D&D 5E If WotC Did A New Setting Search

[R_J_K75]

Wasn't he also on staff for about a decade too?

I think so, didnt he write an Eberron column on WotC's website in the 3.x era?

 

[Zaukrie]

The current dev team is not humble enough to let fans compete to create the next setting.

The closest we will get to that is Radiant Citadel.

That's some serious shade your are casting on people you don't know. Unreal

 

[Parmandur]

I dunno if they really need to do a setting contest. Just look at all the huge kickstarters.

Yeah, different era, different culture.

 

[Parmandur]

Pretty sure that @darjr reported from Gamehole Con that for the 2024 WotC D&D books they have a concept artist from Avatar The Last Airbender show?

All three books will have mostly knew art from new artists too, like from two concept artists from Obi Wan and the Avatar shows.

The gamers I interact with who are <30 yo all seem to be into anime to varying degrees.

A bog thing to consider is thwt a lot of Anime aesthetics come from D&D and other Western Fantasy, so time is a wheel.

 

[Parmandur]

I think they got $10K? I honestly can't remember.

Add a zero, IIRC. In 2003 money, too.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The current dev team is not humble enough to let fans compete to create the next setting.

The closest we will get to that is Radiant Citadel.

I will put several of the Radiant Citadel mini-settings up against anything TSR/WotC has ever created.

 

[humble minion]

A world based in the myth and lore of a culture that D&D doesnt really represent often, written by people with ties to that culture/cultures. my hope would be basically the Mediterranean, Norther Africa, and Southwest Asia so Arabian peninsula, Persia, the Lavant, etc influenced heavily by the Muslim Golden Age. The feel of Saladin Ahmed’s stories is already very D&D, that’s a good starting point

Did Saladin Ahmed ever end up writing more Arab-adjacent fantasy after Throne of the Cresecent Moon?

 

[humble minion]

I don't remember either. It might have been $100K? Venture Maidens Campaign Guide for 5E was funded for $107,733, so that sounds about right--they're pretty much on the same level, as far as quality, production value, and amount of content.

And they're 18 months late on delivery, and have been making empty promises for a year, just reneged on a significant portion of the quickstarter and promised refunds that have not eventuated, and don't respond to communication via pretty much any means. Jerks.

 

[humble minion]

I think the likelihood of WotC ever running a setting search again is low, for quite a number of reasons. First of course is that WtC very very clearly don't like doing settings. Even when they do a setting product these days, it's generally an adventure in disguise.

Second - WotC has a very broad freelancer base now. If they wanted to do a new setting, I suspect they'd call for pitches internally, rather than an all-in thing among the broader public. People they've worked with before, people they've vetted, who have already demonstrated they can stick to an NDA and not rock the boat when their stuff gets edited in a way they don't like, etc etc.

Having said that though, WotC will be wanting some very specific things from any new setting. With 5.5 coming soon, a new product could well be the First Setting Of The Edition, so they'll probably want it to be an inclusive 'if it's D&D it fits here' setting rather than a setting of limited options like Dark Sun or even Dragonlance etc are. And that goes for the monster too. Also, personally I'd be skeptical that they'd want ANOTHER quasi-multiversal meta-setting, but honestly, someone over at WotC clearly drools over that stuff (hi there Spelljammer, Planescape, Radiant Citadel, and even VRGtR...) so who the hell knows. They'll want it to use standard D&D rules by default, so there goes your no-resurrection setting concept too, and they're very clearly allergic to major new subsystems, so no tech-based setting for instance.

Something in the anime-adjacent space might work, and I've suggested it before. But honestly, given my guesses as to what WotC would be looking for (more of the same D&D fantasy but different!), I'd have genuine trouble thinking up something to pitch.

 

[Aldarc]

What I’d put forth would be either;

• A draft of my Islands World concept, where the planet has no islands bigger than the islands of Indonesia and it’s surroundings with maybe 1 exception that is Australia sized, with floating sky islands and very limited airship tech is experiencing a tech revolution in the time of the setting canon. Dragon Temples dot the islands, with 9 Great Dragon Temples spread out over the world. The crisis that is slowly building is that the great dragon temple are coming back to life as ancient draconic constructs in response to an ancient evil rising. There is a Great Hunt that has been called, though no one knows who sounded The Horn. Monsters are rising, and so are heroes, and the great weapons and other items of legend are being found by Hunters seeking glory, wealth, or simply to make the world safe again

I would probably just put forth Chris Perkins's homebrew Iomandra and the Dragon Sea setting from 4e, since it basically involves island-hopping in a world ruled by dragons (and dragonborn). It would also probably be one of the best shots for getting the implied setting of the Nentir Vale back.