After last week’s Unearthed Arcana unveiled travelers of the multiverse, it seems like a plane-hopping setting is in the works. What’s next?
Last year, head of D&D Ray Winninger announced that WotC was working on “three classic settings” alongside at least one entirely new setting. Then, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft reintroduced folks to the shadowy realm known as the Demiplane of Dread.
Suddenly, we had a classic setting guide that gave new life to the old 2nd Edition setting by reestablishing the ‘horror in D&D’ vibes. Now, a recent Unearthed Arcana seems to suggest that we’re heading for “the multiverse”– in some way, shape, or form– and a possible return to Spelljammer.
This latest Unearthed Arcana reintroduced a slew of races that were originally in Spelljammer and Star Frontiers. And in the Future of D&D panel, we got a glimpse of Boo on the cover of an upcoming book– again suggesting a future for Spelljammer.
But that still leaves another “classic setting” yet to be unveiled, which has many wondering. What setting will we see next? There are a few strong contenders, and here are our top three.
Dark Sun
One of the biggest features of the setting books is they way they change the fundamental principles of D&D. For example, Ravenloft added new races. It also added new rules for creating villains, like rules for Darklords and the creation of the Demiplanes of Dread. The book also played around with what character power level would look like with added mechanics and dark gifts.
Dark Sun‘s wasteland world of Athas is a setting like no other D&D world. It’s fantasy, but it’s post-apocalyptic fantasy, taking place on a blasted desert world under the light of an old sun. It’s a world where magic has drained the life out of the land, and– the reason that Dark Sun might be especially relevant– it’s a world with a strong connection to Psionics.
WotC have, in the past, stated that they’d never start work on Psionics unless they had a strong “in-uninverse” reason for doing so, and that they’d need to find “a place to really focus on Psionics.”
And while we are seeing psionics crop up more and more, especially with the advent of Gem Dragons in the upcoming Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, it feels like there’s still room to explore the home of psionics. Of course, that could be Spelljammer– after all it’s where you get psionic alien colonists with laser guns:
Krynn
The world of Dragonlance is the dark horse in this race. But, there’s a reason why it still makes the list. Despite the pushback of release dates, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman are still hard at work on a new series of Dragonlance novels.
And with folks like Joe Manganiello teasing a secret D&D project in the works, it feels like a setting guide for Krynn could be brewing in the background. Especially since the Hickmans are getting ready to Kickstart a new sky-pirate themed setting that has little to do with Dragonlance.
Greyhawk
Lastly, there’s Greyhawk. If you look at the last few releases, figures from Greyhawk’s lore are making a big comeback. First you had Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, which preceded Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. It introduced higher-level monsters alongside all sorts of planar-themed plots, which were all perfect for the book’s central figure, Mordenkainen.
Most recently, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything revolves around Tasha, who would one day become Iggwilv, another powerful figure in Greyhawk’s lore.
Either way, we’ll have to wait for things to be confirmed, but those are our best guesses. Be sure and let us know about yours in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
