D&D 5E restart or rewrite or new?

[Shiroiken]

Restart at 576 CY

 

[Lanefan]

I might later start a whole thread but yeah I want a Birthright like setting but it doesn't need to be Cerilia exactly... and yes modern game of thrones type story telling would be great. However I DON'T want it to be human centric

Good - you take the non-human version and I'll take the human-centric version; as otherwise Birthright with a GoT attitude/flavour sounds like a great setting idea!

 

[Ath-kethin]

I voted "make new" but I'm both lying and a hypocrite; lying because I don't really care since I don't need a new setting and a hypocrite because I wrote the 5th Edition Zakhara Campaign Guide, updating Al-Qadim, and I would love for everyone to buy it.

I'm most interested in pulpy, weird fantasy settings, so I am a huge Spelljammer fan and have been for over 25 years but have no real use for any of the other legacy TSR settings. I love Eberron because it plays right into my interests, but they've done that one for 5e. I'd be down with a Mystara book, but honestly there isn't much that book could do that I haven't done myself already, and frankly I'm coming to like my approach to these updates more than I like WotC's. I'd buy it, but I don't need it and likely wouldn't get much actual use out of it.

 

[Hussar]

All of the above.

That was my take too. Maybe a bit fence sitting, but, yeah, I want it all.

If I had to choose in order, I guess it would be reworking existing settings first because it makes the most sense. You have a built in audience and pre-existing value. Makes it a lot easier to get it off the ground. A new setting is a huge investment, and it's very easy for settings to not make a splash and be largely forgotten. But, yeah, I'm a greedy bastard and I want it all.

 

[schneeland]

I personally would prefer something that is mostly a nice and compact synthesis of existing material for the setting, maybe with a bit of continuation. It seems rather unlikely that this would happen, though.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If you had the power to make WotC choices on there next few slipcase adventure/campaign settings would you rather they make whole new settings or recreate/continue old ones?

I am in the middle, I want both, but I would LOVE to have FR reset to grey box set, reset Darksun (like they did with 4e), but I think the concepts of Birthright could have an entire rebuild to be almost a new setting (but still concept).

If we can only choose one, I have to choose entirely new. That was we're both removing the risk of totally screwing up an old setting (which I feel is considerably likely to happen with DS or PS), and we're rolling the dice on getting something genuinely exciting/original.

Now my one caveat is, hate to say it but, I think conceptually/creatively, WotC are total cowards when it comes to D&D. Even Eberron, a pretty safe kitchen-sink setting I felt was pushing their daring to the limit, and they've never otherwise come up with a new D&D setting. It's weird because WotC also pop out bizarre new MtG settings with some regularity (none of which have yet made it to being full-on D&D settings), but D&D? Nuh-uh.

So I'd have to hope somehow that cowardice was overcome, and they actually created worlds at least as interesting as Eberron, not "even safer than Eberron". It could happen. Winninger is one of the guys who came up with Underground, one of the edgiest RPGs of the '90s (I mean, it's not HOL, but it's edgier than some World of Darkness stuff, and is still broadly in the "edgy" category today), so I could see him being okay with that. And we don't need Underground, we just need a bit more daring.

 

[Faolyn]

All of the above.

It depends on the setting as well. Like, Planescape. I'd rather they restart it (ignoring Faction War stuff), and reinvent the factions so they're all equally useful for adventurers. And I wouldn't mind the setting as a whole reinvented, perhaps showing how it would work with both World Axis and Great Wheel, as well as players' homebrew cosmoses.

And, of course, I want new settings.

 

[Faolyn]

I might later start a whole thread but yeah I want a Birthright like setting but it doesn't need to be Cerilia exactly... and yes modern game of thrones type story telling would be great. However I DON'T want it to be human centric

I would like to see an official setting where humans are actually the minority. They can have grand cities, but there should be equally powerful kingdoms for the other races.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

If you had the power to make WotC choices on there next few slipcase adventure/campaign settings would you rather they make whole new settings or recreate/continue old ones?

I am in the middle, I want both, but I would LOVE to have FR reset to grey box set, reset Darksun (like they did with 4e), but I think the concepts of Birthright could have an entire rebuild to be almost a new setting (but still concept).

I'm with you on the more nuanced "It depends." Dark Sun needs a bit of rework, Planescape is mostly ok how it is, everything else probably somewhere in between. Except Mystara, don't go near Mystara.

 

[Jer]

Except Mystara, don't go near Mystara.

I love Mystara, but it's definitely one that I'd rather see a complete reimagining of rather than trying to tweak it. My own version when I use it leans heavily on certain elements (Thyatis, Alphatia, Glantri, etc.) and ignores or reworks others (Atruaghin for starters, among others). Call it a parallel universe version of the original setting or a new setting inspired by it rather than a continuation of it. But the amount of effort to do it means its doubtful that would happen.

When I feel like I care about such things that's how I treat all of the various setting iterations - parallel universe versions of the same setting. The version I play at my table is already different from everyone else's - what's one more parallel universe in that sense?