D&D 5E 5e most conservative edition yet? (In terms of new settings)

[Eyes of Nine]

Hi -

So, just looking at the 5e book list, I would say it is the most conservative edition yet in terms of brand new original settings.

I count zero (0) new settings published by WotC. Everything is either from D&D's past; or licensed from another property.

Compare to 4e's Nentir Vale/World Axis cosmology that included the new Shadowfell and Feywild demi-planes.
3e's Eberron (and Ghostwalk?)
2e came up with many great original settings many of us love: Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, Mystara, Birthtright and probably others I'm missing.

I can think of a couple of reasons why 5e hasn't introduced any new original settings.

1) They don't need to. Based on the list above and including the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, they already have 10+ settings they can access at any time. Because of the popularity of streaming and D&D itself in the mainstream, they now have access to fresh new properties like Mercer-verse; Acquisitions Inc; Rick and Morty; Stranger Things; and of course Hasbro's own Magic the Gathering. And there are many many many (I can't type an entire googol's worth of "many" - but it's a lot) other settings they can license in the world.

2) They don't want to. Based on the sales so far of their books, they are selling books like hot cakes. If things are going well, why release something brand new that could be a risk? And a publicly traded company like Hasbro is going to be waaay more risk averse compared to a private company.

I might theorize in fact that the reduction in new original settings aligns very strongly with the WoTC acquisition by Hasbro back in 1999. I say "might theorize" since it's only a correlation in dates; not any actual evidence. But Nentir Vale is really just a watering down of Greyhawk cum Forgotten Realms, so very low risk. And Eberron came out of a contest - so wasn't actually developed by the WotC team so much. Again a pretty low risk. So the correlation is very strong that post going public, D&D stopped creating new settings.

I would love to see a new setting from WotC. Whether 100% internally developed; or crowdsourced like Eberron was. I know a lot of people like the old 2e settings (me too!); but I'd love to see something brand new for D&D.

I guess people can comment on my premise - that's cool, let's talk about it.

But I'd also love to hear what sort of settings people would think are cool.
Me, I'd like some sort of shattered earth with floating lands ranging from small holdings on a rock an acre large; to huge chunks of land with multiple cities on them.
Also a manapunk setting where tech is powered by magic; and it feels like about 20 years ahead of our current time.

 

[eyeheartawk]

At this point, I would take a new setting that isn't also designed to be a commercial for something else.

Like, anything.

 

[commandercrud]

FYI, Mystara predates 2e.

 

[S'mon]

I think this is a bit unfair on Nerath/Nentir Vale, it feels to me very different from Greyhawk or FR. Much more Tolkienesque.

 

[atanakar]

The rpg team at WotC is very small. Gone are TSR days with large in-house design teams. I don't care if its in-house or out sourced. Quality and usefulness is what matters. Sales are high so I guess a large portion of customers are happy with what WotC is doing.

TSR was prolific but support was often lacking. Many lines were dropped. The 2e era had it's fair share of weak books. It was not all glorious.

 

[Parmandur]

TSR put out so much, that there isn't huge amounts of interesting genuinely new design space: if you want Space Fantasy, why not go back to Spelljammer, and so on.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I find it funny that in order to claim 0 new settings for 5E you had to come up with excuses for why Ravnica, Theros, and Wildemount don't count.

"They are settings that have never been done before, but the WotC D&D department didn't create all of it themselves, so they aren't reeeeeeeeeaaaaaallllllly new settings. 4E and their one small duchy-like location has them beat!"

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I find it funny that in order to claim 0 new settings for 5E you had to come up with excuses for why Ravnica, Theros, and Wildemount don't count.

"They are settings that have never been done before, but the WotC D&D department didn't create all of it themselves, so they aren't reeeeeeeeeaaaaaallllllly new settings. 4E and their one small duchy-like location has them beat!"

I didn't say no new settings, I said no new original settings. And by original settings, I mean non-licensed settings. Do you agree on that point?

 

[bedir than]

I find it funny that in order to claim 0 new settings for 5E you had to come up with excuses for why Ravnica, Theros, and Wildemount don't count.

"They are settings that have never been done before, but the WotC D&D department didn't create all of it themselves, so they aren't reeeeeeeeeaaaaaallllllly new settings. 4E and their one small duchy-like location has them beat!"

And Boxed Sets for Rick & Morty as well as Stranger Things

 

[Parmandur]

I didn't say no new settings, I said no new original settings. And by original settings, I mean non-licensed settings. Do you agree on that point?

No? Doesn't seem a relevant distinction.