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

[Maxperson]

That can be too. Tho I understand the Ten Towns to be one Human culture. At the same time, there are many immigrants to the Towns, including from other Human cultures.

There's not one culture. Some of the town are insular and distrusting of outsiders. Some less so. Some feud with one another have have a fish culture. Others don't.

Note any species can be members of a culture.

Yep. I didn't say each town had a different human culture. I simply said the towns were not really one culture or government. The loose confederation is one of necessity, and not all that tight. Sort of like how I would help my neighbors out and talk with them about neighborhood issues, but we aren't all one family.

 

[Yaarel]

There's not one culture. Some of the town are insular and distrusting of outsiders. Some less so. Some feud with one another have have a fish culture. Others don't.

Fair enough, I agree they are diverse locally. Still, American towns can be isolationist, feuding, fishing, etcetera and still belong to the same national culture.

I tend to think of the Ten Towns as a fusion of realife circumpolar cultures, including Inuit, Saami, various Siberian groups. So some diversity makes sense albeit ten towns is a tight amount of space.

Yep. I didn't say each town had a different human culture. I simply said the towns were not really one culture or government. The loose confederation is one of necessity, and not all that tight. Sort of like how I would help my neighbors out and talk with them about neighborhood issues, but we aren't all one family.

In any case, the Towns are Human-founded. A nearby Dragonborn community need not be part of it, especially if its local language is Draconic.

 

[Epic Meepo]

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.

I can't speak for every setting, but in the Forgotten Realms, aasimar, dragonborn, and tieflings have had strong ties to certain deities active throughout Faerun since 3e at the latest. They don't always have monocultural nations, but they do have organic, setting-cannon reasons to congregate at various temples found throughout Faerun (some within 100 miles of Phandelver). And those who do congregate at temples would inherit the cultural and political ties associated with those institutions.

None of which is an argument against a new setting with newer PHB species baked into it from the start. I just wanted to observe that newer PHB species only seem out of place in the Realms because 5e Realms products tend to ignore information about those species which dates back to 3e. Even goliaths get a few passing mentions in 3e Realms products.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Doric, the druid tielfling (played by Sophia Lilis) from the action-live movie was daughter of humans.

Some big city could have got a neighbours with people from other cultures like Chinatown in San Francisco.

The official origin of the dragonborns from Greyhawk is different. This is told in 3.5 "Races of Dragons"

How to explain it? Marvel and DC always can create a new superheroe, but this to become popular has to offer something that was fresh, new and interesting. WotC can create dozens of new settings, but one with enough brand power is a different thing. They can't spend a lot of effort for an idea that could fall into the oblivion too soon.

With Spelljamer you can create worlds with the population you wanted.

Rin-Lagath from Chronomancer AD&D could become a setting. Maybe it needs start with some adventure.

 

[Maxperson]

Fair enough, I agree they are diverse locally. Still, American towns can be isolationist, feuding, fishing, etcetera and still belong to the same national culture.

I'm not sure that's true. Cultures vary wildly from state to state and even city to city within states. Small towns that are more isolated are even more varied. As for a national culture, there's a lot of disagreement about what that means across the U.S. We are a large and varied nation, and have encouraged that variation for a long time.

I tend to think of the Ten Towns as a fusion of realife circumpolar cultures, including Inuit, Saami, various Siberian groups. So some diversity makes sense albeit ten towns is a tight amount of space.

Yeah. I can see that. But even two different Inuit villages can have varying beliefs. Look at old Egypt. Every village tended to have its own personal gods on top of any national ones. That caused a lot of local variation in cultures.

In any case, the Towns are Human-founded. A nearby Dragonborn community need not be part of it, especially if its local language is Draconic.

The area is small enough that an eleventh village, even if not part of the Ten Towns council, would be noted in the lore. It's a desolate area and the Ten Towns banded together in that loos confederation for that very reason. It's extremely unlikely that there are other towns nearby.

You're better off sticking a dragonborn family within one of the towns and tying your story to the written lore of the area that way.

 

[Zardnaar]

4e ensured that every setting had a context for Dragonborn and Tiefling. And players complained that the settings were being retconned. 5e has a light touch that relies on the DM to make sense of these species. And players complained that there is not enough context. I assume these are different players complaining in different play style camps.

With regard to setting, I prefer the light touch with suggestive description for inspiration but that allows the DM to make the setting ones own.



The Players Handbook has four species beyond old school. Awsimar, Tiefling, Dragonborn, and Goliath. The setting assumptions for each differ, albeit all descriptions are versatile. It is the job of the DM to decide how to integrate them into an ongoing setting that had not yet encountered them.

