Warforged, Kender, Multiverses, & Errata - An Eclectic News Summary!

WotC's Mike Mearls has confirmed that the D&D website articles will be starting up again - and that we should expect top see Warforged very soon. In response to a question about Warforged and Kender, he says "Yes, warforged will be up first - jury duty has messed with our plans, but stuff is moving along." In other news, Jeremy Crawford commented on the "default" setting of D&D and on upcoming errata documents slated for Spring.

He also commented briefly on the Adventurer's Guide rumours of later, confirming that "yes, the material will be available in the free PDF download" ; while some of the material in that download will also appear in the Princes of the Apocalypse hardcover, "there will be some exclusive stuff in the download". Regarding PotA, he says "I *think* it's in the 256 - 320 range - can't remember off the top of my head" - which sounds broad, as I mentioned to him, but he responded that "it's not so wide when you think in 32 page increments!" That's not all that's on his mind these days - we already know Chris Perkins is working on something slated for 2016, and Mike Mearls says that "I have the stuff we're doing in 2017 much more front of mind these days!"

[lq]Does the D&D tabletop RPG have one official setting? The answer is yes. That setting is the multiverse, which includes all D&D worlds.[/lq]

In other bite sized items, WotC's Jeremy Crawford commented on the concept of a "default" setting for D&D. "Does the D&D tabletop RPG have one official setting? The answer is yes. That setting is the multiverse, which includes all D&D worlds. The worlds occupy pockets of the Material Plane—sort of like planets but in a space shaped by magic and divine forces." This ties in with what Chris Perkins is working on for 2016, which he has previously stated as being non-Realms material.

Errata documents are also being prepared. Crawford confirms it -- "Errata documents are definitely on the way, starting with the Player's Handbook. They'll start coming out before the spring." He also commented briefly on the recent "announced/not announced" thing, indicating that "We won't announce products until they're ready. We do consider Greyhawk and others to be in 5E; they're in the core books!"

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, they *could*... but there's already a ton of stuff in 2E, 3E, and 4E about and for Sigil in all kinds of various books. At what point is just rewriting and reprinting information that many of us already own and have on our shelves worth it to WotC spending the money on to reproduce? What could possibly be added to a potential aide *besides* a handful of monsters and NPCs whose statblocks are in 5E style?



It's the same reason why I don't really see a need for a new Eberron Campaign Setting for instance. Sure, stats for the Eberron races and specific mechanical things like dragonmarks would be really useful-- that's a definite. But the actual *campaign setting*? If the timeline doesn't advance, the entire book would just be a reprint of exactly what was already fleshed out in detail in the 3E and 4E Eberron books. Nothing much would be gained over just directing people to dndclassics.com to pick up one of the prior edition's guides and telling them to use that (plus these player mechanics we'll offer for free on the website so you can fully create your Eberron characters.)

With Eberron especially, there is one great way to make it worthwhile: Boxed set, with poster map, all sorts of goodies like that. They could do this for all the settings and provide value especially for new players, but even for older players who already have the info.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Man, thinking about Eberron...

Setting everything in "The Multiverse" might be a bit of a problem for the orrey cosmology there. Not a needle that can't be threaded, necessarily, but it'll require some contortions....

....maybe Eberron's planes will be more explicitly moons or somesuch and the whole thing will float in the Material Plane like any other world-moon combo?

....maybe Eberron's planes will be noted as "a model" and if DM's want to insert Carceri or whatever they can do so simply by making it an unknown plane, or putting it in an existing location?

....maybe something else?

I wouldn't want to see Eberron's orrey continue to be slapped around by 5e. And I wouldn't want other worlds to necessarily have to address The Multiverse (Dragonlance don't care, forex).

 

[Li Shenron]

Errata documents are also being prepared. Crawford confirms it -- "Errata documents are definitely on the way, starting with the Player's Handbook. They'll start coming out before the spring."

I am really interested in knowing if errata will be incorporated in future re-prints of the core books. I haven't bought the books yet, so I want to know if it's worth waiting. But then AFAIK the amount of errata is quite small, so waiting longer than a few more months doesn't make much sense...

With relation to errata, I am also interested in what happened to their idea of surveying once a year for updating the rules. This also may have an impact on me buying the books soon or later.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

Well, I'm excited about this! I want to see how they handle warforged; those are kinda key to a homebrew campaign I've been working on. One which, ironically, may be less of a headache in 5E.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

Man, thinking about Eberron...

