D&D (2024) What Should A New Core Setting Look Like?

[LuisCarlos17f]

An option could be Hasbro talking with Tencent for a intercompany project. WotC creates the crunch for a D&D- xuanhuan style, the PC species and monsters mainly. Then Tencent creates a D&D xuanhuan setting according to th criteria by the Chinese censorship. This setting is licenced to WotC/Hasbro. Or a south-Korean artistic team could be hire to worldbuild a new D&D inspired in fantasy manhwa (Korean comic).

The first D&D settings weren't really bad, but it is like you start to read the first novels by a writter, and then when you read his last title, then you realises the mark of the experience after years or decades working in the writting. With the years you learn how doing it better.

Now the rule is not only enough originality but also flexibility to can customize according the preferences by different groups of players.

Other idea is a setting where the rulers are monsters or supernatural factions, and the human kings are only puppets controlled by others.

 

[Dausuul]

While it’s important to ask what a new setting will provide that we haven’t had before I think it’s equally important for an impactful setting to consider what should be taken away, kitchen sink settings, while fun in the moment hardly tend to leave a lasting impression on their own merits.

Yes, I know people don’t like having their options taken away, but if you really want to create something with a strong distinctive flavour then you’re going to have to accept at the same time that you won’t be able to make something that will appeal to everyone’s tastes.

I love curated settings and strongly dislike kitchen sink, but that doesn't mean WotC should use a curated setting as the D&D core.

D&D is the game that must be all things to all gamers. Its goal is not to be the best at any one thing, but to be good enough at everything for many different types of players to sit at the same table and have fun. At the same time, it must preserve a lot of traditions to keep the grognards happy, because experienced players and especially experienced DMs are vital to growing the community, and the community is where the money comes from.

This carries over to the core setting. It must support as many player options and adventure themes as possible, and it must also uphold tradition. This pretty well mandates a kitchen-sink approach. And once you've decided to do that, what's the point of replacing FR? As you point out, kitchen-sink settings tend not to have much distinctive flavor, and FR has been the tried-and-tested player favorite for 30+ years. There's a ton of nostalgia there, a vast quantity of lore to draw on, and a small army of beloved characters, from Drizzt to the cast of BG3.

Besides, a lot of the folks who like curated settings are going to homebrew anyway, so what's the point of targeting us? If WotC wants to sell setting materials to us, what they should be working on is tools to make homebrewing easier. The core setting is for those who don't want to build their own, and for those folks, FR does the job.

 

[James Gasik]

Whatever it is, it should reflect the mechanics and nature of 5e, much like how Eberron was built to reflect 3e. None of this "well, if you squint and tilt your head just so, of course it's the same old Dragonlance setting!"

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some time in the past I suggested other option, alternate timelines of previous settings, for example a reboot of Dragonlance. For example the age of despair was longer, and with some touchs of "summer of Chaos", and there are gem dragons in that far continent, and lungs (oriental dragons) in other planets of the Krynnspace. Maybe the high-priest was killed by lord Soth, because the mistake of kidnapping his wife and son. Or the Krynnspace was invaded by the Vodoni empire (a faction of Spelljammer).

My opinion is WotC would rather to start with a piece of lore, telling some little details, and allowing 3PPs to add more things in the DM Guild.

 

[Osgood]

There are some interesting ideas in this thread. The problem is there are just too many different types of settings that folks want--you make one, it will appeal to some and piss oof everyone else. Maybe the smarter play would be to create a setting book that doesn't detail a single setting, but gives shorter, say 40-page treatment to a half dozen wildly differently settings for people to play with. If a particular setting in the book turns out t be especially popular, it could be expanded on in the future.

They could even go so far as to have regions or cities that roughly correspond in terms of relative geography and size so that when creating adventures, could have conversions notes for using one of the settings--Instead of Waterdeep, use city A for this setting and city B for that setting which in turn means Neverwinter would be City C and D respectively, and so on.

 

[Marandahir]

Nerath is my favorite core setting, but it's literally the exact opposite of what most people seem to want. I think it would be a bad idea to make that the new core setting no matter how much I want it.

It's literally the blank slate core setting that fits everything in it. A lot of people want to play in their own sandbox but one with just enough demarcated that they don't have to make everything up but also don't have to read 500 novels or a wikia to understand the background.

I think WOTC doesn't want to use Nerath because they can more easily mine FR for IP purposes. See the movie they just released vs say, The Book of Vile Darkness movie. Also they tried doing Nerath novels and they crashed and burned. Even though I love Nerath, I have to say that the Nerath novel I bought was traaaaaaash

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It's literally the blank slate core setting that fits everything in it. A lot of people want to play in their own sandbox but one with just enough demarcated that they don't have to make everything up but also don't have to read 500 novels or a wikia to understand the background.

I think WOTC doesn't want to use Nerath because they can more easily mine FR for IP purposes. See the movie they just released vs say, The Book of Vile Darkness movie. Also they tried doing Nerath novels and they crashed and burned. Even though I love Nerath, I have to say that the Nerath novel I bought was traaaaaaash

Nerath needed its own proper campaign setting book to organize things and give the setting a solid foundation.

Also Nerath was not supposed to be a setting, its just all this lore kept getting created during 4e and it just sort of happened. Actually I think it was at one point supposed to be part of FR, but they changed their minds before 4e was published. I still view Nerath as FRs offspring. There was some Nerath FR cross over in Sword of Lies novel I think, were that Deva/Aasimar from Nerath got reincarned on Toril in this temple thing covered in iconics of the Nerath Gods. Also the Dawn War connections the two settings and Exandria.

 

[Mallus]

A new setting that uses the anime Delicious In Dungeon and the book where an orc opens a coffee shop as touchstones, or maybe poles, would be nice.

 

[Sulicius]

New core setting should:

• Be new
• Be less Eurpean inspired
• Feature the core PHB races in different communities and cultures
• Show a reasonable effect of the spells in the PHB on history and society
• Have a clear, easy to find history with inspiring events and big names
• Feature all of the classic D&D monsters (dragons, mind flayers, fey creatures, giants, oozes)
• Have religions of different origins, some with gods, some without
• Have a kick-ass setting book

 

[Shardstone]

I would like to see more settings that take the rules and spells in D&D and extrapolates them into worldbuilding information.