D&D 5E D&D Needs New Settings

[Minigiant]

So a setting like Brithrights Cerilia or the Pathfinders Kingdom buildings rules?

Yes but more.

Less domain management more relationship management.

I'd want a setting where adventurers are hired because manpower is spent on the warfront but the nobllity still have big plans. The local lord hires the party to kill the orcs because the king levied most of his armies and he has little to send out. Noble siblingss fight to be hier and the party is forced to enter the web of vassal and marriages that take over court using the skills a 7th level fighter, rogue, wizard, and cleric might bring to, for lack a better term, many games of thrones. I want a setting where the monsters and traps are the easy part.

Noble: This siege is taking forever.
Wizard: Got it.

Crack-BOOM!! Crash!

Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Other Noble: Hmmmm...
Fighter: He's got a sister, right?
Cleric: The nunnery is getting full, mate. Plus they are starting to notice a pattern.
Rogue: Hide the sister. On it.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I have said some times in the past Hasbro's plans are about multimedia franchises, this means using an IP for different products. toys, comics, board games, videogames, comics, media productions.

Hasbro could buy more companies in the future, maybe roleplay publishers or videogame studios, but also some cinema producer. Maybe some franchise from other source could be added later to the D&D canon.

My suggestion is a transitional setting about chronomancers, time spheres and alternate timelines.

 

[Aldarc]

Rather than starting from some sort of high concept setting, I'd like to see something built around 5e itself and its quirks. Eberron was a setting that leaned into the assumptions of 3rd Edition D&D, particularly magic items and item creation. Likewise Nentir Vale/Nerath was a setting that essentially formed around the assumptions of 4th Edition D&D. I would ideally like to see a new setting that leaned into 5e D&D's assumptions. Exandria is not that setting, as it was built from a hodge-podge of 4e & PF1 & 5e assumptions.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

But the creation of new crunch in 5th Ed. is very slow. We know nothing about the possible new base classes with new or updated old mechanics (martial adepts, vestige pact, incarnum..).

Chris Perkins' Iomandra is practically a revival of Council of Wyrm. Maybe they have to choose about what true dragons to be added to the last edition.

Today WotC would rather to create new settings for both, Magic: the Gathering and D&D. Why only for D&D? It is a matter about branding managing.

Other option would be a new setting, but based in a videogame by some WotC's studio.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Just to clarify, I do not mean that D&D needs new books for M:tG settings, or settings from previous editions, or anything else that already exists. I mean, D&D needs completely new, official settings created by WotC (at least one). What do you think? What would you like to see if they were to make another setting?

Well, you can make all kinds of really amazing new settings, but there's a problem or two. For starters, not everyone has the same taste. Some people WANT the good 'ol reliable pseudo-european-medieval trope for their game. Some people WANT more anime in their fantasy, others DESPISE the idea. Some want politics and intrigue, while others just want a light framework to murderhobo in. Etc. And obviously you have to SELL the new setting, and you want to sell to as many people as possible, because it's a hobby to your customers but YOU're in this to make money. Every new setting competes to one extent or another with all the settings that came before it, either because products are still available somewhere (even if secondhand) or because people own it already - and actual setting is largely independent of game mechanics. And if you're actively selling multiple settings/supporting products at the same time that's especially true. Couple that with other publishers selling their own...

That said, for a "traditional" setting I'd go all-in on a new Greyhawk for the new (well, 20 years old now) millenium because I've been well over the impossibly over-sold and over-developed FR for nearly that long.

For something sorta new I'd say Spelljammer. NOT to connect other settings with, or indeed have a FREAKIN' thing to do with any other setting, but to exist as an isolated new setting all of it's own. I don't want to play Spelljammer to play Forgotten Realms, or Dragonlance, or Greyhawk, etc. I want to play Spelljammer to PLAY SPELLJAMMER.

As D&D moves to the idea that you can build the PC you want, it should support settings that shine bright lights on the advantages and disadvantages of how your characters are made and how they act codified in rules and lore players fully know when they step into the setting.

I found much to agree with in your post.

 

[Parmandur]

Because sometimes new things are cool and interesting. If they were to make a new setting with fresh ideas, it would get more hype than just a reprint of a M:tG setting or redone setting from a previous edition and bring something new to the game.

Oh, I did not mean to dismiss Wildemount as a setting, I am really very fond of it and have done a campaign in it already. I agree that it is a new setting in D&D, and its great that we have it officially now. I would love to see more 5e content for Exandria. However, WotC did not make it. It is a homebrew setting that has now entered the D&D "canon," which is great, but IMO it doesn't count as a "new setting."

A new setting for D&D, IMHO, would be made by WotC, possibly while collaborating with the original designer (like how Eberron came about).

I'm not sure what specifically the community would like and which setting would be best if brought to D&D, but here are some examples of niches that could have a setting:

• Modern. With technology, the internet, and magic. Like this.
• Underwater. A water world with aquatic races and peoples.
• Feudal/political. Different conflicting nations in a medieval type world. It would be different from the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, where magic is extremely rare and possibly even seen as a myth or legend.
• Psionic Eberron. Basically a world where instead of magic and artifice being their technology, psionics is their technology.
• Lovecraftian world. Basically an aberrant-horror setting.

There's a lot of others that I'm sure I could think of if I were to give more time to it. There is a lack of a world that has a major dream-realm connected to it (Dal Quor doesn't count, I mean a dream realm that doesn't have worm-crabs in it), or a medieval type fey-touched realm, and so on. There are design spaces that could be filled with new worlds. If you can't think of any, you need to think outside of the box.

The main issue here is that basically all of those suggestions can either be fulfilled by going to legacy D&D or M:tG Settings. I like new Settings, but the only way I see them doing an actually new Setting is if they do a cross-media simultaneous rollout for both D&D and Magic.

 

[Parmandur]

Rather than starting from some sort of high concept setting, I'd like to see something built around 5e itself and its quirks. Eberron was a setting that leaned into the assumptions of 3rd Edition D&D, particularly magic items and item creation. Likewise Nentir Vale/Nerath was a setting that essentially formed around the assumptions of 4th Edition D&D. I would ideally like to see a new setting that leaned into 5e D&D's assumptions. Exandria is not that setting, as it was built from a hodge-podge of 4e & PF1 & 5e assumptions.

Interesting idea, but with 5E eschewing a Simulation isn't approach, there isn't really a logical emergent Setting to be found there, I think. The edition was designed to for the traditional Settings like FR and Greyhawk in a fuzzy way. Wildemount's hodge-podge history might already be the perfect reflection of that.

 

[darjr]

Id love it if they did someplace new in the planes. Something like the city of doors or city of brass but can be low level. Maybe a realm adrift in the Astral Sea. Or another planar city in an hospitable place.

 

[Aldarc]

Interesting idea, but with 5E eschewing a Simulation isn't approach, there isn't really a logical emergent Setting to be found there, I think. The edition was designed to for the traditional Settings like FR and Greyhawk in a fuzzy way. Wildemount's hodge-podge history might already be the perfect reflection of that.

I disagree, but I see little to be gained from arguing about it.

 

[R_J_K75]

Hit us with a colonial world, or a world based on the myths of the First Nations etc.

They already did that with Maztica. I cant remember how much colonialism was introduced in the original box set, supporting adventures and novels, but the new Faerunin colnies in Maztica got write up in one of the books in the Lands of Intrigue boxed set.