Next D&D Book Announced January 12th 2021 and Releasing March 16th 2021

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Hey, I sentenced all Kender to death by whatever means necessary way the hell back in the mid 1990s. If this next book really is Dragonlance, then that book will right next to Tasha’s on the banned for all eternity pile as far as I’m concerned.

**** Kender. *spits on ground*

 and while you are distracted Tasselhoff Burfoot has wandered off with your coin pouch...which you seemed ot have dropped whilst spitting on the ground......

 How? I already led a racial genocide against all Kender. It’ll be tough for them to do any of that from the bottom of a mass grave.

 You forget Tasselhoff is in the past present and future as well as alternate timelines as he has the Device of Time Journeying.

Quote from Beardsinger >>

Quote from Yurei1453 >>

As a person relatively new to D&D and with absolutely no connection to, reverence for, or even much understanding of "Dragonlance", and whose understanding of the things in question comes from basically this thread alone...

The idea of an anarchic kleptomaniacal species with "no concept of personal property" is an immediate red flag to my DM brain.  That pretty much screams "terrible rogue memes" to me, and a player who comes to me all bright-eyed with a kender rogue, bard, or a kender anything with the Criminal background is getting a sit-down, a talking-to, and a very intense Fry Meming.  That's the sort of thing that seems tailor-made to capital-letters Cause Problems at the table.  I totally get people having a nostalgic enjoyment for the books and wanting a chance to play their nostalgia, but someone who says to me "My character comes from a species with no concept of personal property and no  real understanding of law or government, and nothing you say will convince me to play anything else"?

 The key thing to remember is that they have a variation of kleptomania. They don't 'steal' deliberately or  because something is valuable. They absentmindedly pick up interesting things, colours and textures. A shiny hair clip or a funny purple feather willbe picked up while a boring gold coin will be ignored.

 That works fine for a character in a novel.  But at the gaming table, it really doesn't because the person running the character is nine times out of ten doing it to be a griefer who is constantly disrupting the game with their antics.

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Hey, I sentenced all Kender to death by whatever means necessary way the hell back in the mid 1990s. If this next book really is Dragonlance, then that book will right next to Tasha’s on the banned for all eternity pile as far as I’m concerned.

**** Kender. *spits on ground*

 and while you are distracted Tasselhoff Burfoot has wandered off with your coin pouch...which you seemed ot have dropped whilst spitting on the ground......

 How? I already led a racial genocide against all Kender. It’ll be tough for them to do any of that from the bottom of a mass grave.

 You forget Tasselhoff is in the past present and future as well as alternate timelines as he has the Device of Time Journeying.

 Forget? How can I forget something I don’t care enough about to know? **** Kender, **** Harold Johnson, and **** Dragonlance.

I had a buddy in high school who insisted on only ever playing a Kender Wild Mage, and when he couldn’t he played a Gnome but just like a Kender. By 1999, every DM I knew had banned Kender, Gnomes, and Wild Magic and half of them had banned Halflings too just in case. I still ban Wild Magic to this day because of that crap. **** Kender.

I have a vague memory of the kleptomania thing being a rule for Kender. But it wasn't an RP rule, it was a random roll table. To represent the Kender vibe, the player or GM would roll on a table and random stuff would appear in the pockets of the PC. 

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Hey, I sentenced all Kender to death by whatever means necessary way the hell back in the mid 1990s. If this next book really is Dragonlance, then that book will right next to Tasha’s on the banned for all eternity pile as far as I’m concerned.

**** Kender. *spits on ground*

 and while you are distracted Tasselhoff Burfoot has wandered off with your coin pouch...which you seemed ot have dropped whilst spitting on the ground......

 How? I already led a racial genocide against all Kender. It’ll be tough for them to do any of that from the bottom of a mass grave.

 You forget Tasselhoff is in the past present and future as well as alternate timelines as he has the Device of Time Journeying.

 Forget? How can I forget something I don’t care enough about to know? **** Kender, **** Harold Johnson, and **** Dragonlance.

