D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

[TiQuinn]

Not commenting on whether there should be a setting because I always do homebrew, but not sure why you think it couldn't be an urban setting. Many of my campaigns are city based. Cuts down on the number of fireballs wizards cast but other than that it works just fine for me. Not sure why you think it wouldn't - I just have a lot of NPCs, factions, mysteries and a city sized dungeon.

Yeah, Ptolus, Waterdeep, Sharn, Sigil - all of those are urban environments where conceivably the entirety of the campaign can take place in the city.

 

[Parmandur]

Between Realms threads and Dark.Sun speculation, I am more and more convinced that every edition of D&D needs a(t least one) bespoke setting. 5E never really got one -- it experimented with MtG settings, but there was no Dragonlance or Eberron if you understand my meaning.

Instead of shoehorning all the 5.5 mechanics and species and vibes into old settings, WotC should design a setting especially FOR 5.5E and it's target market.

By my reckoning, WotC released something like 10 Settings over the past decade, fully half of which were new to D&D (Ravnica, Theros, and Strixhaven) or even straight up original (Wildemoint and counting the league worlds of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel as one group Setting).

The key insight WotC came to through Ravnica was to view Settings as essentially genre theme booster packs.

 

[Reynard]

By my reckoning, WotC released something like 10 Settings over the past decade, fully half of which were new to D&D (Ravnica, Theros, and Strixhaven) or even straight up original (Wildemoint and counting the league worlds of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel as one group Setting).

The key insight WotC came to through Ravnica was to view Settings as essentially genre theme booster packs.

Every edition of D&D does things slightly (or not so slightly) differently, with different emphasis and design goals, and a different audience, to boot. Building a setting based on the mechanics of that edition/version allows them to highlight those elements, as opposed to getting in the perpetual loop of "how do we add dragonborn to this setting that was made 50 years ago?"

 

[Parmandur]

Every edition of D&D does things slightly (or not so slightly) differently, with different emphasis and design goals, and a different audience, to boot. Building a setting based on the mechanics of that edition/version allows them to highlight those elements, as opposed to getting in the perpetual loop of "how do we add dragonborn to this setting that was made 50 years ago?"

Mechanics express Setting, not the other way around.

 

[Reynard]

Mechanics express Setying, not the other way around.

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

I'm not sure what your argument here is. Are you saying there should not be a setting built around the mechanics as presented in the core rules, or that there could not be?

 

[jasper]

Oh boy, this again. Being literalist about "need" isn't particularly helpful, I don't think.

However true this may be, it is completely beside the point. I didn't say "5.5 needs another setting" -- I said it needs a setting built specifically for it, like Eberron was for 3.5 or Nentir Vale was for 4E.

What would make a new setting UNQUIE? (Hated that word in west Berlin). Unless you filter/curate some of the official books, what could you add. Waterdeep heist could be expanded but it has some kitchen sink problems. Autognomes and artificer gives a splash of Eberron. The flying monkeys gives Spelljammer.

 

[Reynard]

What would make a new setting UNQUIE? (Hated that word in west Berlin). Unless you filter/curate some of the official books, what could you add. Waterdeep heist could be expanded but it has some kitchen sink problems. Autognomes and artificer gives a splash of Eberron. The flying monkeys gives Spelljammer.

I am not sure I understand what you are saying here.

Any number (literally) of things could make a theoretical new setting unique. The only constraint is "if it is in 5.5E, it is in this setting" -- just like Eberron did with 3.5. it doesn't mean the setting would be limited to that, or that it somehow had to use all the adventures and stuff that came before.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

I'm not sure what your argument here is. Are you saying there should not be a setting built around the mechanics as presented in the core rules, or that there could not be?

The core rules of 5e are deliberately genic and open to interpretation. This is one of the reasons for it's popularity. Settings tend to nail down the fluff which 5e deliberately leaves open. E.g. clerics get their spells from the gods, there are no gods and clerics get their spells from the elements, there may or may not be gods and we don't know where clerics get their power from. These are all true in 5e core rules, but mutually exclusive in a setting. Ergo you could not build a setting that faithfully represented 5e core rules.

Obviously, you also need not build one, because 5e is extremely successful without one, by aiming to support a wide variety of settings.

Oh, and GL was being intentionally ironic and mocking Jedi hypocrisy.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

3rd Ed had got Eberron and 4e Nentir Vale/Points of Light but a 5e setting should be designed to allow space for future crunch like new PC species and classes. If, for example, WotC wanted to update the martial adepts (crusader, swordsage and warblade) and the incarnum soulmelders (soulborn, incarnate and totemist) the new setting should be designed to can include these player options. Other example is to publish a sourcebook about hunter, training, summoning and collecting monsters style Pokemon, Digimon or Palworld. A new setting could be a good way to promote sourcebooks with special player options.

Now WotC would rather to use M:tG to create new subfranchises and Hasbro wants its own videogame studios to work like a IPs farm.

 

[Reynard]

Here is an interesting question I had not thought of: does either LevelUp or ToV have a bespoke setting mae for those 5E games? I know Kobold has their Midgard setting, but I believe that setting was originally created for Pathfinder or 3.5 (I think).