I like this thread. A free-wheeling imagination of the future of D&D Next.
23. Basic D&D is released as totally Open Source.
24. WotC commissions
David Salo (the linguist who made the Elvish, Dwarvish, and Orkish dialogue and lyrics for the LotR and Hobbit films) and Mark Okrand (the linguist who invented the Klingon language) to actually design all the
D&D languages. Being acquainted with Salo, I encouraged him (a few years ago) to send a proposal to WotC. I don't know if he ever heard back from WotC.
25. WotC commissions
Shire Post Mint to make every kind of coin from all published D&D Worlds.
26. Every WotC adventure, sourcebook, and magazine article has a web enhancement that gives at least a sentence describing how that fits into
each of the published D&D Worlds: FR, GH, DL, EB, DS, Blackmoor, Nerath, Mystara, Birthright, Pelinore, Jakandor, Ghostwalk, Council of Wyrms, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Planescape.
27.
Genre Books which are 100% compatible and multi-classable with Medieval Fantasy D&D: D&D Modern, D&D Supers, D&D Sci-Fi, D&D Western and so forth.
28.
Culture Books like
Oriental Adventures and the 2e
Historical Reference series, but for every regional culture in the whole world:
Celtic Adventures,
Turtle Island Adventures,
Nubian Adventures (like
Nyambe),
Emirate Adventures,
Babylonian Adventures,
Pharaonic Adventures, and more. And with OA broken down into
Cathayan Adventures and
Zipangu Adventures.
29. The
"Reality Shift" concept from former D&D Brand Manager Bruce Heard is taken up as the rationale for why
the worlds look somewhat different when portrayed by a different rules set.
30.
Pluffet Smedger's "mathematical model" (i.e. the D&D game as it is supposed to actually exist in the World of Greyhawk) is restored as the fictive frame for the entire D&D game line, in a similar way that Tolkien's "Red Book of Westmarch" is supposed to be a real book which contains the entire Middle-earth Legendarium, which he found and translated into English.
31. For a small fee, WotC agrees to a free-rein license to Bruce Heard (which he recently asked for, but was declined) to make a "Bruce Heard's D&D World of Mystara" line. Or sells Mystara to him outright, for not much money.
32. D&D Next, as an Open Source game, flourishes as a cross-world, cross-publisher engine, in the way that the 3e-era d20 System was before the 3.5e corporatist monkeywrench. In this way, someone who learned Basic D&D could run stories in nearly any fictional world without having to learn another rules set.
33. Middle-earth D&D Next. Star Wars D&D Next. Star Trek D&D. Narnia D&D. Magic the Gathering D&D. Harry Potter D&D. Thundarr the Barbarian D&D. Transformers D&D. Smurfs D&D. Pokemon D&D (so I could play that with my nephew, who, for better or worse, really digs the Pokemon world). Stephen King's Dark Tower D&D. Marvel Universe D&D. DC Universe D&D. Capcom D&D. Wonderful World of Disney D&D (à la Kingdom Hearts). Wizard of Oz D&D. Final Fantasy D&D. Legend of Zelda D&D. Labyrinth D&D. Princess Bride D&D. Neverending Story D&D. Dark Crystal D&D. All 100% rules compatible (at least with some suite of optional rules from the DMG), so that a worlds-leaping character could conceivably multiclass as, say a Fighter/Jedi/Starfleet Officer.
34. Storybook Rules Module in the DMG for running a campaign which has hardly any combat, such as Winnie the Pooh D&D.
35. D&D Modern released with Campaign Models set in the far future (i.e. modern tech) of all the medieval fantasy worlds: Greyhawk Modern, The Modern Realms, Dragonlance Modern, Dark Sun Modern, and so forth.
36. Besides the default style, the three 5e core rulebooks are released in various
'edition themes' which feature the typeface, graphic design, and illustrations which mimic an earlier edition. For example, an OD&D themed 5e PHB, MM, and DMG printed on manila, an orange-spine AD&D1e theme, a BECMI theme, a 3e gear-and-jewel theme, and so forth. Only old school artists from that edition would be featured in that theme set.
