| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 24 Oct 2021 : 05:54:27
So I saw this, this eve, courtesy of a link from ENWorld:
Free D&D Adventure: Fight as Dragons and Explore a Crystal Dragon's Lair!
The first line of the adventure starts with 'In "The White Dragons Hunt," the players are young white dragons...'
If you remember the 2E Council of Wyrms setting, its main hook was that you got to play as dragons.
So we've got this adventure, and a book on dragons, and promises of three classic settings in the next two years, none of which has been touched in 5E...
It makes me wonder if the Council of Wyrms will be one of those three settings.
Pros:
All they'd have to do is update the existing material; the heavy lifting is done.
It was a one-off thing, so they don't have to worry about novels and adventures and other supplemental material.
It's dragons! Getting to play as a dragon is a HUGE hook.
As a 20 year old, one-off setting, it's not going to have legions of old-school fans who expect everything to be exactly correct.
Cons:
Inevitably, someone is going to want to take their dragon character to another setting.
It was a one-off setting -- if it didn't have the appeal to get more material at TSR's height, why would they expect otherwise, now?
----
Anyway, just speculation on my part. There is far from enough information to make any kind of predictions here, and I've taken odd bits like this from WotC before only to watch them go in an entirely different direction. So I'm not saying that a 5E Council of Wyrms setting is definite or even a strong possibility; I'm just saying it's a possibility, and one I wouldn't have considered before. |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Oct 2021 : 12:31:01
Yeah, I personally see issues with trying to do it as a campaign where its part of a shared world.... but I tend too put way too much thought into things. Bear this in mind, not all campaigns are equal, and many campaigns last all of a handful of sessions before people are ready to move onto the next thing. If a group were to get together for say 6 to 8 sessions maybe meeting twice a month, this could be a one time memorable campaign for them, much like the people who get off on playing an underdark campaign or a campaign in Ravenloft, etc... I've had my share of both (i.e. groups that meet a half dozen times, and groups that span years). As I've gotten older, its started to become more and more of the handful of games and done scenario, because of work and family. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 25 Oct 2021 : 16:12:18
Since Dragonlance was more about fighting dragons, I'm not sure it's as good a fit.
The original Council of Wyrms setting was its own independent chain of islands; I don't recall if it was specified to be its own world or just far from the action on an existing published world -- but it was treated as if it was entirely separate from the other settings.
Really, allowing PC dragons in any campaign world is going to be a tricky thing; it pretty much has to be isolated from anything else. Who would want to play a human or elf when gold dragon is an option? |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 25 Oct 2021 : 13:09:39
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
If it wasn't for that adventure, I never even would have considered Council of Wyrms to be an option...
It simply does not make sense to me to pass over the more popular options. I'd expect Greyhawk and Dark Sun to be the first choices, Dragonlance to follow, and then maybe Planescape. And as much as I love Spelljammer, I think it'd be pretty far down the list.
A CoW book could be a one-off, unlike Planescape... But I would expect Wizards to go for something that could spawn a product line, because product lines mean dedicated fans that buy whatever you put out, so long as it has the right logo on it.
Besides, Eberron and Ravenloft both had full products lines, in the past, and both have been hit in 5E.
Even if they don't intend to go the product line route, it still makes more sense to hit the more popular stuff.
Just to throw out another option. Council of Wyrms and Dragonlance could very well fit together at least as far as concepts. I am not sure where DL ended up once it got its giant dragon masters in it (basically similar to Abeir in ways). For that matter, now that I think on it, they could develop Abeir. All of those could involve a campaign where you play as the dragons. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 25 Oct 2021 : 01:49:50
If it wasn't for that adventure, I never even would have considered Council of Wyrms to be an option...
It simply does not make sense to me to pass over the more popular options. I'd expect Greyhawk and Dark Sun to be the first choices, Dragonlance to follow, and then maybe Planescape. And as much as I love Spelljammer, I think it'd be pretty far down the list.
A CoW book could be a one-off, unlike Planescape... But I would expect Wizards to go for something that could spawn a product line, because product lines mean dedicated fans that buy whatever you put out, so long as it has the right logo on it.
Besides, Eberron and Ravenloft both had full products lines, in the past, and both have been hit in 5E.
Even if they don't intend to go the product line route, it still makes more sense to hit the more popular stuff. |
| HighOne |
Posted - 25 Oct 2021 : 01:30:33
I wouldn't be surprised. Wizards has been subverting expectations left and right over the course of 5E. Passing over Dark Sun, Planescape, Spelljammer, and Greyhawk in favor of Council of Worms is just the sort of unexpected, fan-riling move they would make. Also, Council of Worms has less history and baggage than other settings, so there are fewer old-schools to upset. I'm sure that makes it appealing to the current crop of designers.
And yeah, I think it would be popular.
EDITed to add:
quote:
It was a one-off setting -- if it didn't have the appeal to get more material at TSR's height, why would they expect otherwise, now?
I think its one-off nature works in its favor, actually, at least in 5E. Wizards seems to be favoring one-off releases rather than product lines at the moment. Most of the settings released so far have been standalones with no supporting material (i.e. adventures or supplements). You can't really do that with, say, Planescape, which is almost too massive to fit into a single, standalone book. You can do that with Council of Worms just fine, though. |
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