D&D 5E From Corporate Setting to "Un-Setting" (waiting for a Sixth Edition homebrew culture)

[Mercurius]

I really like the general idea - which I see as encouraging to the point of institutionalizing world-building and creativity so that the default mode isn't to use the pre-fabricated works of others, but to create one's own - and for WotC to help facilitate that task with a variety of tools.

That said, I'm not sure your recommendation is the right one - although it is very well thought out and I appreciate the attempt. For instance, I like the idea of WotC unabashedly having and using their own settings and names, but rather with a clear emphasis and underlying--and repeated--declaration that "this is our world, you can use it if you want, but it is more fun to create your own - for guidelines on that see Part X, or Y book."

For me the missing tool--the holy grail, even--of D&D resources is a good World/Campaign/Adventure Builder in the spirit of Character Builder, but three (modular) levels:

*World Builder - helps you, either step-by-step or non-linear, build a world. This would include everything from cosmology to taverns.

*Campaign Builder - build a mega-adventure or campaign within said world (or a pre-fabricated world).

*Adventure Builder - this would perhaps be most useful as it helps you design your own adventures.

In addition to those layers, you'd have different levels of assistance - anything from "You do everything, we'll just give you templates for organization" to "pick options from drop-down menus and we'll build it for you."

Just some ideas to throw in the mix.

 

[ExploderWizard]

7) That there be a random 'Campaign Setting name generator' in the DMG which 'reverse engineers' the names of all the published settings. Like this:
First Name Element:

• Colors: "grey", "black", "red", "blue", "golden", "silver" etc.
• Other adjective, usually mysterious: "forgotten", "birth", "dark", "savage", "hollow", "known", "unknown", "oath", "mystery", "hidden", "secret"
• Monster: "dragon", "ghost"

Second Name Element:

• Animal: "hawk", "wolf", "eagle", etc.
• Geographic: "realms", "moor", "coast", "world","isles"
• Celestial: "sun", "moon", "star", etc.
• Arms and Armor: "steel", "lance", "knife""sword", "axe", "helm", "shield" etc.
• Other: "walk", "way", "guard", "right", "watch", "bound"

Planet names:
"Earth"-like names: Oerth, Uerth, Aerth, Yarth, Nerath, Urt (the original name of Mystara in BECMI box era)
And so: Eorth, Yirth, Naorth, Ourt, Oorth, Aardh, Yort...

Other names: Toril, Abeir, Mystara, Aebrynis, Athas, Krynn
And so: Aestara, Torthas, Mynneir, Kyril...and many other syllable options.

And at higher levels, a cosmology generator, with all the existing published cosmologies as examples to mix and match by choice, or at random.

This is pure gold.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

The War of the Lance in an apocalyptic magitech Faerun...but named Naefur.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

I'm not a fan of because generic stuff is boring. I don't want (fill in the name here), I want the Town of Herpderp, and all the unique things that Herpderp offers, because I can (fill in the name here) myself. I want Baldur's Gate and the Free City and Sigil, those places are unique and special and interesting. (Proper Noun) cannot be as interesting as that.

I like the idea of WotC unabashedly having and using their own settings and names, but rather with a clear emphasis and underlying--and repeated--declaration that "this is our world, you can use it if you want, but it is more fun to create your own - for guidelines on that see Part X, or Y book."

I agree that generic adventures, with no coherent setting behind them, can be boring. I'm not suggesting that more generic adventures be published. I'm suggesting that Forgotten Realms adventures (or Dragonlance, Greyhawk, ...) have:

1) All proper names in parentheses. Not blanks ___...Parentheses. (Tiamat)
2) A short chart in the back of other fitting names for each major NPC and place. (the Dragon Queen, the Chromatic Dragon)
3) An appendix in the back (or better, as a web-enhancement) that shows at least one suggested location for the adventure in each published world, along with brief notes about what adjustments (cultural, story elements, and geographic alternations) would be necessary for each setting.

...For example, how to run Tiamat as a resurrgence of Takhisis in Dragonlance; or in Mystara, a suggestion for replacing Tiamat with Pearl (the Moon Dragon, ruler of Chaotic Dragonkind) or making Tiamat an aspect of an existing Immortal, such as Hel.

#3 rules out some awesome setting ideas like Eberron's magitech or Dark Sun's stone-age-ecological-disaster motif or Dragonlance's big world-shaking war or Planescape's philosophical multiverse.

In the step-by-step method of world creation, there could be the option of beginning from the outset with a theme besides "Medieval Fantasy", such as pulp magitech or apocalyptic or extraplanar themes. And even those themes often start off with dungeon crawls.

The War of the Lance adventure path would have all the proper nouns in parentheses (Solace, Xak Tsaroth, Mishakal, Ansalon), and with a chart in the back suggesting a few other fitting names for each major NPC and place, and with a web enhancement containing pointers about how to run that world-shaking event in Faerun, Oerth, Athas, and so forth, including suggested placements on the map.

