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.

 

[Parmandur]

I think Sigil would be at least 60 pages to cover. There's 17 Outer Planes, so that could be at least 30-40 pages. The Inner planes maybe around at least 10-15 pages (I don't think Para and Quasi Elements are getting full-fledged planes). The other planes might be around 20, but probably mostly focused around Feywild and Shadowfell which weren't in 2e, but would get expanded on. If it's a "New Print Format", maybe just means a book that's more than standard 256 pages.

The Planes already get nearly 20 pages in the DMG: I'd expect way more than 40 pages to cover the Outer Planes.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The Planes already get nearly 20 pages in the DMG: I'd expect way more than 40 pages to cover the Outer Planes.

Just checked the booklet DM's Guide to the Planes in the PS Boxed set, Outer Planes goes from page 40 to 64.

Some planes don't have too much going on like Arcadia, Bytopia and Pandemonium, while others like the Abyss, Baator and Outlands have a lot to go on.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some crystal spheres from Spelljammer setting could be enoughly interesting and they could allow low level PCs adventures in places to close to the planes, for example a crystal sphere where the seas and oceans of the planet have got "oxywater", allowing air-breather creatures to swimn undersea. This would allow to reuse all the sea races and creatures.

Other crystal spheres could postapocalypse dead zones, with lots of hordes of undeads, and some portal to the demiplane of the dread(Ravenloft).

 

[Kobold Avenger]

One thing about really dangerous planes in Planescape was that they had low level spells like "Avoid Planar Effects" which was basically for situations like, "Oops! Wrong plane! Let's go back through the portal!"

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I think part of the reason some folks are trying to argue for Plaesjammer, is that they're afraid Spelljammer may not happen at all if it's not combined with Planescape. I personally would love one book for each, but I am skeptical that we will ever get a solo Spelljammer setting book.

I'd love one, or at least a Spelljammer adventure. But it might be low on WotC's product priorities.

 

[Parmandur]

Just checked the booklet DM's Guide to the Planes in the PS Boxed set, Outer Planes goes from page 40 to 64.

Some planes don't have too much going on like Arcadia, Bytopia and Pandemonium, while others like the Abyss, Baator and Outlands have a lot to go on.

Yeah, but they already got that level of detail in 5E, in he DMG. I would expect something more on the lines of the 1E Manual of the Planes, which spends about 40 pages on the Inner Planes, and 50 pages on the Outer Planes.

 

[Parmandur]

I think part of the reason some folks are trying to argue for Plaesjammer, is that they're afraid Spelljammer may not happen at all if it's not combined with Planescape. I personally would love one book for each, but I am skeptical that we will ever get a solo Spelljammer setting book.

I'd love one, or at least a Spelljammer adventure. But it might be low on WotC's product priorities.

Well, Spelljammer is lower on WotC list of priorities than Planescape or Dark Sun, but higher than Birthright or Mystara. I suppose you are right that is what people are thinking, but...we are getting at least two Setting books next year, maybe more, and the vibe I get is that train might run for a few years. Lower priority Settings like Dragonlance and Spelljammer have a real fighting chance.

 

[darjr]

I have to admit here that I like the idea of porting spelljammer to the astral plane and higher planes more than I like traditional spelljammer.

I know, that makes me a heretic, but a go lucky happy one.

 

[Parmandur]

I have to admit here that I like the idea of porting spelljammer to the astral plane and higher planes more than I like traditional spelljammer.

I know, that makes me a heretic, but a go lucky happy one.

Other than the cover art, which my personal aesthetic dead on, the thing I love most about Spelljammer is the irreverent goofiness. The whole Crystal Sphere thing is part of that, actualizing a bizarre hamfisted misreading of ancient cosmology. Fenericalspeaking, Planescape ain't that, and other than being used as a Metasetting, they share very little in common.

 

[Faolyn]

If -that- is the case, and they're not going to expand on planar locations and stuff (Since that material already exists across various items) how are they going to fill a book with just Sigil stuff? That would be like them putting as much focus on the singular, titular, city as they put into all of the domains of Ravenloft combined. There's just not enough Sigil for that, I don't think. At least not without deep diving through allllll the Planescape materials TSR put out.

If they do a "Kylie's Guide To Sigil" for 5e, don't forget that there were three 2e books dedicated to Sigil: In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil; Uncaged: Faces of Sigil; and The Factols' Manifesto. They could probably fill an entire modern hardcover with info from those three books. The factions (which would probably be more like three pages each) and possibly even some sects would be described, and they would have to use the Renown system with them, like with Ravnica. Plus there are non-Faction factions (like touts). Each of the six wards would be fleshed out with at least two pages each. If they lean into the idea that Sigil employs extradimensional space, they can go hog-wild and create little bits of the other planes inside the City, and those would need space as well.

Add in some races: bariaurs, probably a reprint of the gith and the genasi (and I live in hope they'll include para- and quasi-genasi), expanded tieflings, planetouched based on Law and Chaos. Maybe even a few weirder races. I mean, Planescape had living mathematical equations; I'm sure they can develop a few really weird PC races. And then, probably a couple of archetypes, especially in the form of cleric domains and new warlock and sorcerer archetypes, and hopefully a few martial archetypes as well.

Plus, they'd probably have to bring in the piety system a la Theros; it might be from the DMG, but it would almost certainly be expanded for a setting where the gods are so important. Add in some monsters (plenty of room for fiends and celestials, and probably for a few aberrations and fey as well) and some NPC statblocks. They could possibly also treat the Gate Towns as Sigil's "suburbs," if they wanted to--I think it would be really neat if they did.

Edit: Plus spells, magic items, and trinkets.

Plus, don't forget space for art.

They could easily fill a 250-page or even a 300-page book with just Sigil (they did it with just one section of Ravnica, after all). I don't think they'll do a Sigil-only book, though, unless they were planning on also putting out a Manual of the Planes. Which would be awesome, of course, but unlikely.