D&D 5E Things that probably won't happen, but man would it be cool if they did!
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Ruin Explorer
Legend
An improved monster-builder would be great - the DDI one is solid, but really you could do a better job with HTML5 and it could be more like a single-page form rather than the elaborate multi-page affair it is now. Agree on Dragon.
The WotC / D&D website reorganized so that every article from the 3E era, 4E era, and 5E era could be easily reached, searched, catalogued and formatted. So you can pull up *all* the maps they have on file for example. Or every free module they have in their system can be organized by level and easily searched, regardless of edition. Or every article written by a specific author or on a specific topic can be pulled up from every era.
They have thousands of pages of text they have written over the last 15 years buried in their archives. Make it all easily searchable and easily used.
They have thousands of pages of text they have written over the last 15 years buried in their archives. Make it all easily searchable and easily used.
Gargoyle
Adventurer
Some good stuff in here; I can only think of one thing:
3d printing service for miniatures. Your local FLGS buys or leases a 3d printer supported by WotC (or a licensed third party). WotC creates D&D miniature designs for that printer based on official artwork in core books and adventures. You pay a small fee to have them printed for you on demand. FLGS makes a little money and gets more foot traffic as well as something cool to use and see in the store, and you get the mini's you need without gambling on collectible miniatures or being forced to buy some expensive skirmishes game.
I see Hero Forge had a successful kickstarter for doing customized 3d mini printing, so it seems like non-customized mini's would be technically easy and affordable.
3d printing service for miniatures. Your local FLGS buys or leases a 3d printer supported by WotC (or a licensed third party). WotC creates D&D miniature designs for that printer based on official artwork in core books and adventures. You pay a small fee to have them printed for you on demand. FLGS makes a little money and gets more foot traffic as well as something cool to use and see in the store, and you get the mini's you need without gambling on collectible miniatures or being forced to buy some expensive skirmishes game.
I see Hero Forge had a successful kickstarter for doing customized 3d mini printing, so it seems like non-customized mini's would be technically easy and affordable.
Dungeonosophy
Legend
38. The entire corpus of each D&D World is printed on cheap paper and bound together in phonebook-sized softcover volumes at the minimum feasible price, so that anyone could purchase, say, the entire series of Ravenloft or Mystara or Eberron in one go, without having to spend years building up a collection. (Forgotten Realms would be several phonebook-sized volumes.) In this way, there'd be more and more people, including newcomers and coming generations, who were fluent and interested in each world.
39. Same for the rulesbooks and 'world-less' generic adventures and sourcebooks. For example, a phonebook sized, bound volume containing all the AD&D1e rulebooks and 1e generic adventures. And another volume with the 2e rulesbooks and 2e generic adventures.
40. In the DMG, explicitly lay out a framework whereby all DMs' (or gaming groups') campaigns are conceived to be 'off-screen' semi-official Parallel Primes with Alternate Timelines. "WotC's D&D World of Forgotten Realms" would be clearly recognized as only one of countless timelines of the Forgotten Realms. Even if they are mostly the same as "WotC's FR", they would even be distinguishable by name: "Joe Schmoe's D&D World of Forgotten Realms".
41. Sometime before 7th edition, the word "fan" (which is short for "fanatic") comes to be replaced, in rpg parlance, with "enthusiast" (one who is filled with the gods) and "amateur" (one who loves).
42. Instill a homebrew culture into the 5e DMG. Make a WotC-designated 'enthusiast site' for homebrew settings, and also print a book which compiles the best homebrew settings from a new campaign setting contest (along with the runners-up in the 2004 contest which Eberron won). Name the website and book "The World Serpent Inn".
43. Go a step further than even Green Ronin and Paizo by making Product Identity available for third party publishing. Like the "Super-Powered by M&M" and "Pathfinder Compatible" licenses, or Paizo's "Community Use Policy", but further. Make a simple, hands-off license whereby anyone could write and sell their own "elseworlds" version of Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Mystara books, as long as they used certain designated "third party logos" which distinguished those books from the WotC books (like the old "Official Fan Logos" which were approved for each world back in Jim Butler's day), and as long as they named the world "so-and-so's D&D World of Greyhawk" with a blurb on the cover saying "this is an alternate timeline of Wizards of the Coast's D&D World of Greyhawk". Allow even illustrations to be used, as long as they are redrawn by hand (copying by hand is a good way to learn to draw and paint). In this way, we'd be free to elaborate and share our own vision of the mythologies we were raised on, and even receive some bread for our effort, instead of being eternally locked into the 'fandom' of a corporate-owned mythology, beloved as it is.
39. Same for the rulesbooks and 'world-less' generic adventures and sourcebooks. For example, a phonebook sized, bound volume containing all the AD&D1e rulebooks and 1e generic adventures. And another volume with the 2e rulesbooks and 2e generic adventures.
40. In the DMG, explicitly lay out a framework whereby all DMs' (or gaming groups') campaigns are conceived to be 'off-screen' semi-official Parallel Primes with Alternate Timelines. "WotC's D&D World of Forgotten Realms" would be clearly recognized as only one of countless timelines of the Forgotten Realms. Even if they are mostly the same as "WotC's FR", they would even be distinguishable by name: "Joe Schmoe's D&D World of Forgotten Realms".
41. Sometime before 7th edition, the word "fan" (which is short for "fanatic") comes to be replaced, in rpg parlance, with "enthusiast" (one who is filled with the gods) and "amateur" (one who loves).
42. Instill a homebrew culture into the 5e DMG. Make a WotC-designated 'enthusiast site' for homebrew settings, and also print a book which compiles the best homebrew settings from a new campaign setting contest (along with the runners-up in the 2004 contest which Eberron won). Name the website and book "The World Serpent Inn".
