D&D 5E What's Next for D&D's Campaign Settings? (And an idea/suggestion for WotC!)

[Klaus]

So give me a Furyondy campaign setting book within Greyhawk. Or an Abanasinia campaign setting book within Dragonlance, or a Thrane campaign setting book within Eberron to go along with my Neverwinter campaign setting book within the Forgotten Realms. Much more focused... much more specific... and (for WotC's financials) much more geared towards the total number of campaigns whose levels will remain in the greatest number and use (the 1-10 level range.)

I'd love to see this. The Flanaess is already somewhat divided into regions, like Old Keoland in the East, or the Great Kingdom in the West, each with different flavors (millenia-old realm beleaguered by giant invasions vs. decadent civilization corrupted by demon worship). Eberron did do something like this with Five Nations, Secrets of Xen'drik and Secrets of Sarlona (too bad they never got to cover the other nations of Khorvaire).

 

[Shemeska]

Other settings (Spelljammer and Planescape) don't have as much in the way of setting lore and could be fully updated in a magazine.

I can't speak on Spelljammer, but Planescape has a metric ton of setting lore. There's no way that a magazine would even scratch the surface of the lore on a single one of the planes.

The setting lore continued to expand at a decent pace during 3e (though not in 4e since that had a completely different continuity and cosmology, even if it recycled some material). You would need a box set to even begin to cover the material (one focused on Sigil certainly, and one or more on the inner/outer/transitive planes).

 

[Kinak]

I can't speak on Spelljammer, but Planescape has a metric ton of setting lore. There's no way that a magazine would even scratch the surface of the lore on a single one of the planes.

I feel like Spelljammer had a lot less setting lore.

But that's only really when you compare it to Planescape. Spelljammer still had the crystal sphere books (like Krynnspace), Rock of Bral, Astromundi Cluster, and the novels and so forth.

Planescape just had an insane amount of setting material put out about it.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Ulrick]

I think WotC should stop supporting ALL of the campaign settings. Wipe the slate clean. 0-hour. No more Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron, etc.

Campaign settings aren't really that useful. Even the most avid Realms player will never use or explore all of the material the Realms has churned out. The same goes with most of the campaign settings out there.

Go back to the basics by having a generic default campaign setting that isn't fully developed, but reflects more on what 5e is trying to accomplish.

 

[Paraxis]

I would love something like a Birthright + Eberron mashup. Have people with dragonmarks be able to take power from other dragonmarked people when they kill them and the whole world is in the grip a world war.

 

[DMZ2112]

I can't speak on Spelljammer, but Planescape has a metric ton of setting lore. There's no way that a magazine would even scratch the surface of the lore on a single one of the planes.

Yeah, Planescape had at least six boxed sets of setting. It was not niche. Planescape was /all/ setting; it was huge, even discounting the fact that it was technically infinite.

...But does it really need updating? I am really happy with where AD&D2 left Planescape officially. The D&D3 stuff doesn't ruin anything. I just can't believe any further follow-up wouldn't be a disappointment in the shadow of the original material. New factions for Sigil in the aftermath of the Faction War? How is that not going to be a pale imitation?

No offense intended, of course, Shemeska; the planewalker.com folks did a lot of hard work and I respect the effort. I am just content.

Some settings, like the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, need an ongoing timeline because history is something that happens in a simulationist fantasy world with kings and wars. But a lineage of Guvner factols for Sigil and changing political borders in the Outlands and major NPC storylines would just crush the life out of Planescape.

A few of the AD&D2 settings were designed to come to a natural close -- Dark Sun and Planescape for certain, and I can't recall if the Grand Conjunction of Ravenloft was supposed to end the setting specifically, but it was catastrophic. I am happy leaving Planescape as it is: a timeless snapshot.

I mean, sure, bring on the tight-focus detail articles in Dragon; maybe even a small sourcebook or two; but I don't want to see WotC waste time and money on a new /version/ of Planescape when the old stuff is still winning.

I feel like Spelljammer had a lot less setting lore.