I had a buddy in high school who insisted on only ever playing a Kender Wild Mage, and when he couldn’t he played a Gnome but just like a Kender. By 1999, every DM I knew had banned Kender, Gnomes, and Wild Magic and half of them had banned Halflings too just in case. I still ban Wild Magic to this day because of that crap. **** Kender.

 Funniest thing I've read all day! I smell your pain =)

I can't think of any situation where Kender kleptomania would be anything other than a severe irritant. If it's even still in there, it's probably not a racial trait, it's probably a possible flaw.

If someone wants the quirk "I pick up weird stuff and I'm not sure why, or even when - these things just appear in my pack", I might be inclined to let them roll on the d100 Trinkets table on some long rests to see what they've uncovered.  But that would be about it, and I would neither limit that to kender nor allow kender to do much more than that.  They get the same cod-whalloping anyone else does the moment they start being an actual klepto.

So, just finished watching a video that talked about the possibility that the next book could be related to the Feywilds due to the updates coming to Neverwinter pertaining to the Feywilds. Figured I’d just throw that out to get people’s opinions of that. I’m not sure how likely this is but I though it was interesting. The link for anyone interested in seeing the video. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F-2IKIvnBV4

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Rob76 >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

Hey, I sentenced all Kender to death by whatever means necessary way the hell back in the mid 1990s. If this next book really is Dragonlance, then that book will right next to Tasha’s on the banned for all eternity pile as far as I’m concerned.

**** Kender. *spits on ground*

 and while you are distracted Tasselhoff Burfoot has wandered off with your coin pouch...which you seemed ot have dropped whilst spitting on the ground......

 How? I already led a racial genocide against all Kender. It’ll be tough for them to do any of that from the bottom of a mass grave.

 You forget Tasselhoff is in the past present and future as well as alternate timelines as he has the Device of Time Journeying.

 Forget? How can I forget something I don’t care enough about to know? **** Kender, **** Harold Johnson, and **** Dragonlance.

I had a buddy in high school who insisted on only ever playing a Kender Wild Mage, and when he couldn’t he played a Gnome but just like a Kender. By 1999, every DM I knew had banned Kender, Gnomes, and Wild Magic and half of them had banned Halflings too just in case. I still ban Wild Magic to this day because of that crap. **** Kender.

 I banned Gnomes in 2nd Edition due to the fact that they were the Kender of every other setting. I didn't allow Gnomes back into my games until 5e. 

Being new to D&D, I have zero nostalgia for old settings, and have set about reading up on them all to get a vibe for what may be coming and what I may be interested in. Greyhawk, Mystara, and Dragonlance appear to offer very little that Forgotten Realms doesn't already give us. They're all mostly just Tolkien-in-a-blender stuff with the biggest differences between them basically being the names of gods or towns. Not a one interests me.

However, I am into Spelljammer, Planescape, and to a slightly lesser degree, Darksun. D&D Star Wars? Yes please. D&D Sliders meets Marvel's Secret Wars? Yes please. D&D Dune/Mad Max/John Carter? Yes please. Those all have a definable conceptual hook that really sets them apart from all the extant settings. 

I know a lot of people complain about Magic crossover stuff, but I'm new to D&D and have no history with Magic, so conceptually that means nothing to me and doesn't bother me at all. At least Ravnica has a hook to it. It's fantasy Coruscant with a bit of cyberpunk vibe, where the big corporations ("Guilds" work the same way even if the fluff is different) run everything. And Theros has the Greek Myth thing and a heavy focus on the gods' interference and heroes bonds to those gods. I'm into those to a lesser degree than, say, Eberron, but at least they have a hook. 

I mean...unless someone can sell me on Greyhawk/Mystara/Dragonlance using something other than nostalgia and history, I do not remotely see the point in releasing settings for them. Give us something that lets us get weird with it. Give us spaceships and other dimensions and post-apocalyptic deserts.

