc.)
• Dunador (the setting of N3 Destiny of Kings)

I would like to add all of the planets, moons, crystal spheres, planes, and alternate timelines, but that'd be a bigger project.

https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/continuities

 

[Hussar]

The D&D Multiverse is not Planescape, this was also clear back even back in 2e when Planescape was published. In Planescape philosophy and personal agendas matter a lot, and there's a different tone everything takes under Planescape. It's like the various published campaign settings that take place in Earth, just because one is on Earth doesn't mean they're playing Dark*Matter or Masque of the Red Death.

Meh, hairsplitting. The second you leave whatever setting you started in, you're stuck in Planescape/Multiverse (because the two are inseparable). Every module, every guide baselines to the same thing. You have Asmodeus ruling Hell, you have Demogorgon rooting around in the Abyss with Orcus as the Demon Prince of Undead. So on and so forth.

Never minding that in a number of settings, it makes absolutely no sense for these things to even exist. Why would Krynn need a Hell? Why would my Viking setting need an Abyss? But, as soon as we cast Plane Shift, poof, instant Planescape.

Hey, if you want to be constantly miserable about what happens in D&D, that's you're prerogative. Enjoy your misery.

Not so much miserable as very disappointed. I haven't bought anything planar for D&D in twenty years or so. Because I know it's just warmed over Planescape. No setting is allowed to have a unique cosmology regardless of how much they try, because, again, it all has to be connected to the Great Wheel and all those extra bits and bobs that go with the Great Wheel and Planescape. So, we can talk about The Gray, or whatever it is that makes Eberron cosmology different, but, at the end of the day, one Plane Shift spell later and we're right back in the middle of Planescape.

Even the Manual of the Planes (in 3rd and 4th edition for sure) had lengthy sections on how to break away from the Planescape Great Wheel, and 4E massively revamped the planes. Even 5E starts off its chapter on the Planes in the DMG by talking about how to build your own and what you need to consider.

The presentation of the planes has been simultaneously well defined and extremely fluid....it's not described as an effectively infinite realm of existence for nothing, after all....to accommodate literally any interpretation of planar concepts you want.

Yet, despite that, not a single setting or module EVER actually allows you to break away from the Planescape Great Wheel. Every module, every supplement, right into 5e with Mordenkainen's, we're right back to Blood Wars and Demon Princes. Whoopee. 4e tried to revamp the planes, and got crucified for it. To the point where the 4e cosmology and planar elements have been entirely (or mostly entirely) excised from the game in 5e.

Like I said, we're not allowed to have anything but the same warmed over 2e Planescape garbage that has been forced on the game for twenty or thirty years. Nothing else is acceptable.

 

[Remathilis]

@Remathilis So you have got the opinion that DS is fundamentally mechanically different and should either be ist own product or totally watered down to FR Standard (Lol "watered" see what i did there ?), i got that, but what about Krynn?

Why do you consider this one (DL) so easy compared to DS?

You got the three moons and Magic strength dependant on them, Spells available dependant on alignment,

Depending on the starting Point of a campaign clerical Magic might not be working,

You got Dragonlances! How do you represent them for 5e? A +5 weapon doing Players HP to Dragons?

You got of course Dragon Mounts, very cool Marketing Gadget, every younger Player would love that, they would be stupid to release DL without that. Aaaand if you got your dragonlance and a Dragon mount you can channel the Dragons breathweapon through it.

Same but a Little less complicated goes for eberron. The believe System is different, the planes are different! You got warforged, so you Need the rust and repair spells if you want to do it right. Characterising a warforged just with a +2 Str +1 Con and Advantage vs. poison is not doing it right. but that is Detail.

So what is so Special about DS compared to Krynn that it seems like another game to you instead of a heavy modded D&D?

Caveat: I know a LOT about Eberron, less so about Krynn. Forgive me if my details a bit sketchy...

The Wizards of High Sorcery is a wizard subclass with three variants based on the moons. Each variant controls various elements of the caster's magic (not unlike Circle of the Land for druids). A dragonlance can simply be a legendary magic item that deals massive damage to dragons (not sure player hp to damage is or was ever balanced, but numbers can be modified as needed.) A dragon mount could be represented with a simple variant rule or feat. Kender is a subrace of halfling (I mean, since 3e halflings have basically been more kender than hobbit anyway), minotaur was done in UA already. Knights of Solomnia/Takhisis could be fighter and/or paladin subclasses; dragonborn could be a variant of draconian (as insinuated in the PHB.

Moreover, what are you *cutting* from the PHB to make Dragonlance work? Half-orcs? Forcing all halflings to take the Kender subrace? Maybe tieflings? (I'm not sure you couldn't find a place for them, what with how often the Abyss is mentioned). You easily have room for all twelve classes (Wiess's 3e Dragonlance found room for the 11 PHB ones, and warlocks work as renegade mages easily enough.

Eberron? Please. Everything in the 3.5 PHB and 4e PHB 1 & 2 had a home in Eberron. They made Eberron work with the World Axis, it can work with the Great Wheel if they want it to. Their have been attempts at warforged, shifters, and changlings already (Keith Baker's version being a bit better than UA's) as well as dragonmarks (a combo of background and feats) and artificer (already a class). Kalashtar can come when psionics is ready. Literally, "if it exists in D&D, it exists in Eberron" is a selling point.

My point isn't that ONLY stuff in the Core rules should exist in a setting; that'd be silly. I want muls, kender, warforged, half-vistani, and all the good stuff from the settings there in proper 5e glory. I just don't want stuff arbitrarily cut from the PHB without a damn good reason. So far, I've seen no good reason why any class in the PHB need be cut from any of the seven classic settings. I've seen some better arguments for cutting a few minor races and replacing them with world specific (kender only halflings, no half-orcs but muls/calibans/minotaurs taking the strong/monstrous role). Backgrounds and equipment can be tailored to the world as well. Settings EXPLAND and COLOR the base game, they don't SHRINK it.