Awsimar and Tiefling are opposite each other, Celestial and Fiend, but both are Astrals with moreorless the same story. They are born sporadically into any Humanoid species, into any family in any culture. The Astrals lack their own cultures, besides the ones they happen to grow up into. These are Astral alignment magic becoming Material souls of flesh and blood. Notably, they are only born to Humanoids, thus the alignment magic seems to respond to Humanoid alignment behavior. As DM, I have the birth of each one be ominous, a sign indicating that the overall weight of alignment actions of a community has recently shifted toward Good or Evil respectively.

Dragons reproduce Dragonborn magically. These are Dragons imbued with a Humanoid soul. I am unsure how to characterize Dragons. At the moment I understand them as personifications of the Elemental Chaos and the roiling potential elemental energies there. Is some sense they are their breath weapon taking on a form of life. Dragons are an ancient, even primordial, creature in most D&D settings. In any case, Dragonborn are Dragons with a Humanoid soul.

What makes Humanoids unique is ones soul exists simultaneously in every level of existence, especially Material, Ethereal, and Astral. For example, the difference between a Fey Eladrin and a Humanoid eladrin is, the Fey lacks an Astral soul. The Fey soul is a kind of Positive Material soul with an Ethereal soul influence. Being Humanoid has pragmatic characteristics, including a Material body, capacity of speech, and the ability to learn and form cultures. But there is also a mysterious mystical microcosmic aspect of a Humanoid soul that fascinates other creature types.

Dragons create Dragonborn because of the multiversal interconnectivity of a Humanoid soul. Dragons helped form the Material Plane, and want to be part of how it develops. Dragonborn individuals can appear anywhere Dragons are. But there is also a sense of native Dragonborn cultures that include diverse species of Dragons as ancestors. So even in a single household parents can reproduce children each exhibiting the atavistic traits of a different species of Dragon. Such pan-dragon cultures would be noticeable. If characters were unaware of the Dragonborn, it is because their cultures are somewhere else on the planet. In Oerth, Dragon Island is a homeland. In Toril, Tymander is a homeland.

Goliaths are in a similar situation as Dragonborn but with ancient cultures that survive in environments that are too harsh for Human communities. They live alongside Giants. Goliaths are often reputed to be "half giants", but actually are Giants who gained Humanoid souls during unclear circumstances.

No one gave a crap about Nerath.

FR and Darksun they used the nuclear shoehorn approach.

 

[Yaarel]

As for a national culture, there's a lot of disagreement about what that means across the U.S. We are a large and varied nation, and have encouraged that variation for a long time.

What makes America America is it is a tapestry woven out of multicultural threads. The tapestry is unique. In the new context, the cultural threads resemble less their places of origin.

Yeah. I can see that. But even two different Inuit villages can have varying beliefs. Look at old Egypt. Every village tended to have its own personal gods on top of any national ones. That caused a lot of local variation in cultures.

I am comfortable with each Town being diverse.

The area is small enough that an eleventh village, even if not part of the Ten Towns council, would be noted in the lore.

Probably true that nearby would be notable. However, there are uncharted regions here in the far north of Faerun. The Silver-White Dragonborn can inhabit areas that are too inhospitable for Humans.

Apparently, there is an Aeven Drow civilization somewhere around here, marked on no map, albeit that community is intentionally secretive.

In the case of the "Cold" Dragonborn, the community exists where Humans dont really want to be.

You're better off sticking a dragonborn family within one of the towns and tying your story to the written lore of the area that way.

The Ten Towns include immigrants from elsewhere. Dragonborn are no problem. That said. I expect a prominent Dragonborn civilization somewhere on planet Toril.

 

[Maxperson]

The Ten Towns include immigrants from elsewhere. Dragonborn are no problem. That said. I expect a prominent Dragonborn civilization somewhere on planet Toril.

There is one.

 

[Yaarel]

There is one.

It isnt clear that Tymanther is still there except a single city that remains impressive.

If Forgotten Realms has something like a dragon council where all the species convene to adjudicate Dragon affairs, there could be a major Dragonborn presence there.

 

[Maxperson]

It isnt clear that Tymanther is still there except a single city that remains impressive.

It's clear that there is more than one dragonborn population there.

"Unther suddenly returned to Faerfun a few years ago and promptly went to war against Tymanther. The realm has since been reduced to small tracts mainly along the coast of the Alamber Sea and Ash Lake."

That's multiple areas along two different bodies of water, including a major city with a port and a beast to defend it that the entire country of Unther cannot defeat.