D&D 5E What campaign is next?

[ourchair]

While most of the ideas in Planescape have been folded into the Plane manuals, I wouldn't mind seeing it treated as an actual setting.

I never played previous editions of the setting, so my understanding of it is filtered largely through second hand sources and the PC RPG, but the notion that belief has greater importance and philosophical factions are the primary movers and shakers seems interesting to me.

To some extent, it's less robust than Eberron, FR or Dark Sun as a setting, but 4E campaign support is not as heavy as in previous editions, so I think it'd work.

Otherwise, let's just go with Spelljammer. It's weird enough to be substantially different from other settings and the Points of Light idea.

 

[doctorhook]

If it's not a new setting, my money's on Greyhawk. Why, you ask? Because after the 4E-ification of Forgotten Realms, D&D needs another boring setting. [/zing!]

 

[Markn]

I don't think they'll do Oriental Adventures for the simple fact that they already chose to ditch the Ki power source. If they were really going to eventually release Kara-Tur... I would imagine they would have saved the Monk, the Ninja (i.e. the Assassin) and the other Ki classes they had lined up (the Seeker might very well have originally been an oriental archer class) for when this new campaign setting was released.

I think we should take our cue from the PHIII / Dark Sun Psionic connection... what is the main power source that will be released in PHIV that would gain the most traction from the next campaign setting? In that regard... if it's the Shadow power source, then the most logical campaign settings would either be something like Ravenloft, or perhaps something like Greyhawk during the time of the war with Iuz.

I think this makes a lot of sense. We have already seen psuedo support for Ravenloft in the form of Domains of Dread articles. Ravenloft would also be significantly different and allows for a wide range of playtypes as each realm has its own Age (bronze, mideval, etc). It may even have rules for basic guns and such. At any rate, it could certainly appeal to a lot of people if done right.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

I'm hoping for a new setting.

 

[Quickleaf]

I can't help but wonder if 'shadow' will tie in with a new swashbuckling setting based on Pirates of the Carribbean, Monkey Island, and maybe Pirates of Darkwater... Undead pirates, voodoo magic, pacts with the ocean deeps, ship combat, zombie monkeys, rum and gunpowder running, mystical harbors in the mists, island hopping, "age of exploration" vibe, black waters leading to davey jones locker, pirate lingo, insult sword-fighting, whirlpools leading to the elemental chaos, horrors of the deep, vengeful sea gods, ghosts walking the port on hallows eve, shapeshifting sea wolves, corrupt governors, competition for a scarce resource, sea hag hexes, acrobatic rapier duels, treasure coves of the lich pirate king, and more!

 

[ggroy]

I don't think they'll do Oriental Adventures for the simple fact that they already chose to ditch the Ki power source. If they were really going to eventually release Kara-Tur... I would imagine they would have saved the Monk, the Ninja (i.e. the Assassin) and the other Ki classes they had lined up (the Seeker might very well have originally been an oriental archer class) for when this new campaign setting was released.

I think this makes a lot of sense. We have already seen psuedo support for Ravenloft in the form of Domains of Dread articles. Ravenloft would also be significantly different and allows for a wide range of playtypes as each realm has its own Age (bronze, mideval, etc). It may even have rules for basic guns and such. At any rate, it could certainly appeal to a lot of people if done right.

It seems like some elements of older TSR/WotC settings are being "genericised" into stuff for the 4E D&D system. For example stuff like:

- seeker, ninja/assassin classes (ki classes)
- spelljammer ships
- planar stuff, Sigil
- names from Greyhawk (ie. Mordenkainen, Bigby, etc ...)
- names from Forgotten Realms (ie. Bane, Gruumsh, etc ...)

Perhaps elements of Ravenloft are being made into a generic part of the 4E D&D system. If they were to make a book on this, it could be as a Shadowfell splatbook.

