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!

 

[gyor]

I only caught the end of it, but asked what had been revealed and two people told me;
- shoes and other D&D merchandise will be available at San Diego Comic Con
- their will be an announcement on July 23rd about the two settings that will be released ("released" as in CoS released Barovia, but then will be available to the DMsGuild)
- There will be new collector editions versions of the PHB, MM, DMG

Hints of;
- Spelljammer as one of the settings (which probably just means more info on DoMM)

I still think it's possible he conciders Moonshae and Border Kingdoms setting guides as settings, so I won't get any hopes up until we know better, he's, already gotten peoples hopes up just to disappoint them.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I still think it's possible he conciders Moonshae and Border Kingdoms setting guides as settings, so I won't get any hopes up until we know better, he's, already gotten peoples hopes up just to disappoint them.

You don't hype up an announcement for something that has already been announced, and, in the case of the Border Kingdoms guide, is already available!

 

[Demetrios1453]

given what people are expecting... almost certainly. We're setting ourselves up to be let down

It's funny, but a week ago, even the minimum what they could announce, that other settings will become available on the DM's Guild or otherwise available electronically, would have been greeted with celebration here. Now, for some reason, that would be "underwhelming and disappointing".

 

[NiClerigo]

It's funny, but a week ago, even the minimum what they could announce, that other settings will become available on the DM's Guild or otherwise available electronically, would have been greeted with celebration here. Now, for some reason, that would be "underwhelming and disappointing".

Not me. I would love an Eberron PDF by Keith Baker at the Guild!

 

[Mercule]

It's funny, but a week ago, even the minimum what they could announce, that other settings will become available on the DM's Guild or otherwise available electronically, would have been greeted with celebration here. Now, for some reason, that would be "underwhelming and disappointing".

It's probably a bit of reaction to them trying to set the bar. When you're hungry, the expectation is "food". If Mom says, "I've got dinner planned out" it raises the bar a bit. If an hour later, she says, "You're really gonna like dinner, but I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll tell you in a couple hours, just before I serve it," it sets the bar quite a bit higher. If dinner turns out to be canned green beans and Spam, it's going to be a bit of a let down to most folks. Even if you don't mind those foods (I loathe both), they probably aren't worth trying to be cute about, so the build up, itself, is what leads to disappointment.

In short, if you're not going to do something cool, don't call a press conference, shine a spotlight, and hire a marching band. Just announce it and be done.

 

[gyor]

You don't hype up an announcement for something that has already been announced, and, in the case of the Border Kingdoms guide, is already available!

You don't hype up an announcement for an announcement either, but he did, so anything is possible. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

[Cyber-Dave]

You don't hype up an announcement for something that has already been announced, and, in the case of the Border Kingdoms guide, is already available!

Are you talking about Storm King’s Thunder, or did I miss a text?

 

[Mercule]

given what people are expecting... almost certainly. We're setting ourselves up to be let down

With the level of build-up, I'm expecting something along the lines of a SCAG for Eberron (or whatever the setting is). There's no way we're going to see a setting book in the vein of prior editions, and that's fine. What I will consider a successful product would:
1) Get something on hobby store shelves that actually gives new players enough info to even know they could look at earlier edition material for more info. A foot in the door, essentially.
2) Opens up the DMs Guild for third party publishing. Keith has pretty much said he's got a lot of things that he could write up that wouldn't be profitable enough for WotC to worry about.
3) Is reasonably faithful to previous edition material. There's quite a bit of difference between the 3.5 and 4E books, mechanically, but the flavor is consistent enough.

An online PDF, whether at the Wizards site or DMs Guild wouldn't accomplish #1. There has to be some sort of physical product. My understanding is that the setting announcement plays into the formal release schedule, so I think we're okay, here. I could be wrong, though.

Really, I don't see any issue with #2. If they're teasing this much for a UA article, they deserve whatever rains down on them. Again, this isn't my understanding of what's being teased.

If they do some sort of "Other Worlds Atlas" book, covering multiple settings, it could go either way on #3 (and, maybe, #1). A SCAG-sized book should be able to give a good enough overview of a setting. I don't see how a book that size could do anything worthwhile with more than one, though. You'd have to leave out something important, whether that meant all crunch and no fluff, no crunch and all fluff, or an incomplete mishmash of both.

Note: I'm not saying there has to be deep info on the inner workings of the Cults of the Dragon Below, Sarlona, the Dreaming Dark, Xendrik, each of the nations and Dragonmarked houses. SCAG didn't go into Undermountain, Chult, etc. There's a balance. I'd just like to have enough to give a good starting point and compass for anyone who coming to Eberron in 5E. That should be both reasonable and realistic.

 

[Jester David]

With the level of build-up, I'm expecting something along the lines of a SCAG for Eberron (or whatever the setting is).

The catch being... there's not really a lot of official build-up. There was one article with an interview and a little teasing, but not much else. All the build-up is taking place via fan speculation and hype. We're building ourselves up and, very likely, setting ourselves up for disappointment.

For example, I doubt we'll see something like SCAG. Because that's the one product that has seemed like a disappointment, and they haven't done something else like that. Instead, they have talked about something like Curse of Strahd, which was an adventure with a setting introduction. Something like Death House paired with 30-pages of setting.

1) Get something on hobby store shelves that actually gives new players enough info to even know they could look at earlier edition material for more info. A foot in the door, essentially.

That I'm doubtful about. I think this is something for the established fans, while they're leaving the Realms for new fans.

2) Opens up the DMs Guild for third party publishing. Keith has pretty much said he's got a lot of things that he could write up that wouldn't be profitable enough for WotC to worry about.

I think that has been confirmed, at least for whatever setting they launch.

An online PDF, whether at the Wizards site or DMs Guild wouldn't accomplish #1. There has to be some sort of physical product. My understanding is that the setting announcement plays into the formal release schedule, so I think we're okay, here. I could be wrong, though.

I'm still expecting online PDFs.

 

[gyor]

You don't hype up an announcement for an announcement either, but he did, so anything is possible. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I hope you are right, but I'm not holding my breath, can't be disappointed that way.