D&D 5E What 3 Settings did you pick in the Survey

[schneeland]

I ended up picking Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Homebrew, with Greyhawk as a favourite (I played much more in the FR and homebrew settings, but GH would be the setting I'm most interested in right now - a GH setting book would actually be the first D&D5 thing in quite a while that I would buy).

 

[Stormonu]

If homebrew ends up being the most popular choice in the survey, I wonder how WotC will react. Will they consider doing a toolkit book like the old 2E Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide, World Builder's Guide book, or The DM's Design Kit (a really wonderful book of forms for fleshing out a campaign) or will they come to the conclusion they should back away from publishing campaigns (which I think would be a mistake - I'm sure a lot of homebrews borrow or are inspired by the official settings!)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So for me, I've largely just ignored the novels (for gaming purposes anyway), but for a lot of people, that's their biggest connection to the setting.

Yeah, absolutely. I have no intention of ever reading the modules. For me, the setting is the novels.

 

[Yaarel]

Heh, the definition of fantasy ethnocentrism!

Blackmoor is just a normal location in Greyhawk.

From a Greyhawk (i.e. Gygax) perspective, this is true.

From the perspective of Blackmoor/Known World being its own freestanding setting, not so much.

Fortunately, each world, Mystara (Blackmoor) and Oerth (Greyhawk), can make room for and include the perspective of the other.

 

[Azzy]

Both Mystara and Oerth evolve from the same original map that both Arneson and Gygax used in the 1970s for Proto and Original D&D.

No, they don't. The original Known World (Mystara) map is nothing like the Castle & Crusade Society's Great Kingdom map. For that matter, the published Known World map is like neither, and the published Greyhawk may only bears a small resemblence to the Great Kingdom map.

 

[Parmandur]

If homebrew ends up being the most popular choice in the survey, I wonder how WotC will react. Will they consider doing a toolkit book like the old 2E Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide, World Builder's Guide book, or The DM's Design Kit (a really wonderful book of forms for fleshing out a campaign) or will they come to the conclusion they should back away from publishing campaigns (which I think would be a mistake - I'm sure a lot of homebrews borrow or are inspired by the official settings!)

Homebrew had always been the most popular, that's how the 5E product schedule is devised: even the Settings are toolkits for homebrewers.

 

[Yaarel]

No, they don't. The original Known World (Mystara) map is nothing like the Castle & Crusade Society's Great Kingdom map. For that matter, the published Known World map is like neither, and the published Greyhawk may only bears a small resemblence to the Great Kingdom map.

Both Blackmoor (Arneson) and Greyhawk (Gygax) expand from the proto C&C Society kingdoms map. There are inspirations from North America, as well as Europe including UK, Scandinavia, and Netherlands, and wider Asia.

Here is a Gygax-Kuntz 1970s version of the "Great Kingdom" map.

Blackmoor, the Egg of Coot, and the Ten Duchies detail the southwest corner of the Great Bay / Hudson Bay / Blackmoor Bay. Greyhawk details the southwest corner of Nyr Dyv / Lake Superior.

This is an Arneson-Megarry map, a photocopy from Arneson for a campaign during the 1970s, and annotated by memory. Note "Blackmoor" between the Egg of Coot empire and region 1.

While there are distortions in distance, many of features are recognizably shared by both Blackmoor and Greyhawk.



That said, where the known worlds of Mystara and Oerth expand beyond their shared origins, they diverge.

 

[Azzy]

Both Blackmoor (Arneson) and Greyhawk (Gygax) expand from the proto C&C Society kingdoms map. There are inspirations from North America, as well as Europe including UK, Scandinavia, and Netherlands, and wider Asia.

Here is a Gygax-Kuntz 1970s version of the "Great Kingdom" map.

Blackmoor, the Egg of Coot, and the Ten Duchies detail the southwest corner of the Great Bay/Hudson Bay/Blackmoor Bay. Greyhawk details the southwest corner of Nyr Dyv / Lake Superior.

This is an Arneson-Megarry map, drawn from memory by one of the players in the Arneson campaign during the 1970s.

While there are distortions in distance, many of features are recognizably shared by both Blackmoor and Greyhawk.

Both of which are campaigns that used the Castle & Crusade Society's Great Kingdom map as its basis. Both Arneson and Gygax, however, ended up with different maps that they published with cursory similarities to the original CCS map (Greyhawk moreso, Blackmoor a lot less).

However, neither of these have anything to do with the Known World/Mystara. The only connection is that Blackmoor was retconned in the mid/late 80s to be a part of Mystara's past. There is no prior connection. The original and the published Known World maps are both different from the CCS, Greyhawk, and Blackmoor (as per First Fantasy Campaign and later books).

 

[Smackpixi]

This survey only has one homebrew, wizards identified two kinds, would have been nice to see that here, I know wha the majority is but still.

 

[Yaarel]

Both of which are campaigns that used the Castle & Crusade Society's Great Kingdom map as its basis. Both Arneson and Gygax, however, ended up with different maps that they published with cursory similarities to the original CCS map (Greyhawk moreso, Blackmoor a lot less).

However, neither of these have anything to do with the Known World/Mystara. The only connection is that Blackmoor was retconned in the mid/late 80s to be a part of Mystara's past. There is no prior connection. The original and the published Known World maps are both different from the CCS, Greyhawk, and Blackmoor (as per First Fantasy Campaign and later books).

Mystara and Oerth are different "planets", but the Blackmoor and Greyhawk regions are the same.

That is interesting that Mystara retconned Blackmoor into it. I will check that out. If Mystara includes Blackmoor, it should also include Nyr Dyv and the City of Greyhawk in a future retcon!

Meanwhile, Oerth does already preserve the region around Blackmoor and should treat it with more dignity.

Arneson and Gygax had their disputes, but they are both decent people and important people.



Relatedly, I want the 50th Anniversary Edition to have local settings for Arneson City of Blackmoor and Gygax City of Greyhawk. Then I can plug these locales into any setting, and think of the inventors of D&D while I explore these locales.