So Mike Mearls is on the phone...

[Mercurius]

...and you he told you that you won the You Get To Choose the Theme of a D&D Book Contest. They are going to expedite the process, and the book will come out a year from now, just in time for Christmas 2019.

What would you pick? You're on the phone now, so don't have time to think about it - otherwise he moves on to the runner up. If you must, include some honorable mentions (how can we ever just pick one?).

Go into some detail as to what it would include - even page count, price, art, etc. I'll go first.

WORLDS OF DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

My first choice remains, as it has for almost a decade, a Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons book. Imagine a hybrid of Arts & Arcana and a campaign setting book, to be enjoyed as either a coffee table style visual experience (ala A&A), but with enough info on each setting to at least get started on using that world.

The book will be the largest hardcover WotC has published - around 400 pages - but not so big that it is unwieldy (no Ptolus). Probably a $59.95 price tag.

The book would have three sections:

Part One: Major Settings
Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Sigil, Birthright, Mystara, Eberron, Nentir Vale.

Each of these settings would include approximately 24-32 pages of coverage, a "primer" if you will. Each entry will include a world map, maybe a regional map of a starter location, a brief mytho-history, overview of the world, and tips on starting a campaign. Oh yeah, some nice art. And a brief history of the setting itself, how it was designed and published, etc.


Part Two: Minor Settings
Blackmoor, Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, Thunder Rift, Council of Wyrms, Jakandor, Ghostwalk, etc.

These settings would get smaller treatments, about 8 pages each - just enough to give a sense of it, a map, some description, etc.

Part Three: Appendices
Lots of fun stuff, including Echohawk-style listings of every product published for each world.


HONORABLE MENTIONS
*Malazan Book of the Fallen Campaign Setting.
*A Manual of the Planes book, but one that includes variations on "extra-worldly" play: Planescape, Spelljammer, the 4e version, etc.
*Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book (including optional sub-systems like psionics, epic play, modular options, advanced tactics, etc).
*World of Nerath Campaign Setting - Nentir Vale and beyond.
*An entire new setting book.
*A cosmic or science fantasy book (e.g. Numenera, Star Wars, etc).

etc...that's just off the top of my head.

OK, have at it...

 

[Satyrn]

Xena: Dungeon Princess

All things Xena (and Hercules, I guess) written up as an adventure and setting material for high fantasy mythological Greece.

 

[Charlaquin]

Darksun. I’d pick Darksun. I’d go with a book of modular rules options if I thought they’d actually do it and they’d be any good, but Darksun seems like it’d have a better chance of coming out well, so that’s what I’d say.

 

[Henry]

Variant Rules. Tons of all the craziest stuff they've been working in Unearthed Arcana, and then some, but with stronger playtesting, on things such as alternate skill systems, class feature swapping, Alchemists, Gunslingers, you name it. Basically , PF Unchained but for 5e.

I either have or can make the settings, I just want some more varied crunch in order to make the setting mechanics fit better. With a more playtested "toolbox" of options, I can make any setting I want, new or old, and give it the machanical backing that my players want to make the options feel like they are more than just flavor.

As it is now, technically I have everything I already need, thanks to DMs guild, but at the least more detailed guidelines on pitfalls to avoid when designing is more what I want. Like Mearls' Happy Fun hour, but with it coherently organized instead of on a stream.

 

[Parmandur]

Big Book of Dragons: like Volo's, but all Dragons, all the time.

It could easily fill a full size book with useful game content, and would entertain small children more than adequately.

Alternatively, a book that resurrects the 1E Dragonlance Adventures hardcover, redone in a style similar to theRavnica book.

Maybe just a book that says "dragon dragon dragon" over and over with pretty pictures of Dragons: children must be entertained...

 

[pogre]

A Stronghold and mass combat campaign book. Two sets of mass combat rules - one for fools like me that want to push large blocks of figures across the table and a more abstract system. Kind of like Birthright, but with more adventure leads.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A big book that both acts as a retrospective for a bunch of settings while opening them up for play would be pretty awesome. And I'll always vote for a proper Manual of the Planes

For my part, if I got the phonecall (assuming I didn't just ignore it because I assumed it was a robocall or telemarketer), I'd go with:

Curse of Soth. Back to Ravenloft, but this time set in Sithicus. With design work by the Death Saves crew, including tie-in merch.

 

[Wiseblood]

Advanced rule set.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[DQDesign]

artificer.
psionic rules.
mystara.