continuities

Goal: to untangle and designate the various D&D continuities, like has been done for the even more convoluted Transformers Multiverse and Megaverse.

"D&D" includes all TSR- and WotC-owned or -licensed RPG worlds and game systems.

Edit: I'd say all former D&D and TSR/WotC TRPGs licensed "ex-settings" are part of the "D&D Liceroverse." (from Latin "licere" 'to license'). Though they couldn't be refered to anymore in official WotC publications.

I'd use the term "D&D Megaverse" only to refer to Hasbro-owned IPs which have been given D&D or TRPG treatment: so far only the Magic: the Gathering Multiverse and My Little Pony (via the Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game). From M:tG's perspective, the D&D Multiverse is likewise part of the "M:tG Megaverse." Could also be referred to as the "TSR/WotC TRPG Megaverse."

And all OGL-licensees are part of the "D&D Aperoverse" (from Latin "aperire" 'to open')

D&D Megaverse includes all IPs not owned by WotC, but which cross-over either in setting content or rules system.

Megaverse: Setting content cross-overs or cross-licensing:

• • Wilderlands of High Fantasy (license agreement with TSR to use AD&D rules)

  • Barsoom (TSR game)

  • Cthulhu Mythos (1e Deities & Demigods)

  • Elric Multiverse (1e Deities and Demigods, Mandoom, the AD&D action figure (a Kelmain), Strongheart's Nihrain Horse)

  • Lankhmar (1e Newhon Mythology in Deities & Demigods; also 1e and 2e adaptations)

  • Aldrezar (Hackmaster includes licensed comedic adaptations of D&D worlds and the Spelljammer meta-setting; also the Hackmaster 4E system is a licensed adaptation of AD&D)

Megaverse: TSR/WotC produced RPGs for licensed IPs:

• • Tekumel (distributed by TSR)

  • Lankhmar

  • Indiana Jones

  • Marvel

  • Conan

  • Red Sonja

  • 2001: Space Odyssey (for Star Frontiers)

  • Buck Rogers

  • Star*Craft

  • Pokemon (Pokemon Junior Adventure Game)

  • Diablo

  • Star Wars

  • Wheel of Time

  • Call of Cthulhu d20

  • Kingdoms of Kalamar (licensed D&D brand to KenzerCo)

  • Warcraft (licensed D&D brand to White Wolf)

  • Fineous Fingers (DRAGON comic strip and TSR comic book, later moved to other publishing venues)

  • SnarfQuest (DRAGON comic strip and TSR comic book, later an RPG and other products published outside of TSR)

Megaverse: in-house Hasbro settings:

• • Dominaria (M:TG) is owned by WotC, but no setting cross-over yet, only 5E rules adaptation.

  • Dreamblade (miniatures game). Not D&D, but were referred to in online articles, with suggestions of how to use with D&D.

  • My Little Pony: Tales of Equestria

  • (Note: Potential for connecting with the wider Hasbro Universe.)

Megaverse: WotC licensed rules systems:

• • d20 System License

  • OGL - 3.0 SRD

  • OGL - 3.5 SRD

  • OGL - d20 Modern SRD

  • Game System License - 4E SRD

  • OGL - 5E SRD

  • Adventurer's League License

  • DM's Guild License

  • Other Worlds Fan Site License: Vaults of Pandius (Mystara), Beyond the Moons (Spelljammer), The Burnt World of Athas (Dark Sun), Birthright.Net,

  • other Open Game License systems (OGL is a WotC license): Open d6 SRD, Gumshoe SRD, Fudge SRD, FateCore SRD, Starjammer SRD, d20 Anime SRD, Traveller SRD, Swords & Wizardry SRD, Dungeon World SRD, d20 Hero SRD, 13th Age SRD, Pathfinder Reference Document, The Modern Path SRD

D&D Multiverse only includes TSR/WotC-owned TRPG settings:

Realities (game universes): (actually are Reality Clusters of various combos of Core rules plus or minus errata, revisions, and supplemental rules)

• Original Reality (Original D&D)

  • • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Classic Reality (Classic D&D)

