D&D 5E The Un-Setting: the Default Core World in 5e

[Dungeonosophy]

Release the Worldbuilder's Guide before the Campaign Settings

The first 5e Campaign Setting book to be released ought to be the "un-setting"--the Worldbuilder's Guidebook. This would be a concrete action showing that WotC is putting the art of homebrewing at the forefront.

All the Europeanish* medievalish fantasy D&D Worlds owned by WotC would get least a small writeup in the back of the 5e World Builder's Guidebook. These overviews would be called "Campaign Models", similar to the brief Campaign Models featured in the d20 Modern line.

These Campaign Models would be presented as examples of how the WBG guidelines may be used to build Worlds with various themes. All these Campaign Models would show a small world map, as examples of how to draw continents.

The Campaign Models would also whet the appetite for the full Campaign Setting books which would be released subsequently (for the better-selling worlds).

Lastly, including all the D&D Worlds would familiarize a new generation of gamers with the existing D&D Worlds.



Campaign Models in the WBG:

• Greyhawk
• Aerth (WotC reportedly owns this IP following a legal foray from TSR against Gygax's Dangerous Journeys rpg)
• Blackmoor (with ZGG's new, unpublished world map)
• Forgotten Realms (showing previews for the 5e world maps of both Toril and Abeir; and the world map of Ed Greenwood's Abeir-Toril as an alternate timeline)
• Eberron
• Dragonlance
• Dark Sun
• Mystara (including Red Steel/Savage Coast) and Hollow World
• Pelinore
• Birthright
• Jakandor
• Nerath

Also:

• The 2nd-place WotC setting search winner, after Eberron
• Maybe some WotC designers' home-brew settings: Ptolus, Iomandra, James Wyatt's homebrews, etc.

NOTES:

*The non-Western settings such as Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, Maztica, and Mahasarpa would only be mentioned. I would feature these Campaign Models separately in a 5e Culture Book series.

Council of Wyrms and Ghostwalk might be featured more fully as Campaign Models in a 5e Savage Species book, since those are centered on Dragon and Ghost PCs.

The "transitive" campaign settings--Spelljammer, Planescape, and Chronomancer--would be featured as Campaign Models in the 5e Manual of the Planes ("Sigil and the Great Wheel" cosmology and the "Crystal Spheres cosmology") and a D&D Timetravel genre book.

***
Who's against this, and who's for this?

 

[Dungeonosophy]

How many dissed the idea when I expressed this in the OP?

Mike Mearls at PAX East:

"That's really why a lot of the modularity is coming in, is giving the players--the players to a big extent, and the DMs to a greater extent--this idea of being almost able to create their own campaigns like a player creates his character."

 

[MichaelSomething]

While I agree that the default should be a "make your campaign world" type of thing, there should be pre-made NPCs/towns/dungeons/etc. available for DMs to purchase so that they can use as tools/inspiration/assets.

 

[P1NBACK]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet in this thread, but more important to me than a World Building toolkit is that the 5E DMG come with the most robust, inspiring and detailed guide on how to build a dungeon ever.

Most campaign settings are built from the ground up and not the other way around. If you can give me tools to build a starting settlement and several amazing dungeons, then the world will develop from there.

We've had DMGs with random dungeon tools, dressing tables, etc. with lots of good tidbits. But, I want the definitive dungeon creation guide in the 5E DMG.

 

[Incenjucar]

Eh. A dungeon guide should be a Dungeon Guide Book.

Many DMs don't care for dungeons. A more generalized guide of adventure planning would be far more useful.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet in this thread, but more important to me than a World Building toolkit is that the 5E DMG come with the most robust, inspiring and detailed guide on how to build a dungeon ever.

Most campaign settings are built from the ground up and not the other way around. If you can give me tools to build a starting settlement and several amazing dungeons, then the world will develop from there.

We've had DMGs with random dungeon tools, dressing tables, etc. with lots of good tidbits. But, I want the definitive dungeon creation guide in the 5E DMG.

Exactly.

And whatever concrete design principles that WotC (including Dungeon Magazine and RPGA) uses for in-house dungeon creation and adventure design ought to be offered to everyone in the DMG. I want the DMG to teach the DM to become as skilled at dungeon design and worldbuilding as Monte Cook!

 

[Savage Wombat]

I want a dungeon design handbook that helps me design dungeons for players that don't like dungeons.

I want them to see what they're missing.

 

[P1NBACK]

Eh. A dungeon guide should be a Dungeon Guide Book.

Many DMs don't care for dungeons. A more generalized guide of adventure planning would be far more useful.

There's a game called Dungeons & Dragons. The GM in this game is called the Dungeon Master. There is a book for him called the Dungeon Master's Guide.

I believe that book should focus on guidelines on how to create dungeons.

If you don't care for dungeons, I have a hard time trying to understand why you would be playing a game about going into dungeons, and not say, the hundreds of other games out there that aren't about going into dungeons.

If 5E isn't about going into dungeons, it's not D&D. Period.

Can there be guides for other things? Sure. I'm not saying the game should be exclusively dungeon exploration (there is plenty of room for wilderness exploration, for example).

But, if there are no dungeons, there is no Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Janaxstrus]

I want a dungeon design handbook that helps me design dungeons for players that don't like dungeons.

I want them to see what they're missing.

Not liking dungeons is like not liking ice cream

 

[Incenjucar]

Don't be hyperbolic. I'm not saying that dungeons shouldn't be a highlight of the game, I'm saying that the setting of a "dungeon" does not appeal universally, and shouldn't be the assumption of play to the point where they waste a huge chunk of the DMG on it. Dungeons should be side-by-side with wilderness, urban, marine and airborne adventures.

Besides that, if a dungeon is this place you spend all of your time, they cease to be special.