My suggestion is to use a forgotten Cervantes' work "
The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda" but with some changes in a fantasy worlds (with orcs, undeads and things like that). It shouldn't be worse than mash-up works as "Pride, prejudice and zombies".
* We know the best authors would rather to create their own worlds starting from zero, without troubles about continuity or secondary canon.
* How should be a new D&D world to be popular as manganime in Japan or Korea, anything like Reena & Gaudi: Slayers? And (a reboot of) Gamma World to be sold as novels for teens and young adult?
* The Witcher saga use the classic tales but adding a wicked twist. Maybe Hasbro could publish something like its own version of Jim Henson's Storyteller serie, recovering fairy tales from the popular folklore but adding an updated style, with enough kid-friendly tone, of course. Russia, East Europe or Latin-speaker countries can be a great source of inspiration.
* Ravenloft in the right hands has got a great potential to sell gothic horror stories among non-players. Maybe we need a reboot of the masque of the red death, but set not in our Earth planet but in a fantasy counterpart, to be more politically correct and opened doors for authors.
* How would be the fairy tales in the D&D? Without Grimm brothers, Perrault, Aesop the fabulist or Andersen the characters would be different. This is a good excuse to sell D&D books for children but without becoming too childish.
