D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

[Hussar]

It also connects him to his homeland Tymanther

Foul! You have added non-canon material. You have zero idea where his homeland is.

That fact connects him to the various mercenaries around the Realms, especially in nearby Baldur's Gate,

Strike 2 and 3. He has no connection to any mercenaries whatsoever. And, what dragonborn mercenaries near Baldur's Gate? There are zero Dragonborn in Baldur's Gate who are mercenaries.

Thus my point. You just made all that up. None of that is leveraging anything in the Forgotten Realms material. Change Bookwrym to an elf and everything you just said works perfectly. Dwarf? No problem. But Dragonborn? You had to start making stuff up that was non-canon just to have the slightest connection to an NPC and then had to fabricate connections from that NPC to the greater world because there has been ZERO effort to connect dragonborn into the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Hussar]

But not as commonly as the other options. Ot every option a player has needs to be equally likely in a Setting.

Well, to be honest, you'll get no real argument from me. I've long argued for Halflings and gnomes to be ousted from the PHB in favor of more popular options that are actually going to be used in settings. Saying that it's okay for the most popular options in the PHB to be given the same short shrift as the two least popular PHB options isn't exactly a winning argument.

 

[Yaarel]

You can write up as part of your background a connection to Candle Keep and how you befriended Skoda (Bookwyrm), staying up late at night discussing X, Y and/or Z that interests your PC in some way. Perhaps by bringing him some rare tome(s), since he's in charge of expanding Candlekeep's literary resources and knowledge base, and acquiring writings is his job.

When you go to the Keep you and he will talk about old times. You would probably even enjoy some discounts or perhaps free entry into the keep. Perhaps he contacts you if the Keep needs something, leading to adventures.

This is a good example of what a 2024 background is about. It connects dry starting mechanics to specific places, people, and events within the setting. There is a local instance of culture (here literary traditions, archival sciences), biographical history, even a noncombat benefit (here a dragonborn, as a social contact toward a future social challenge). Backgrounds help players know stuff that is going on in the setting and invest in the setting.

 

[Zardnaar]

There's zero reason for them not to exist as color coded. There are no color coded dragons, so the color coding would just be something that is a part of their race, not something connected to color coded dragons. Color coding therefore would not be anything the people would use to connect them to The Dragon.

Not really relevant. They don't look like The Dragon and there are lots of weird races around. Dragonborn aren't as odd as Thri-kreen and those are accepted.

Enlighten me. How does it connect Dragonborn to The Dragon?

Well THE Dragon and a heap of dragon people running around. I dont think I need to explain that one you do you

And yeah sticking chromatic and metallic Dragonmen into Darksun just sill. See previous shoehorn comments.

They could at least use proper Dray.

Spelljammer it up.

 

[Maxperson]

Tieflings are quite common in Planescape they're one of the "Original 3" of species introduced in Planescape, Aasimar are less common because they came up with the idea for them later, and Genasi even less common because they were conceived near the end of the run.

Yes and no. They are "common," because they are on the planes, but they are by no means as common as humans. Not even close. They're just more common than on say Toril or Oerth.

They had shorthand abbreviations for the NPCs and "Tf" is fairly frequent in the 1-line stat blocks throughout the product line, maybe not as frequent as "Hu". Githzerai and Bariaur of the other 2 "Original 3" do make a lot of appearances too, but certainly less frequently than Tieflings.

Planescape had some reasoning for why Gnomes, Elves, Dwaraves and Halflings weren't PC options as Planar Origin characters and were mostly "Primes" instead. And it's one I personally disagree with. Half-Elves didn't have the restriction of Prime only, and Half-Orcs were rare because 2e removed them for the Core rules.

When it talks about the planar races, it says Humans, Githzerai, and Half-Elves. Then it says and also some more exotic types. Those would be the Tieflings, Bariaur, and Aasimar. We probably see Tieflings over represented as NPCs because they are a very popular race to play and the designers would be just as biased towards them as anyone else. As a whole, though, Tieflings are still not common on the planes.

I went through the Planes of Conflict Boxed Set and looked at all the stat blocks given throughout the text and came up with these numbers for the races. The PC races are first, and then the named monsters. It's interesting just how much variety there is with the named monsters.

As you can see, tieflings tied for 3rd most common, but that's not saying much. Every race came in waaaaaay behind humans. Going by those numbers, only humans are common.

Human 45
Half-Elf 9
Tiefling 8
Gnome 8
Elf 6
Dwarf 3
Bariaur 2
Githzerai 1
Half-Orc 1
Halfling 1

Weretiger 1
Werejaguar 1
Werebear 1
Werewolf 1
Centaur 2
Ogre Mage 1
Adamantite Dragon 1
Firbolg 1
Selkie 1
Hill Giant 1
Gehreleth 2
Orc 1
Lupinal 1
Ultroloth 2
Frost Giant 1
Half-Ogre 1
Arcane 1
Ursinal 1
Night Hag 1

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Ghostwalk always forgotten as a 3e setting

I think a 5.5 setting would be great if it really leaned into heroic manga-inspired tropes.

 

[Hussar]

This is a good example of what a 2024 background is about. It connects dry starting mechanics to specific places, people, and events within the setting. There is a local instance of culture (here literary traditions, archival sciences), even a noncombat benefit (here a dragon, as a social contact toward a future social challenge). Backgrounds help players know stuff that is going on in the setting and invest in the setting.

totally agree. Except that none of the specific places, people or events that he lists actually exist in the setting. It's all 100% made up on the spot. Which is fine, that's certainly what everyone does. Again, not arguing that it can't be done. I know it can be done. I do it, you do it, everyone else does it.

What I'm arguing against is that it HAS to be done but only for some PHB options. Like I said, change the Dragonborn First Reader to an elf or a dwarf or any other PHB race and I can leverage canon material for my background. But, Dragonborn? Nope, sorry, you must make it up 100% on your own.

 

[Maxperson]

Foul! You have added non-canon material. You have zero idea where his homeland is.

Incorrect. They are all from Tymanther as far as I know. I don't have the new book, so that might have changed. Going with 5e lore only, Tymanther is where they are all from.

Strike 2 and 3. He has no connection to any mercenaries whatsoever. And, what dragonborn mercenaries near Baldur's Gate? There are zero Dragonborn in Baldur's Gate who are mercenaries.

Again, incorrect. The Dragonborn lore explicitly says that they have spread throughout the realms as fine mercenaries. Baldur's Gate is a famed mercenary city. There is a 0% chance that there are no Dragonborn mercenaries there and very probably several dozen or more. Unless you are suggesting that he knows no other Dragonborn other than the other Reader, he's going to know Dragonborn from the nearby town, which means mercenaries.

I'm using known facts to extrapolate what he WOULD know.

Thus my point. You just made all that up. None of that is leveraging anything in the Forgotten Realms material.

It all leverages Forgotten Realms material. Every last bit of it.

 

[Maxperson]

Well THE Dragon and a heap of dragon people running around. I dont think I need to explain that one you do you

Lizard people. They don't look anything like The Dragon.

Spelljammer it up.

You've said this twice now, but I still have no idea what you mean by it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Lizard people. They don't look anything like The Dragon.

You've said this twice now, but I still have no idea what you mean by it.

Look at the changes to Spelljammer. It wasnt well received by well anyone.
Throw the baby out with the bathwater. Also see 4E FR.