If their intention is to create generic 4E splatbooks which can be used in many D&D games (instead of setting specific and/or specialized books), one could look at old TSR/WotC settings to see which stuff in principle can be exported easily and made generic. If a lot of unique stuff from a particular setting can be "genericised" and exported easily to the 4E D&D system, then would the particular setting still be viable on its own?

For example, what stuff from Dragonlance, Jakandor, Greyhawk, Mystara, Hollow World, Council of Wyrms, Savage Coast, Birthright, Al-Qadim, Maztica, etc ... could be easily exported to the generic 4E D&D? Once this stuff is exported and incorporated into the generic 4E D&D system, which of these settings would still be viable as an independent setting on its own?

For settings which have already had stuff exported into the generic 4E D&D system (ie. Spelljammer, etc ...), would these particular settings still be viable on their own as a revived 4E setting? Or would they be largely superfluous?

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I don't think they'll do Oriental Adventures for the simple fact that they already chose to ditch the Ki power source. If they were really going to eventually release Kara-Tur... I would imagine they would have saved the Monk, the Ninja (i.e. the Assassin) and the other Ki classes they had lined up (the Seeker might very well have originally been an oriental archer class) for when this new campaign setting was released.

Yeah, Ki wasn't a power source, it was a "this is oriental" moniker, which is exactly why they ditched it. Imagine if there WAS a Ki power source, then we'd be stuck with the vast majority of OA classes being lumped into a single power source for no particular reason. Nor does such a power source have a unifying theme. The existing power sources work just as well for an oriental world as for any other.

So actually I would say the dropping of the Ki power source perhaps indicates they actually gave the whole oriental campaign setting concept a closer look and revised their notions from just tacking on a couple classes and lumping them into a power source with a oriental-ly sounding name to doing some actual amount of an attempt to get it right.

I don't think the release of classes particularly coincides with the release of a given setting either. 2 of the 3 settings we know of have one new class each, but that doesn't indicate future ones will have to do that (especially when DS doesn't). They could easily release a new class in an OA product, or they could just release a bunch of DS style themes to tailor existing classes.

I think we should take our cue from the PHIII / Dark Sun Psionic connection... what is the main power source that will be released in PHIV that would gain the most traction from the next campaign setting? In that regard... if it's the Shadow power source, then the most logical campaign settings would either be something like Ravenloft, or perhaps something like Greyhawk during the time of the war with Iuz.

Well... If they are now going to release Shadow classes in a Player Options book that strongly hints to me that PHB4 is vapor. In fact it isn't on any official schedule anywhere at this point or is at most "sometime down the road maybe". They could as easily be going to put Elemental classes in PHB4 anyway. I think its pretty hard to say that we can tell what's coming in settings based on core rules. Sure there was a correlation with DS and PHB3, but Psionics would have been released anyway, DS or not.

 

[ggroy]

Another thing is whether WotC still has the interest in producing or reviving an Oriental Adventures type setting at this point in time.

Even back in the TSR days, Oriental Adventures didn't have many supplement titles produced for it. (IIRC, the last OA titles produced during the TSR era was back around 1990). During the 3E D&D era, many of the Oriental Adventures supplement books published by AEG had dual-stats for d20 rules and the older "Legend of the Five Rings" ruleset.

These days I would probably be more inclined to play "Legend of the Five Rings" for an oriental type game, than an Oriental Adventures tacked on to D&D.

 

[Angellis_ater]

If you ask me, it would be far more probable that Wizards does a MtG-incorporation into D&D. There are a myriad of worlds and/or settings tied to Magic, and by using that as a basis they have most of the work already done, from flavour to art and concepts, only needing the crunchy rules material filled in. You can either make it part of the MtG supra-plot in a "Planeswalker Campaign Setting", giving those who loved the concepts of a myriad worlds tied together (a la PlaneScape or SpellJammer) a setting to cherish, or they choose one of the existing ones. Best idea for them to make sure to synergize their work and co-seed their own materials into different groups.

 

[firesnakearies]

I'd like to see an all-new setting. Designed by Bruce Cordell. With art by Brom. And free pie when you buy it.