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!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The logical thing to do would be to make a print book as a "meta-setting" (i.e. Planescape+Spelljammer), with links to the other settings. Then expand the setting-specific material digitally. This minimises the "divided-playerbase" problem, since digital releases don't have the development and production costs of a print book, so they don't have to be purchased by a high percentage of the total playerbase in order to be profitable.

 

[delericho]

Well, for a setting like Eberron they really only need four races

The problem there is that one of those races, the Kalashtar, is psionic in nature, which opens up a big can of worms.

dragonmarks, dragonshards, and *maybe* the artificer.

And the magic item economy. One of the ways Eberron differs from other settings is that the Last War featured industrial-scale magic item development. Those weapons are still around, and indeed are all over the setting. One of the dragonmarked houses (Cannith, IIRC) are specified as having established standardized prices for magic items.

(None of which should be surprising - Eberron was of course built specifically for 3e, and consequently made use of the common assumptions of that edition, including easy sale and purchase of items.)

This presents one of two problems: presenting a detailed magic item economy would be way beyond what could really be presented in 20 pages. Alternately, they could remove that aspect - but that's a pretty big change to the setting.

 

[Remathilis]

The problem there is that one of those races, the Kalashtar, is psionic in nature, which opens up a big can of worms.



And the magic item economy. One of the ways Eberron differs from other settings is that the Last War featured industrial-scale magic item development. Those weapons are still around, and indeed are all over the setting. One of the dragonmarked houses (Cannith, IIRC) are specified as having established standardized prices for magic items.

(None of which should be surprising - Eberron was of course built specifically for 3e, and consequently made use of the common assumptions of that edition, including easy sale and purchase of items.)

This presents one of two problems: presenting a detailed magic item economy would be way beyond what could really be presented in 20 pages. Alternately, they could remove that aspect - but that's a pretty big change to the setting.

Kalashtar aren't hard as it appears; gith races are psionic and that was emulated with SLA and racial abilities. A pseudo-psionic kalashtar could still be done in the same vein.

Likewise, the MIE could still work if you expand the common magic items idea from Xanathars. House Cannith doesn't make +1 swords or wands of fireball, but could make moontouched swords or limited use wands cheap. Good magic items still need to be quested for in Xen'drik and other dark places.

 

[Salthorae]

There is already a framework for buying and selling magic items in Xanathar’s. They really just need to expand up the creation rules, that framework and maybe push a price list out for the major/minor items at each level. I.e. Sovreign Glue should not cost anywhere close to a +2 Shield.

Unfortunately House Cannith and other houses were specifically churning out weapons of war (eternal wands, +1 armor and weapons, warforged) for the Last War. So just pulling that back to common it me doesn’t work.

That said much of what they did make is probably already in the uncommon section. Even Gauntlets of Ogre Power are uncommon.

 

[delericho]

There is already a framework for buying and selling magic items in Xanathar’s.

For most campaign settings, and for 5e in general, I find that this system is perfectly fine - they've (rightly, IMO) decided that magic items should be found rather than bought/sold/made, and so the system provides enough to support that and no more.

But for Eberron specifically, I'd expect something more.

 

[Jester David]

The problem there is that one of those races, the Kalashtar, is psionic in nature, which opens up a big can of worms.

I think they needed to know what the psion would look like to have an idea. I think they have a much better idea now, and know enough to make it synergize.
I doubt they'll do the "1 bonus power point/ level" mechanic again, as that seems unattractive if not playing a psychic character. But they can make them able to communicate telepathically and cast detect thoughts fairly easily.

And the magic item economy. One of the ways Eberron differs from other settings is that the Last War featured industrial-scale magic item development. Those weapons are still around, and indeed are all over the setting. One of the dragonmarked houses (Cannith, IIRC) are specified as having established standardized prices for magic items.

(None of which should be surprising - Eberron was of course built specifically for 3e, and consequently made use of the common assumptions of that edition, including easy sale and purchase of items.)

This presents one of two problems: presenting a detailed magic item economy would be way beyond what could really be presented in 20 pages. Alternately, they could remove that aspect - but that's a pretty big change to the setting.

The magic item economy of PCs was basically "here's the 3e magic item economy". No changes were needed and the setting didn't do anything revolutionary there. The big change for Eberron was that it stopped to ask "hey, if there are all these mages making bespoke magic items for adventurers and magic item shops... wouldn't they sell to the remaining 99.5% of the populace?"
So what's needed isn't a detailed magic item economy, but more common magic items that can be used by commoners and cost a small amount of money. The magic items of convenience. But mostly that's description and fluff: you don't need hard, detailed rules for a broom of sweeping or an everburning candle.

As for PC magic items and standardised prices, that's just a matter of saying "all House Cannith made magic items cost twice the minimum price, except arms and armour that instead cost three times the minimum price".
So, yes, they could do that in 20 pages.

 

[pukunui]

FWIW there are some magic items for sale at set prices in Port Nyanzaru in ToA, so there is some precedent for it in 5e.