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<blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 6165292" data-attributes="member: 5868">Within a world or campaign setting, I completely agree with you -- these need consistent visions across media.&nbsp; But for &quot;D&amp;D&quot; itself?&nbsp; D&amp;D is all worlds and none of them.&nbsp; I don't think you can have a consistent look and call it &quot;D&amp;D&quot;, unless you're willing to identify the D&amp;D-generic setting assumptions.&nbsp; I was frankly OK with the way 3E did this, by assuming Greyhawk as the &quot;default&quot; setting and building iconic artwork, deity &amp; spell name references, etc on a Greyhawk baseline (though it helps that Greyhawk is my preferred setting).&nbsp; The 3E FR artwork, packaging, and other branding was different enough to appear uniquely FR, while not being so far off the baseline as to not be relatable to D&amp;D.&nbsp; (As an aside: way back before the internet, I had this problem with FR products.&nbsp; When the first generation FR products came out, I didn't know they were for AD&amp;D, because the FR branding was too much more prominent.)&nbsp; 4E tried to go fully generic, and I think failed in execution -- for me personally because the &quot;default&quot; assumption in the PHB wasn't based on any of the familiar campaign settings.Frankly, I think 5E is stuck -- it can't go fully generic without completely alienating the existing customer base, but if it bases itself on an existing world assumption is risks alienating a significant portion of the existing base.&nbsp; My suggestion would be this: pick something relatively common as a default &quot;baseline&quot; for the core books (e.g. FR), but avoid the most iconic figures of that setting (Drizzt, Elminster).&nbsp; Then within the book text, there should be specific references to other, different applications -- and have art to match.&nbsp; &nbsp; That could be in each chapter, or in a &quot;tailoring your game&quot; chapter, but I envision something like &quot;Halflings can be interpreted in different ways.&nbsp; For example, in the Dark Sun setting ...[insert Dark Sun halfling description, placed next to an art inset in different style of a Dark Sun halfling]&quot;.&nbsp; It wouldn't take a lot of these art excursions for the core books to provide variety and inclusiveness while still retaining the majority of the product as a consistent whole.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Olgar Shiverstone, post: 6165292, member: 5868"] Within a world or campaign setting, I completely agree with you -- these need consistent visions across media. But for "D&D" itself? D&D is all worlds and none of them. I don't think you can have a consistent look and call it "D&D", unless you're willing to identify the D&D-generic setting assumptions. I was frankly OK with the way 3E did this, by assuming Greyhawk as the "default" setting and building iconic artwork, deity & spell name references, etc on a Greyhawk baseline (though it helps that Greyhawk is my preferred setting). The 3E FR artwork, packaging, and other branding was different enough to appear uniquely FR, while not being so far off the baseline as to not be relatable to D&D. (As an aside: way back before the internet, I had this problem with FR products. When the first generation FR products came out, I didn't know they were for AD&D, because the FR branding was too much more prominent.) 4E tried to go fully generic, and I think failed in execution -- for me personally because the "default" assumption in the PHB wasn't based on any of the familiar campaign settings. Frankly, I think 5E is stuck -- it can't go fully generic without completely alienating the existing customer base, but if it bases itself on an existing world assumption is risks alienating a significant portion of the existing base. My suggestion would be this: pick something relatively common as a default "baseline" for the core books (e.g. FR), but avoid the most iconic figures of that setting (Drizzt, Elminster). Then within the book text, there should be specific references to other, different applications -- and have art to match. That could be in each chapter, or in a "tailoring your game" chapter, but I envision something like "Halflings can be interpreted in different ways. For example, in the Dark Sun setting ...[insert Dark Sun halfling description, placed next to an art inset in different style of a Dark Sun halfling]". It wouldn't take a lot of these art excursions for the core books to provide variety and inclusiveness while still retaining the majority of the product as a consistent whole. [/QUOTE]

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