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WotC: 5 D&D Settings In Development?
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8308073" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>[USER=6796468]@Steampunkette[/USER] There's a little known NPC from AD&D named Captain Soot with a magical ship called <em>Ebony Queen </em>who sails the Inner Planes. He's first mentioned in ALQ4 Secrets of the Lamp (Wolfgang Baur, 1993) - a quick quote from that book: <em>He commands a ship made of ebony and set with an <strong>orrery of the inner planes</strong> that he uses to trade with the genie realms, the mamluks of Qudra, and the Pearl Cities. </em>Later the same NPC appears in TSR2634 The Inner Planes (Monte Cook & William Connors, 1998) - a quick quote: <em>An interesting example of potential assistance is a blood named Captain Soot (Pl/male human/F12/N), who pilots a <strong>magical ship</strong>, the Ebony Queen. Soot sails the Inner Planes like </em>[sic]<em> eighteen individual seas and knows each like a well-seasoned sailor on the Prime knows the waters of his world.</em></p><p></p><p>I'll add that the premise of the <em>Astromundi Cluster </em>(1993) was a crystal sphere composed of free-floating asteroids, where weak barriers allowed free passage between the Inner Planes and Material Plane. So in theory Captain Soot could pilot his ship from the Plane of Fire and into the Astromundi Cluster.</p><p></p><p>There's definitely ways to get your desired effect of "planar traveling ships", and there's at least one enshrined in AD&D across 2-3 campaign settings.</p><p></p><p>--------------</p><p></p><p>Speaking personally – I've DMed a lot of Planescape (years and years) and played a little Spelljammer (a brief campaign) – my sense is both settings have <em>plenty </em>of material to stand on their own legs.</p><p></p><p>For instance, the treatment of Sigil didn't end in the ~45 pages on Sigil in the <em>Planescape Campaign Setting </em>boxed set, but continued in portions of <em>Factol's Manifesto, </em>the 130 page <em>In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil, </em>and in adventures like <em>Harbinger House </em>and even <em>Faction War. </em>New locations were introduced in 4th edition and even 5e's <em>Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes,</em> under the "marut" entry mentions a new location in Sigil – The Hall of Concordance. And that's not even getting into the presentation of Sigil in the CRPG <em>Planescape: Torment </em>(which may be relevant to D&D as there was a <a href="https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/dragon/Creatures_PSTEE.pdf" target="_blank">2017 Dragon+ article</a> where they converted the PS:T monsters to 5e & Wizkids put out a miniature of the <a href="https://www.miniaturemarket.com/ddmm3-040.html" target="_blank">Nameless One</a>). I know less about the Rock of Bral, but there's at least one eponymous book covering 96 pages on that space port. Basically, the lore (for both settings) cuts deep. It may not fit their current publication strategy and some of it may not be the greatest writing or need heavy revision, but to claim there's not enough material seems inaccurate.</p><p></p><p>From what I recall, the two settings occupied different different themes / motifs / feels.</p><p></p><p>At least for me, Spelljammer is <em>Treasure Planet </em>with more in common with pirate and maritime stories than anything else. The wacky/weird moments were offset by emotional moments of crew interaction, betrayal, heists, and diplomacy gone horribly wrong. The focus was on the heroic action and on the journey. That was my "player's eye view."</p><p></p><p>Whereas Planescape is a China Mieville novel (e.g. <em>City and the City</em>) mashed together with Casa Blanca, Babylon 5, and Dante's Inferno. The wacky/weird moments were offset by reflective moments & philosophical questions. The focus was on the "why" and what the answer said about character identity. At least that's where I took it as DM.</p><p></p><p>I could see selectively bridging these themes at the <em>adventure scale – </em>the example of Captain Soot suggests what one implementation of that could look like – but I wouldn't be in favor of merging these themes at the <em>setting scale. </em>For the same reason I wouldn't want to merge Ravenloft with Dragonlance. I'm buying in for a particular feel. Yeah, if we're playing Dragonlance, we can have the session where we get pulled into Lord Soth's domain and have to make him feel remorse to escape, but overall I want it to <em>feel </em>like Dragonlance, not Ravenloft. If I've bought into the <em>Treasure Planet</em> of Spelljammer, I don't really want to get lost in trying to redeem an erinyes – I want action in space. Conversely, if I've bought into the philosophical fantasy of Planescape, I'm less interested in the "getting loot, doing transport job" hook that might work for a Spelljammer crew, and more interested in how my faction figures in.