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!"

 

[JohnLynch]

Here's a crazy thought. But what if the 2016 book is a "Players Guide to the Multiverse" where all you get is the critical crunch for each campaign setting. For the races I could see:

• Genasi (Forgotten Realms)
• Plane-touched (Planescape)
• Warforged (Eberron)
• Kalashtar (Eberron)
• Shifter (Eberron)
• Changeling (Eberron)
• Kender (Dragonlance)
• Minotaur (Dragonlance)
• Half-Giant (Dark Sun)
• Thri-Kreen (Dark Sun)
• Desert Elf (Dark Sun)
• Mul (Dark Sun)

That would be 26 pages out of 320. Leaving room for core mechanics/advice like:

• Spellplague (Forgotten Realms)
• Artificer (Eberron)
• Dragonmarks (Eberron)
• Elemental Clerics (Dark Sun)
• Templars (Dark Sun)
• Defiler/Preserver subclasses (Dark Sun)
• DM advice on reconciling the multiverse, incorporating what you want and leaving out what you don't want.
• 1 page advert for D&D Classics

Other things like Bladesinger (if separate to the College of Valour bard), Shaman class, etc could be included if there was room. I'd expect psionics to be it's own supplement. Would there be nice to haves? Like a centaur race, Goliaths or more classes? Sure. But the above list would cover the minimum of what's required to play in those settings.

This would emphasize supporting the Forgotten Realms "across all editions" along with supporting a number of D&D settings. It would also lineup with WotC's current policy of "less is more."

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

Spellplague (Forgotten Realms)

This was retconned out of FR. It's primarily something you'll only have to care about in relation to 5E if you play the MMO Neverwinter (which still uses 4E rules and the 4E version of FR).

 

[S_Dalsgaard]

This was retconned out of FR. It's primarily something you'll only have to care about in relation to 5E if you play the MMO Neverwinter (which still uses 4E rules and the 4E version of FR).

It wasn't retconned. It just isn't in effect anymore (except in a few places).

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

It wasn't retconned. It just isn't in effect anymore (except in a few places).

It was, only it was done in-universe through the Sundering. Which, basically, reversed FR back to pre-4E days in a lot of areas while still moving time forward. It's something that some writers do when they need to keep a sense of continuity, but happen to need to retcon something out of the continuity.

FR just has in-built setting elements that allow for such retcons and for massive changes in how magic works.

 

[Staffan]

That's... not what "retcon" means. Retcon means "retroactive continuity" - basically saying that X never happened. IIRC, the 4e Dark Sun stuff retconned pretty much the whole setting history after Freedom!/The Verdant Passage - Kalak has just been overthrown, and other sorcerer-monarchs are eyeing Tyr warily and wondering if their rebellion will spread, and/or if this means that Tyr is ripe for the picking. The rest of the Prism Pentad didn't happen, or at least hasn't happened yet.

The Spellplague wasn't retconned. It happened. Then something else happened that mostly cleaned it up, but it's still a thing that exists here and there in the setting, and the things that happened because of it still happened.

 

[Parmandur]

Here's a crazy thought. But what if the 2016 book is a "Players Guide to the Multiverse" where all you get is the critical crunch for each campaign setting. For the races I could see:

• Genasi (Forgotten Realms)
  
• Plane-touched (Planescape)
  
• Warforged (Eberron)
  
• Kalashtar (Eberron)
  
• Shifter (Eberron)
  
• Changeling (Eberron)
  
• Kender (Dragonlance)
  
• Minotaur (Dragonlance)
  
• Half-Giant (Dark Sun)
  
• Thri-Kreen (Dark Sun)
  
• Desert Elf (Dark Sun)
  
• Mul (Dark Sun)
  

That would be 26 pages out of 320. Leaving room for core mechanics/advice like:

• Spellplague (Forgotten Realms)
  
• Artificer (Eberron)
  
• Dragonmarks (Eberron)
  
• Elemental Clerics (Dark Sun)
  
• Templars (Dark Sun)
  
• Defiler/Preserver subclasses (Dark Sun)
  
• DM advice on reconciling the multiverse, incorporating what you want and leaving out what you don't want.
  
• 1 page advert for D&D Classics
  

Other things like Bladesinger (if separate to the College of Valour bard), Shaman class, etc could be included if there was room. I'd expect psionics to be it's own supplement. Would there be nice to haves? Like a centaur race, Goliaths or more classes? Sure. But the above list would cover the minimum of what's required to play in those settings.



This would emphasize supporting the Forgotten Realms "across all editions" along with supporting a number of D&D settings. It would also lineup with WotC's current policy of "less is more."

I could definitely see something along those lines, but here's another thought: in the survey they have going now, they asked if folks wanted book or boxed set supplements. What if they did a "Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons" box set, with gazetteers giving the broad strokes for each of the ~12 branded settings? This would allow grognards with loads of old material, or dndclassics PDFs, to adapt their material, while leaving room for more detailed supplements for each setting.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

That's... not what "retcon" means. Retcon means "retroactive continuity" - basically saying that X never happened. IIRC, the 4e Dark Sun stuff retconned pretty much the whole setting history after Freedom!/The Verdant Passage - Kalak has just been overthrown, and other sorcerer-monarchs are eyeing Tyr warily and wondering if their rebellion will spread, and/or if this means that Tyr is ripe for the picking. The rest of the Prism Pentad didn't happen, or at least hasn't happened yet.

