What do you think the new setting will be, from Ampersand?

[PoeticJustice]

I also think it will be Dark Sun. The novels might not be a positive indicator, but taken with the hazards article they published way back, I think we have a clear favorite. The timeline syncs well enough, too.

I really want it to Planescape, though.

 

[Remathilis]

'Lance is my bet, but Ravenloft is my wish.

I don't see 'Hawk or Planescape (esp. with Sigil in DMG2).

 

[Hawke]

I have to say I'd be pretty disappointed with Greyhawk. Not really excited about Dragonlance or Birthright - just don't seem different enough to really excite me. Planescape seems to be something that we've got a lot of material that any DM could begin a campaign there... but seems a bit too much for me to consider running a game based around. /personalopinion

Al-Qadim might not be the setting, but I would likely bet that the first 4E original setting will have a very similar all-races-together feel.

How is Eberron on that scale anyway? I'm looking forward to buying that setting for 4E since I skipped it over last edition (by the time I got to a place where I was starting a new campaign the mountain of Eberron source books turned me off)

 

[M.L. Martin]

I know Rich Baker would like to do a new setting (I talked to him about it briefly at D&D Game Day last year), but that doesn't fit with the hints dropped in this column.

My guess would be Dragonlance to mark the 25th Anniversary of Chronicles (which, along with Legends and the other Weis or Weis/Hickman novels, especially those that star Raistlin the Archmunchkin, are all anyone really cares about ), with a remoter possiblity of Greyhawk or Dark Sun. I don't think Ravenloft's likely--to be honest, I don't know if I want a 4E Ravenloft, given the distance between the setting's style and the default of 4E. Dragonlance and Ravenloft both suffer the problem of limited room for Epic Tier campaigns. Dark Sun would be perfect if they want to show off the Psionic and Elemental power sources (what were Athasian clerics if not elemental versions of the cleric class?), and Greyhawk might give them a way to attract some of the grognards who aren't buying into 4E, although I think it's just as likely to backfire.

 

[qstor]

I think its probably Ravenloft. I don't think Rich Baker or James Wyatt know enough about Greyhawk to write the setting book with respect to the canon. I don't think Dragonlance will get done for a few years if at all. I don't think Birthright will be done.

As to the 4e cookie cutter comment...tieflings and Dragonborn in Dragonlance and Greyhawk...no thanks...


Mike

 

[Dedekind]

I'm expecting a whole new setting. Didn't they retain the rights to the best three from the campaign setting competition several years ago? If that is true, that have two setting bibles that just need some expansion.

 

[FourthBear]

Al-Qadim might not be the setting, but I would likely bet that the first 4E original setting will have a very similar all-races-together feel.

How is Eberron on that scale anyway?

I'm very fond of Eberron as a campaign world. However, it doesn't have much of the all-races-together feel of Al Qadim. At least no more than, say the Realms or Greyhawk. Like most campaign worlds, many of the separate races have their own homelands and are somewhat isolated from each other through customs and religion. There are a number of nations with highly mixed and cosmopolitan populations, but no more so than the majority of D&D worlds.

I like Eberron since I think it does an excellent job of creating a place for vast majority of the varied and oddball things found in D&D sourcebooks, all while giving each a good, distinctive spin of its own.

I love Al Qadim for bringing in lots of the distinctive flavor of the stories of the Arabian Nights. One thing, as you note, that is different about Al Qadim over most campaign worlds is the generally united cultures under the wisdom of the Lawgiver and the lack of typical racial xenophobias.

 

[Irda Ranger]

My question for both Dragonlance and Dark Sun would be: What Era?

There's a big down side to the re-releasing the Prism Pentad (if they do relaunch Dark Sun): They're less likely to pretend it never happened. That's lousy.

On the other hand, there's a chance that the Relaunch would involve a short timeline jump and a new BBEG appearing and taking over Tyr, wiping out all those "Free City" ambitions in the process. That would get things back on theme nicely. He doesn't even have to be a Dragonking; maybe some cabal of evil Epic Psionicists (as opposed to those uselessly True Neutral ones). But a new Dragonking would be fine with me too.

As for Dragonlance, I would take it as a really good sign if WotC announced that 5th Age was actually just a really lucid LSD-enhanced dream of Tasselhoff's, and that the setting was being wound back to shortly after the conclusion of Legends. That would probably work for the majority of potential Dragonlance fans too, seeing as how the original trilogies are the best selling and most widely read. For the average reader jumping from Legends to a post-5th Age setting would be confusing in the extreme.

I think one of the best things about combining Dragonlance and 4E is the rules support potential for playing in different Ages. Now that you don't need Clerics (any Leader will do) you can play in the Age of Despair. All sorts of Ages and "settings within the Setting" can support play with the appropriate mix of classes ("Wizards are outlawed? No problem; who's gonna be a Druid?").

Man, I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Hmmm. I haven't read the article, but I wonder if it will be an oriental adventures setting done 4e style. I wouldn't be surprised to see WOTC move into the anime/manga sector.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm thinking DS for the same reasons many are (psionics tie-in; elemental tie-in), but there's at least a 76% chance of that being the last nail in the 4e coffin for me, what with some of the design laws apparently in play.

I'd LOVE to be proven too pessimistic about this.

It could be Dragonlance or Greyhawk, theoretically, I suppose. Neither would annoy me as much if they got it wrong. But missing DS when putting out the Psionic PH seems a little...curious.