  • • Basic - Holmes

    • B/X -Moldvay/Cook

    • BECMI - Mentzer

    • War Machine mass combat game

    • Battlesystem mass combat came (was advertised as being compatible with CD&D as well as AD&D)

    • Orcs of Thar boardgame

    • Black Box/Rules Cyclopedia/Wrath of the Immortals - Allston "C.5E"

    • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Advanced Reality (AD&D 1E)

• • Unearthed Arcana "1.5E"

  • Battlesystem 1E mass combat game

  • Magestones boardgame (exists as a game within Krynn)

    • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Second Reality (AD&D 2E)

  • • Skills & Powers ("2.5E")

    • Battlesystem 2E mass combat game

    • The Great Khan Game boardgame (exists as a game within Toril)

    • 1999 D&D Adventure Game (a unique 2E/3E hybrid system)

    • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Saga Reality

  • • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Third Reality (D&D 3E)

  • • 3.5E

    • Chainmail d20 skrimish game

    • Dungeon Command skirmish game

    • Three Dragon Ante card game (exists as a game within the D&D Multiverse)

    • +/- supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Fourth Reality (D&D 4E)

  • • Essentials "4.5E"

    • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• Fifth Reality (D&D 5E)

  • • 5E Basic Rules

    • +/- errata, rulings, and supplemental rules from sourcebooks and magazines

• • Alternity Reality

  • Amazing Engine Reality

  • DragonStrike Reality (set in Faerun, according to a Spellfire card for the NPC king)

  • DragonQuest Reality (set in the world of Alusia)

  • Endless Quest gamebooks reality

  • Super Endless Quest gamebooks reality

  • HeartQuest gamebooks reality (if they use the same "rules" as Endless Quest, they'd be the same reality)

  • Dungeon! boardgame reality

  • Fantasy Forest boardgame reality (set in The Realm of the D&D Cartoon Show)

  • Spellfire cardgame reality

  • D&D Adventure System boardgames reality

  • Digital Game Realities: various computer and videogame system realities, grouped by the edition of D&D which they model. Their gameplay determines whether they are a shared reality or not. For example, the sidescrolling Shadows over Mystara coin-op game is a distinct reality.

  • D&D HeroClix miniatures game reality

  • D&D Dice Masters dice game reality

  • D&D Attack Wing miniatures game reality

  • Lords of Waterdeep boardgame reality

  • Tyrants of the Undergark deck-building game reality

  • Dragonfire deck-building game reality

  • Rock Paper Wizard cardgame reality

  • Betrayal at Baldur's Gate boardgame reality

  • Fiction Reality: novels and short stories

  • Comic Book Reality

  • Animated Reality: D&D Cartoon Show

  • visual realities: art and sculptures

  • TSR mini-game reality/realities (Vampyre, etc.)

  • live-action film reality: D&D Movies

  • theatrical drama reality rpg TDRRPG reality

  • WotC-sponsored play sessions reality?

Worlds and Meta-Settings (main worlds or planar domains in bold)

• • Planescape (meta-setting): Sigil

  • Spelljammer (meta-setting): Rock of Bral

  • Chronomancer (meta-setting)

  • Tangents (meta-setting from Alternity)

  • Dimension X (meta-setting from d20 Future)

  • Abeir-Toril

    • Abeir (split off from Toril during 4E era)

    • Toril (during 4E era)

  • Oerth

    • Yarth (an alternate Oerth)

    • Uerth (an alternate Oerth)

    • Greyhawk 2000 (future timeline)

  • Blackmoor (was retconned into the ancient past of Mystara, but, as originally printed in OD&D, was not a part of Mystara, and as presented in the 3E Blackmoor line, was not part of Mystara either. So Blackmoor exists in two different WotC continuities. Gygax said that he only borrowed the name for the Blackmoor of Oerth.)

