Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Theros for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition or F&%$@ Y*% WotC



Sometime in the last two months Wizards of the Coast announced the release of the Wildemont setting book for DnD by Matt Mercer. The internet, being the internet, exploded with people bitching because they weren't getting Greyhawk or Spelljamer or Mystara and Matt, being apparently the niced guy in the world, APOLOGIZED that WotC was printing his setting. Let me go on record and say that if WotC did not publish Wildemont then their CEO should be fired by the Board of Hasbro and it's shareholders. Critical Role is, in my opinion, at least 40% of the success of DnD 5E.

I don't even watch Critical Role and I feel this way (I can barely eek out two hours a week to watch TV, let alone 4 hours of other people role playing when I'm not).

However, WotC, being WotC, just announced Theros, a setting for Magic: the Gathering, to be released this Summer.

And you know what? FUCK. THAT.

When Theros releases we will have had three setting books in fairly quick succession and four total. Magic: the Gathering, I'm sorry, Magic: the FUCKING Gathering will account for 50% of those settings. The M:tG group spent nearly two decades not wanting to "dilute" it's brand by having a crossover with DnD and now their planes are 1/2 of DnD 5E's settings?!?!

I know enough about M:tG to know that Ravnica was a very popular plane and a cool urban setting for DnD. Theros isn't Ravnica, it's just not.

It's time to sell us a classic setting. Even if you have to PAY Critical Role to run a campaign in it WotC, give us something from the history of DnD instead of the history of M:tG.

You've been warned.

7 comments:

stevebmbsqd said...

Spelljammer or Dark Sun please....

Yellowbeard Hellfist said...

I agree, Darksun, planescape, or Grayhawk for me

Cross Planes said...

I've been surprised at the number of people who seem to think it's odd that I have this gripe. Like I should understand why D&D should support Theros because it's Magic: the Gathering and it's finally cool to do that. I don't want every M:tG plane in D&D. Also, people are telling me that classic settings can't be profitable. How do we know that? Your average D&D player doesn't know about WotC's surveys, the OSR, or the DMsGuild. I think it's great if you everything you need to run Greyhawk or Planescape with prior editions. I'd like updates to 5E.

Brutorz Bill said...

I've come to realize I am no longer WotC's target audience. They aren't interested in me or my $$ apparently. So many great classic settings, that the current generation of gamers have likely never seen.

Cross Planes said...

@Bill, I'm starting to think I'm in the same boat. And that's okay. I have plenty of 5E stuff, the OSR, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and the forthcoming Shadow of the Mad Mage.

Venger Satanis said...

Damn straight, hoss. Dark Sun or GTFO!

Doctor Futurity said...

I think it's generational. We will see a revival of classic setting when they are no longer tethered to the "dad and granddad" generation of gamers...us...and the millennial gamer grow up to be full dads and granddads themselves. When that happens, Magic and Critical Role will look old, and a young new Gen Z gang will look to stuff that seems exotic and cool, and a revival of classics may happen then.

I'd just assumed though that the problem is one of brain drain....WotC clearly has no one on staff or under freelance contract right now who has any interest in pushing a revival, and it took them two years of setting up Eberron to do this through dmsguild to get a book out. All the current writers are younger and more tied to Magic; and they really want to cross pollinate the highly dedicated consumers of that card game with D&D.

I also suspect we're seeing more setting books out of the blue because sales for Eberron and Ravnica must have been really good, so they are realizing that the Giant Module approach has been saturated now.

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