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

[Yaarel]

The core rules do well to organize by tier.


Background (Level Zero) = Youth

Levels 1 thru 4 = Common = "typical" reallife experience
Levels 5 thru 8 = Uncommon = advanced, specialized, reallife experience, professional athletes, hi tech engineers, accomplished politicos

Levels 9 thru 12 = Rare = "enhanced" reallife, where the peak of human capability blurs "action hero" impossible: the Batman/Beowulf tier

Levels 13 thru 16 = Very Rare = full-on superhero genre, fantasy tropes override reallife expectations, obsoleting medievalesque assumptions
Levels 17 thru 20 = Unique = the most powerful superheroes: the Superman/Thor tier

Levels 21 thru 24 = Epic = games about worlds


In the "default setting", levels 1 thru 4 are the masses, the Common peoples. Levels 5 thru 8 are the Uncommon experts who comprise most of the various kinds of leaders. In this mundane world of Common and Uncommon, magic is a normal part of life but is modest, and equivalent to modern conveniences like cleaning clothes and movie cinemas. Talented students go to Wizard schools or the analogous. Even so, it is possible to sustain medievalesque assumptions, like the effectiveness of swords and castle walls.

The Rare persons exist in the default setting, but the Common persons rarely encounter them. These Rares tend to form a personal domain, that is like a rabbit hole into an other world. These domains tend to network with each other, largely ignoring the concerns of the Common masses. But some Rares express compassion for the Commons, and some other Rares try to employ the Commons toward some personal ambition. In these Rare domains, castle walls are laughable as magic flies over them or breaks them. A sword is useless unless a Rare superhero wields it − or an army of Common soldiers wields it.

While the Rares and rarer exist behind the scenes in the default setting, the Commons and Uncommons define the scene. The default setting looks to the Commons and Uncommons for the typical flavors that define the genre, themes, tropes, and tone.


Level 1 starts at adulthood, about age 20. Player characters tend to move quickly to higher levels, while nonplayer characters can remain at a level for many years. For nonplayer character statblocks, the "tier" refers to the proficiency bonus (+2, +3, etcetera), rather than actual levels, and the kids are usually proficiency +0, while teens around age 13 thru 19 are proficiency +1.

 

[Yaarel]

LOL it's Willem Dafoe from the excellent and definitely demented 1983 movie Streets of Fire which was basically the direct inspiration for both Cyberpunk 2013/2020's core vibe - according to Mike Pondsmith - and also the videogames Final Fight and Streets of Rage. As such he may actually be a distant conceptual ancestor of Kuwabara - there are several Japanese game and anime characters who seem to be inspired by Dafoe's look in the movie.

New movie for my scifi mustsee list.

 

[Reynard]

Exactly.

If generic rules work equally well in Forgotten Realms OR Eberron OR Dark Sun ... OR Strixhaven OR Theros OR Ravenloft ... then the core rules are genuinely "generic". At least, generic enough.

Ah. Gotcha. That makes sense.

 

[Reynard]

I would submit, as is Eberron, for that matter.

Eberron was specifically designed to include everything in the core rules.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

To answer the question in the OP - Whatever "core setting" they offer for the game should, perforce, include all the character options present in the PHB. It should also not lean too terribly strongly to a single genre, again, to allow for options of play. So, whatever the details, it ought to be pretty kitchen sink generic fantasy.

I'm not sure you have both of those things. There are too many options in the 5e PHB right now to begin to fit into anything I'd call generic kitchen sink fantasy anymore, and the next version will probably go even farther in that direction.

Which just supports your contention that maybe they shouldn't be doing a big new setting in the first place, doesn't it?

 

[ichabod]

New movie for my scifi mustsee list.

It's not sci-fi, though it is definitely must-see. It's setting is more 50s, with an army vet up against a biker gang. Incredibly stylish, though.

 

[steeldragons]

A "default" setting needs to be a fantasy world. Not Forgotten Realms (but I have little to no hope they wouldn't just keep up the branding and marketing for FR that they've steeped so many years into). Exandria is a distinct possibility. And would appeal to a modern player base sensibility, I would expect.

I, personally, would rather something more "generic fantasy." More "Good vs. Evil" based. A forces of Good and forces of Evil being tangible, known. Have their godly entities, their in world champions, their kingdoms/despots/would-be world conquerors, and their enslaved/ensorcelled/or just plain made BAD adherrants/soldiers/minions.

As someone said, "known places where evil comes from."

