D&D (2024) What older setting do you want to see next?

[Patrick Lewis1]

I don't expect it would be without changes.

Something in more of a Dark Souls/Elden Ring vibe might go over better.

True. I have the original materials so I guess I should home brew 5e versions of it myself. In fact this thread has inspired me to try to do so at my Local Gaming store.

 

[Patrick Lewis1]

Can you point me to the free version of IOD? I'd like to see how it differs from the Goodman games book.

It was in the D&D Next play test docs years ago....not sure where youd find it now. But you've reminded me I should pick up Goodman's version. Tah Matey.

 

[The Glen]

If Greyhawk is problematic with its pastiche cultures than Mystara would be even more so. And I say this as somebody who likes Mystara.

The problem you have is that Mystara is rather popular in other nations because BECMI was the first D&D widely distributed abroad. Because it presented non-European cultures in a fantasy setting for the first time for many people, it became a favorite overseas. The Japanese Mystara books are the stuff of legend. They wanted their cultures presented as AWESOME, often at the expense of realistic. Give them what they want.

 

[Haplo781]

The problem you have is that Mystara is rather popular in other nations because BECMI was the first D&D widely distributed abroad. Because it presented non-European cultures in a fantasy setting for the first time for many people, it became a favorite overseas. The Japanese Mystara books are the stuff of legend. They wanted their cultures presented as AWESOME, often at the expense of realistic. Give them what they want.

Huh. This is actually a strong argument for reviving Mystara.

As far as I know, Basic is more popular in Japan than any other version of D&D and always has been. And it isn't even close.

WotC made a TV ad specifically for Japan, so it's fair to say they're looking to expand into that market.

 

[cimbrog]

Anyone brought up Thunder Rift yet? A setting for people using the free SRD documents only?

 

[Haplo781]

Anyone brought up Thunder Rift yet? A setting for people using the free SRD documents only?

Thunder Rift is part of Mystara.

 

[Parmandur]

If Greyhawk is problematic with its pastiche cultures than Mystara would be even more so. And I say this as somebody who likes Mystara.

Greyhawk just needs a little editorial tweaking, really, Mystara is hard to see flying today without major revision.

 

[Patrick Lewis1]

The problem you have is that Mystara is rather popular in other nations because BECMI was the first D&D widely distributed abroad. Because it presented non-European cultures in a fantasy setting for the first time for many people, it became a favorite overseas. The Japanese Mystara books are the stuff of legend. They wanted their cultures presented as AWESOME, often at the expense of realistic. Give them what they want.

I actually always thought Karameikos to be the most realistic fantasy version of a late stage Byzantine Balkans setting....in fact its the only late stage Byzantine balkans fantasy setting. I personally find the known world setting more realistic than the Forgotten realms one.

Forgotten realms has some wonderful elements but i always saw it a some one dumping fantasy elements onto North american geographic elements, whilst the known world of mystara clearly was a sort of a historical mutant europe.

As a Brit kid in the 80s the Duchy of Karameikos, with its recent Thyatian invasion was in some was ways similar to post Norman invasion England, Robinhood ivanhoe type fiction. I guess growing up in a country with real castles and relatively ( To North America) small geography, the scale of Mystara made sense. I could imagine it easily.

Its only as i got older I realised the genius of Bruce Heard as voyages of the princess ark /Known world editor with the complexity of the various analogus nations. Heard being a French Born and fluent American I think had a really good grasp of the feel of medieval and renaissance europe.

 

[Patrick Lewis1]

Thunder Rift is part of Mystara.

Is it though? I always though it seperate.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I disagree; actual incidents aren't hard to find if you read gaming-related media, both in terms of game-focused websites and developer blogs.

Dark Sun: Celebrating 30 Years of Dungeons & Dragons' Enduring Post-Apocalyptic Campaign Setting With its Creators

When I was around 12 years old, I sat down with some of my family members to play Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. I expected something involving benevolent wizards, chivalrous knights, and sly thieves meeting in a tavern to go on an adventure, likely involving a dungeon and a dragon...

comicbook.com

Dark Sun spiritual successor Red Dawn presents a new wasteland setting for D&D 5E with old problems

Upcoming D&D 5E supplement fails to address bioessentialist and racist implications of popular '90s release.

www.dicebreaker.com

From a Freelancer: An Open Letter to Erik Mona

Editorial Note from Owen: As someone established in the industry, one of the things I have done before and expect I will do again is to post messages written by other people who, for whatever reaso…

owenkcstephens.com

I don't think those are proof of anything. The original creator of Dark Sun hypothetizes that WotC wouldn't touch the setting for X, Y and Z reasons, but doesn't know, and WotC wouldn't say. (Compare to all the people who say Movie X "could never be made today," ignoring how many movies of that type are still being made.)

A website got some letters from an unknown number of people and said "people are made we didn't mention that there's slavery in the setting" could mean they got three angry letters. We have no idea how widespread the response was, nor how seriously to take them. (A website getting brigaded by angry partisans is not representative of anything, as countless movie review sites being brigaded amply illustrates.)

And Paizo deciding to not do content that includes slavery means that Paizo decided not to do content that includes slavery, not anything significant about the market as a whole.

Honestly, Radiant Citadel is a great rebuttal to all of this stuff. It is openly and enthusiastically an incredibly progressive, utopian setting that includes plenty of real world ills, with multiple of its adventures addressing the consequences of colonialism. WotC isn't scared to publish this stuff, as we've seen as recently as July.

After years of everyone trying to find Planescape and Spelljammer under every tea leaf, it's weird as hell to watch many of the same people try to conjure up a reason that Dark Sun hasn't happened yet, ignoring the very obvious reason that every time WotC has come up with psionics rules, a substantial number of Dark Sun fans are loudly furious that the rules aren't the same as they were in 2E.

WotC clearly wants to do this. They would not have kept screwing around with psionics rules -- publishing them in a book as recently as November 2020 -- if they didn't.