D&D (2024) So what happened to the new and classic campaign settings? (and what's next?)

[TwoSix]

The guess will likely be one generation behind, much like Eberron was a setting beloved by Millennials but, according to some here, aimed at GenX.

I feel like some amount of incoherence is inevitable, since pretty much every setting is designed by people in their 30s and 40s aiming for an audience of teens and 20-somethings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What tropes and trappings would need to be included in a generic fantasy gen Z setting?

An incomplete list:

• Fantasy today is often cozier and lower-stakes. Characters are more likely to want to open a coffee shop than build their own castle in the wilderness.
• Resorting to violence is what the villains do, not the heroes.
• It often looks like fantasy Asia, but it almost certainly doesn't look like fantasy Europe.
• It is diverse by default. And that's much more than classic D&D cantina diversity. Lots of people of color, including people coded as mixed-race. There will be people from across the LGBTQIA spectrum. There will be disabled people. None of this will seem weird or objectionable to residents of the world except, again, for the villains.
• Magi-tech will be common.
• Environmental issues may play a big part in the setting. Good characters will be aware of the impact intelligent beings have on their environment and will be expected to not wantonly despoil.

WotC has tried a lot of these elements in isolation, and Baby Boomers and Gen Xers on this board have often howled with outrage. (Not WotC, but look up how people responded to the very notion of miniatures of characters in wheelchairs.) I can only imagine how they'd respond to a setting with all of them.

But the statistics don't lie: The D&D audience is overwhelmingly Gen Z. Putting out settings to make the tiny Gen X audience happy instead of focusing on Gen Z is an insane business practice.

 

[Aldarc]

I feel like some amount of incoherence is inevitable, since pretty much every setting is designed by people in their 30s and 40s aiming for an audience of teens and 20-somethings.

For me it's about the same as growing up as a Millennial but getting ads from marketing agencies that thought we were into "Xtreme" GenX stuff.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I feel like some amount of incoherence is inevitable, since pretty much every setting is designed by people in their 30s and 40s aiming for an audience of teens and 20-somethings.

That is definitely the challenge across entertainment media. As a Gen Xer, I remember having stuff about the 1960s shoved down my throat for decades until the Millennials had enough spending money to matter to marketers and suddenly I was being told I should care about their tastes. At least we had five years or so of John Hughes movies.

 

[Aldarc]

That is definitely the challenge across entertainment media. As a Gen Xer, I remember having stuff about the 1960s shoved down my throat for decades until the Millennials had enough spending money to matter to marketers and suddenly I was being told I should care about their tastes. At least we had five years or so of John Hughes movies.

That's how I'm feeling now with a lot GenX era D&D nostalgia being shoved down my throat by WotC. It's probably one of the big things, even before the OGL Fiasco, that has contributed to my growing disinterest in WotC D&D.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I would bet for Mystara, but don't hope more one sourcebook.

The new worlds form MtG seem to be designed to be adapted as future D&D settings, even Duskmourn, the haunted-mansion plane.

Today WotC would rather to sell crunch, because players don't need spend money to get fluff, lore or background thanks fandom wikis.

Exception is FR does need fluff to update everything in the setting to the current in setting year.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

That is definitely the challenge across entertainment media. As a Gen Xer, I remember having stuff about the 1960s shoved down my throat for decades until the Millennials had enough spending money to matter to marketers and suddenly I was being told I should care about their tastes. At least we had five years or so of John Hughes movies.

What 1960s stuff?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I still think D&D "needs"--or could benefit from--a new default, kitchen sink setting to place their adventures in. I like the Realms, but at this point it feels worn out. Anachronistic, even. A new--built from the ground--kitchen sink setting could allow them to bring D&D fully into the 21st century without feeling like everything new is being crammed into old settings (e.g. dragonborn in Greyhawk...blech). I feel that WotC could take a lesson from Paizo, and create a Golarion-esque setting that allows for a more naturalistic diversity of ideas...not just pasting on everything, whether it fits thematically or not (e.g. Kara-Tur/Zakhara/Maztica in Toril).

They tried that in 4e with Nentir Vale setting, it did not work out.

 

[Aldarc]

They tried that in 4e with Nentir Vale setting, it did not work out.

How did it not work out? Just because 4e was a not as big of a hit doesn’t mean that the Nentir Vale somehow failed as a setting. That is fallacious thinking.

 

[Distracted DM]

An incomplete list:

• Fantasy today is often cozier and lower-stakes. Characters are more likely to want to open a coffee shop than build their own castle in the wilderness.
• Resorting to violence is what the villains do, not the heroes.
• It often looks like fantasy Asia, but it almost certainly doesn't look like fantasy Europe.
• It is diverse by default. And that's much more than classic D&D cantina diversity. There will be people from across the LGBTQIA spectrum. There will be disabled people. Neither of these will seem weird or objectionable to residents of the world except, again, for the villains.
• Magi-tech will be common.
• Environmental issues may play a big part in the setting. Good characters will be aware of the impact intelligent beings have on their environment and will be expected to not wantonly despoil.

WotC has tried a lot of these elements in isolation, and Baby Boomers and Gen Xers on this board have often howled with outrage. (Not WotC, but look up how people responded to the very notion of miniatures of characters in wheelchairs.) I can only imagine how they'd respond to a setting with all of them.

But the statistics don't lie: The audience is overwhelmingly Gen Z. Putting out settings to make the tiny Gen X audience happy instead of focusing on Gen Z is an insane business practice.

I'm inclined to believe it, but what statistics are you referring to that most players are Gen-Z?
Your list seems both accurate, yet tongue-in-cheek (but I don't think it is!)
Except for the violence part. I still think that the first thing a lot of new players do, regardless of age, is want to do things that they can't do in real life... like quickly resort to violence. But I don't know