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!

 

[Remathilis]

The problem is - what customer is this directed at?

Its a sampler platter. It gives a new player enough of a taste of a world to decide if she likes it and either hunt down older stuff on DMs Guild or Wikis or demand more coverage later. It gives experienced players enough conversion and meta update to adapt their old stuff. It gives homebrewers new ideas to pillage. And it gives a basis for the DM Guild and Adepts to go wild and in depth (search Ravenloft on DM's Guild and compare how it spawned the 5e conversion off a single domain in Ravenloft). Doing it as a single book spreads the risk among the fanbase of all seven settings (an Eberron player and a Dark Sun player both purchase the same book for their update, which is safer than an Eberron book alone that doesn't appeal to the DS player and vice versa). A module gives enough of a flavor sample and could be tied to a bigger story (Modron March?) or run separate (Yawning Portal). And PDFs like MTG's Plane Shift give enough info at a low cost that they can later gauge interest and produce content for it as needed.

 

[Parmandur]

So, trawling the thread on the Giant in the Playground forums about the same article, somebody reported on "good authority" that he heard the next thing is a full-blown Magic: The Gathering RPG product. He wasn't happy about this, but add that to the rumor pile.

 

[gyor]

So, trawling the thread on the Giant in the Playground forums about the same article, somebody reported on "good authority" that he heard the next thing is a full-blown Magic: The Gathering RPG product. He wasn't happy about this, but add that to the rumor pile.

This is a possiblity. It will anger alot of Traditional D&D fans if Magics settings get support before traditional none FR settings. Maybe both will see support. Honestly one of the products is D&D: Magic the Gathering, which I do support, how do they fit the Magic the Gathering multiverse within the D&D multiverse and will the relationship be reciperical, say D&D or Forgotten Realms decks for Magic the Gathering? (D&D power sources being linked to colours perhaps, Black=Shadow, Red=Arcane, White=Divine, Blue=Psionic, Green=Primal).

 

[gyor]

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.

Shifters stopped being Eberron specific in 4e, most they were added to the Forgotten Realms (especiallt Dambrath and The Great Dale) and Nerath, I don't know about 4e Darksun.

 

[gyor]

If one of the products is a merged Planescape and Spelljammer Product what do they call it, Planejammer? Spellscape?

 

[Doctor Futurity]

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.



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.



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.

Old examples: Dark Sun, Birthright, Jakandar, Spelljammer (sorta), Night of the Comet.

Newer Examples: Eberron, 4E's PoL Cosmology, 4E Dark Sun, a billion 3PP products

Current Examples: I agree, current D&D is focused on Forgotten Realms, and arguably the default cosmology is the Planescape cosmology, but this is an issue of limited releases and tighter focus. If you're looking for "D&D without the Realms/Planescape cosmology" then there are hundreds of 3PP out there, the majority of which do not touch upon canonical Planescape.

Now, you will be tempted to denigrate the 3PP products, because you're on a high horse here and the point is not to be convinced you might be narrow in your vision but to convince others that your vision is unassailable...that's fine. But I've been running this game since 1980 weekly and I have barely ever used Planescape or the default cosmology as is, except when I feel like it, and some of my own settings aren't even remotely close to the "core." So I get where you're coming from: you want official WotC product that came out today or tomorrow that specifically removes the Planescape/Manual of the Planes components of the core setting from sight and somehow then bestows upon you an entirely new and different cosmology that you can use whole cloth (because it's in a module, see; if you were looking to do your own thing those tools have already been provided countless times) and that it meets your specific desires. This is an impossibly tall order with WotC's focus on prodividing carefully curated product that caters to a lineage of D&D experience right now, and is ironic anyway since this is a game that provides all the tools you need to do whatever you want, your own way, as you see fit.

But I am not trying to convince you, I know that's not what you want. I will merely state that I feel your pain, and maybe one day you'll find what you're looking for and can stop being angry at D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

This is a possiblity. It will anger alot of Traditional D&D fans if Magics settings get support before traditional none FR settings. Maybe both will see support. Honestly one of the products is D&D: Magic the Gathering, which I do support, how do they fit the Magic the Gathering multiverse within the D&D multiverse and will the relationship be reciperical, say D&D or Forgotten Realms decks for Magic the Gathering? (D&D power sources being linked to colours perhaps, Black=Shadow, Red=Arcane, White=Divine, Blue=Psionic, Green=Primal).

Yeah, curious how they would approach it, should that be something they make. The July announcement date would fit with M:tG goings-on, with new product cycles for M:tG keying in this Summer.

 

[kenmarable]

Meh, hairsplitting. The second you leave whatever setting you started in, you're stuck in Planescape/Multiverse (because the two are inseparable).

What?!! Put the 1e Manual of the Planes next to the Planescape campaign boxed set and they are indistinguishable? Seriously?So tone, flavor, theme, etc. has nothing to do with a setting? I don’t agree with everything Kobold Avenger says, but this is exactly like saying every game that happens on Earth is indistinguishable because it uses the same map. That’s just ridiculous.

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.

Are you familiar with Eberron? The way you word this, it sure doesn’t sound like it. Because the 3.5 Eberron products did exactly what you are asking for and had a non-Great Wheel cosmology. If you Plane Shift out of Eberron, there’s other planes you would go to NOT the Great Wheel. It’s all very clearly explained right there in the original hardcover. The only issue is that they didn’t do much with it (Keith Baker has said its the top of his list if they ever open up the setting on DMs Guild), not that they didn’t offer an alternative. Eberron absolutely 100% disproves this thing you are claiming as fact. It never used the Great Wheel or any of its history and had an alternative in the entire product line.

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.

[-]There’s a wee bit of difference between “offering an alternative” and “throwing away everything that came before.” I actually agree with you that there should be alternatives. But 4e’s forcing its own version on everything with no other alternatives is what a lot of people had a problem with and the same thing you are complaining about. [/-] (Zeromaru X corrected me below.)

But, yes, I agree that they should explore alternatives more, but the claiming they never did and everything planar they have ever done is indistinguishable from Planescape is factually wrong and pretty absurd hyperbole.

 

[Zeromaru X]

.
There’s a wee bit of difference between “offering an alternative” and “throwing away everything that came before.” I actually agree with you that there should be alternatives. But 4e’s forcing its own version on everything with no other alternatives is what a lot of people had a problem with and the same thing you are complaining about.

I begining to think people have not actually read the 4e books.

Yeah, 4e did used the World Axis as the "default" cosmology (you can blame that to Forgotten Realms, BTW; read certain interview in Dragon 370), but they did offered alternatives. A Great Wheel conversion to 4e is right there in that edition's Manual of the Planes, and the World Axis was created to be compatible with Planescape.

So, yeah, the World Axis was the default, but not the only one cosmology in 4e.

I do agree with you in the other points. But, we have to take into account the new selling philosophy of WotC.

 

[SkidAce]

Are you familiar with Eberron? The way you word this, it sure doesn’t sound like it. Because the 3.5 Eberron products did exactly what you are asking for and had a non-Great Wheel cosmology. If you Plane Shift out of Eberron, there’s other planes you would go to NOT the Great Wheel. It’s all very clearly explained right there in the original hardcover. The only issue is that they didn’t do much with it (Keith Baker has said its the top of his list if they ever open up the setting on DMs Guild), not that they didn’t offer an alternative. Eberron absolutely 100% disproves this thing you are claiming as fact. It never used the Great Wheel or any of its history and had an alternative in the entire product line.

Voila, for cosmic truth!