43. Go a step further than even Green Ronin and Paizo by making Product Identity available for third party publishing. Like the "Super-Powered by M&M" and "Pathfinder Compatible" licenses, or Paizo's "Community Use Policy", but further. Make a simple, hands-off license whereby anyone could write and sell their own "elseworlds" version of Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Mystara books, as long as they used certain designated "third party logos" which distinguished those books from the WotC books (like the old "Official Fan Logos" which were approved for each world back in Jim Butler's day), and as long as they named the world "so-and-so's D&D World of Greyhawk" with a blurb on the cover saying "this is an alternate timeline of Wizards of the Coast's D&D World of Greyhawk". Allow even illustrations to be used, as long as they are redrawn by hand (copying by hand is a good way to learn to draw and paint). In this way, we'd be free to elaborate and share our own vision of the mythologies we were raised on, and even receive some bread for our effort, instead of being eternally locked into the 'fandom' of a corporate-owned mythology, beloved as it is.
Last edited:
Dungeonosophy
Legend
Jon Schindehette's response to "edition themed" 5e special printings.
Back in 2012 I shared this idea with then-WotC Art Director Jon Schindehette. His response:
This is an interesting concept. Do you think that folks that buy the "3e"
version would be upset when they realized that the text is the same as it was
for the rest of the releases...the mechanics are DnD Next?
It certainly would be fun doing a OD&D version and a 4e version in the
same breath...and all the rest of them. I'll kick the idea to the business team
and see what they think about the business end of this idea.
Thanks for sharing!
Jon Schindehette
http://theArtOrder.com
-
Hide quoted text -
On Feb 24, 2012, at 9:10 PM, Travis Henry wrote:
Hi Jon,
I would like to see D&DV be printed in various "edition themed"
versions.
They would all have exactly the same text, but would
have different covers, fonts, logos, and illustrations that exactly mimicked the
various iterations of D&D.
1) The default, mass-release D&DV, featuring whatever font,
illustration style, and logo you and your team senses is the most
essential distillation for mass appeal.
2) A D&DV "Original Theme". Printed as manila-colored soft-covers in a wood-grain box. New drawings
commissioned from the original humble artists if they're still alive.
3) D&DV "BECMI Theme". Like the "Red Box" Essentials Starter Set.
Elmore and Easley for interior illustrations.
4) D&DV "First Edition Theme". Featuring whichever 1e style is most
iconic--perhaps the Orange Spine. Maybe remove the "Advanced" from the
logo.
5) D&DV "Second Edition Theme". Maybe remove the "Advanced" from the
logo.
6) D&DV "Third Edition Theme". Photographed "metal and jewels"
cover.
7) D&DV "Fourth Edition Theme"
Like the recent First Edition reprints, the less popular Themes might only
be available through certain outlets.
Would you make these?
Back in 2012 I shared this idea with then-WotC Art Director Jon Schindehette. His response:
This is an interesting concept. Do you think that folks that buy the "3e"
version would be upset when they realized that the text is the same as it was
for the rest of the releases...the mechanics are DnD Next?
It certainly would be fun doing a OD&D version and a 4e version in the
same breath...and all the rest of them. I'll kick the idea to the business team
and see what they think about the business end of this idea.
Thanks for sharing!
Jon Schindehette
http://theArtOrder.com
-
Hide quoted text -
On Feb 24, 2012, at 9:10 PM, Travis Henry wrote:
Hi Jon,
I would like to see D&DV be printed in various "edition themed"
versions.
They would all have exactly the same text, but would
have different covers, fonts, logos, and illustrations that exactly mimicked the
various iterations of D&D.
1) The default, mass-release D&DV, featuring whatever font,
illustration style, and logo you and your team senses is the most
essential distillation for mass appeal.
2) A D&DV "Original Theme". Printed as manila-colored soft-covers in a wood-grain box. New drawings
commissioned from the original humble artists if they're still alive.
3) D&DV "BECMI Theme". Like the "Red Box" Essentials Starter Set.
Elmore and Easley for interior illustrations.
4) D&DV "First Edition Theme". Featuring whichever 1e style is most
iconic--perhaps the Orange Spine. Maybe remove the "Advanced" from the
logo.
5) D&DV "Second Edition Theme". Maybe remove the "Advanced" from the
logo.
6) D&DV "Third Edition Theme". Photographed "metal and jewels"
cover.
7) D&DV "Fourth Edition Theme"
Like the recent First Edition reprints, the less popular Themes might only
be available through certain outlets.
Would you make these?
Last edited:
1. Each classic D&D adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
2. Each Pathfinder adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
3. Each Kobold Press adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
4. Each Goodman games adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
5. Add <your preferred D&D adventure creator> and optimize their content for 5E.
6. Just insert more adventures to make sure everything is covered.
7. A seamless integration between hardcopy content and digital content, to include tokens, maps, and related content for table and virtual play
8. World peace
2. Each Pathfinder adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
3. Each Kobold Press adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
4. Each Goodman games adventure redone and optimized for 5E.
5. Add <your preferred D&D adventure creator> and optimize their content for 5E.
6. Just insert more adventures to make sure everything is covered.
7. A seamless integration between hardcopy content and digital content, to include tokens, maps, and related content for table and virtual play
8. World peace
Dungeonosophy
Legend
52. If WotC owns the rights to Gygax's Aerth (didn't TSR snag it from him through a court case?), update it as a 5e D&D setting.
CM
Adventurer
Similar Threads
