D&D (2024) Could we get a Bloomburrow (Redwall) setting for 5.24?

Maybe this time the truth is in the middle. Bloomburrow would be like a trial balloon to test the reaction. If it worked then they would create a new plane with medium and small size species easier to be adapted to D&D.

The idea sounds very interesting but we only know one antagonist faction, the calamity beasts, and this is too limited for DMs. A D&D setting has to be designed to allow lots of different plots.... and enemies. It needs some space for a "monster of the week".

If Hasbro wants Bloomburrow to be a multimedia franchise, the main goals will be other type of products, for example comics or videogames.

Witchlight is a good example of how D&D also allow child-friendly stories when violence is not so necessary.

Stormonu said:

I just want to add, Bloomburrow has its basis in media along the lines of:
Redwall
Secret of Nimh
Bunnies and Burrows
Humblewood
Disney's Robin Hood / Bedknobs and Broomsticks
An American Tale / Fiefel Goes West

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The Animals of Farthing Wood
Wind in the Willows
Peter Rabbit/Enid Blyton


There’s a quite large body of source material to draw from, especially if you include the ‘animals that talk living animal lives’ genre as well as the ‘talking animals that also walk upright and wear clothes and live in houses etc’ genre.

The great majority of them are still nonviolently focused though. This is something D&D can do at a push and with a bunch of handwavey dm interpretations, but is certainly not optimised for. The stories they tell are just not classic D&D stories, for the most part.

Bloomburrow has got more essence of the Saturday morning cartoon. A TTRPG needs variety of factions.
WotC is being interested into the "furries" or antropomorphic animals as PC specie, among other reasons because they don't want to be late after these to be created by the rest of 3PPs. Let's remember they ardlings from UA playtest and the first PC species by 3PPs in D&D Beyond was Humblewood.

We can bet we are going to see more "furry" PC species in the future but Bloomburrow is not enough "playable" for D&D standars. WotC needs a setting "easy" to be visited and explored by PCs from other places.

Maybe in the future we could see a new planes for Magic, style "New Cappena" but more 50's cartoon show with talking animals, like Hanna-Barbera productions. (There are firearms but ordinary citizens would rather "illusory ballistic", painful like a boxer's fist but no-lethal. (they can be used for hunt but the preys would need a "knockout" with an ordinary weapon).

If Mystara returns, there there is space for the "furries", specially Savage Coast/Red Steel.


(Lyrics translation)

Come to our village
to play with us
(chorus)(to play with squirrels,
to play with the bears)

Come, we are waiting for you
you will be our joy
(we will play at night,
we will play during the day)

uoooooooooooooo
uoooooooooooooo

chamalele, chamalá(no true meaning)
you will stay in the village
chamalele, chamalá
our village is great

We are your friends
and we will go out with you
(to show you the forests,
to show you the rivers)
and we will enjoy of many adventures
(and also fun,and many pranks)

uoooooooooooooo
uoooooooooooooo

chamalele, chamalá
in the village you will stay
chamalele, chamalá
our village is great

humble minion said:

The Animals of Farthing Wood
Wind in the Willows
Peter Rabbit/Enid Blyton


There’s a quite large body of source material to draw from, especially if you include the ‘animals that talk living animal lives’ genre as well as the ‘talking animals that also walk upright and wear clothes and live in houses etc’ genre.

The great majority of them are still nonviolently focused though. This is something D&D can do at a push and with a bunch of handwavey dm interpretations, but is certainly not optimised for. The stories they tell are just not classic D&D stories, for the most part.

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You missed out Watership Down and Duncton Wood. And I don't recall Enid Blyton doing much in the way of anthropomorphic animals. A few of her Toytown toys where animals, but I would put animate toys in their own category (also including Winnie the Pooh). The Peter Rabbit stories where by Beatrix Potter of course.

Trivia: Brian Jacques (Redwall) was from Liverpool, which was built on red sandstone. So it has a lot of old red walls, including the cemetery where he is buried. My grandmother is in the same cemetery.

