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

Parmandur · 2025-11-15T15:55:18+0000

Reynard said:
I'm not sure what your argument here is. Are you saying there should not be a setting built around the mechanics as presented in the core rules, or that there could not be?

Both/and/or/neither. I don't think it is a coherent goal. Mechanics are designed to be molded at the service of rendering a Setting, the Setting does not arise from the mechanics.

Reynard said:
Any number (literally) of things could make a theoretical new setting unique. The only constraint is "if it is in 5.5E, it is in this setting" -- just like Eberron did with 3.5. it doesn't mean the setting would be limited to that, or that it somehow had to use all the adventures and stuff that came before

The DMG already has Greyhawk in it. Honestly, that brief for Eberron was always silly, but the result was good because Baker, Wyatt, Perkins, Slaviccsek and company put a lot of work into making it quality.

Reynard said:
Here is an interesting question I had not thought of: does either LevelUp or ToV have a bespoke setting mae for those 5E games? I know Kobold has their Midgard setting, but I believe that setting was originally created for Pathfinder or 3.5 (I think).

Midgard was created for AD&D 2E: it was Wolfgang Baur's office game at TSR, where he used all the ideas they felt management would never sign off on in an official product. He then took his notes and ran with them under the OGL when he left WotC.

Reynard · 2025-11-15T15:58:06+0000

Parmandur said:
Both/and/or/neither. I don't think it is a coherent goal. Mechanics are designed to be molded at the service of rendering a Setting, the Setting does not arise from the mechanics.

I don't think that is a compelling argument or has any real examples to back it up. You CAN create bespoke emchanics for a setting of course, but you can also craft a setting to meet mechanics.

Parmandur said:
The DMG already has Greyhawk in it. Honestly, that brief for Eberron was always silly, but the result was good because Baker, Wyatt, Perkins, Slaviccsek and company put a lot of work into making it quality.

They worked within a design constraint -- which almost always benefits the final product.

Parmandur said:
Midgard was created for AD&D 2E: it was Wolfgang Baur's office game at TSR, where he used all the ideas they felt management would never sign off on in an official product. He then took his notes and ran with them under the OGL when he left WotC.

I did not realize that Midgard was a home campaign. Cool.

Marandahir · 2025-11-15T15:59:18+0000

That's Greyhawk.

They didn't really use it until the Revised Edition.

OB1 · 2025-11-15T16:06:14+0000

Reynard said:
Between Realms threads and Dark.Sun speculation, I am more and more convinced that every edition of D&D needs a(t least one) bespoke setting. 5E never really got one -- it experimented with MtG settings, but there was no Dragonlance or Eberron if you understand my meaning.

Instead of shoehorning all the 5.5 mechanics and species and vibes into old settings, WotC should design a setting especially FOR 5.5E and it's target market.

I’d argue that Exandria/ Wildmount is the bespoke 5e setting.

Reynard · 2025-11-15T16:07:21+0000

Marandahir said:
That's Greyhawk.

They didn't really use it until the Revised Edition.

The Greyhawk as presented in the DMG is interesting because it does not talk about character options or other mechanical elements at all. I suppose one could take that to mean that they are saying yes, if it is in 5.5E it is in Greyhawk. But we all know that GH is the OG setting (or other OG setting, I guess) and you are going to have to do some real work to make it make sense in the milieu as presented in the core rule books.

Which is the point of the thread: rather than do that, build a setting that embraces the edition as it is designed.

Reynard · 2025-11-15T16:08:46+0000

OB1 said:
I’d argue that Exandria/ Wildmount is the bespoke 5e setting.

That is interesting. I do not own either of those books. Can you tell me a little bit about them? (I am familiar with the setting via Vox Machina and that is about the extent of it, btw.)

SkidAce · 2025-11-15T16:13:09+0000

Paul Farquhar said:
... E.g. clerics get their spells from the gods, there are no gods and clerics get their spells from the elements, there may or may not be gods and we don't know where clerics get their power from. These are all true in 5e core rules, but mutually exclusive in a setting. Ergo you could not build a setting that faithfully represented 5e core rules.

I understand what you are saying. But in actuality that's exactly how gods work in my setting...all three options...i.e. they could all be true, neither of the three sides can prove their point.

Generally settings do kinda nail things like that down however.

UngainlyTitan · 2025-11-15T16:16:43+0000

TiQuinn said:
I’d kill for a 5e Modern setting and sourcebook.

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.

bedir than · 2025-11-15T16:19:44+0000

Reynard said:
Every edition of D&D does things slightly (or not so slightly) differently, with different emphasis and design goals, and a different audience, to boot. Building a setting based on the mechanics of that edition/version allows them to highlight those elements, as opposed to getting in the perpetual loop of "how do we add dragonborn to this setting that was made 50 years ago?"

Parmandur said:
Mechanics express Setting, not the other way around.

Under the 5e WotC paradigm mechanics don't tell you about the setting. The setting doesn't tell you about mechanics.
Mechanics are for players and adventures, not for the physics or politics of the world.

Charlaquin · 2025-11-15T16:26:22+0000

Parmandur said:
Mechanics express Setting, not the other way around.

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

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

Parmandur

Book-Friend, he/him

Reynard

aka Ian Eller

Marandahir

Crown-Forester (he/him)

OB1

Jedi Master

Reynard

aka Ian Eller

Reynard

aka Ian Eller

SkidAce

Legend

UngainlyTitan

Legend

bedir than

Full Moon Storyteller

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

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