The one main continent from Mystara was basically 14 different campaign settings (1 for each country), it had several other continents on the planet, and the planet itself was hollow so the interior was like a Dyson sphere with its own unique setting. Plus, the ancient history of Mystara had robots and aliens, and the more recent history had what was basically a portion of France slider-esque relocate there. There are no “gods” on Mystara. Instead they have “immortals.” Anyone could conceivably become an Immortal, and the very first Immortal was a Dinosaur. Is that enough, or you need more?

Sadly, Wizards will go where the money is, and nostalgia has ever been more lucrative than innovation.  Even when the innovation is also nostalgia. 

You're echoing many of the same complaints that were levied against the Critical Role book - "why is this taking up valuable development time with just-different-Fantasy?  Nobody asked for this, we have Faerun already!  Gimme something different!"  It's a valid criticism, and while I personally find enormous value in the Wildemount book even beyond being a fan of Critical Role, I can see where someone without the investment would see little value in adding a reskinned High Heroic Fantasy setting.

But there's a metric buttload of Dragonlance fans out there who will hurl their money at their nearest retailer with tremendous force and zero hesitation the moment Wizards announces a Dragonlance book.  Same way they released a Critical Role book whose timing puts it suspiciously right around the time Critical Role generated over eleven million dollars in Kickstarter funding and literally every entertainment company in the market did a Scooby Doo spit take and started saying "how can we cut ourselves into a slice of that?"  Same way Magic: the Gathering has a much larger fanbase than D&D, and Wizards would love to squeeze even more of those poor cardstock crack-addicted junkies' money out of their abused, anorexic wallets.

Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark sun - all of those can be objectively better ways for the game to evolve and grow beyond its current limits and borders.  But we'll only get them if somebody in the internal team decides to make it their Passion project, because Wizards exists for the sole reason of Making More Money, and sadly junk like Dragonlance or Tom and Jerry's Cartoon Reel of Everything is where the Money is.

Frankly, we should all be astonished and grateful we even got Eberron back, given how terrible Wizards is at this shit. 

Given the limited amount of UA right now and that most of it is dragon related, I think Wizards might be working on a decent dragon adventure or a book similar to VGtM, considering that tyranny of dragons was a railroading mess.

Quote from IamSposta >>

The one main continent from Mystara was basically 14 different campaign settings (1 for each country), it had several other continents on the planet, and the planet itself was hollow so the interior was like a Dyson sphere with its own unique setting. Plus, the ancient history of Mystara had robots and aliens, and the more recent history had what was basically a portion of France slider-esque relocate there. There are no “gods” on Mystara. Instead they have “immortals.” Anyone could conceivably become an Immortal, and the very first Immortal was a Dinosaur. Is that enough, or you need more?

 That sounds slightly more interesting than my cursory reading indicated, but I'd have to see what kind of races and subclasses and magic items that would lead to. "Hollow Earth" isn't all that different from the Underdark in concept, and Eberron already has countries that function as their own smaller settings, as well as robots. Aliens and Immortals have potential, though. Especially that Dinosaur Immortal. 

Quote from Golaryn >>

I banned Gnomes in 2nd Edition due to the fact that they were the Kender of every other setting. I didn't allow Gnomes back into my games until 5e. 

 Them's fighting words. Gnomes, proper Gnomes, are awesome.

Quote from SemanticAvenger >>

Quote from IamSposta >>

The one main continent from Mystara was basically 14 different campaign settings (1 for each country), it had several other continents on the planet, and the planet itself was hollow so the interior was like a Dyson sphere with its own unique setting. Plus, the ancient history of Mystara had robots and aliens, and the more recent history had what was basically a portion of France slider-esque relocate there. There are no “gods” on Mystara. Instead they have “immortals.” Anyone could conceivably become an Immortal, and the very first Immortal was a Dinosaur. Is that enough, or you need more?

 That sounds slightly more interesting than my cursory reading indicated, but I'd have to see what kind of races and subclasses and magic items that would lead to. "Hollow Earth" isn't all that different from the Underdark in concept, and Eberron already has countries that function as their own smaller settings, as well as robots. Aliens and Immortals have potential, though. Especially that Dinosaur Immortal. 

