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At this point, most of the people I know in person playing are women.

How many similar counterexamples can be supplied, however? Tailoring mechanics for a given Setting is as old as RPGs, but Eberron is kind of an odd duck in being derived from the mechanics...and it has survived well beyond that original mechanical context.

Based on WotC Instagram activity, someone in corporate agrees.

In terms of quality, not necessarily: but to call Wheel of Time, Dune, or Foundation obscure is...not accurate. Wheel of Time and Duje actually achieve the level of mainstream successes, for novels. Wheel of Time was at the time a massive "four quadrant" hit (meaning younger people and women...

Yes, but there hasn't been any barrier to the Setting expressed outside that mechanical context.

Dune has sold 20 million copies for just the first novel, and is literally the best selling science fiction book of all time. Wheel of Time has sold over 90 million copies, or 6 million copies per book on average (obviously going yo be weighted towards the earlier books and the standalone...

Mayhe not the best movie qua movie set in the Star Trek universe, but itnis certainly the theatrical movie that felt most like a good solid episode of Star Trek

Definitely would agree with that: but this is not terribly mechanical as such.

I'd say the well received practical application of Eberron in multiple mechanical expressions demonstrates that saying Eberron was merely an expression of 3.5 mechanics is incorrect, even if that was the brief from Corporate.

I'd say that proves his point by supplying a secret fourth possibility not dictated by the mechanics.

I can think of innumerable examples, actually, from Chaosium taking Runequest rules and making them work for superheros and Call of Cthulu down to the recent Plotweaver designs coming from Brotherwise. Midgard is extremely cool, and worth a read through. It has an evil Ottoman style empire...

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. The DMG already has Greyhawk in it. Honestly, that brief for Eberron was always silly, but the result was good...

Mechanics express Setting, not the other way around.

By my reckoning, WotC released something like 10 Settings over the past decade, fully half of which were new to D&D (Ravnica, Theros, and Strixhaven) or even straight up original (Wildemoint and counting the league worlds of Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel as one group Setting). The key...

I mean, with third party publishing there have been approximately as many published 5E Settings as there are stars in the sky.

Yeah, it really is perfect for thisnpurpose: has identifiable lore and plenty of hooks, but no sacrosanct literary story or definite character arcs to bow down to. But, that means more work.

That is a potentially cool high Level hook: and the "civilized" neighbors of Thar are all terrible, so ripe for player...intervention.

I think by the 2024 update Feats soer of subsumed what they had been thinking of woth Supernatural Gifts.

Well, yes, but I would say that middle ground is a solid 320 page book like Ravnica (the unsung hero of 5E setting products, also an example of.jow to do divergent concept Settigns with D&D) or Eberron got.

Yeah, I think the Spellfire and Circle casting demonstrate a willingness to offer some bespoke subsystems...and achieving wE AD&D standards of balance and integration is a low bar.