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

[Parmandur]

In theory, but Eberron was designed the other way around, and it’s one of the most beloved D&D settings ever.

I'd say the well received practical application of Eberron in multiple mechanical expressions demonstrates that saying Eberron was merely an expression of 3.5 mechanics is incorrect, even if that was the brief from Corporate.

 

[Marc17]

Ya, with all the new stuff added to D&D in races and spell casting character classes, I feel a new setting that is needed that should be more weird fantasy. A place where Strixhaven and its environment does not seem all that strange. Eberron and Sigil are probably the only one of the previous settings that would work.

Personally, Ive always done my own settings, usually tailored to the campaign I wan to run. New idea I'm still fleshing out is a multi-dimensional trade city, so if it is not there is close by, adventure-wise. Planer gates, travel methods, spelljammers, etc are all just part of the setting. Still need to come up with something that makes it more than just a kitchen sink and then localizing with specific backgrounds and origin feats.

 

[Parmandur]

I actually think 5e has its own setting. Kind of. It’s just an extremely broad meta-setting, in which all the various D&D (and some MTG) worlds are subsettings within. WotC calls it “the multiverse,” and many fans have observed that its metaphysics and cosmological rules are kind of a hybrid of Planescape and Spelljammer. But over the course of 5e’s lifecycle, some unique details of this setting have emerged. The idea of the First World is the most obvious of these, but there’s also, like, the origin story behind the Deck of Many Things with Asteria and Euryale. The whole Radiant Citadel, etc.

Definitely would agree with that: but this is not terribly mechanical as such.

 

[Scribe]

It would be interesting to see what a 'built from the ground up' setting for 5.5 would have looked like. I highly doubt it would have pulled me away from what I like, but it would have at least been interesting, and preferable to updating the existing settings.

I didn't like Eberron much on launch, but it was cool to see something new all the same.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'd say the well received practical application of Eberron in multiple mechanical expressions demonstrates that saying Eberron was merely an expression of 3.5 mechanics is incorrect, even if that was the brief from Corporate.

I certainly wouldn’t say it was merely an expression of 3e’s mechanics! But it is highly informed by 3e’s mechanics, and that is to its credit.

 

[TiQuinn]

Other than this no. I am not convinced that setting matters all that much, at least to people not reading this. And it really does not need a generic fantasy setting. Ebberon is interesting because it is not generic fantasy. Nor do I believe that for the general audience, Dark Sun or Dragonlance is different enough.

No, I wouldn’t want another generic fantasy world. Have plenty of that.

 

[Charlaquin]

Definitely would agree with that: but this is not terribly mechanical as such.

Indeed, but I think that’s kind of fitting for 5e. 5e tends to avoid being committal with its design, intentionally leaving itself open to individual interpretation and inviting different groups to make it their own. It would be hard to design a setting around mechanics that themselves actively resist being pinned down. Instead, the 5e setting is more of a framework for bringing different D&D worlds together under one umbrella, much as 5e itself attempted to bring together the most well-regarded design and aesthetic features of each edition together under one umbrella.

 

[Minigiant]

I long time thought this.

We should have a

5e specific setting
And a
5.5e specific setting

Gimme a setting where the Dragon lead Dragonborn and the Giant lead Goliaths are at war. Hot or Cold.

With gobiniods popping out of fairy circles as random encounters because they are officially fey.

 

[Reynard]

But those things arose out of the design constraint of including everything that exists in 3e. Like, the magitech wasn’t just a whim Keith Baker had, it was arrived at as the natural conclusion of taking the way magic works in D&D seriously.

Specifically, how magic and item creation worked. Without those original elements, a 5E born Eberron would look different.

 

[AlViking]

I certainly wouldn’t say it was merely an expression of 3e’s mechanics! But it is highly informed by 3e’s mechanics, and that is to its credit.

Aren't all official setting informed by the mechanics of the game? I would say that Eberron took the core concepts and stretched them quite a bit from the default. Everything from ditching the pantheistic view of gods to warforged just to name two were quite different.

But I guess that's an issue I have with the OP's proposal - the rules define the mechanics of the game which does give us certain broad lines we color inside of (until we don't), but unlike some other games it doesn't really push setting specific details. So I'm not sure what a 5.24e specific setting would look like or what would need to be changed.