WotC Setting Search News

[MulhorandSage]

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!

Well Greg, congratulations for getting as far as you did, and thanks for sharing this with us.

For some time I've bemoaned the dearth of original worlds in this hobby; comparing what the hobby produces to the worldbuilding I remember from the SF/fantasy fiction of my childhood, it's often seemed like we fell short in quantity and variety. It was my hope that when the setting search was announced we'd get a flowering of new campaign worlds and approaches and it looks like that might indeed happen now.

Best wishes on the publication of Dawnforge; I look forward to seeing what the final product is like.

Scott Bennie

 

[Brian W]

Dawnforge

The direct link to Greg's Behind the Curtain column with the one page on Dawnforge is: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/curtain.html

 

[Ashy]

WOW!! Well, I must say that it feels good to know that you got beat by something that kicks like that!!! Again, congrats to all at FFG and count me in for an advance copy!

 

[Darrin Drader]

Drats and curses! May the Balrog pay you a dinner visit for putting 2 settings in front of me that I absolutely must have.

Walks away muttering crossly...

 

[Morgenstern]

My thanks - IRON SEA will be better for that!

Thank you for posting an entry from the top one-tenth of one percent . There is a lot to be learned from how you aproached the matter of presenting your world in a one-page propossal format. I am constantly refining my own entry and the materials to support it, and this definitely gives me ideas for a new draft.

At least we shared one concept - the potential offered by the dicsovery of a new continent!

Frankly, the mere mention of "the First Tree" left me giddy. This looks to be good stuff, especialy when I was just railing at how derivitively Tolkein-esque many settings have become. I'm sick to death of elves and dwarves and I'm still interested in see what you will do with them in this instance! Amazing .

 

[Duncan Haldane]

So, any others who got to the second round but not the third want to put their hands in the air?

Duncan

 

[Dr. Zauberei]

What about . . .

I am anxiously awaiting FFG's third setting between Dawnforge and Midnight . . .

Lunchtime!

It should be great.

 

[mythusmage]

Or...

...their special setting for their British customers, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

 

[Undead Pete]

Congrats on making it that far....

After reading your one-page, I agree that it was very well written, BUT....

I was disappointed to see that it wasn't as original as I expected from one of the top 11. Maybe I'm just being too critical, but I wonder how the committee made its decisions. Their job seems even harder than I had earlier imagined now.

Frankly, I think the idea for Midnight is better.

No matter what, I will check it out (as well as Midnight) and will very likely buy both. I'm sure it will be as great as your other products are....especially when fleshed out.

The one-pager just didn't jump out at me like I expected it would.

If course, I have yet to publish a dirty limerick, much less a campaign setting, so who am I to say anything...

There once was a Demon named Orcus
whose minions would never call him "Your Dorkness".
He was known to be fond
of shaking his Wand
and turning them all into corpses.

 

[Destil]

I was disappointed to see that it wasn't as original as I expected from one of the top 11. Maybe I'm just being too critical, but I wonder how the committee made its decisions. Their job seems even harder than I had earlier imagined now.

Well, they basicly said, the more creative, original and off the beaten path your proposal is, the better it would have to be to be considered... I wasn't really expecting too many oddballs like Planescape or Darksun to make the cut. My money would be on a farily good number of the final 11 were the best 'classic high fantasy' style entries, with one or two oddbals that showed real potential.... But that's just a (completly uneducated) guess.