D&D General What About Those Other D&D Settings?

[Dragonhelm]

There's been a lot of talk about Dark Sun of late, and some other settings such as Birthright or Thunder Rift. I thought it might be interesting to have a single thread that would look at each of the D&D settings not published (or scheduled to be published) and examine whether or not they might work today. Plus, would they sell?

Here's a list. If I miss any, feel free to add it in the thread. Note that many of them need to be looked at by a cultural consultant.

Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures. This is the setting inspired by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. I am honestly not certain how Arabian Nights is perceived by people these days. You might get a cool adventure out of this if handled correctly. Would it have enough appeal?

Birthright (see the other thread): Deals with bloodlines and kings. I don't know it as well so I'll let others define it better.

Blackmoor: The first campaign setting. The big question here is "Who has the rights? WotC, Arneson's estate, someone else?" Also very generic. What sets it apart?

Council of Wyrms: No way is WotC going to allow you to play a dragon.

Gamma World: We last saw Gamma World as a D&D setting in 4th edition. Not truly D&D, and it has a bunch of fun, goofy, post-apocalyptic stuff. Definitely a fun setting and it stands apart big time. I'd love to see this return.

Ghostwalk: The city of Manifest, where the living and the dead exist side-by-side. Maybe set an adventure here?

Greyhawk: The birthplace of adventure. I don't think there's anything that sets it apart from other settings. However, it's where the classic dungeons come from and it's iconic. If it was to come out, next year would be the time since it's the 50th anniversary.

Jakandor: I honestly don't know a lot about this one. Does it stand out?

Kara-Tur: Fantasy East Asia, once published under the name "Oriental Adventures". Part of the Forgotten Realms. You might be able to get a cool wuxia-flavored adventure here, if handled correctly..

Magic: the Gathering: Card game crossover books are fun. Do any of the planes of Magic work well for D&D?

Maztica: One of D&D's takes on fantasy Mesoamerica. Lack of appeal. Not enough broad appeal. Might be best reserved for DMs Guild or fan content.

Mystara: The world of Basic D&D. This is a setting of settings, which include the Known World, Hollow World, Savage Coast, Red Steel, Thunder Rift, etc. Some classic adventures hail from here. It's got the gazetteer series (some good, some bad), a ton of real-world analogues, skyships, new races (where the tortle came from!), and more. The setting suffers from not being a cohesive setting. It's generic and doesn't fully stand apart.

Nentir Vale: The setting of D&D 4th edition. Fairly generic, but some cool ideas in here. Personally, I'd have this be part of Exandria. I know, I know, that's a crossover. I could see an adventure set here.

Pelinore: The world of Pelinore is flat; everyone knows that. The world of TSR UK. Too much of a niche setting and it doesn't stand apart.

Taladas: The other continent of Dragonlance. There are some neat geographical features here, but in some ways, Taladas came across as the "anti-Ansalon." It lacks a lot of flavor that makes it Dragonlance. I don't see WotC investing money in this. Best left to DMs Guild and the Dragonlance Nexus (gratuitous plug).

I think that's it. If I missed any, please post below.

So, questions I have for you...

1. Which ones of these settings do you think WotC would revisit again and which ones do you think will not see the light of day?
2. Are some settings more suitable to DMs Guild?
3. Which settings did not age well?
4. If a setting needs work to make it more in-tune with today's sensibilities, what would you change?

Discuss!

 

[pukunui]

Magic: the Gathering: Card game crossover books are fun. Do any of the planes of Magic work well for D&D?

Well, Ravnica, Strixhaven, and Theros have all gotten official crossover books. Several other planes got semi-official Plane Shift pdfs. I’m sure we’ll see more.

Nentir Vale: The setting of D&D 4th edition. Fairly generic, but some cool ideas in here. Personally, I'd have this be part of Exandria. I know, I know, that's a crossover. I could see an adventure set here.

I would love to see Nentir Vale revived for 5e. Not sure I’d want it to be part of Exandria, though.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe Hollow World but not as a Mystara Spin-off but for all the settings.

Red Steel/Savage Coast could return some day. It's pirates + mutants.

Hasbro could agree with Capcom a licence for Mystara.

Gamma World maybe, but the high-tech breaks the power balance too easily. Maybe it could be adapted into a videogame.