Setting everything in "The Multiverse" might be a bit of a problem for the orrey cosmology there. Not a needle that can't be threaded, necessarily, but it'll require some contortions....

....maybe Eberron's planes will be more explicitly moons or somesuch and the whole thing will float in the Material Plane like any other world-moon combo?

....maybe Eberron's planes will be noted as "a model" and if DM's want to insert Carceri or whatever they can do so simply by making it an unknown plane, or putting it in an existing location?

....maybe something else?

I wouldn't want to see Eberron's orrey continue to be slapped around by 5e. And I wouldn't want other worlds to necessarily have to address The Multiverse (Dragonlance don't care, forex).

IIRC, Eberron has repeatedly hinted that its planes and moons are directly connected and may even be the same thing.

So, I think maybe Eberron will be one of the worlds reachable through the Far Realm? It wouldn't be that difficult to justify.

 

[Raunalyn]

Releasing it free? This gives me a happy!

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Crawford's statement is a bit of a dodge.

Yes, 5e supports the "multiverse" concept, but all the Adventure League content and official release modules are set in the Forgotten Realms. That pretty much makes it the default because the adventures are tied to political forces in the Forgotten Realms (Zhentarim, Waterdeep, Thay... etc).

Sure, the adventures could be adapted to any setting with a bit of work if you file off the serial numbers, but to say that Forgotten Realms is "not the default" is misleading.

I'm in a grumpy mood today, so forgive me if my response comes off as a little rough.

3e and 4e are the only editions since BECMI that have had a default setting. They had one single setting baked into the core books. The fluff elements in the PHB referenced that setting. Unless you went out of your way to buy material designed around other settings, it was assumed you were playing in that setting. The races and deities that were given as your only set of options were those of that default world.

That's what a default setting is--you are assumed to be playing in it by default.

5e, along with AD&D, does not have a default setting (other than the multiverse). If you read the descriptions of the races in the PHB it explicitly describes how the various subraces are represented in a variety of campaign settings. If you look at the deity list in the appendix, you get multiple campaign setting pantheons.

OP uses the Forgotten Realms. That's it. OP defines nothing but organized play. The PHB defines the defaults for D&D.

Jeremy Crawford was precisely on the money--the default setting of 5e is the multiverse.

 

[Shasarak]

I am really looking forward to the Warforged.

I do not really follow what WotC does with their Multiverse anymore because every new designer wants to try and spin it another way. I just stick with my version.

 

[MartyW]

OP uses the Forgotten Realms. That's it. OP defines nothing but organized play. The PHB defines the defaults for D&D.

You'll likely disagree, but it seems like you are splitting hairs.

Yes, you are correct in that the PHB and DMG don't have maps and references to a specific generic setting (like Nentir Vale), but if all the modules and other print materials produced are for a specific setting, to say there is no default setting may be technically correct, but still a cop out.

There is the baked-in assumption that every game incorporating Phandalin (Starter Set), HotDQ, RoT, D&D AL scenarios and Elemental Evil are all in the Realms. Everything is Realms-specific rather than generic such that it could be dropped into any setting, homebrew or otherwise.

I'm not saying this is "wrong" per se, but they should just own it rather than playing coy. Forgotten Realms is the defacto setting because that's where all of the cross-media sales opportunities are -- Neverwinter MMO, novels, Drizzt bobbleheads, etc.

Sure, there are rumors that "something" is coming in 2016 that may not be the Realms... but 2016 is a long way off. If it's a GenCon 2016 release, that's over 18 months out.

So... If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

 

[lkj]

You know, if we didn't advance timelines (or supported multiple timelines), how much crunch in each campaign setting book would there be to convert for 5e? Could they take the old Greyhawk boxed set, convert anything that needed converting, then publish it as the 5e update for Greyhawk, probably as a pdf? What about Eberron? Or even earlier timelines (i.e., earlier editions) of the Realms?

Probably not what they are planning-- and it wouldn't solve the desire for new material (which I totally get)-- but given that they almost certainly won't write shiny new books for all the settings, it might be an 'official' way to get your favorite setting ported. And if particular settings got enough interest, it might spur further development.

Broadly speaking, from a 'brand and storyline' perspective, it makes sense to find low-rent ways to re-invigorate as much story material as possible for possible future use in other media.

Shrug. Just a thought.

AD