D&D: State of the Game and 2018
Updates from Game Home Con, here’s a look at what 2018 holds for D&D.
Oh hello, I didn’t see you there. I was just listening to this podcast recorded by Nerds on Earth at the State of D&D panel at Game Hole Con not long ago. You might remember Game Hole Con as featuring a Mike Mearls and at least one Christopher Perkins who ran some games to kick off the smashingly successful Extra Life D&D Festivities.
Well, I’m addition to running games, they also talked about what 2018 portends for the Dungeons and Dragons.
via Nerds on Earth
The long and the short of it is, we’re heading into a second surge of popularity for D&D, matching that of the 1980s. We’re also seeing more of a community–the playtest for Xanathar’s Guide had more than half a million people involved in it. It’s astounding. And it also means that they want to take their time to get it right, with “it” here filing in for producing good supplements for the game. As far as we know, everything for 2018 is well on its way to completion already. One is near the tail end of editing. One is in playtesting. One is going through edits and layouts and arts and there is a mysterious fourth product as well.
FOUR books!! FOUR!!
So next year will see four big releases, including the Mystic and Artificer. The Mystic, in particular, played a prominent role in the proceedings, since Psionics were a topic of much discussion. Specifically, Psionics and their place in the cosmos. Following the ideals explored in Volo’s Guide and polished and tempered with Xanathar’s Guide, they make mention of wanting to know why Psionics are the way they are and how they fit, both within the campaign and within that narrative space. 5th Edition pairs well with myth and legend and story and song; as such, WotC wants to see D&D flesh out a story more than a fact sheet.
Compare that to, say, the Draconomicon or Savage Species, which, while excellent books, we’re very isolated narratively speaking. So to help situate Psionics within this narrative space, and, I promise that’s the last time I use that phrase, they delved into the lore of Dark Sun, which made me very happy. They talked about how Dark Sun could fit with Greyhawk and the Realms in the cosmology. And then, they talked even more about the settings but all I could hear was a delightful squee because they mentioned Eberron at length and Spelljammer in passing.
Upon a second listen, I found that they talk about Eberron and the other settings as sort of genres of D&D, and framing them in terms of the elements of those genres. So Greyhawk might be fantasy, Forgotten Realms, high fantasy, Dark Sun, post apocalyptic, and Eberron, noir or pulp.
And on this last point, they talked about really having an idea of what they want to do with everron, about wanting to see it get its own distinct lineup of products. Then they talk about novels and other settings and how you won’t likely see Subclass Feats anytime soon.
But in any case, the whole podcast is linked below and you should go listen to it.
Listen to the State of D&D courtesy of Nerds On Earth
2018 might have Eberron. I’m just gonna go get my hopes up as high as they can go.
