D&D General Do THIS, WotC!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most of these suggestions are for WotC to bring back something old. That old stuff already exists, and can be readily adapted if desired. I don't think I've been excited by anything WotC has produced since Eberron, and I would have been excited for a Nentir Vale setting. I kind of want them to do something new.

Not that I believe that they're currently capable of making something new that I'd be excited about. But I'd still prefer them to try rather than warm up the leftovers.

I haven't loved everything WotC has put out in the 5E era, by any means (most of my D&D book shelf is third party stuff), but aren't Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, Wild Beyond the Witchlight, The Book of Many Things, Keys from the Golden Vault and Dragon Delves "new?"

Or are you looking for something more radically different?

 

[Corinnguard]

Maybe, but I was just thinking there's a dearth of modern urban fantasy RPGs, but Dimension 20's The Unsleeping City and Fantasy High campaigns show that 5E can be made to work relatively easily. And D&D is well positioned to be the big dog in that space, by virtue of already being in so many mainstream bookstores, etc.

Modern-day RPGs: urban fantasy

A list of 70 urban fantasy roleplaying systems and supplements, including Dresden Files, Liminal, Urban Shadows, Unknown Armies, and Sigil & Shadow.

figcat.com

I came across this list of modern-day urban fantasy RPGs a moment ago. I could see a couple of them being converted over to 5e.

 

[The Sigil]

Mystara Player’s Guide | RPGMP3

www.rpgmp3.com

Plugging so Mr. Welch doesn't have to.

 

[Desdichado]

I haven't loved everything WotC has put out in the 5E era, by any means (most of my D&D book shelf is third party stuff), but aren't Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, Wild Beyond the Witchlight, The Book of Many Things, Keys from the Golden Vault and Dragon Delves "new?"

Or are you looking for something more radically different?

I'm talking relative to the requests in this thread. Yeah, sure, those are newish. That gets to the other part of my post; I don't trust them to do anything new well enough to be good. Radiant Citadel was a poorer Planescape pastiche, for example, with a focus on going to festivals rather than adventuring. New if you consider something old with the serial numbers filed off and the exciting parts replaced with parts that are... less exciting.

But I'd still rather see more of them attempting stuff like that rather than warming up Mystara or Dark Sun again, or whatever. If I want to play those in 5e, I'll just pull up the old Gazetteers or pdfs of the boxed sets and go to town.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Radiant Citadel was a poorer Planescape pastiche

I'm currently running a Radiant Citadel campaign.

The Radiant Citadel itself is a utopian home to refugees. Other than the fact that it's a planar city, it has nothing in common with Sigil. And the citadel is the setting for zero of the adventures, which are all about new settings not based on western Europe-as-filtered-through-Wisconsin.

A lot of the adventures -- which are set on undefined Prime Material worlds -- tackle the legacy of colonialism, slavery, religion, etc., none of which TSR/WotC has historically had the stones to confront head on. The signature adventure featuring the Day of the Dead is explicitly about how the ruling class that took over at the end of colonialization is exploiting the poor and rural community. The festival is in it only as a complication for a chase scene with the PCs pursuing a villain.

Whether or one likes the book, it's not at all a Planescape book.

But I'd still rather see more of them attempting stuff like that rather than warming up Mystara or Dark Sun again, or whatever.

Me too. But, also, they are doing that. They just quietly announced another MTG setting book, for instance.

 

[Desdichado]

The Radiant Citadel itself is a utopian home to refugees. Other than the fact that it's a planar city, it has nothing in common with Sigil. And the citadel is the setting for zero of the adventures, which are all about new settings not based on western Europe-as-filtered-through-Wisconsin.

A lot of the adventures -- which are set on undefined Prime Material worlds -- tackle the legacy of colonialism, slavery, religion, etc., none of which TSR/WotC has historically had the stones to confront head on. The signature adventure featuring the Day of the Dead is explicitly about how the ruling class that took over at the end of colonialization is exploiting the poor and rural community. The festival is in it only as a complication for a chase scene with the PCs pursuing a villain.

Whether or one likes the book, it's not at all a Planescape book.

"Other than the core premise, it's nothing at all like Planescape! Because, see, they added all kinds of 2023 social activist talking points and diversity, turning it into a bizarre time capsule of 2023 that already feels dated and chintzy!"

C'mon. You know what I mean, you're being pedantic. It's a much, much worse take on the exact same premise as Planescape. If Radiant Citadel is indicative of the quality of what new WotC product is going to look like (or Spelljammer, or the actual Planescape product, or pretty much anything since Xanathar's, actually) then I'm sure glad that third party exists.

Me too. But, also, they are doing that. They just quietly announced another MTG setting book, for instance.

I'm not suggesting that they aren't. I'm suggesting that almost all of the requests in this thread are for them to reheat the leftovers of the 80s and early 90s. I'm personally not interested in that.

Then again, I'm not likely to be personally interested in anything that WotC does with the game. They should just license it out, like Games Workshop did with their RPG. Nobody else is likely to do any worse.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"Other than the core premise, it's nothing at all like Planescape! Because, see, they added all kinds of 2023 social activist talking points and diversity, turning it into a bizarre time capsule of 2023 that already feels dated and chintzy!"

Planescape PCs play a hodgepodge of beings from across the multiverse in a setting where philosophy is not only the motivating factor for the characters and adventures, but it's also capable of physically changing the environment they're in. PCs spend a lot of their time involved in intrigue between various planar factions, which just isn't a thing in the Radiant Citadel adventures or setting. (I've tried to inject it into my campaign and it requires making that stuff up whole cloth.)

No one would mistake Sigil for the Radiant Citadel, PCs from one campaign for one from the other and the adventures are nothing alike.

you're being pedantic. It's a much, much worse take on the exact same premise as Planescape.

If the Radiant Citadel was set on an island in Faerun, nothing would change about the book.

The citadel is a remote haven, not an interdimensional crossroads. By the book, there's not even a way to get to Waterdeep, Greyhawk City or any of the other major locales in 5E.

It's nothing like Planescape, where the answer to "can I play ____" is assumed to be yes, since everyone outside of Ravenloft and Athas is there already.

I'm not suggesting that they aren't. I'm suggesting that almost all of the requests in this thread are for them to reheat the leftovers of the 80s and early 90s. I'm personally not interested in that.

I'm with you there. But you seem to be going off of hot takes of what Radiant Citadel was allegedly going to be, not what it actually is.

 

[dead]

Epic of Ærth with regional supplements

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm talking relative to the requests in this thread. Yeah, sure, those are newish. That gets to the other part of my post; I don't trust them to do anything new well enough to be good. Radiant Citadel was a poorer Planescape pastiche, for example, with a focus on going to festivals rather than adventuring. New if you consider something old with the serial numbers filed off and the exciting parts replaced with parts that are... less exciting.

But I'd still rather see more of them attempting stuff like that rather than warming up Mystara or Dark Sun again, or whatever. If I want to play those in 5e, I'll just pull up the old Gazetteers or pdfs of the boxed sets and go to town.

Ya. Radiant citadel isn't what you say at all. Not even close.