Paul Farquhar said:

The Peter Rabbit stories where by Beatrix Potter of course.

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Aargh, yeah, of course they were. Derp. That's who i meant.

Paul Farquhar said:

You missed out Watership Down and Duncton Wood.

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No i didn't, I put them in my first post in the thread

I was thinking in an old toy franchise, Battle Beasts, but the true owner of the brand is Takara-Tommy.

Although I remember an old franchise by TSR with lots of "furries", Gamma World. Maybe some "mutants" with plane-hopper powers could travel to other plane where to start from zero. High-tech for civilian use would be possible, but the firearms would be designed to avoid reverse engineering. Then this could be interesting. A group of furries escape to other world escaping the nuclear postapocalypse in their home, and they want to create a new utopy imitating the vintage sci-fi look of 60's cartoons, style Fallout but more family-friendly.

And the firearms? The gunpowder would be replaced with artificial muscles, working more like crossbows but with a faster reload. The adventage would be the ammo would be easier to be crafted because explosive isn't necessary, and the maintenance would be easier. The power balance should be easier to be found. A gunfighter would be dangerous, but not too more than the classic slinger. In the real life the pistol shrimp can do it.

Full disclosure: I have only play Magic a handful of times and regretted it every time--I find watching paint dry on minis way more enjoyable.

That said, I have thought some of the MTG settings to be be interesting ideas as far flung corners of the D&D multiverse for a very specific flavor of game, like Theros for a Greek-inspired game or Strixhaven for a Hogwarts style game. The idea of a world filled with anthropomorphic animals seems perfectly in-line with that notion. I can see it appealing to some groups (especially those with younger players), but not for others.

Will WotC do it? I suppose that depends on how well previous Magic settings have sold combined with any market research they've done on demand for something like this. I'd be shocked if it happened the release of a more traditional setting like Forgotten Realms or Eberron, but maybe around 2026.

humble minion said:

The Animals of Farthing Wood
Wind in the Willows
Peter Rabbit/Enid Blyton


There’s a quite large body of source material to draw from, especially if you include the ‘animals that talk living animal lives’ genre as well as the ‘talking animals that also walk upright and wear clothes and live in houses etc’ genre.

The great majority of them are still nonviolently focused though. This is something D&D can do at a push and with a bunch of handwavey dm interpretations, but is certainly not optimised for. The stories they tell are just not classic D&D stories, for the most part.

Click to expand...

And, of course we can't forget the most popular of them all - Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse.

Pugmire is a good example of "furry" setting. Other is "Historia" by Mana Project Studio? Or "Delver's Guide to Beast World" by Heartleaf Games.

Do you know "Mutant Year Zero - Genlab Alpha"?

But here the main work for WotC team would be to design new PC species. That would need time, playtesting and feedback, and here 3PPs are faster. I guess this is the reason because WotC wanted the ardling like a new-brand PC specie, a "furry" version of the aasimars, but more linked to guardinals.

* Now I am thinking, how would be the afterlife in Bloomburow? Maybe something like the Beastlands plane. And this could be the "home" of the ardlings as PC specie.

* Have you thought about all the werebeasts from all D&D editions could be present in Bloomburrow?

For those that are interested in the world building of Bloomburrow, first three chapters of the story are now up:

Part 1: Bloomburrow | Episode 1: Calamity Comes to Valley
Part 2: Bloomburrow | Episode 2: An Expected Party
Part 3: Bloomburrow | Episode 3: The Lost and the Found

And ... I think I've seen enough, I do think this would make an interesting DnD setting. I was worried that the typal archetyping might lead to factions (mousefolk vs rabbitfolk), but we see the various animalkin living together, it's fairly pastoral. Some fun settings for dungeons and adventure have been mentioned, I'm in.

Also ... the fun thing from a multiverse perspective is that travelling to Bloomburrow makes you an animalfolk while there. So I would actually enjoy a campaign that stumbles into Bloomburrow and everyone has to unlock their ... fursona.