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 8308073, member: 20323"] [USER=6796468]@Steampunkette[/USER] There's a little known NPC from AD&D named Captain Soot with a magical ship called [I]Ebony Queen [/I]who sails the Inner Planes. He's first mentioned in ALQ4 Secrets of the Lamp (Wolfgang Baur, 1993) - a quick quote from that book: [I]He commands a ship made of ebony and set with an [B]orrery of the inner planes[/B] that he uses to trade with the genie realms, the mamluks of Qudra, and the Pearl Cities. [/I]Later the same NPC appears in TSR2634 The Inner Planes (Monte Cook & William Connors, 1998) - a quick quote: [I]An interesting example of potential assistance is a blood named Captain Soot (Pl/male human/F12/N), who pilots a [B]magical ship[/B], the Ebony Queen. Soot sails the Inner Planes like [/I][sic][I] eighteen individual seas and knows each like a well-seasoned sailor on the Prime knows the waters of his world.[/I] I'll add that the premise of the [I]Astromundi Cluster [/I](1993) was a crystal sphere composed of free-floating asteroids, where weak barriers allowed free passage between the Inner Planes and Material Plane. So in theory Captain Soot could pilot his ship from the Plane of Fire and into the Astromundi Cluster. There's definitely ways to get your desired effect of "planar traveling ships", and there's at least one enshrined in AD&D across 2-3 campaign settings. -------------- Speaking personally – I've DMed a lot of Planescape (years and years) and played a little Spelljammer (a brief campaign) – my sense is both settings have [I]plenty [/I]of material to stand on their own legs. For instance, the treatment of Sigil didn't end in the ~45 pages on Sigil in the [I]Planescape Campaign Setting [/I]boxed set, but continued in portions of [I]Factol's Manifesto, [/I]the 130 page [I]In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil, [/I]and in adventures like [I]Harbinger House [/I]and even [I]Faction War. [/I]New locations were introduced in 4th edition and even 5e's [I]Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes,[/I] under the "marut" entry mentions a new location in Sigil – The Hall of Concordance. And that's not even getting into the presentation of Sigil in the CRPG [I]Planescape: Torment [/I](which may be relevant to D&D as there was a [URL='https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/dragon/Creatures_PSTEE.pdf']2017 Dragon+ article[/URL] where they converted the PS:T monsters to 5e & Wizkids put out a miniature of the [URL='https://www.miniaturemarket.com/ddmm3-040.html']Nameless One[/URL]). I know less about the Rock of Bral, but there's at least one eponymous book covering 96 pages on that space port. Basically, the lore (for both settings) cuts deep. It may not fit their current publication strategy and some of it may not be the greatest writing or need heavy revision, but to claim there's not enough material seems inaccurate. From what I recall, the two settings occupied different different themes / motifs / feels. At least for me, Spelljammer is [I]Treasure Planet [/I]with more in common with pirate and maritime stories than anything else. The wacky/weird moments were offset by emotional moments of crew interaction, betrayal, heists, and diplomacy gone horribly wrong. The focus was on the heroic action and on the journey. That was my "player's eye view." Whereas Planescape is a China Mieville novel (e.g. [I]City and the City[/I]) mashed together with Casa Blanca, Babylon 5, and Dante's Inferno. The wacky/weird moments were offset by reflective moments & philosophical questions. The focus was on the "why" and what the answer said about character identity. At least that's where I took it as DM. I could see selectively bridging these themes at the [I]adventure scale – [/I]the example of Captain Soot suggests what one implementation of that could look like – but I wouldn't be in favor of merging these themes at the [I]setting scale. [/I]For the same reason I wouldn't want to merge Ravenloft with Dragonlance. I'm buying in for a particular feel. Yeah, if we're playing Dragonlance, we can have the session where we get pulled into Lord Soth's domain and have to make him feel remorse to escape, but overall I want it to [I]feel [/I]like Dragonlance, not Ravenloft. If I've bought into the [I]Treasure Planet[/I] of Spelljammer, I don't really want to get lost in trying to redeem an erinyes – I want action in space. Conversely, if I've bought into the philosophical fantasy of Planescape, I'm less interested in the "getting loot, doing transport job" hook that might work for a Spelljammer crew, and more interested in how my faction figures in. [/QUOTE]
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