That's not even to mention the fact that most people seem intent on ignoring what the Devs do say about what they'll do next. Like the fact that whatever setting comes next will not be like either FR or Eberron. Which leaves ONLY Darksun or some totally brand new setting. That's it, those are the only two options. The only way there'll be something outside of those two options is if they change their minds...which there is no reason nor evidence they'll do so.
I still have my own speculations of course, and I still think they're closer to being right than eveyrone else's, but I'm not voicing them anymore. This new direction with Monk wasn't a curveball from left field...this was from an entirely different stadium. Though, it didn't surprise me that much. And I have mixed feelings about what it means for the rest of the game. But, so far I've liked the surprises I've gotten from 4e, and I imagine the odds are in favor that I'll like what's to come, too.
Which leaves ONLY Darksun or some totally brand new setting. That's it, those are the only two options. The only way there'll be something outside of those two options is if they change their minds...which there is no reason nor evidence they'll do so.
Gothic horror fantasy is like FR and Eberron? Granted, I don't actually think its next, but you have to admit that a sufficiently gothed and horror-ed up Ravenloft would be pretty different from FR or Eberron. : /
Either way, if I were them, I'd wait to see how the Psionic Player Handbook and scifi elements are received before throwing all the production into Psychic Dungeons and Dune, er Dragons.
They could do a whole new world focusing on Steampunkesque ideas. I could see Psionics fitting into that, if not Monks in particular.
*Shifty eyes* Pseudoscience! We could have Psionics, Hollow Earth, Aether and Aether Ships. We could also draw in Mad Science, and Steampunk to expand it even more. Could have Frankenstein, Invisible Man, etc. and then Steampunk Clockwork and Steam-Powered stuff.
They could do a whole new world focusing on Steampunkesque ideas. I could see Psionics fitting into that, if not Monks in particular.
Isn't Eberron already supposed to be the Steampunk DnD setting in all by what the machines actually run on?
Gothic horror fantasy is like FR and Eberron? Granted, I don't actually think its next, but you have to admit that a sufficiently gothed and horror-ed up Ravenloft would be pretty different from FR or Eberron. : /
Either way, if I were them, I'd wait to see how the Psionic Player Handbook and scifi elements are received before throwing all the production into Psychic Dungeons and Dune, er Dragons.
For better or worse, Ravenloft is pretty much guaranteed to not be a full campaign setting. The devs have said more than once that it's essentially been folded into the Shadowfell, and all we're likely to get are the Dragon & Dungeon articles.
They could do a whole new world focusing on Steampunkesque ideas. I could see Psionics fitting into that, if not Monks in particular.
Isn't Eberron already supposed to be the Steampunk DnD setting in all by what the machines actually run on?
Basically, yes. Kalnaur, you have described Eberron, and I say that as a fanboi.
For better or worse, Ravenloft is pretty much guaranteed to not be a full campaign setting. The devs have said more than once that it's essentially been folded into the Shadowfell, and all we're likely to get are the Dragon & Dungeon articles.
Yup, along with Planescape and Spelljammer.
For better or worse, Ravenloft is pretty much guaranteed to not be a full campaign setting. The devs have said more than once that it's essentially been folded into the Shadowfell, and all we're likely to get are the Dragon & Dungeon articles.
That kind of really blows, since Ravenloft was pretty unique and I still can't tell the difference between Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms.
That kind of really blows, since Ravenloft was pretty unique and I still can't tell the difference between Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms.
Dragonlance may never come back. Like was said before...the next setting at least will neither be High Fantasy or Noir Fantasy. So, that wipes out Birthright, Dragonlance, Mystara, and Greyhawk. Ravenloft is part of the shadowfell, and spelljammer and planescape are part of the cosmology as a whole. Al Qadim doesn't have a forum of its own on the boards, so it's not likely to come back, and the same is probably true for any other worlds that don't have forums of their own. That leaves Darksun or a completely totally brand new setting. That's it.
Dragonlance may never come back. Like was said before...the next setting at least will neither be High Fantasy or Noir Fantasy. So, that wipes out Birthright, Dragonlance, Mystara, and Greyhawk. Ravenloft is part of the shadowfell, and spelljammer and planescape are part of the cosmology as a whole. Al Qadim doesn't have a forum of its own on the boards, so it's not likely to come back, and the same is probably true for any other worlds that don't have forums of their own. That leaves Darksun or a completely totally brand new setting. That's it.
With Eberron and Dark Sun out there, I'm already starting to get sick of the "science fiction Dungeons and Dragons" shtick.
Hey, next big setting is the United States of America in the year 2010 except now there's magic and elves and dwarves. : p
God I hope that's note true.
Oh, a Romantic Fantasy world, where you go on dates to level up your Dragonborn. That would get all the girls from the Sims playing, right?! RIGHT?!