I don't think anyone has mentioned it here yet, but they've apparently got plans for Spelljammer. Mike Mearls has stated that he feels like it got short shrift as a transitive setting and wants to see it become a fully fledged space opera D&D setting in 5th Edition.

Personally I'll miss the elegance of the Planescape/Spelljammer mashup in the Astral Sea, but it will be interesting to see where that goes.

Go back to the basics by having a generic default campaign setting that isn't fully developed, but reflects more on what 5e is trying to accomplish.

I'm with you on this, but I think the Nerathi swan boat has sailed, regrettably.

 

[Paraxis]

I think WotC should stop supporting ALL of the campaign settings. Wipe the slate clean. 0-hour. No more Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron, etc.

Campaign settings aren't really that useful. Even the most avid Realms player will never use or explore all of the material the Realms has churned out. The same goes with most of the campaign settings out there.

Go back to the basics by having a generic default campaign setting that isn't fully developed, but reflects more on what 5e is trying to accomplish.

That's what they did with 4e, you had a generic points of light setting that was sorta kinda developed into the Nentir Vale setting. That was only ever given fluff in published adventures and dragon magazine articles.

 

[Shemeska]

That's what they did with 4e, you had a generic points of light setting that was sorta kinda developed into the Nentir Vale setting. That was only ever given fluff in published adventures and dragon magazine articles.

It was also pushed into every other setting, including those where its tropes didn't make sense or conflicted with the setting's preexisting continuity. That was annoying.

 

[Quartz]

I'll happily pay for a Greyhawk compendium. One with all the accumulated lore from all the modules, sourcebooks, Dragon & Dungeon articles etc, all straightened out with stats etc in 5e terms. I'd really like to see the setting rebooted - advancing the timeline to Pluffet Smedger's time is an easy way of doing this.

 

[Shemeska]

Yeah, Planescape had at least six boxed sets of setting. It was not niche. Planescape was /all/ setting; it was huge, even discounting the fact that it was technically infinite.

...But does it really need updating? I am really happy with where AD&D2 left Planescape officially. The D&D3 stuff doesn't ruin anything. I just can't believe any further follow-up wouldn't be a disappointment in the shadow of the original material. New factions for Sigil in the aftermath of the Faction War? How is that not going to be a pale imitation?

No offense intended, of course, Shemeska; the planewalker.com folks did a lot of hard work and I respect the effort. I am just content.

Some settings, like the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, need an ongoing timeline because history is something that happens in a simulationist fantasy world with kings and wars. But a lineage of Guvner factols for Sigil and changing political borders in the Outlands and major NPC storylines would just crush the life out of Planescape.

A few of the AD&D2 settings were designed to come to a natural close -- Dark Sun and Planescape for certain, and I can't recall if the Grand Conjunction of Ravenloft was supposed to end the setting specifically, but it was catastrophic. I am happy leaving Planescape as it is: a timeless snapshot.

I mean, sure, bring on the tight-focus detail articles in Dragon; maybe even a small sourcebook or two; but I don't want to see WotC waste time and money on a new /version/ of Planescape when the old stuff is still winning.

I understand where you're coming from. I adore the 2e PS material to such an extent there's a certain comfort in having it there without running the risk of someone with legal rights to the setting doing something horrible (like defining the Lady of Pain's nature - and shame for the LN alignment that was in 3e's Planar Handbook) or the Spellplague comes to Sigil, something like that.

Yet at the same time oh man oh man I'd love to be able to see more from Cook, Cook, McComb, Vallese, et al. And I'd personally give a lung to write more within the setting, adding to the little bits here and there in Dragon and Dungeon I managed to do in 3e and one in 4e (the 4e Demonomicon article on Shemeshka the Marauder of course is using a Planescape character but I would very much hesitate to denote it as part of PS canon, likewise with other 4e material incorporating elements from PS including Sigil - optional since while some of it just didn't make sense in 4e's cosmology/tropes/history forced onto it, some of it like a lot of Rob Schwalb's work was done very well).

Conflicting emotions there. Depends almost entirely on who would be working on it, who is on the design team setting ground rules for them, and how well both groups knew the setting and did their homework on it in order to treat the earlier material properly.