* Is WotC onwer of the copyright of Pelinore?

 

[Dioltach]

Not sure I can answer any of your questions, but I'd love an updated version of Taladas. Preferably 3.5E-compatible, since that's what I play. (When I sold all my older (A)D&D stuff, BECMI and Taladas were the only ones I kept.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Overall, I'm opposed to bringing back old settings. They have no appeal to younger players, and upset older players with the unavoidable changes. They remain in print, for those who want them.

I would rather see expansions for the current 5e settings.

On the ones listed:

Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures. This is the setting inspired by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. I am honestly not certain how Arabian Nights is perceived by people these days. You might get a cool adventure out of this if handled correctly. Would it have enough appeal?

Won't be revived because, like Oriental Adventures, it's extremely culturally insensitive. For a non-offensive alternative, check out Akharin Sangar in Through the Radiant Citadel.

The same goes for for Kara-Tur and Mazteca.

Birthright (see the other thread): Deals with bloodlines and kings. I don't know it as well so I'll let others define it better.

It's neofascistic overtones, reliance on non-core rules subsystems, and the fact that it sold poorly when it first came out makes this a non-starter.

Ghostwalk: The city of Manifest, where the living and the dead exist side-by-side. Maybe set an adventure here?

This one is excellent, but it sold poorly when it released (due to bad timing) and has zero name recognition. No reason not to do a similar thing as a new setting.

Mystara:

This world was built around parodies of real world cultures, often with animal heads. Whilst some, such as the British, one might get away with, I doubt "equally offensive to everyone" would be an attractive commercial proposition for WotC!

Obviously, we already have MtG crossovers.

I'm not massively familiar with the others, but generally, things are dead for a reason.

 

[OakenHart]

Council of Wyrms is a cool idea that D&D is just not equipped to handle, even in the edition it's from. This kind of idea would be better served with its own ttrpg ruleset. IMHO, of course.

Seeing as WotC is still pretty focused on Forgotten Realms and more likely to produce material for it than other settings, I'd love to see a Kara-Tur supplement of some kind. Would need some adjustments I'm sure, but plenty of modern fantasy products mesh Eastern Asian fantasy, Japanese fantasy, etc along with more stereotypical Western fantasy tropes without any kind of issue or pushback (the Final Fantasy MMO for example).

 

[humble minion]

I love Al-Qadim, and while it desperately needs an update from someone with roots in middle eastern/Arabic culture, I don’t think it’s unsalvageable. There’s a long YouTube series where a couple of Arabic gamers do exactly that, in fact. WotC won’t touch it in a million years though.

Greyhawk was never really my thing, but if they’re going to do it, the 50th anniversary is the time. Not sure how they make it stand out thematically from the other ‘default D&D’ settings in FR and exandria though.

There’s a couple of modernisations of Maztica floating around, one solid one on DMsGuild and one in an excellent extended thread on rpg.net. I don’t expect WotC to revisit it though. It has Al-Qadim’s problem of lacking cultural awareness, but unlike Al-Qadim, compounds that by not actually being very good, and suffering from the late-TSR disease where NPCs have already done everything interesting. I don’t think this one is fixable. I backed Heroes of Mystic America on Kickstarter and am hoping it’ll cover the same ground.

Of Mystara, I’m only really familiar with Red Steel, and given that setting (which, to be fair, I liked at the time) is basically a bunch of simplistic racial stereotypes with animal heads, WotC would probably prefer to pretend it never existed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

WotC won’t touch it in a million years though.

They already have, in the Radiant Citadel, which is really a book of mini-settings based on real world cultures. So, aside from the original names - offensive in and of themselves - it's already done.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

My personal view, with the caveat that I did already give up on D&D before the OGL debacle, is that WotC should just give up on the old settings, since the late returns have been less than stellar. Have the old settings available as pdf's, with warning labels if necessary, and just start from scratch with a new kitchen sink setting that is palatable to current sensibilities.

 

[humble minion]

just start from scratch with a new kitchen sink setting that is palatable to current sensibilities.

I'd love to see WotC come up with a genuinely new setting (an actual setting, not just the tiny tasters we got in the aforementioned Radiant Citadel miniadventures). And not just another MtG adaptation either. Something entirely new, designed specifically for D&D, and as distinct from conventional settings like FR/Exandria as Eberron is.