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!

 

[Ancalagon]

Except for Eberron and Dark Sun, in my eyes all the other settings are the same thing as Forgotten Realms.

Essentially, they are Forgotten Realms 1, Forgotten Realms 2, Forgotten Realms 3, ...

Planescape too is just an other region of Forgotten Realms.

As someone who is rather familiar with FR (2e and 3.x) as well as Planescape, your comment completely baffles me.

 

[Jester David]

Wait. Are you saying, that running a thieves guild in the Forgotten Realms setting constitutes a setting that is different from the Forgotten Realms setting?

Obviously. It is Forgotten Realms 12.

Indeed, this is Forgotten Realms, Basic.



In my games, *all* player characters start focusing on leading an institution (mayor of a prominent town, wizard academy, religious community, military school, criminal network, etcetera), when they reach the ‘leadership tier’, namely levels 13-16. Running an economy is an important part of this leadership.

Becoming leaders at high level has been true in generic D&D since 1e.

I kind of agree.
Birthright is a fairly generic fantasy world buoyed with a unique campaign mechanic. You could easily port the unique elements of Birthright (kingdom rulership, conquest, mass combat, a divine mandate, etc) and throw them into any other setting.

If you only tell one kind of story with a setting, it’s not a campaign setting, it’s just a campaign...

 

[TheSword]

I kind of agree.
Birthright is a fairly generic fantasy world buoyed with a unique campaign mechanic. You could easily port the unique elements of Birthright (kingdom rulership, conquest, mass combat, a divine mandate, etc) and throw them into any other setting.

If you only tell one kind of story with a setting, it’s not a campaign setting, it’s just a campaign...

Hmm, not quite. It’s a highly politicized society, Elves are openly hostile to humanity, large swathes of land are ruled by monsters, warfare is common, magic is tied to the land, arcane magic is highly restricted (elves and blooded only), evil humanoids have culture and kingdoms, magical bloodlines abound and convey supernatural abilities. The setting is hardly generic. It’s set in a medieval fantasy but it’s definitely not generic.

 

[Yaarel]

Hmm, not quite. It’s a highly politicized society, Elves are openly hostile to humanity, large swathes of land are ruled by monsters, warfare is common, magic is tied to the land, arcane magic is highly restricted (elves and blooded only), evil humanoids have culture and kingdoms, magical bloodlines abound and convey supernatural abilities. The setting is hardly generic. It’s set in a medieval fantasy but it’s definitely not generic.

• 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.

 

[TheSword]

• 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. 5e elf sucks at wizard! If only the elf got +2 to Intelligence/Charisma to actually be good at arcane magic!



Despite the unsatisfactory elf magic, this is all Forgotten Realms.

In the Birthright setting, the land is the source of arcane magical power, as nature is destroyed it reduces the magical energy of the land. The setting has far more in common with Athas in that regard. There is a distintive battle between civilization and magical power which the elves are able to circumvent.

Yes Many Arrows is a good example. However one swallow doesn’t make a spring. Drow cities in the Realms don’t generally border and interact with surface kingdoms. Whereas there are 20 or so monstrous kingdoms bordering and interacting with regularly kingdoms. Birthright resembles Eberron in this regard.

The magical bloodlines are not just a few scattered and rare races. They are the political elite that form the decision making and ruling class for the entire continent. It resembles Eberron in this regard as well.

You’re also missing the big difference that Birthright is low magic, low power NPCs that has a totally different dynamic feel to the high magic realms.

 

[TwoSix]

As someone who is rather familiar with FR (2e and 3.x) as well as Planescape, your comment completely baffles me.

Dark Sun doesn't have gods. In Eberron, the polytheistic religion is merely one religious belief among many. See the theme?

 

[Yaarel]

In the Birthright setting, the land is the source of arcane magical power, as nature is destroyed it reduces the magical energy of the land. The setting has far more in common with Athas in that regard. There is a distintive battle between civilization and magical power which the elves are able to circumvent.

Yes Many Arrows is a good example. However one swallow doesn’t make a spring. Drow cities in the Realms don’t generally border and interact with surface kingdoms. Whereas there are 20 or so monstrous kingdoms bordering and interacting with regularly kingdoms. Birthright resembles Eberron in this regard.

The magical bloodlines are not just a few scattered and rare races. They are the political elite that form the decision making and ruling class for the entire continent. It resembles Eberron in this regard as well.

‘The land is the source of arcane magical power.’

In Forgotten Realms, an elf ‘mythal’ is an epic-tier magic ritual that can make the land magic. I think, drow also did something like this, to levitate around in their city. There are all kinds of examples, of deriving magic from some terrain feature.

For the political elite, they could easily be half elves. Hence the ‘bloodline’, and they would be good at Charisma politics and Charisma bard and sorcerer arcane magic.

Write up a custom background.

 

[Remathilis]

I am baffled by what people would want from a "new setting" for Dungeons & Dragons. D&D has some obvious boxes they have to tick; elves, dragons, wizards, swords, etc. Any setting they are going to make is going to be compatible with the Core Rulebooks at the bare minimum; and probably as many supplements as possible in order to maximize profits. They aren't going to make settings that severely limits the material available to it, nor are they going to radically change classes, mechanics, and the like. At best, you'll get flavored D&D; heroic (Dragonlance), pulp-noir (Eberron), gothic horror (Ravenloft) or pulp (Dark Sun). You're not getting a human-only world, or a world with radically different magic, or set in the modern or far future, as a D&D setting.

 

[AmerginLiath]

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

Insufferable cant?

 

[Yaarel]

For a setting to *feel* different, its cosmology − its ‘canopy’ − also needs to differ.