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.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm not the person you're replying to, but I'm pretty sure they mean rutters.

Yes, that's indeed what I meant. It's a cool idea.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

edit: I'm personally holding a candle for a theoretical planes book to be titled "Shemeshka's Guide to the Wheel".

I'm very much up for "A'kin's Curiosities of Sigil".

 

[Shardstone]

The thing is, I wish WotC would just go all in on a product line, and a product line like Planescape deserves it.

Give me one book that's like Candlekeep; that is, one adventure for each of the factions, takes the players from out-of-touch Outsiders to level 15 burks.

Give me another book that's a toolkit for planeswalking games. Make this like Van Richten's, only the Domains of Dread are Planes, and then give me a fat ass bestiary at the end.

Then give me a solid tier 3-5 level 15 to level 20 adventure path.

Now we're rockin

 

[Fenris-77]

Here's a quote from another product that pretty much nails what I want out of Planejammer/Spelljammer:

Think The Little Prince told by Miyazaki. Think Flash Gordon by way of Guillermo del Toro. Picture tiny planets ruled
by backyard despots, intelligent stars burning like capricious gods, ships made from leather gasbags or metal rockets
or wooden hulls or dragonfly wings, all sailing the skies together. Think begoggled freedom fighters, bumbling alchemists, winged clerics; think spherical lakes filled with copper fish. Think lost kingdoms and zero-g castles and trash gyres swirling with the wreckage of a thousand cities, a million forgotten empires.

 

[Faolyn]

The thing is, I wish WotC would just go all in on a product line, and a product line like Planescape deserves it.

My thought: 5e is the nostalgia edition, as we know, so they're pumping out all the old stuff as well as some newer stuff. If they find that a particular setting that they're producing, either old or new, is really well-loved or under a lot of demand, then when they start to do 6e, they'll do a full product line.

 

[Parmandur]

My thought: 5e is the nostalgia edition, as we know, so they're pumping out all the old stuff as well as some newer stuff. If they find that a particular setting that they're producing, either old or new, is really well-loved or under a lot of demand, then when they start to do 6e, they'll do a full product line.

D&D is the product line: Settings are now one-off plug & play products, though we do have Curse of Strahd & Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft...but that is hardly a product line. I think that idea is over.

 

[Faolyn]

D&D is the product line: Settings are now one-off plug & play products, though we do have Curse of Strahd & Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft...but that is hardly a product line. I think that idea is over.

I really don't consider CoS to be a setting book. The actual setting information is extremely small for Barovia and completely nonexistent for any other domain. It provides only enough context to run the game for people who've never read any RL books.

I don't know if they're never going to do product lines again. I just don't think they'll do it this edition. They'd probably have to run out of different settings, and with the number of older settings plus potential MtG settings, that won't happen for a long time. Now, they could continue with the setting-specific adventure and associated setting book for 5e, like with Cos and VGR--which could mean that there might eventually be a Shadowfell adventure and then a Feywild/Shadowfell setting book. But yeah, that's not a product line. It's just two product dots.

 

[Mecheon]

The reason the Planescape/Spelljammer mix is so popular that each one covers an area of weakness of the other.

Spelljammer's entire thijng has always been about the travel, the sailing ships through the space. I do not see nearly as much excitement however for the prospect of bringing back the places you can sail those ships to. None of the Spelljammer planets really stuck on with people. Like, I don't even recall any of the planets outside of "Oh yeah that's the planet that's just full of hundreds of tarrasques" which I only remember because of the Tarrasques

Planescape, meanwhile, has plenty of exciting places to visit, but doesn't really have much in the way of 'exciting travel to get there'. Its just 'found portal, now at destination area'. It has the destinations, but not the big travel

 

[darjr]

3e Greyhawk was the default setting and the setting of the living campaign.
4e had a red box that looked at looked almost identical to the original basic red box and had Orcus as the big bad in the first campaign.
5e reset the forgotten realms to 3rd and 2nd edition.

They are all the nostalgia edition.

 

[overgeeked]

3e Greyhawk was the default setting and the setting of the living campaign.
4e had a red box that looked at looked almost identical to the original basic red box and had Orcus as the big bad in the first campaign.
5e reset the forgotten realms to 3rd and 2nd edition.

They are all the nostalgia edition.

I'm honestly surprised more people aren't commenting on how WotC is finally producing a new setting for D&D. Eberron was via a contest...and that's it. And the MTG settings are, of course MTG settings. They haven't actually produced a new setting for D&D in the 24 years they've owned the game. That's kinda amazing.