WotC Setting Search News
- Thread starter Greg at FFG
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Greg at FFG
First Post
Zarathustran: You pretty much nailed it. Dawnforge is more about putting the PCs centerstage and letting them create legends than about uncovering or retelling the legends of a past age. There will be rules for creating artifacts -- though it won't simply be a matter of spending a ridiculous amount of gold and XP. It'll require epic deeds worthy of the legends that will surround the artifact in ages to come. The setting will allow you to play kings of men, elf lords, and all the other heroic archetypes of a mythic age.
As far as dungeons, while the first great empires are reaching their peak in Dawnforge, they're still often built on the ruins of more primitive, precursor civilizations. So, for example, a great realm might be flowering in a particular region, but it's still dotted with the hill forts and barrow rings of the first barbarian kings to migrate into the area centuries before. In other words, there will still be dungeons! And finally, Dawnforge is set in an age of imperialism when a new, untamed continent has just been opened to exploration and colonization. It's wild, and unknown, and dangerous, and the perfect setting for extended adventure campaigns.
Nightfall: Continuing Z's analogy and using Tolkien as a convenient point of reference, Midnight is really an alternate Fourth Age setting (Sauron wins), while Dawnforge is a First/Second Age setting. They're both classic high fantasy, but the feel and play experience should be markedly different. In Dawnforge, you can create and play your own vision of Elrond. In Midnight, you play fugitive heroes in a world where the dark lord killed Elrond and made a fashionable dinner set with his bones.
Hopefully, the two settings will appeal enough to some folks that they'll want to play both. Others will no doubt find one far more appealing than the other. Variety, in my opinion, is always a good thing, and the d20 System makes it easier than ever before to take advantage of that (for both gamers and publishers!).
Thanks very much for the kind words and interest. I'm planning to post the one-pager in my Behind the Curtain column today, so make sure to check it out on our site: www.fantasyflightgames.com
As far as dungeons, while the first great empires are reaching their peak in Dawnforge, they're still often built on the ruins of more primitive, precursor civilizations. So, for example, a great realm might be flowering in a particular region, but it's still dotted with the hill forts and barrow rings of the first barbarian kings to migrate into the area centuries before. In other words, there will still be dungeons! And finally, Dawnforge is set in an age of imperialism when a new, untamed continent has just been opened to exploration and colonization. It's wild, and unknown, and dangerous, and the perfect setting for extended adventure campaigns.
Nightfall: Continuing Z's analogy and using Tolkien as a convenient point of reference, Midnight is really an alternate Fourth Age setting (Sauron wins), while Dawnforge is a First/Second Age setting. They're both classic high fantasy, but the feel and play experience should be markedly different. In Dawnforge, you can create and play your own vision of Elrond. In Midnight, you play fugitive heroes in a world where the dark lord killed Elrond and made a fashionable dinner set with his bones.
Hopefully, the two settings will appeal enough to some folks that they'll want to play both. Others will no doubt find one far more appealing than the other. Variety, in my opinion, is always a good thing, and the d20 System makes it easier than ever before to take advantage of that (for both gamers and publishers!).
Thanks very much for the kind words and interest. I'm planning to post the one-pager in my Behind the Curtain column today, so make sure to check it out on our site: www.fantasyflightgames.com
MythicJustice
Explorer
Well I am sure looking forward to seeing both the one pager as well as buying the final product. Hurry up and post it! 
- Chad
- Chad
Zaruthustran
The tingling means it’s working!
Thanks for the expanded info. I'm definitely interested in Dawnforge, from a player, DM, and developer perspective.
Will you be limiting technology levels (no full plate, no rapier, no monks, etc)? Maybe emphasize sorcerors instead of wizards (arcanists have not yet quantified or determined the formulas for magic--no spellbooks)? Will you have established, personified gods, or just vague elemental/cultural forces and as-yet-unascended heroes?
Pardon me if these questions are too specific--but I am more than a bit excited about this setting
-z
Will you be limiting technology levels (no full plate, no rapier, no monks, etc)? Maybe emphasize sorcerors instead of wizards (arcanists have not yet quantified or determined the formulas for magic--no spellbooks)? Will you have established, personified gods, or just vague elemental/cultural forces and as-yet-unascended heroes?
Pardon me if these questions are too specific--but I am more than a bit excited about this setting
-z
Last edited:
Greg at FFG
First Post
I don't have any plans currently to mess with the default technology level of D&D very much. Dawnforge is set in a mythic Golden Age, but that doesn't necessarily imply a more primitive Bronze Age sort of technology level. The scope of the setting is also quite broad, however, so there can also be significant variation from culture to culture, nation to nation, and empire to empire.
There are wizards in the setting, but I'd also like to carve out a unique niche for sorcerers. The setting emphasizes "magical nexuses." These are places where the still raw and powerful flow of magic eddies and pools in the earth, and they can be tapped by those with the talent for it. I see sorcerers as being uniquely more suited to this than wizards. You can read a bit more on these arcane wells in the one-pager.
No single established pantheon has yet gained dominion in the world of Dawnforge. It's a world of a thousand small gods and local spirits, and it's a world where even mortals can aspire to godhood.
Thanks for the questions and the interest!
There are wizards in the setting, but I'd also like to carve out a unique niche for sorcerers. The setting emphasizes "magical nexuses." These are places where the still raw and powerful flow of magic eddies and pools in the earth, and they can be tapped by those with the talent for it. I see sorcerers as being uniquely more suited to this than wizards. You can read a bit more on these arcane wells in the one-pager.
No single established pantheon has yet gained dominion in the world of Dawnforge. It's a world of a thousand small gods and local spirits, and it's a world where even mortals can aspire to godhood.
Thanks for the questions and the interest!
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Greg,
Just one quick question regarding Midnight. I've read the preview. Nicely done. But I was curious about the ratio of spellcasters versus non-spellcasters. I mean with this being a much Darker setting, will we see a lot in terms of necromantic clans perhaps vying for control? Also what about a prestige class like Blackguard? Are they more common here or just about average?
Just one quick question regarding Midnight. I've read the preview. Nicely done. But I was curious about the ratio of spellcasters versus non-spellcasters. I mean with this being a much Darker setting, will we see a lot in terms of necromantic clans perhaps vying for control? Also what about a prestige class like Blackguard? Are they more common here or just about average?