The Hollow World and Underdark have absolutely nothing to do with each other whatsoever.

The Underdark is a vast underground cave network. It is Dark, it is brutal, and the bulk of its inhabitants are evil.

The Hollow World is a vast, wide open interior of the planet with a sun at its center and a massive floating continent that provides a semblance of night time to the rest of the Hollow World. And every one of its civilizations was rescued from extinction in the surface and relocated by the Immortals to the Hollow World as a sort of anthropological preserve.

Also, Mystara has two moons, one that’s invisible and inhabited by people, the other inhabited by the Immortals. And the immortals draw their power from the spheres. Think like a giant machine that provides divinity to those who go can learn to master its ways.

Quote from Yurei1453 >>

Sadly, Wizards will go where the money is, and nostalgia has ever been more lucrative than innovation.  Even when the innovation is also nostalgia. 

You're echoing many of the same complaints that were levied against the Critical Role book - "why is this taking up valuable development time with just-different-Fantasy?  Nobody asked for this, we have Faerun already!  Gimme something different!"  It's a valid criticism, and while I personally find enormous value in the Wildemount book even beyond being a fan of Critical Role, I can see where someone without the investment would see little value in adding a reskinned High Heroic Fantasy setting.

But there's a metric buttload of Dragonlance fans out there who will hurl their money at their nearest retailer with tremendous force and zero hesitation the moment Wizards announces a Dragonlance book.  Same way they released a Critical Role book whose timing puts it suspiciously right around the time Critical Role generated over eleven million dollars in Kickstarter funding and literally every entertainment company in the market did a Scooby Doo spit take and started saying "how can we cut ourselves into a slice of that?"  Same way Magic: the Gathering has a much larger fanbase than D&D, and Wizards would love to squeeze even more of those poor cardstock crack-addicted junkies' money out of their abused, anorexic wallets.

Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark sun - all of those can be objectively better ways for the game to evolve and grow beyond its current limits and borders.  But we'll only get them if somebody in the internal team decides to make it their Passion project, because Wizards exists for the sole reason of Making More Money, and sadly junk like Dragonlance or Tom and Jerry's Cartoon Reel of Everything is where the Money is.

Frankly, we should all be astonished and grateful we even got Eberron back, given how terrible Wizards is at this shit. 

 The older I get, the more I'm convinced that nostalgia is a disease. Some things from our past age well and merit our devotion, some do not. Many people seem unable to tell the difference.

(And hey, at least Wildemount has a bit of a strange science angle with quantum/gravity/time/superposition elements in the magic and subclasses, that's something)

I get chasing money, but a lot of the reboots and long-gap sequels of movies, TV, comics, novels or whatever we've seen over the last decade or so make it pretty clear that the nostalgia and brand recognition only get you so far, and quality can carry you much, much further. Mad Max: Fury Road was an absolute masterpiece and nobody cared about Terminator: Dark Fate. The name and nostalgia are not enough. You need to justify your existence by bringing something new to the table, even when resurrecting the dead.

food for thought:

• Dragonlance: Weiss & Hickman just dropped their lawsuit against WotC for pulling the plug on 3 new novels.  Not smart enough to read into that other than timing is notable.
• Magic (Zendikar or elsewhere):  There's a new Magic D&D card set coming out for the Forgotten Realms setting in 2021...but that would be a Magic product about D&D, not a $50 D&D hardcover book about Magic.  ~Simultaneously launching a D&D product about a Magic setting is either a really good idea or really bad.  I personally feel like the free zendikar publication (& other magic settings) never got very far.
• Planescape: Tasha did make hopping awful easy with dream of the blue veil. could be nice forethought.

I would love more fey options in 5e. The fey with the highest CR are the Eladrin from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, with a CR of 10. We seriously need higher level options for fey monsters, like Archfey and other powerful faerie folk that can be used to fight against the party.