The Spellplague wasn't retconned. It happened. Then something else happened that mostly cleaned it up, but it's still a thing that exists here and there in the setting, and the things that happened because of it still happened.

Except it also didn't happen as of the end of the Sundering novels. Every single change or event it brought about has been undone in some way. It may still technically be history, but given that even the last areas of spellplague have been erased in the novels and the fact that WotC is apparently using pre-4E maps for 5E... the spellplague is little more than a shared dream for the populace at this point.

It's a reverse-change retcon. If you want to read more about reverse-change retcons, this livejournal post goes in-depth into different types of retcons and covers a reverse change retcon at the top.

 

[gyor]

Its more complicated.

It like imagine if earth had a nuclear war, which left devistation and nuclear waste all over and caused regime change and radical shifts in Geopolitical power.

Then imagine aliens came along and used thier tech to such up the Nuclead waste and to restabilize earth's climate, and to cure people with of radiation sickness which allowed some previous groups to restore themselves.

Does the world become exactly as it was before the war? No, because the clean up wasn't perfect and while people have have been cured it doesn't bring back the dead (exception in FRs case with Gods), and people still have the mental scars and even with some groups that have returned will be changed.

In other words FR been changed to bring back features that people liked and most, although perhaps not all, spellplague lands have been cured, as have the Spellscarred, Dragonborn from Abier are all over Toril, the Tiefling population has exploded, people know Abier exists, Genasi are way more common relatively then they used to be, some of the 4e players like Farideh are still around, Warlocks are more common, Gods that appeared during 4e are still around, the Feywild and the Shadowfell are still there close to Toril, Eldarin are still around, and a variety of other things.

Plus there are new elements like the Order of the Gauntlet, so its a mixed of pre4e inspired elements, 4e elements, and new 5e elements.

 

[Kevan]

Unearthed Arcana?

Here's a crazy thought. But what if the 2016 book is a "Players Guide to the Multiverse" where all you get is the critical crunch for each campaign setting. For the races I could see:

• Genasi (Forgotten Realms)
• Plane-touched (Planescape)
• Warforged (Eberron)
• Kalashtar (Eberron)
• Shifter (Eberron)
• Changeling (Eberron)
• Kender (Dragonlance)
• Minotaur (Dragonlance)
• Half-Giant (Dark Sun)
• Thri-Kreen (Dark Sun)
• Desert Elf (Dark Sun)
• Mul (Dark Sun)

That would be 26 pages out of 320. Leaving room for core mechanics/advice like:

• Spellplague (Forgotten Realms)
• Artificer (Eberron)
• Dragonmarks (Eberron)
• Elemental Clerics (Dark Sun)
• Templars (Dark Sun)
• Defiler/Preserver subclasses (Dark Sun)
• DM advice on reconciling the multiverse, incorporating what you want and leaving out what you don't want.
• 1 page advert for D&D Classics

Other things like Bladesinger (if separate to the College of Valour bard), Shaman class, etc could be included if there was room. I'd expect psionics to be it's own supplement. Would there be nice to haves? Like a centaur race, Goliaths or more classes? Sure. But the above list would cover the minimum of what's required to play in those settings.

This would emphasize supporting the Forgotten Realms "across all editions" along with supporting a number of D&D settings. It would also lineup with WotC's current policy of "less is more."

This is along the lines of what I've been thinking. If there could be just one more hardcover book published for 5e, my wish would be for something in the style of the Unearthed Arcana books that were published for AD&D and 3.5e. I think this would be a perfect fit with 5e as it has rolled out so far, by providing a variety of optional rules that can be incorporated at the discretion of the DM and players. I would gladly purchase a DMG-sized book like this.

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

@gyor

I do like how you put it.

The problem you're going to run across is this: The Sundering itself removed a lot of the major effects of the Spellplague. New races and classes? These have popped without any explanation in FR history before. Some races and classes being more common? Again, happened with no explanation in FR history before. New groups popping up out of nowhere? That happens in FR on occasion.

Someone actually dedicated could justify the rest as remaining despite any type of retcon, but I'm going to admit that would require way too much stretching.

Whether or not the Spellplague was a mistake, there remains the problem that the only items which don't have a history of simply suddenly existing are items which are, mostly, not directly visible. A few new gods, knowledge of another world that isn't easy to reach, and some new memories. And, that's before you consider that years have passed since the Spellplague ended by the time 5E starts. Depending on how much time has passed, direct knowledge of the Spellplague could easily be limited to the elderly. The way WotC has set it up, they can safely ignore the Spellplague in most of their forthcoming materials and just act like it never happened for 5E. Which is how a reverse-change retcon works.