Oh, a Romantic Fantasy world, where you go on dates to level up your Dragonborn. That would get all the girls from the Sims playing, right?! RIGHT?!
hey since I can't get a date in real life that IS fantasy role-playing
The only problem with that setting is how to make it work at all tier of play, especially Epic.
Also, no one's learned their lesson that they have no idea what's coming at all.
I take exception to this.. I swear I already expressed this sentiment in one of these 'ere threads already : D
The only problem with that setting is how to make it work at all tier of play, especially Epic.
Hmm... I would have the players tread backwards/forwards so to speak. Just like the World is the starting area for Heroic have the borders of these new lands being the starting point.
As they progress up, they can go back to homeland where they deal with the increasing levels of power, intrigue, etc. as they delve into the centre of these massive kingdoms. Or, they instead begin to explore and uncover the hidden depths of these new lands, finding lost secrets, ancient powers once forgotten now found, etc.
If you really wanted to ramp up the epicness. Have these empires being cross-planar. So you start off on a fringe plane, or world. Then progress deeper into that plane/world or go back to the other planes your kingdom has conquered. Perhaps a god is the ruler of your kingdom.
I'd like a setting set around a sort of 'age of discovery' theme, with distant empires coming into the land of more primitive people (in the case of DnD Gnolls, Kobolds and other fun monstrous races) to steal their stuff and turn their ancient relics of surprising power into residuum so the king back home can avoid another assasination attempt by coming back from the grave. Lots of jungle , lots of ruins, lots of treasure hunting, rebellion and morally ambiguous conquerers. and Spaniard elves with silly mustaches :p
Pirates of the Carribean with elves? Sounds promising, but I thought Mystara tapped into this a bit.
Pirates of the Carribean with elves? Sounds promising, but I thought Mystara tapped into this a bit.
I was thinking more Mysterious Cities of Gold.
Pirates of the Carribean is way too late in time for the Age of Discovery period. I'm thinking more early 1600s here, where Spain and Portugal are hunting for gold in South-America and the priests are destroying precious relics of precolombian cultures.
Oooh I like the thread backward idea for Paragon... and extra planar colonisation is so crazy it might work.
Glad you like it, if you want to go really crazy. Spelljammers or Astal Skiffs could be the campaign settings equivalent of Galleons. Just imagine then appearing out of portals or plummeting out of the sky depositing all manner of magically enchanted and well armoured troops. Heck with more analogies, if a god did rule the empire well forceful converting was obviously rampant so this could be even more so with a actual real god ruling your empire.
Perhaps, the god(s) of the various kingdoms are specifically targeting these worlds/planes (to make it more diverse there could be numerous colonization points to start at) because they are the resting place of Primordials, or their once mighty civilizations (cast down from power after the war) and also their relics.
It twists with the main fluff but still keeps a good amount of it. Also brings in a bit of morality issues you have learnt all your life how evil the Primordials are, but now you are the ones trying to destroy.
* By 'full setting', I mean one that has its own 'natural world'/'prime material plane' and an attendant cosmology, rather than just consisting of a single plane.
Oh, a Romantic Fantasy world, where you go on dates to level up your Dragonborn. That would get all the girls from the Sims playing, right?! RIGHT?!
I'd play in it.As far as Dragonlance... I see that as 2011. Because by then people won't want "different" anymore. And they're still best selling novels. If it's not Dragonlance it's gotta be something new... because their other settings really aren't all that strong.
I'd like a setting set around a sort of 'age of discovery' theme, with distant empires coming into the land of more primitive people (in the case of DnD Gnolls, Kobolds and other fun monstrous races) to steal their stuff and turn their ancient relics of surprising power into residuum so the king back home can avoid another assasination attempt by coming back from the grave. Lots of jungle , lots of ruins, lots of treasure hunting, rebellion and morally ambiguous conquerers. and Spaniard elves with silly mustaches :p
The only problem with that setting is how to make it work at all tier of play, especially Epic.
Except we already have this with Eberron and the exploration into the jungle continent of Xen'drik. The uncouth natives are drow, some regressed giants, and a few other non-specified races if I remember from reading Secrets of Xen'drik.
Like the fact that whatever setting comes next will not be like either FR or Eberron. Which leaves ONLY Darksun or some totally brand new setting.
Y'know, the Wilden made me think "What campaign setting features intelligent plants and psionics?"
Why, Gamma World, of course.
Dragonlance may never come back. Like was said before...the next setting at least will neither be High Fantasy or Noir Fantasy. So, that wipes out Birthright, Dragonlance, Mystara, and Greyhawk. Ravenloft is part of the shadowfell, and spelljammer and planescape are part of the cosmology as a whole. Al Qadim doesn't have a forum of its own on the boards, so it's not likely to come back, and the same is probably true for any other worlds that don't have forums of their own. That leaves Darksun or a completely totally brand new setting. That's it.
