D&D General If I had the D&D/WotC Worldbuider job, I would... (+ thread)

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you think Hasbro/Wizards would want to push for something like Magic the Gathering worlds integration or has that ship sailed?

I would bet we see more of them. WotC openly wants new settings to be offering new play modes/flavors and MTG settings tend to have very strong high concepts, most of which aren't already present (or foregrounded) in existing 5E settings.

 

[Zaukrie]

Do you think Hasbro/Wizards would want to push for something like Magic the Gathering worlds integration or has that ship sailed?

I'm surprised we haven't gotten more detailed ones than we have.

 

[Scribe]

Do you think Hasbro/Wizards would want to push for something like Magic the Gathering worlds integration or has that ship sailed?

I really hope that ship has sailed.

Wizards has proven (on the MTG side) that they have the ability to build settings, thats what every new set or world of MTG is. Its a basic framework for a setting.

The D&D side, for whatever reason, fumbles this all the time. Instead of making new things, they reach into the back catalog, and 'reimagine it for a modern audience' which...just isnt it.

Wizards needs to put some effort into a unified, fresh take on what D&D even is. They cannot rest on the history of what came before, forever.

 

[Lidgar]

Here’s some worlds I would think about creating:

1. Dungeon World. All civilizations are underground because the surface was made inhospitable due to a cataclysm. Like an underdark campaign but inside out. Brave adventures explore the surface world and battle horrid monstrosities that are mutations of creatures from the ancient past.

2. A Bronze Age setting that’s low magic. The gods are really active and are many. Something like ancient Sumerians, Greeks, Egyptians, etc. Lots of myth and mysteries to explore with seafaring vessels.

3. A setting based on PC’s being stuck in the lower planes. Whole premise is centered around them trying to find a way to return to their home plane. Kind of like the old television series The Prisoner, or even the D&D cartoon.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I would implement a very regular cadence of lore products, and have the lore products separate from the rules. The lore is the hook to get folks to buy the game and play it, but it does not need to be a loss leader.

Riot puts out tons of music videos for League of Legends. Games Workshop has the Black Library putting out tons of novels non stop. Neither have an impact on the function of either company’s games, but have been a proven drawn for folks who became curious about the game by exposure to the lore by video or lore by novel.

Most well-adjusted fans do not need to see game mechanics appear in something like a novel.

They are publishers so spinning up novels again seems easy to bring back from death.

 

[Necropolitan]

A new setting designed for warlord/nationbuilding campaigns.

It would have various 'slots' for starting state, magic level, existence of deities/their level of involvement if they do exist, etc. that would let DMs easily create a setting for the PCs to get started in.

 

[Alzrius]

I'd begin releasing new official products for previous editions of D&D, all of which would be POD products via the DMs Guild.

Obviously there wouldn't be many of these issued in a given year, and there'd probably be minimal artwork in order to keep production costs down, but I think it'd be nice to do something for the fans of previous editions.

 

[Stormonu]

3. A setting based on PC’s being stuck in the lower planes. Whole premise is centered around them trying to find a way to return to their home plane. Kind of like the old television series The Prisoner, or even the D&D cartoon.

Wouldn't that just be Ravenloft?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Some great ideas here! Charlaquin had the right of it - what fun interesting creative stuff would you do? The corporate branding stuff, that'll be this person's "real job"; but not v interesting except in so far as it does provide some creative constraints.

I just want a setting that's all floating islands, some sort of Shattered World setting.

I also want an official 5e modern-ish setting. Victorian or late Age of Enlightenment type setting.

One thing I would do is to release micro chunks of the settings somehow on D&D Beyond and see what the response to them is in terms of engagement (yes, I know, that word has a bad rap; but as a product manager, understanding what customers are actually interested in as opposed to what they say they are interested in, is what makes or breaks a product). By micro-chunk I mean something like a a 5-room dungeon encounter sequence - with a social encounter, a non-monster encounter, an exploration bit; a combat; and then the reward in some way. That's super themed to the actual grand setting.

 

[J-H]

I'm tempted to say "a world with psionics instead of conventional magic," but that's Dark Sun. Also, if you're replacing half the classes in the PHB with something else, you're treading really close to just making another d20-system game.