I avidly disagree with the "modern game culture" sentiment of "no inherently evil humanoid races." That's just ridiculous. The game requires cannon fodder. You're never going to make Level 2 worrying about if every kobold/bugbear/troll you encounter is another one of those "special individual" type monsters, with a soul and a conscience and a free will to choose goodness. Another chance to rehabilitate some creature looking to flay your flesh from your bones, burn your farms and homes, and bathe in their blood... if you could just give them a kind word and maybe a little food. Just show them how there's "a better way"....and you'll have a friend forever.

Every group of adversaries or plot a party encounters doesn't need to incorporate a half dozen different species just to make everyone "feel good" and pretend "not all goblins (orcs/drow/what have you) are evil." Every species has its enlightened singularities who are balking their evil society/system (or just saving their own skins) and gonna show you how everyone (ergo, noone) is special.

I have no interest in a game where the only things to worry about are beasts, goo's and blobs, or full out "aberrations." So we/players don't need to feel "bad" about slaying "humanoid" make believe monsters.

Magic needs to be well thought out, with areas of more or less readily available magicality. What might be a "common household item" in one region seems a remarkable magical treasure in another. The differences between studied sorcery, god-granted divine magic, natural primordial/elemental energies, demon-/fae-/dragon-pacted occult powers, and innate psychic abilities all need be represented and differentiated within the world to supply more flavor (and hopefully mechanical support) to make the various casters all "feel" (and play) differently within the setting.

ummmm...what else....Whatever the default setting, keep your technology OUT of my fantasy. Firearms, clockwork, steampunk, whatever... If there are "machines," or "factories" or "air ships," "mass transit," etc... it should be based on magic or the use of fantastical creatures. Make "tech" a supplement/add on for the game type of thing. Not a default setting thing. ...OR as in my homebrew, things that are from lost/forgotten/layered upon civilizations that no longer exist, "indistinguishable from magic."

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is a thread about what you think would be good for the game and popular with the player base. this is not a thread about what you, specifically, would like. I mean, answer how you want, I'm not the cops, but keep the subject in mind.

That Said: Let's assume WotC is going to create an entirely new setting for D&D with the 2024 edition. Maybe it will be the setting in the DMG, or maybe it will come out a year later. in either case, what should that setting look like in order to lift up the game and appeal to the majority of fans -- who, while certainly are going to have a lot of different tastes, we do know that fanbase is mostly GenZ and Millenial, half women, and significantly more diverse than previous cohorts.

I think they could do a lot worse than leaning into anime and JRPG aesthetics and setting tropes, giving this hypothetical new world a more Zelda feel than traditional D&D has had.

What do you think?

I do know such a modern setting would bear little resemblance to the classic settings WotC uses now, more like Eberron than anything else. I hope they do.

 

[DEFCON 1]

With Faerun, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Wildemount as four relatively standard fantasy worlds already available, and the other settings covering many of the other genres (Eberron and magitech, Dark Sun and post-apoc, Theros and ancient greek, Ravenloft and gothic horror, Strixhaven and potter-esque, Spelljammer and space/scifi, Planescape and world-hopping, Ravnica and urban sprawl, etc.)... a completely new setting would have a harder time justifying its own existence and reason for the team to spend money and time to make it.

Is there something missing in the four standard fantasy worlds that a completely new setting would be needed to fill in? I can't think of any off-hand. And if it's going to be a different genre (and thus less popular and less requested by players)... by reinvigorating old material already done before or by adapting material and story bibles from Magic: The Gathering settings already written and had art made... a lot of time, money and design has already been spent and thus the product can be made cheaper and faster (and thus won't cause as much of an issue if it turns out not to be universally purchased.)

So I'm not sure what can be gained by making an entirely new setting and world that is worth spending the time and money on to design-- other than giving veteran players something "new" to have. But then again... those veteran players can just go searching through the hundreds of settings already made by other Third Party designers if they need something new. There's an entire thread that lists all the different settings you can pick up right now for 5E.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do we, though? Do we know that the "current cohort" (however that is defined) actually cares about official settings?

To answer the question in the OP - Whatever "core setting" they offer for the game should, perforce, include all the character options present in the PHB. It should also not lean too terribly strongly to a single genre, again, to allow for options of play. So, whatever the details, it ought to be pretty kitchen sink generic fantasy.

And that then brings us to asking why they'd build a new one.

Because it's better than forcing the old ones to conform.