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

[Hussar]

Sure, the real world only manages to support one sentient species. Two is fantasy, ten is ridiculous, and fifty (snice most of the species in the Monster Manual are sentient) is D&D. But the only way it works is if you assume that most of those species are very very rare. There isn't room on the planet for each one to have towns and cities.

Eberron would like to have a word with you.

Hell, Tolkien would like to have a word with you. Elves, dwarves, orcs, men, hobbits, and goblins all have their own towns. That's six right there. And, by and large, that's considered the gold standard for fantasy settings.

There are TONS of fantasy settings out there that have dozens of species that are neither hard to find, nor rare.

The point is, the option should be there. Whenever settings are created for D&D, they always incorporate whatever is in the PHB at the time. Greyhawk was designed before D&D had really nailed down the races, so, halflings and gnomes are a bit left out in the dark, but, there are orc nations and various humanoid nations in Greyhawk. When Forgotten Realms became a thing, the sort of PHB standard races all had places. Same as Dragonlance and Eberron and pretty much every single setting (barring may Dark Sun which replaced the standard races with new stuff - but certainly not less stuff).

Remember, we're talking about a hypothetical new setting. I'm honestly not understanding why anyone would think that a new setting for D&D would not have all the PHB species baked in. That's just not how it works.

 

[Minigiant]

The difficulty with creating a 5e-based setting is that, in my experience, changes to the rules might be welcomed mechanically but are often at odds with player expectation. For example, someone in this thread mentioned that a 5.5 setting would be very cosmopolitan, with species intermingling together everywhere, since there's a much greater emphasis on background. Some may want that, but most of the time, when I get a player that chooses, say, a dwarf (especially a new player), that player more often than not wants the quintessential dwarf experience to be true for most dwarf NPCs even if it is not true for that player's particular character. They want the vaulted halls, underground kingdoms, lost treasures, rowdy drinking and loud personalities to be present. I think this is understandable. You might suggest that this player is well-served by other settings, and that the new setting should ignore this. That may be, but now this hypothetical future setting release is fracturing the player base rather than creating a baseline setting.

The 5.5e setting doesn't have to be against expectations.

It's could be a typical setting just with those elements deeply involved.

However that would be a hard sell for money. That's why it shoulda been the setting in the PHB, MM, or DMG. Or a supplement book.

An alternate genre or flavor setting that breaks expectations would sell better.

have also shown how there are already setting links for Dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms. And I've further shown how to write links to the setting into a background for Dragonborn who are far from their homeland. But I have to ask....

Why should PHB options be guaranteed links, or even existence

The PHP options should not be guaranteed in any existing setting.

But if I sell a book with those options in the players guide there should be a setting where any of the options in the player's guide is valid and intrinsically linked to that setting to the point that it matters otherwise they don't belong in the player's guide.

 

[Maxperson]

Halflings don’t have any “deep connections” to Middle Earth either. The vast majority of people don’t know they exist, and they don’t appear in any of the histories until the affair with the Ring.

Further, with Greyhawk there are several countries with enough halfling and gnome population to list their populations in multiple thousands. That's as deep a connection as pretty much any other race that isn't human.

 

[Hussar]

He can already have both.

No. I really, really can't. What dragonborn community is within a hundred miles of Phandelver? Saltmarsh? The Free City of Greyhawk? Waterdeep? What Tiefling community exists within the same circles? In canon if you please. Make stuff up is certainly an answer. Sure. We're all capable of doing that. But, again, I don't want to just make stuff up. What's the point of playing a published setting if I have to just "make stuff up"?

The whole point of using a published setting is that I DON'T make stuff up. I use what's there. I leverage the connections built into the setting.

I want to leverage what is already there. I don't want to make stuff up. If I'm going to just make stuff up, I might as well not bother using the setting.

 

[Hussar]

Further, with Greyhawk there are several countries with enough halfling and gnome population to list their populations in multiple thousands. That's as deep a connection as pretty much any other race that isn't human.

How many of those countries list a Dragonborn or Tiefling or Goliath population?

 

[Maxperson]

That would be the Shire if you are a hobbit.

Bree also had a lot of hobbits.

There are exactly two halflings outside of the Shire - on the entire planet. And only one is actually a relative. And they don’t know anything about the places they visit, aside from Frodo who has read a little in books and seen some maps. They don’t even know the truth about their own home, that it is protected by rangers.

Nah. There are a lot in Bree and I'm pretty sure they see some there. I don't recall any populations further out than that, but there are at least the Shire and Bree that they could be from and were known.

Gimili doesn’t encounter any other dwarves after setting out on his adventure for that matter either, and the only dwarf place he passes through turns out to be not what he expected to find at all.

But dwarves are known. They travel and have business in other places than their homelands.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

No. I really, really can't. What dragonborn community is within a hundred miles of Phandelver? Saltmarsh? The Free City of Greyhawk? Waterdeep? What Tiefling community exists within the same circles? In canon if you please. Make stuff up is certainly an answer. Sure. We're all capable of doing that. But, again, I don't want to just make stuff up. What's the point of playing a published setting if I have to just "make stuff up"?

The whole point of using a published setting is that I DON'T make stuff up. I use what's there. I leverage the connections built into the setting.

I want to leverage what is already there. I don't want to make stuff up. If I'm going to just make stuff up, I might as well not bother using the setting.

There is never going to be a published setting so detailed that there is no stuff to make up or not have gaps where stuff needs to be made up. I believe I would not be very interested in one like that. Too much information is worse than too little.
A setting book, is akin to a colouring book, it gives the outlines, and one chooses what colours to fill in.
From a setting book I want maps, interesting locations (with some lore about why they are interesting), ongoing conflicts, factions and some notable npcs. Campaign frames and adventure outlines (with more maps) are good also but in a given campaign I expect to be making most of the stuff up, unless I am using prewritten campaigns or single adventures and even there I am making up hooks and connective material, random encounters and the like.

 

[Maxperson]

although, if you did make a 'made for 5e' setting, they wouldn't need to keep being that.

It's called the Forgotten Realms, where every race has sizeable populations somewhere. Even Dragonborn. For Dragonborn it's just not on the Sword Coast.

 

[Maxperson]

But this Dragonborn community wouldnt be part of the Human community. They would be neighboring governments. Presumably, there would also be nondragonborn species that are members of this Dragonborn culture.

It's not called Eleven towns. It's Ten Towns because that's all that are there.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, there's 25000 people in Neverwinter alone and that's only a few days travel from Phandelver. Leilon is 3000 and that's about the same distance. Triboar is about 2500 and that's a few days to the east. So, within a 100 mile radius from Phandelver, you've got about 35000 people. Suddenly having a hundred dragonborn isn't all that much.

And there probably are that many. All spread around that 100 mile radius. A few in Phandelver. A few dozen in Neverwinter. Some in Leilon. Some in Triboar.