WotC Why WotC SHOULD Make A New Setting

[Corinnguard]

Urban Fantasy is a very specific niche that tends to involve secret groups in the modern day, particularly in the romance side, with those beings living secretly. Tends to go into romance. Vampire is the obvious example when it comes to RPGs

Ravnica is a giant city-wide Standard Fantasy City that is not modern and does not play into anything like that

Its way, way off

In the Allison Beckstrom series by Devon Monk, magic was 'discovered' 30 years ago by Allison's father. In reality, her father did a Prometheus by revealing it to the world. He was secretly a member of wizard organization known only as the Authority. This organization hid it after it was deliberately 'broken' into Light and Dark magic centuries ago.

Magic in this setting is learned through several disciplines- Life, Death, Blood, Faith and Flux. Flux is the newest discipline of magic and it's basically what Artificers do in D&D, combine tech and magic together.

The series takes place in Portland, Oregon.

 

[bedir than]

Go to your local book store and look at the fantasy fiction shelves. The stuff that looks like the kind of settings WotC produces is probably collectively a little more than half of what I see at my local Barnes & Noble. And that means there's a lot of popular fantasy fiction that WotC isn't putting out any stuff for.

Somewhat Romantic and not the vibe of Eberron, but maybe adjacent -- the Grishaverse is 20 million books sold.

Fourth Wing, Emperyan series, very Romantic, but also Dragonlancey adjacent is about 12 million and with demographics quite desirable to WotC.

Percy Jackson stuff fits the D&D vibe (Birthrighty mostly with Urban Fantasy) but isn't really done in 5e yet. It sold about 180 million. Also, I think a unique rule for this would also fit The Magicians and several other modern urban fantasy series.

There's a lot of big, long running series that don't quite fit Realms and the barely fleshed things with tens to hundreds of millions of potential fans.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article is "Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in a contemporary urban-affected setting". That is precisely what it says. Vampire and the other World of Darkness stuff is Urban Fantasy. The only time D&D was ever urban fantasy was back with Urban Arcana, hence the name.

Ravnica (RaVnica, not RaBnica. I don't mean to pick on typos but its the second time) is not contemporary

All the words mean things, including "affected", and contemporary is contradicted in the same article later on.

Ravnica absolutely uses Urbanite affectation to make the setting familiar to a modern reader, allowing the magical elements to exist in contrast.

It is absurd to argue that it isnt urban fantasy.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Look, both of you are obviously intentionally arguing the term for some sort of internet points. Congratulations. You win. The rest of us, who actually go to the book store, will simply smile, nod, and wave at you as you wander.

Mod Note:

And @doctorbadwolf @Parmandur

For the sake of keeping this thread relatively calm,
1) Can we dial things back a notch and

2) don’t call stuff out in thread, report it.

 

[Parmandur]

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article is "Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in a contemporary urban-affected setting". That is precisely what it says. Vampire and the other World of Darkness stuff is Urban Fantasy. The only time D&D was ever urban fantasy was back with Urban Arcana, hence the name.

Ravnica (RaVnica, not RaBnica. I don't mean to pick on typos but its the second time) is not contemporary

Thanks for the hot tip on the spelling.

If you read past the first sentence and get into the meat of the article, here are the characteristics of Urban Fantasy, which seem to fit Ravncia as present din the Guild asters Guide:

"Urban fantasy combines imaginary/unrealistic elements of plot, character, theme, or setting with a largely-familiar world—combining the familiar and the strange. The world does not have to imitate the real world, but can instead be set in a different world or time. Such elements may exist secretly in the world or may occur openly. Fantastic components may be magic, paranormal beings, recognizable mythic or folk-tale plots, or thematic tropes (such as a quest, or a battle of good and evil). Authors may use current urban myths, borrow fictional technologies, or even invent occult practices, as well as using established supernatural characters and events from folklore, literature, film, or comics."

" The urban component is usually found in the setting—typically a large or small city—or even a suburban community in a metropolitan area. Use of contemporary technology (such as automotive vehicles or communications) and everyday community and social institutions (such as libraries, schools/universities, or markets) establish a familiar context. The period in which the action occurs may be the fairly recent past or the near future, but will typically require merely only casual historical or other special knowledge from the reader. The city-setting is a tool; used to establish a tone, to help move the plot, and may even be acknowledged as a character itself."

 

[Parmandur]

Look, both of you are obviously intentionally arguing the term for some sort of internet points. Congratulations. You win. The rest of us, who actually go to the book store, will simply smile, nod, and wave at you as you wander.

I'm just going off the Wikipedia article provided, and comparing it to the urban fantasy Setting that WotC did put out for 5E.

 

[Corinnguard]

All the words mean things, including "affected", and contemporary is contradicted in the same article later on.

Ravnica absolutely uses Urbanite affectation to make the setting familiar to a modern reader, allowing the magical elements to exist in contrast.

It is absurd to argue that it isnt urban fantasy.

As long as it takes place in a contemporary urban center within a setting, it can be considered Urban Fantasy. This sub-genre is also known as Modern Fantasy.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

As long as it takes place in a contemporary urban center within a setting, it can be considered Urban Fantasy. This sub-genre is also known as Modern Fantasy.

Modern fantasy is even more broad than urban fantasy, to be fair.

And it doesnt have to be contemporary, it just needs the vibe of a modern (a broader term than many think, including for instance Victorian) inspired setting, and while many of yhe most famous examples have the (hidden magic) element, not all do and some instead use the magical elements to accomplish the contemporary technology vibe.

The primary features are;

• Familiarity via urban and contemporary affect
• The urban enviroment as a sort of character in its own right
• Magic contrasting with the setting

-- either by magic being hidden or by having magic streetlights or whatever

 

[Corinnguard]

Despite being known as a cyberpunk RPG, the Shadowrun RPG is also an Urban Fantasy RPG.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Unless, of course, their existing settings are the niches, by today's standards

Playing in a published setting rather than homebrew is the niche. WotC aren’t going to attract any new players by churning out yet another generic fantasyland.