D&D 5E Is there any indication that WotC will launch a new setting?

[CapnZapp]

Well, nope: even SCAG appears to have been slightly disappointing to WotC, compared to just putting gazeeters in adventure books, the new normal.

SCAG was trite and shallow so no surprise there.

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[Damian Henderson]

I would like to see a revival of Dark Sun.

 

[Parmandur]

SCAG was trite and shallow so no surprise there.

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I've enjoyed it; but I can see it making the final case against traditional settings books.

 

[CapnZapp]

I've enjoyed it; but I can see it making the final case against traditional settings books.

The lesson is: if you're going to do a setting book, you need to do it right. Rich. Deep. Detailed.



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[Parmandur]

The lesson is: if you're going to do a setting book, you need to do it right. Rich. Deep. Detailed.



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But is that the lesson to be learned? Or is it that setting books aren't terribly viable in and of themselves for moving huge amounts of product? Most folks don't use them, even.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Assuming SCAG was not successful (I don't know if that's actually the case, but we can run with that idea), the only conclusion we can really draw is that a book like it will not be well received. We cannot say that a more detailed setting guide would have sold better because there's no data to support that among the 5E releases.

Personally, I'd prefer they not do a straight up setting guide as opposed yo some blend of adventure and settingg. I have many of the old books from previous editions, so new ones would be largely redundant. I would consider buying such a book, but I'd sooner buy an adventure/guide hybrid.

The only way I can see them doing an actual setting guide is if they came up with an entirely new setting for this edition. Which I do not expect at all. Far more likely that they'd try and capitalize on an existing property in some way.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Yeah, the Primeval Thule Campaign Setting is great because it 1) introduced not only a new and different setting but a new take on how to design a setting (similar in that sense to Eberron in 3.5), 2) had new character options that tied directly into the differences of the setting and helped make it feel unique, but could also be run alongside garden-variety characters out of the PHB (again, like Eberron back in the day), and 3) included three excellent adventures right in the book, which helped provide examples of different types of adventures that the setting supports.

ToA (aside from its goofy name) is an excellent step in this direction for WotC, and if they keep up with that kind of approach I'll give them more of my money. But since the SCAG did NONE of the things I listed above, it's no real surprise to me if it tanked a bit.

 

[Jester David]

SCAG wasn't as successful as Volo's Guide to Monsters, but it's consistently out-selling the adventures on Amazon.
So while it may not be the most popular book here, it's a good reminder that it's popular elsewhere and we're not entirely representative.

Here's a chart of the last year of chart positions:

SCAG seems to be doing quite well...

 

[Remathilis]

The problem with settings is, by definition, they exist to segregate the market.

The biggest problem is that a DM might need or want one, maybe two setting book tops. Most DMs never use more than single setting and never more than one at a time, so unless your DM is big into world-hopping, most of those other books are not going to be on that DM's radar. Myself as an example, I'd have bought a Faerun, and Eberron guide but I'd have zero interest in an Athas or Krynn guide. They aren't even worth it for additional character options as a DM who is running Dark Sun has little need of anything in an Eberron guide, and vice versa. So each guide limits who is going to buy it, and the less "generic" the setting is, the small the niche market is.

Further, if we assume WotC would support a setting beyond a single guide, there is even further diminishing returns. An adventure set on Athas is literally useless to me as a Faerun DM. Athas is so far removed from the traditional D&D tropes that it couldn't even be used as a "generic desert adventure". An Athasian AP is a product of interest to A.) DMs who B.) Want an adventure path C.) set on Athas. That's a rather limiting market when WotC could get much better mileage out of a Destert of Desolation AP loosely set in Raurin and convertible to Eberron, Greyhawk, or Mystara easily.

Paizo realized this and wisely put all its settings on the same world, so Golarion is the meta-setting for everything from Eldritch Horror to Sword & Sorcery and back (and it eliminates having to create constant variants on the core game assumptions, which range from renaming subraces of elves to rewriting the PHB classes) but D&D's ship on that sailed. I still think a primer book on a multitude of settings is a far better use of resources than 6-7 SCAG books that compete with each other.

 

[Parmandur]

Assuming SCAG was not successful (I don't know if that's actually the case, but we can run with that idea), the only conclusion we can really draw is that a book like it will not be well received. We cannot say that a more detailed setting guide would have sold better because there's no data to support that among the 5E releases.

Personally, I'd prefer they not do a straight up setting guide as opposed yo some blend of adventure and settingg. I have many of the old books from previous editions, so new ones would be largely redundant. I would consider buying such a book, but I'd sooner buy an adventure/guide hybrid.

The only way I can see them doing an actual setting guide is if they came up with an entirely new setting for this edition. Which I do not expect at all. Far more likely that they'd try and capitalize on an existing property in some way.

I have no idea if it was successful per se...but they have stated that they are putting setting material into APs in the future, rather than setting guides as such.