D&D 5E WotC: 5 D&D Settings In Development?

WotC's Ray Winninger spoke a little about some upcoming D&D settings -- two classic settings are coming in 2022 in formats we haven't seen before, and two brand new (not Magic: the Gathering) settings are also in development, as well as return to a setting they've already covered in 5E. He does note, however, that of the last three, there's a chance of one or more not making it to release, as they develop more than they use.

Two classic settings? What could they be?​

So that's:

• 2 classic settings in 2022 (in a brand new format)
• 2 brand new settings
• 1 returning setting

So the big questions -- what are the two classic settings, and what do they mean by a format we haven't seen before? Winninger has clarified on Twitter that "Each of these products is pursuing a different format you've never seen before. And neither is "digital only;" these are new print formats."

As I've mentioned on a couple of occasions, there are two more products that revive "classic" settings in production right now.

The manuscript for the first, overseen by [Chris Perkins], is nearly complete. Work on the second, led by [F. Wesley Schneider] with an assist from [Ari Levitch], is just ramping up in earnest. Both are targeting 2022 and formats you've never seen before.

In addition to these two titles, we have two brand new [D&D] settings in early development, as well as a return to a setting we've already covered. (No, these are not M:tG worlds.)

As I mentioned in the dev blog, we develop more material than we publish, so it's possible one or more of these last three won't reach production. But as of right now, they're all looking great.

Of course the phrase "two more products that revive 'classic' settings" could be interpreted in different ways. It might not be two individual setting books.

 

[grimslade]

Flintlock Fantasy can be done without colonialism. McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy was a fantasy version of the French Revolution. The sequel trilogy did subsequently dive into the effects of colonialism on Fantasy North America, but is not necessary. The main thing is to incorporate the tech without the history.
TSR sold too many competing products, at too low a price point, with disastrous buy-back contracts that left them with warehouses full of stuff no one wanted to buy at any price point. There was little TSR did right in the '90s, business wise. The combination of existing fundamental flaws in the business was exacerbated by a shrinking market share. WotC, and particularly Hasbro, will not allow that to happen. Underperforming properties will be shuttered and scaled back.

 

[Staffan]

It sounds like while some of it was junk, the real problem was under pricing. I've heard of other problems too.

If things were underpriced, they would have moved off the shelves. They didn't.

Sure, underpricing was part of the issue – as someone put it in a previous discussion on the topic, if you're losing 50 cent on each copy sold, you can't make that up in volume. But that was a problem for individual products, likely the more deluxe ones like boxed sets and Encyclopedia Magica with its fake-leather covers.

Of course, the real killer is when you make products that cost a lot to make, lowball the price so you make little to no profit on each copy sold, and still end up with a warehouse full of the crap. I'm betting Elminster's Ecologies or Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure fit that bill, for example.

 

[Staffan]

TSR sold too many competing products, at too low a price point, with disastrous buy-back contracts that left them with warehouses full of stuff no one wanted to buy at any price point.

I think the buy-back contracts were mostly a novel thing, and as I understand it the whole thing with Random House was mostly the straw that broke the camel's back, but not the core of the problem in the first place.

 

[teitan]

Planejammer is a fan thing. Won’t happen like that. They will keep it classic. It hasn’t even happened in a game, people are just projecting the idea onto BG3 in some wish fulfillment manner. Planescape will be similar to Ravenloft, that will be the new format, a tool for planar campaigns with examples from the known planes and guidelines for new ones and a Sigil Gazeteer. If they do Spelljammer with Planescape it will water down Spelljammer and essentially gut whatever made Spelljammer unique, reducing it to a mode of transportation. No Rock of Bral, no Spelljammer described in meaningful ways. I think a lot of people wanting a Planejammer thing aren’t too familiar with Spelljammer and what it was. Don’t smoosh it together.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

That list is so hilariously awful. Whoever insisted that players needed their own screens should have been physically thrown out of the building, especially since they were putting out player character "packs" the same year that could have (and maybe did have) the same sort of information in it.

So much of that release list could be cut away with a machete. There are maybe 12 products on there that have truly passed the test of time.

I've got the Complete books, all the Planescape and all the Dark Sun books from that list on my shelf right now and I reckon they still hold up, and I'm sure others would speak up for the Mystara and Ravenloft books. Admittedly, there was an awful lot of junk, but, as others have said, there was also too much good/great/fantastic stuff - I tried my darnedest at the time, but with so many lines, even hard-core fans couldn't afford to buy everything. And putting out so much stuff, especially some on buy-back contracts, TSR needed everyone to buy pretty much all of it to make any kind of profit.

edited to reflect the fact at least some of the material wasn't on buy-back contract

 

[Parmandur]

Planejammer is a fan thing. Won’t happen like that. They will keep it classic. It hasn’t even happened in a game, people are just projecting the idea onto BG3 in some wish fulfillment manner. Planescape will be similar to Ravenloft, that will be the new format, a tool for planar campaigns with examples from the known planes and guidelines for new ones and a Sigil Gazeteer. If they do Spelljammer with Planescape it will water down Spelljammer and essentially gut whatever made Spelljammer unique, reducing it to a mode of transportation. No Rock of Bral, no Spelljammer described in meaningful ways. I think a lot of people wanting a Planejammer thing aren’t too familiar with Spelljammer and what it was. Don’t smoosh it together.

Yeah, exactly: WotC has sprinkled a lot of Planescape and Spelljammer seeds throughout 5E...as separate things.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

All in all, the biggest problem was that TSR churned out so, SO much junk. And a major contributor of all that junk was that they were supporting five settings that year (including launching two), in addition to core D&D. I'm not saying there weren't some good things in that pile – throw enough stuff at the wall, and some of it will stick.

That's amazing. I bought like 15 things from that list, but that still leaves 46 I didn't buy. And 1994 was a year I bought a lot of D&D stuff (partly because Planescape came out and I just bought everything they made for it).

 

[Mind of tempest]

so anyone got an idea of what we could be getting if past settings give us a clue on what we have not focused on?

 

[Yaarel]

so anyone got an idea of what we could be getting if past settings give us a clue on what we have not focused on?

For the two new settings, they could be anything. Even near future scifi.

For the two classic settings, one is surely Dark Sun.

But the other is less certain, I suspect Greyhawk because there seems to be some activity on it in the background. I view Planescape as part Forgotten Realms, via books like Mordenkeinens, but others see it coming as its own setting. Still Dragonlance is not impossible, timing with the novels. Some are hoping for Spelljammer where parts of this have appeared in adventures.

Mention of gem dragons even makes one wonder if Council of Wyrms is possible, but if so, this might be part of an assumed Draconomicon.

For the revisited setting, it seems to me, it must be Forgotten Realms because the Players Handbook lineages need a revamp.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I might have been unclear. I meant that the old interpretation of the Plane of Fire was dull, because it was just "It's all fire, duh.". The newer interpretation makes it much more interesting, and explores (well, as much as the limited space allows) different fire-based themes, and even includes some emotional context ("Fire represents vibrancy, passion, and change. At its worst, it is cruel and wantonly destructive, as the efreet often are, but at its best, fire reflects the light of inspiration, the warmth of compassion, and the flame of desire.")

Old-school D&D often looked at a concept and said "Well, this is what it is." Newer D&D often looks and says "What else can it be while still being that thing?"

Actually, that interpretation of the Plane of Fire has been around since the 2e Planescape sourcebook The Inner Planes, which broke down all the inner planes into various distinct regions...