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.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

@darjr Yeah, that's a pretty reasonable probabibility...but it still wouldn't surprise me if WotC and Critical Role are revising it for a reissue to.update the timeline, etc.

Yeah the world of Exandria has advanced so far now in the timeline that a new Tal-Dorei book does seem like a possibility. Especially if the next campaign is set there, possible if Mercer thinks the other continents are limited in scope.

 

[darjr]

What are the other CR continents?

 

[overgeeked]

What are the other CR continents?

Exandria

Exandria is the name of the world on which most events of Critical Role take place. Exandria exists in a Material Plane, although it features connections to other planes of existence, such as the portals to the elemental planes guarded by the Ashari. Since the gods first came to Exandria, there...

criticalrole.fandom.com

I think Matt will need to reshape his world and start adding continents a la WoW before too long.

 

[BRayne]

Exandria

Exandria is the name of the world on which most events of Critical Role take place. Exandria exists in a Material Plane, although it features connections to other planes of existence, such as the portals to the elemental planes guarded by the Ashari. Since the gods first came to Exandria, there...

criticalrole.fandom.com

I think Matt will need to reshape his world and start adding continents a la WoW before too long.

The southernmost established continents seem to be rather hot climates. So he could probably fit in a whole hemisphere of unestablished areas

 

[Urriak Uruk]

What are the other CR continents?

There are;

• Issylra, described as like Asia/Russia with much of it being untamed wilderness.
• Marquet, mostly deserts with some mountains (Middle East analogue)
• Shattered Teeth, archipelago of many islands

The problem with these is unlike Tal'Dorei or Wildemount, they seem a bit one-note and not nearly as diverse for a whole campaign. I have some doubts Campaign 3 will be here, although they all have some promise.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The southernmost established continents seem to be rather hot climates. So he could probably fit in a whole hemisphere of unestablished areas

One thought, is that Exandria also has two moons. It is possible Mercer could set his new campaign on one of them to fully start from scratch, and maybe get a little weirder than in the previous campaigns.

 

[Faolyn]

Another Ravenloft book? Didn't they literally just put out a big Ravenloft book? The top picks are Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Spelljammer. According to that survey they did a while back.

Yeah, there's no need for another Ravenloft book. If they had included only half of the domains they actually used, but given them more info, then they could have put a second book with the other half of the domains. But there's no need for them to have the book they currently have and then a second book that goes into the same domains but with more depth.

(Now, if they wanted to put out a bigger Ravenloft monster book, I wouldn't say no. But they're not going to do that.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

There are;

• Issylra, described as like Asia/Russia with much of it being untamed wilderness.
• Marquet, mostly deserts with some mountains (Middle East analogue)
• Shattered Teeth, archipelago of many islands

The problem with these is unlike Tal'Dorei or Wildemount, they seem a bit one-note and not nearly as diverse for a whole campaign. I have some doubts Campaign 3 will be here, although they all have some promise.

everywhere starts one note till you build it up.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

@darjr There are some alternate possible explanations, but this is what is on D&D Beyond site right now for anyone to read:

{"id":32,"name":"TCS","description":"Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting","sourceCategoryId":1,"isReleased":false,"avatarURL":"https://media-waterdeep.cursecdn.com/avatars/","sourceURL":""},

https://www.dndbeyond.com/api/config/json

Probably easier to screenshot the results.

 

[wellis]

Is the Critical Role setting still without a sort of main setting moniker?

Like how Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, The Lost Lands, etc all have overall names for their entire settings.

You know what I mean, a sort of general name for the whole setting overall.