D&D 5E What Main Themes Would You Want a New Official Setting to Focus On?

[Yaarel]

I want 5E Urban Arcana, such a cool concept for a Setting.

Me too.

I think home groups can do whatever reallife political commentary makes sense for them at each table.

But for an official product, how would you handle a modern setting referring to reallife contemporary events?

Maybe run it as factions?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I want 5E Urban Arcana, such a cool concept for a Setting.

With the right writer, and a totally fictional setting (i.e. not "the real world but modified" which was the original Urban Arcana setting, just a fantasy setting in the equivalent of 20th or 21st century), I think you could do an incredible job with this. It would also be extremely easy to screw up, but honestly I think it could work very well.

I'd certainly prefer to see a modern-day (which is to say, 1950s onwards) setting or a post-apocalyptic setting (preferably a really wild one) from WotC than most of the other options.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But for an official product, how would you handle a modern setting referring to reallife contemporary events?

I think the real answer is "you don't", not if you're WotC.

WotC are a big safe-product-oriented part of a family-friendly corporation (Hasbro). They're not going to put something out in 2021 that messes with that stuff. Doesn't matter how reasonable it seemed in 2003.

I really would only see two ways Urban Arcana comes out:

1) A fantasy setting that's in its own 20th/21st century-equivalent. There you can obliquely refer to contemporary events and so on but it's entirely safe to do so.

2) A divergent reality. I.e. it's the real world until say, 1994 or something, then it diverges into the history of this setting, and their present clearly isn't our present.

 

[Dausuul]

The one thing I really want is a low-magic setting; specifically, a setting which works out the challenges of how to square "low-magic" with the caster-heavy lineup of D&D classes. (I mean, obviously you can just ban every full caster, but that means slicing away literally half the Player's Handbook.)

 

[ART!]

I picked only "Futuristic World" from the options available. I will be unsurprised if WOTC announces a sci-fi/space/future setting/sourcebook, and I would probably buy it. I hope it would have suggestions or variant rules options for tweaking the power levels for tech, magic, ftl, psionics, etc....although core D&D doesn't do much of that and people still use it for all kinds of fantasy, so...?

 

[Neonchameleon]

The one thing I really want is a low-magic setting; specifically, a setting which works out the challenges of how to square "low-magic" with the caster-heavy lineup of D&D classes. (I mean, obviously you can just ban every full caster, but that means slicing away literally half the Player's Handbook.)

I'm in the same boat. No magic and futuristic world are my big two because they are the two hardest to homebrew in D&D. Modern/Urban is not easy of course - but that involves a few more real world issues that I think they will want to avoid.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I suppose what I would like to see as a D&D setting would be something similar to Blackmoor or Metamorphosis Alpha - a primitive (stone/bronze age) society built on the ruins of a technologically advanced society. Hence I ticked "prehistoric" and "futuristic".

I would also like a full blown space opera with 5e rules, but with magic retconned to psionics and new classes it wouldn't really be D&D any more.

 

[Ixal]

I am surprised that modern/urban is leading as imo D&D/D20 games are entirely unsuitable for this genre because of their level system, how skills are neglected, the HP bloat which makes modern weapons behave really weirdly and because those kind of games kinda expect a lot of combat which is harder to justify in a modern environment.

 

[MichaelSomething]

What made me get into worldbuilding was a lack of settings that are dominated by largely unexplored wilderness with new strange creatures and magic phenomenons to be discovered.
Of course I now have my own which I am working on, but there's still very little that has been done in that regard.

Have you tried the Eyrewood??

Eyrewood Adventures (Tabletop Game) - TV Tropes

Eyrewood Adventures is a High Fantasy setting created by Mike Krahaulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade. Starting out as a potential webcomic spinoff, the setting was later developed as a Tabletop Game by Lone Shark Games. The first game, …

tvtropes.org

 

[Yora]

No, never heard of it.