WotC Why WotC SHOULD Make A New Setting

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's the other foot. I don't want D&D to be the floor wax and dessert topping system. I want D&D to do D&D well and other games to handle horror or low magic or Apocalypse wasteland.

I realize this is a controversial stance. But I find D&D tries too hard to be everything to everyone and ends up doing none of it as well as it could. So I would rather a tighter focused game that does what it does well than a game that everyone treats as their second favorite RPG.

I suspect it's way too late to get the genie back in the bottle on this one, but D&D would definitely be stronger as a game and probably as a brand if it specialized a bit more.

That said, getting anyone to agree on what that specialization would be is almost impossible. There are paying customers who want to use D&D for every type of game, no matter the challenges it might present.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't think it is. I think the looser the fluff in the core book, the more freedom both designers and GMs have in creating worlds. Forcing them to strip stuff out first makes no sense.

But your still stripping stuff out regardless. I'd rather the game give me a default place for a samurai or a psion or a tabaxi then to dump the options into the next player book and tell DMs "you figure out where it fits."

 

[DEFCON 1]

That said, getting anyone to agree on what that specialization would be is almost impossible. There are paying customers who want to use D&D for every type of game, no matter the challenges it might present.

Ding!

Which is why I have no idea why people are so dead-set on wanting D&D to be this singular, tightly-focused game of theirs. Why D&D and not any other game? What's wrong with all the other hundreds of RPGs out there? Why does it have to be D&D? Because it's the ubiquitous one? The one everyone knows? But so what? What difference does that make?

There's zero reason why any particular game master shouldn't find a game that fits their idea of the tight, focused, roleplay experience they are looking for and then get players for it and play it... D&D or no. It doesn't HAVE to be D&D. And if it turns out that the game master CAN'T find players to play this tight, focused, roleplay experience they are looking for... then perhaps their idea of that kind of game just isn't worth playing. And if that's the case... turning D&D into that game is completely pointless.

D&D is just a roleplaying game. No better and no worse than any other roleplaying game. So there's no reason to turn it into something it's not. Especially if people want that change for no other reason than because they want "Dungeons & Dragons" to be their uber-game. You don't need it to be.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Which is why I have no idea why people are so dead-set on wanting D&D to be this singular, tightly-focused game of theirs. Why D&D and not any other game?

Most other modern games are focused. I suppose we can go to the hospital room, wake up the comatose form of GURPS and yell at it, but for games that are popular in 2026, D&D and Pathfinder stand out for how unfocused they are.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

WotC have done a new setting. It’s called Radiant Citadel.

 

[Scribe]

Why does it have to be D&D? Because it's the ubiquitous one? The one everyone knows? But so what? What difference does that make?

This is exactly why people want it. They want 'their' version, 'their' gameplay with 'their' tone, immortalized and validated by the 800lb gorilla.

Not that it would make for a better actual game, there are multiple better games. People want the brand name recognition, that is all, for the vast majority.

Now, there is also a desire for the 800lb gorilla to flex its muscle, and produce something new, to see if those resources that dwarf everyone else, likely combined, can actually produce something as timeless as the settings they grave rob from 2e...but for most?

Brand.

 

[mamba]

Yeah and that's the problem.

Have you seen how the lore of elves is basically nothing? That's because they aren't allowed to have a culture because every setting has a unique culture for them that doesn't mesh with any other. If D&D had one setting (let's just use Greyhawk as the example) you could talk about elves coming from common homeland, having a common culture and unique traditions that elves from that land share.

not seeing the problem here, put the Elf crunch in the PHB, put the fluff in the setting book, then not every elf in every world has to be essentially the same

 

[DEFCON 1]

This is exactly why people want it. They want 'their' version, 'their' gameplay with 'their' tone, immortalized and validated by the 800lb gorilla.

Not that it would make for a better actual game, there are multiple better games. People want the brand name recognition, that is all, for the vast majority.

Now, there is also a desire for the 800lb gorilla to flex its muscle, and produce something new, to see if those resources that dwarf everyone else, likely combined, can actually produce something as timeless as the settings they grave rob from 2e...but for most?

Brand.

People should stop wasting their own time if you ask me, LOL! One either likes the brand or they don't. Hoping for, or trying to change a brand into what one likes is silly.

 

[Scribe]

People should stop wasting their own time if you ask me, LOL! One either likes the brand or they don't. Hoping for, or trying to change a brand into what one likes is silly.

And yet, it seems its happening with the Greyhawk book, and so hope for those who just cannot quit D&D, springs eternal.

 

[Tonguez]

WotC have done a new setting. It’s called Radiant Citadel.

It would be cool to see a series of Radiant Citadel anthologies, that both expand existing and add new concord worlds thus allowing any and all settings to be tied in.