While you're probably right, I love how you're stating this with utter confidence in thread you started about how nobody knows what's coming next >_>.
I'd like a setting set around a sort of 'age of discovery' theme, with distant empires coming into the land of more primitive people (in the case of DnD Gnolls, Kobolds and other fun monstrous races) to steal their stuff and turn their ancient relics of surprising power into residuum so the king back home can avoid another assasination attempt by coming back from the grave. Lots of jungle , lots of ruins, lots of treasure hunting, rebellion and morally ambiguous conquerers. and Spaniard elves with silly mustaches :p
The only problem with that setting is how to make it work at all tier of play, especially Epic.
This is one of the most awesome things ever.
This is one of the most awesome things ever.
I bet I sold you at 'Spaniard Elves with silly mustaches' huh? :P
"Because of [Insert any announcement or product release by WotC], I believe that [product, class, or race I enjoy a lot] will be released very soon, and [Product, class, or race I dislike a lot] will never be released."
Example post:
"Because of the release of Dangerous Delves, I believe a sourcebook on Elves featuring all the Elven subraces as separate races will be released soon and the Eberron Campaign Setting book will be cancelled days before its release."
Only one thing has become clear looking over so many of the speculation threads ... And that is that no one has any idea at all what's coming. Honestly, I used to agree with certain perspectives, but now, I really think anything's possible. Also, no one's learned their lesson that they have no idea what's coming at all.
Good point. We should stop speculation. Wait, what's that you say?
Which leaves ONLY Darksun or some totally brand new setting. That's it, those are the only two options.
I still have my own speculations of course, and I still think they're closer to being right than eveyrone else's, but I'm not voicing them anymore.
But, didn't you ju-
Dragonlance may never come back. Like was said before...the next setting at least will neither be High Fantasy or Noir Fantasy. So, that wipes out Birthright, Dragonlance, Mystara, and Greyhawk. Ravenloft is part of the shadowfell, and spelljammer and planescape are part of the cosmology as a whole. Al Qadim doesn't have a forum of its own on the boards, so it's not likely to come back, and the same is probably true for any other worlds that don't have forums of their own. That leaves Darksun or a completely totally brand new setting. That's it.
Oh, so what you meant by "It's pointless to keep openly speculating" is "I really badly want to start a thread as a platform for speculation".
Like the fact that whatever setting comes next will not be like either FR or Eberron. Which leaves ONLY Darksun or some totally brand new setting. That's it, those are the only two options.
There are many settings that could be revived. For example, with the heavy hinting at Ravenloft they have given us, they could very easily revive that into the next 4E campaign setting. They have given us Strahd, one of the domains of dread with another one soon to follow, and even an epic destiny on becoming a dark lord. Couple that with the fact that the PHB3 will include shadow as a power source, I could very easily see Ravenloft being reborn (or resurrected) in the next coming year or two.
I am just happy to see a Greyhawk (The Village of Homlett) module out.
Every five minutes with you and Greyhawk ;)
Isn't Eberron already supposed to be the Steampunk DnD setting in all by what the machines actually run on?
Yes, Eberron is very steampunky in some ways.
What of they really threw us a curve ball and did something like Blackmoor. I'm not up to date on all the wild speculation and that, so if that has been officially shot down, go ahead and flame me.
There are many settings that could be revived. For example, with the heavy hinting at Ravenloft they have given us, they could very easily revive that into the next 4E campaign setting. They have given us Strahd, one of the domains of dread with another one soon to follow, and even an epic destiny on becoming a dark lord. Couple that with the fact that the PHB3 will include shadow as a power source, I could very easily see Ravenloft being reborn (or resurrected) in the next coming year or two.
Except that unfortunately the devs have flat out said that the only Ravenloft we're getting is in those Domains of Dread articles, and mentions in Shadowfell products.
Hey, next big setting is the United States of America in the year 2010 except now there's magic and elves and dwarves. : p
Been there, done that - it's called Urban Arcana.. Or Shadowrun.
I'll take just about any of the old campaign worlds, save maybe Maztica or Horde. Though if Maztica could be reinvisioned and drop the too-close-to-real-world Mezoamerica, I'd give it a try.
I'm hoping though, for Dark Sun or Al-Qadim.
They also said the monk would be a ki class...
Yeah well, Ravenloft already being in the Shadowfell doesn't leave it much footing to be a stand-alone setting. At best it could be a series of adventures, and/or some articles in...um...whichever magazine that sort of stuff is in. I can't tell em apart.
I'd like a setting set around a sort of 'age of discovery' theme, with distant empires coming into the land of more primitive people (in the case of DnD Gnolls, Kobolds and other fun monstrous races) to steal their stuff and turn their ancient relics of surprising power into residuum so the king back home can avoid another assasination attempt by coming back from the grave. Lots of jungle , lots of ruins, lots of treasure hunting, rebellion and morally ambiguous conquerers. and Spaniard elves with silly mustaches :p
The only problem with that setting is how to make it work at all tier of play, especially Epic.