  • Krynn

    • various timelines in the River of Time

  • Ravenloft: The Demiplane of Dread

    • Classic Ravenloft Timeline

    • Curse of Strahd Timeline (essentially a reboot, combining iconic characters from different eras of the Classic RL Timeline)

  • Eberron

  • Mystara (Known World, Red Steel/Savage Coast, Hollow World, Thunder Rift (D&D Black Box setting), Ghyr (setting of the LJN Action Figures), Karawenn (setting of the First Quest novels), Islandia (vaporware); see also Blackmoor)

  • Urt (Mentzer and Froideval's BECMI setting, with the Master Set world map, and Gold Box cosmology, prior to the map be drastically reconceived in the Voyage of the Princess Ark stories, and the cosmology revised in WotI)

  • Classic Mystara Timeline (extending all the way to the last products: Joshuan's Almanac and Red Steel/Savage Coast)

  • "3000 BC Blackmoor Timeline" The Blackmoor adventures were at first presented in DA series and GAZ1 as taking place in 3000 BC, but then in GAZ2 were retconned to 4000 BC.

  • "AC 1000 Quagmire Timeline" (1000 AC - X6 Quagmire). As originally presented, X6 took place c.1000AC, but was retconned in Champions of Mystara to have taken place in the prehistoric past. Reportedly X9: Savage Coast was suggested to be retconned as well.

  • "AC 1150 X13 Timeline". GAZ7 retconned X13 to happen 150 years in the future, yet PWA1010 and Joshuan's Almanac places it 30-some years in the past)

  • "AC 1200 Great War Timeline". The Great War of the Desert Nomads event from X4, X5, and X10 was retconned twice: once from c.1000 AC to two hundred years in the future (1200 AC), and then again (in WotI) to 1005-1006 AC)

  • Athas

    • Classic Dark Sun Timeline

    • 4E Dark Sun Timeline

• Aebrynis

• Nerath

• Earth (each Earth-based RPG and d20 Modern campaign model is considered to be a distinct timeline)

  • • D&D Earth (the implicit present-day "non- or low-magical" Earth timeline in which most xD&D cross-overs have occurred (except for the Laterre-Mystara crossovers), such as: where Robilar got his six-shooters, the Wizards Three visit to Wisconin, the Mystaran Immortals visit to Chicago in one of the IM modules, and where the Egyptian and Mesopotamian peoples and pantheons of Toril came from. Urbana Arcana, as the default/core d20M campaign model, and the Historical Reference Guides from 2e, may be the closest representations of this continuity. Other campaign models (such as Boot Hill) may exist "off-screen", but each is assumed to be separate continuity.)

    • Urban Arcana (d20 Modern campaign model)

    • Historical Reference Earth (AD&D2e)

    • Gothic Earth / Masque of the Red Death

    • Laterre (magical medieval Earth which contains Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne in place of the French province of Auvergne) - in the Dimension of Myth of the Classic D&D Reality.

    • Midgard (Earth as perceived by the Norse - mentioned in the CD&D Northlands Gazeteer)

    • Bacchar (Earth as perceived by the Ancient Greeks - mentioned in Ravenloft)

    • Boot Hill

    • Gangbusters

    • Dawn Patrol

    • Top Secret/SI

    • Crimefighters (TSR pulp-fiction RPG published in DRAGON magazine 1981)

    • Dark•Matter (Alternity setting, d20M campaign model)

    • Shadow Chasers (d20M campaign model)

    • Agents of PSI (d20M campaign model)

    • Genetech (d20M campaign model)

    • Magitech (Alternity Universe Book)

    • Pulp Heroes (d20 mini-game, later a campaign model for d20 Past)

    • The Seedy Streets of Northport (setting for Pulp Heroes d20 mini-game in Polyhedron Magazine)

    • Iron Lords of Jupiter (Polyhedron mag)

    • Shadow Stalkers (d20 Past campaign model)

    • V is for Victory (d20 Modern)

    • For Faerie, Queen, and Country (Alternity Universe Book)

    • Mecha Crusade (d20 Future)

    • Remember the Alamo (TSR mini-game)

    • Hi-Jinx (d20 Modern)

    • Thunderball Rally (d20 Modern)

    • Tabloid! (Amazing Engine Universe Book)

