D&D 5E If WotC Did A New Setting Search

[DavyGreenwind]

I think a non-European, non-racist setting would do well, like a real Wuxia setting, or something based on the indigenous mythologies of the Americas.

I would create something unique, connected to my own heritage, like a magical Arabia but at the turn of the 20th century. It would eschew magitech in favor of the theme of tension between magic and technology.

 

[R_J_K75]

I will fight you on Eberron being best until my last, dying breath. After two editions, I now kinda like it, but I would not put it forward as best.

I agree. After playing in the Forgotten Realms for about 10 years before it came out, I read the setting, liked the premises in it like the last war, dragon marks, elemental tech and warforged, etc, ran a campaign in it, but it just always felt awkward to me. I could never exactly figure out why, but I think that it had something to do with that it was a lot of new material to take in and convey to players. That can be said for any new setting so it's more my fault than the settings, but it just never quite felt like D&D to me.

While technically not a new setting I would like to see the Nentir Vale getting an expanded and proper campaign setting book not associated with any particular edition of D&D. I thought the points of light was a good concept.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If my memory doesn't fail in that contest there were at least two finalists, and WotC bought the rights of the IP.

I guess WotC's marketing strategy is a new IP to appear before in Magic: the Gathering and later to be adapted into D&D.

A setting based in Pacific-Coast-Asian cultures? Possible, but there are serious risks. For our current Western standars they don't like fantasy version of their cultures mixed with the ones from their neighbours. We can mix monsters from Irish folklore and classic Greek mythology but their point of view is different.

I had readen something about Japaneses working for WotC and creating their own setting, altought this with a Western look. Hasbro should know better than us the Chinese market and their rules about censorship and other risks.

Now it is easier collabs in D&D-Beyond, others besides Kuboa setting than starting from zero. Wouldn't you like those settings based in Philippines and Korea?

Some times I have thought the next setting could be a remake of Chris Perkins' Iomandra setting, who shows lots of elements from "Council of Wyrms". Then I suggested the new "Council of Wyrms" would be in "Io's Blood islands", a cluster of demiplanes with the elemental Limbo, with enough space for all dragons from the previous editions. A mixture of Jurasic Park and Game of Thrones. But here we should need rules to play with dragons PCs, reusing the concept of monster classes from "Savage Species".

A reason for a new setting is a D&D no-CRPG where the videogame studio needs a new world with enough creative freedom for the possible changes for gameplay.

Hasbro could be interested into the franchise "Legend of Five Rings" but we know this is only speculation about future mergers and acquisitions.

 

[jgsugden]

I don't think they would do it again anytime soon. You have to be able to sell your setting to players, and we're such a divided fanbase (and world) that anything you do is going to be offensive to someone. They have established IP - they're better off running with it.

If they held the contest anyway, I'd submit a setting that did what Eberron did right:

1.) It is an analogy for a real world time period.
2.) It is designed to run with campaigns starting at a set moment in time rather than redesigned constantly to advance the timeline.
3.) There would be a lot of story hooks and no specific plan provided to resolve the hooks - allowing a DM to develop them (although many of them would have subtle suggestions on how to resolve them).

I'd use a world heavily inspired by Earth in the 1940s. Within this earth, the use of the first nuclear weapon would have broken the seals that contained magic. As a result, the world, which had been tied off from all magic for 1000 years, would have suddenly had access to magic.

We'd see ancient magical civilizations that had shifted off earth once upon a time return (Atlantis, etc...), we'd see holy wars erupt as long abandoned Gods return and seek followers in a world with organized religions, we'd see relics of old suddenly start glowing and revealing that they had power. The great war would be over, but the world would still be at war in small skirmishes. There would be no place in the world void of conflict raised by the return of magic.

The campaign would be set 2 to 5 years after the breaking of the seals. The arrival of magic would have had some immediate impacts (a new continnet appears in the oceans), followed by a slow build towards more extraplanar intrusions (more and more creatures traveling by portal or extraplanar ships to this 'real world).

Corporations would be hiring anarcheologists to find and explore places across the globe where magic might have been long buried. The PCs would likely need to work for such an organization in order to be licensed to use magic - if they want to use magic. Most weak magic items would not have survived the 1000 years without magic to hold them together, so we'd mostly see newly created magic, magic taken from off world, or great and powerful magics that the years and sealing could not destroy.

We'd have fledgling magical universities that struggle to master magic. These would be dangerous places filled with people pushing limits, reliance upon extraplanar trainers that might not be the best allies, and other perils. We'd see 1940s technology mix with fantasy magic - sometimes seemlessly, but sometimes causing unexpected impacts (such as using powerful magic tending to cause explosive materials to ignite).

In the backgroud would be the setting blocks for a storyline that reveals it was not the nuclear explosion that broke the seals, but a more more ancient force ... one that perhaps was not sealed away like everyone thought and has been guiding the world for a millenia towards a goal that is unclear at first.

 

[overgeeked]

I would hope that a non-Europe focused setting would win. Written by someone actually from whatever culture they’re putting forward. There are so many cool and interesting historical settings and events we could fictionalize and play with.

Warring states Japan. Cultivation / wuxia China. Conquista / reconquista Spain. Colonial resistance the world over. Pre-colonial India. Slavic independence. Latin American independence. Renaissance / Thirty Years War.

Then there’s the obvious choice of following media trends. Anime, manga, and light novels are booming. Intentionally copying some of that energy would be smart.

 

[Gorck]

I would be onboard for a complete Exandria setting. I know we already have the official Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and the independent Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, but I want the whole world including Issylra, Marquet, and the Shattered Teeth.

 

[ichabod]

Whatever it is, it can't be straight medieval fantasy. There's tons of those settings already, and whatever D&D will be, it will fit easily into those settings. We need something new. Some have mentioned non-Western mythologies as a base, and that would be one way to do it. One thing I would like to see is a world with a history, not just a point in time. Hard to do, and not what some others have requested, but I think it allows for multiple types of campaigns. You can have an age of exploration, you can have a huge war, you can have a peaceful period of trade and politics.

If I were to push something it would (of course) be my own world, the Dome of Heaven. It's a very large interior world with a wide variety of races and room for a wide variety of sub-settings.

 

[darjr]

I dunno if they really need to do a setting contest. Just look at all the huge kickstarters.

 

[Reynard]

Whatever it is, it can't be straight medieval fantasy. There's tons of those settings already

Are there? The only one for D&D I can think of is Dragonlance. FR is decidedly not medieval, Greyhawk and Mystara are both hyborean style amalgam worlds with countries ranging from ancient to high Renaissance, and Eberron, Spelljammer, Ravenloft and Planescape all speak for themselves. Where are the medieval settings? Certainly not Golarion or Midgard. They are both in that hyborean category as well

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

Are there? The only one for D&D I can think of is Dragonlance. FR is decidedly not medieval, Greyhawk and Mystara are both hyborean style amalgam worlds with countries ranging from ancient to high Renaissance, and Eberron, Spelljammer, Ravenloft and Planescape all speak for themselves. Where are the medieval settings? Certainly not Golarion or Midgard. They are both in that hyborean category as well

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