And if you bought that adventure and played through it, then that would be an organic part of your "build-as-you-go" world! And every gaming group would be 'expected' to have their own mixed-and-matched world, with its own name.

 

[MichaelSomething]

The "Points of Light" "campaign setting" is the closest there is to an "Un-Setting" that you'll get currently.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

From Genericized Setting to Pluri-Adapted Settings

The "Points of Light" "campaign setting" is the closest there is to an "Un-Setting" that you'll get currently.

Nerath is a "False Un-Setting". Just because Nerath has distilled and mashed together D&D tropes from various settings doesn't make it an Un-Setting.

In a similar way, the "genericized" 2E adventure "Return to the Keep on the Borderlands" was a false generic mini-setting. It was also a false Greyhawk and false Mystara mini-setting. It had random Babylonian gods and a mish-mash of Mystaran and Greyhawk proper names--making it a bastardized spawn which was incongruent with both.

I'm not advocating for a Genericized Setting, or Genericized Adventures.

Through my suggestion, all the published worlds would flourish. The economically lucrative setting(s)--notably, Forgotten Realms--would still be the usual "parenthetic" setting for adventures and sourcebooks. Such adventures would be fully formed as a FR adventure, with the (Zhentarim), (Harpers), (Elminster), (Faerun) as the default map, FR novel tie-ins, and so forth. Yet, for every adventure and sourcebook, *all* the published settings (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Dark Sun, Mystara, Dragonlance, Birthright, Eberron, Ravenloft, Nerath, Pelinore, Spelljammer, Planescape) would have at least a paragraph of adaptation notes as a Web Enhancement. Plus, a "Homebrew Name Chart" which offers, say, three alternate names for each major NPC and place.

Rather than a Genericized Setting, the Un-Setting would be a "Pluri-Adaptation with Homebrew Options Baked In".

If the RttKotB were written with the Un-Setting concept, it would be placed explicitly in, say, Greyhawk, with the official Yeomanry placement as the basis for the "parenthetic" proper names. In an appendix or web-enhancement, the official placement in Mystara (Karameikos) and Nerath (the Chaos Scar) would be mentioned. And one or more suggested placements in FR, DL, BR, DS, BM, SJ, PS would be offered, along with proper name changes and any necessary monster changes.

ENworlders, have you anything more to say?

 

[Starfox]

If what you want is localization notes for different settings, I am good with that. Looking at the adventure paths in Dungeon's last 3 years, you'll notice they had just that.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

What I want.

If what you want is localization notes for different settings, I am good with that. Looking at the adventure paths in Dungeon's last 3 years, you'll notice they had just that.

Yes, I'm looking for localization notes for *every* published TSR/WotC setting (not only the few which are widely remembered), to be included (at least as a web enhancement) in every 5th Edition adventure and sourcebook, and in every 5th Edition Dragon magazine article and Dungeon magazine adventure.

Plus, the instilling of a homebrew, kit-bashing, reverse-engineering culture into the game by marking all proper names in (parentheses) within any rpg gamebook. Novels excepted.

Plus, "localization notes" for homebrew settings in every adventure and sourcebook, offering three alternate names for every major proper name.

Plus, an explicit "meta-cosmology" which recognizes that the campaigns of all game groups are considered to be alternate, parallel timelines alongside the WotC timeline. This would be supported by the DMG 'expecting' DMs (or gaming groups) to name their campaign "Such-and-such's D&D World of the Forgotten Realms" or "Such-and-such's D&D World of Greyhawk". The full official name of the WotC timeline would be "Wizards of the Coast Presents: the D&D World of Forgotten Realms".

Plus, a step-by-step or a la carte Worldbuilding meta-game built into the DMG (or, since the DMG is already printed, in a Worldbuilder's Guide):
A) Patch together your own world out of whatever adventures you happen to run during the course of actual play.
B) And/or choose a theme or themes: Medieval Fantasy, Pulp, Grim & Gritty, Gothic Horror, Extraplanar...

So that through this Worldbuilding meta-game, the DMs and gaming groups are expected to end up, by 20th level, with their own Campaign Setting, with its own name, logo, and PDF worldbook, and which grew organically out of the interplay between whatever adventures were actually played, and on the other hand, any overarching themes which were aimed for from the outset.

The basic 'default' theme would be Medieval Fantasy, and the basic Worldbuilding route would unfold through Gygaxian dungeoncrawling, followed by overland and urban adventures, followed by national, continental, global, and interplanar/interstellar adventures. It would be expected for many campaigns to be organically stitched together from bits and pieces of Forgotten Realms, Golarion, Dragonlance, Freeport, Dark Sun and what have you...with the actual adventures serving as the formative core.

Throw in a OGL into the mix, and we'd have a free-breathing, radically creative D&D gaming culture. I may have to wait till 7th Edition.