    • They've Invaded Pleasantville (Amazing Engine Universe Book)

    • Icebergs (TSR mini-game)

    • CyberRave (d20 Cyberscape)

    • Deathnet (d20 mini-game)

    • Kromosome (Amazing Engine)

    • Gamma World (various editions; including Omega World)

    • The Wasteland (d20 Future)

    • Atomic Sunrise (d20 Apocalypse)

    • Earth Inherited (d20 Apocalypse)

    • Plague World (d20 Apocalypse)

    • Hallowmere (WotC's flagship novel series of its Mirrorstone young adult imprint. About feys and unfeys of Virginia and Scotland)

    • Ravenloft: Domininion (novel series set in Earth)

    • Warhawks (TSR comics module)

    • R.I.P. (TSR comics module)

Earth's Solar System or Milky Way Galaxy (Sci-Fi continuities (AFAIK) taking place in (some future version) of the Milky Way Galaxy):

• • • Star Frontiers (also encompassing Star Law campaign model from d20 Future)

    • Star*Drive (Alternity)

    • Bughunters (Amazing Engine and d20 Future)

    • From the Dark Heart of Space (d20 Future)

    • The Galactos Barrier (Amazing Engine)

    • Once and Future King (Amazing Engine)

    • Revolt on Antares (Tom Moldvay's TSR mini-game)

    • Attack Force (TSR mini-game). Set on Arcturus.

• • Pelinore (house setting of TSR UK's Imagine magazine)

  • Aquaria (Though it's also Mentzer's person setting, WotC owns the rights to whatever is printed in the TSR Aquarian modules.)

  • Jakandor

  • Io's Blood Isles (Council of Wyrms)

  • City of Manifest: Ghostwalk

• Kolhapur: quasi-Asian Indian setting from The Star of Kolhapur for 1e.

  • Land of Arir: quasi-Arabian setting from I9: Day of Al-Akbar for 2e.

  • The Realm (of the D&D Cartoon Show, includes Fantasy Forest boardgame and gamebooks)

  • Empire of Izmer (1st and 2nd D&D Movie; 3rd was set in Nerath)

  • The Vale (setting of the 1999 D&D Adventure Game)

  • Pharagos, Aquela, Imperium Romanum, Night, Petroyeska, Mahasara: settings designed by James Wyatt which were featured in DRAGON and POLYHEDRON magazines, or in a WotC web enhancment (Mahasarpa).

  • Wonderland: 1e cross-over with Alice in Wonderland.

  • The Dream World of Symslvch (The setting of the Hebrew-language Basic D&D modules.)

  • Alusia (the world of the TSR DragonQuest RPG)

  • The world of Role-Aids (purchased from Mayfair Games)

  • The world of the Endless Quest and HeartQuest gamebooks. Possibly placeable on Mystara (generic D&D gamebooks) and Oerth (generic AD&D gamebooks), or perhaps a distinct "gamebook world".

• The worlds of the generic DUNGEON magazine adventures.

• The worlds of the standalone TSR novels (Jewels of the Elvish, etc.)

I would like to add all of the planets, moons, Spelljammer spheres, and planes, but that'd be a bigger project.

Here's nested hierarchy for any appearance of D&D stories:

Appearance: Multiverse | Reality Cluster | Reality | Plane/Sphere | Astronomical Body or Planar Dominion | Continent | Land/Country/Region | Locality | Timeline

SW d20 RPG: Star Wars Universe | Third (3E/d20) Reality Cluster | SW RPG d20 Reality | Star Wars Galaxy | various planets, continents, countries, and localities | Canon Timeline and Legends Timeline (then known as Expanded Universe)

Curse of Strahd: D&D Multiverse | Fifth Reality Cluster | 5E Reality | Ravenloft | N/A | The Core | Barovia | various locales in Barovia | Curse of Strahd Timeline

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?645244-Mike-Mearls-Don-t-forget-any-of-the-worlds!&p=7441006&viewfull=1#post7441006

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?645244-To-WotC-Don-t-forget-any-of-the-worlds!&p=7441006&viewfull=1#post7441006