This sounds an awful lot like the Red Steel campaign set for Mystara...
Mysterious Cities of Gold + One Piece + Pirates of the Caribbean + Mystara = Good setting.
...
Couple that with the fact that the PHB3 will include shadow as a power source,
...
Shadowcrypt, how do you know that the shadow power source will definitely be a part of PH3? Can you quote me the source because I can't find it.
Yeah, but I could see Mystara being altered enough to work that in - have the world reworked so that. I'm thinking that a campaign setting that takes place in a mix of an Age of Exploration/Age of Pirates mix would be really good, and think Mystara could be tweaked to fix that. Something like:
Mysterious Cities of Gold + One Piece + Pirates of the Caribbean + Mystara = Good setting.
Naval combat rules yo!
They could use the brand name Mystara because of recognition (sure its no Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, but any name recognition is better than no recognition) and rework it.
As a side note I don't know anything about any of the old setting baring what I could gleam of FR, Eberron and Dark Sun from these boards.
What is Blackmoor's 'hook' so to speak?
Here's an easy template for future posters on this thread.
"Because of [Insert any announcement or product release by WotC], I believe that [product, class, or race I enjoy a lot] will be released very soon, and [Product, class, or race I dislike a lot] will never be released."
Example post:
"Because of the release of Dangerous Delves, I believe a sourcebook on Elves featuring all the Elven subraces as separate races will be released soon and the Eberron Campaign Setting book will be cancelled days before its release."
I love you.
What is Blackmoor's 'hook' so to speak?
Some of the old settings didn't have a hook, and I think that's a bit of the problem.
Greyhawk is your standard medieval European fantasy.
And I think Blackmoor is too, unless someone knows more.
Mystara eventually introduced a focus on exploration and a hollow world as its hook, but before that it was just another Greyhawk.
Forgotten Realm's Hook seems to be a bunch of cultures similar to Earth's so you can have Arabians and Japanese adventures and so on.
Dragonlance's hook seems to be that its the setting of a popular book series.
Eberron's hook is Steampunk.
Dark Sun's hook is being Dune.
Ravenloft's hook is being gothic.
Spelljammer's hook is being in space and Planescape's hook is being like Sliders. Birthright's hook is being Civilization/an RTS.
Some of the old settings didn't have a hook, and I think that's a bit of the problem.
Greyhawk is your standard medieval European fantasy.
And I think Blackmoor is too, unless someone knows more.
The "hook" of Blackmoor would probably be the streak of weird humor running through it, and the kitchen-sink design mentality ("a crash-landed human from another world with advanced tech starts a cult worshipping frogs? sure, why not").
The "hook" of Blackmoor would probably be the streak of weird humor running through it, and the kitchen-sink design mentality ("a crash-landed human from another world with advanced tech starts a cult worshipping frogs? sure, why not").
So Blackmoor's hook would be it being Discworld? I could see that working with good enough writing on the flavor.
Blackmoor was the first consistent campaign, designed by Dave Arenson, co creator of DnD.
Well, we know that, but that's not a "hook", it's an explanation of why it's so wild and wooly. ;)
Some of the old settings didn't have a hook, and I think that's a bit of the problem.
Greyhawk is your standard medieval European fantasy.
And I think Blackmoor is too, unless someone knows more.
Mystara eventually introduced a focus on exploration and a hollow world as its hook, but before that it was just another Greyhawk.
Forgotten Realm's Hook seems to be a bunch of cultures similar to Earth's so you can have Arabians and Japanese adventures and so on.
Dragonlance's hook seems to be that its the setting of a popular book series.
Eberron's hook is Steampunk.
Dark Sun's hook is being Dune.
Ravenloft's hook is being gothic.
Spelljammer's hook is being in space and Planescape's hook is being like Sliders. Birthright's hook is being Civilization/an RTS.
Technically, The Dragonlance book series takes place in the campaign setting, not the other way around. The setting predates the books by a while. Its theme is more Tolkien analog than most of the other settings.
With Eberron and Dark Sun out there, I'm already starting to get sick of the "science fiction Dungeons and Dragons" shtick.
Hey, next big setting is the United States of America in the year 2010 except now there's magic and elves and dwarves. : p
God I hope that's note true.
that game was done. Its called Shadowrun.
Alright! How about a setting with Dwarves and Elves in the wildwest called Elverado? Surely THAT hasn't been done!
Oregon Trail with Halfling!! Man they'd feed off one bison for monthes!
Shifters as the native americans!
"SHIFTERS!!! FORM THE CIRCLE!!!"
"There's a new sheriff in town...and his star is welded to his cold metallic skin over his heart."
