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

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess their strategy is to relaunch before the settings with the best "brand power". The settings have to show something really interesting for the new generation of players who know nothing about the lore.

Other reason for the delay is if Hasbro wants them to be adapted into videogame or Hollywood production, then the studio would rather more creative freedom. Then awaiting is a better option than a new retcon.

And the possible reboot or redesign of the settings has to be according to the new PC species and classes. If Dark Sun helped to sell more Psionic Handbooks, then they could try the same with other classes what use special mechanics: (ki) martial adepts, incarnum soulmelders, shadowcasters or elementalists ("mysteries" instead classic spells), vestige pact binders....

And if they are a future acquisition or merger in the next two years, then all the plans could be changed to can any new element to the D&D multiverse.

How would be Gamma World with a reclycled version of Hasbro's franchises: MASK, Visionaries, Inhumanoids, COPS..?

 

[KoolMoDaddy-O]

Like several other posters I'm completely uninterested in revisiting old settings. I liked Van Richten's -- I felt it fixed a bunch of problems with 1e/2e Ravenloft (such as how so many of the domains and darklords were cookie-cutter duplicates) -- but the Spelljammer reboot was shallow and I expect the same from Planescape. I run a Greyhawk campaign and the last thing I want from Wizards is whatever thin soup they'd make of it these days. All you really need to run Greyhawk is the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer on DMsGuild. I just wish they'd open up the setting to creators.

One itch Wizards has never scratched is a Thundarr the Barbarian type of science-fantasy world. Gamma World is the obvious choice for that but as much as I love it, its gonzo aesthetic pulls it too far from regular D&D. Plus it's set in an alternate future rather than a secondary world, which can have political ramifications if you're not careful. And as we know Wizards is anything but careful.

Blackmoor might fit the bill better because its whole concept was based on exploring ruins and extracting the ancient secrets and technology of a destroyed civilization. IIRC the cover of Temple of the Frog depicted a wizard wielding a laser rifle. Once part of Greyhawk and then retconned into Mystara's ancient past, either way it was always secondary world, which gives the cover Wizards needs to avoid any real-world connections.

So if I had to choose one: Blackmoor.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Although I love the Points of Light / Nentir Vale setting, calling it new is a bit of a stretch. In 2024 it'll have been 16 years since the introduction of Nentir Vale. It's a bit like calling Dragonlance a new setting during the launch of 3e D&D!

I want something brand new. Something with its own identity and something that offers a new way to experience D&D tropes.

Yes, it isn't "new" in the sense of not being literally freshly-created. It's still the newest "core" setting of D&D--by a long shot, given Greyhawk is one of the things turning 50. A 16-year-old grand-nephew might not be a literally brand-new person, but they're still "new" compared to their 50-year-old great uncle!

It has the advantage of being an olive branch to a group that has felt pretty crapped on. Surely that's worth something? Doubly so when we never actually got a "gazetteer" book for the whole setting, just piecemeal lore drops. It would, in fact, actually be new to give it the full setting treatment.

 

[Remathilis]

Mystara is quite popular outside the US because it was the first setting translated into other languages. If you wanted to play D&D in Japan you had Mystara or nothing. The allegory for real-world cultures as fantasy nations gave it an appeal that other generic fantasy settings didn't have. You would market it as the D&D setting that represented other cultures, so the *Japanese, Italians, Polynesians, Indians, Arabs, Scandinavians, Slavs, Mongolians, Cherokee, Irish, Egyptians, Argentinians, Spanish, Babylonians and Texans all have something they can relate to.

That's quite a list of foreign cultures.

 

[Minigiant]

Yes, it isn't "new" in the sense of not being literally freshly-created. It's still the newest "core" setting of D&D--by a long shot, given Greyhawk is one of the things turning 50. A 16-year-old grand-nephew might not be a literally brand-new person, but they're still "new" compared to their 50-year-old great uncle!

It has the advantage of being an olive branch to a group that has felt pretty crapped on. Surely that's worth something? Doubly so when we never actually got a "gazetteer" book for the whole setting, just piecemeal lore drops. It would, in fact, actually be new to give it the full setting treatment.

Nentir Vale is technically the 2nd newest official setting made for D&D specifically that isn't a port.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes, it isn't "new" in the sense of not being literally freshly-created. It's still the newest "core" setting of D&D--by a long shot, given Greyhawk is one of the things turning 50. A 16-year-old grand-nephew might not be a literally brand-new person, but they're still "new" compared to their 50-year-old great uncle!

It has the advantage of being an olive branch to a group that has felt pretty crapped on. Surely that's worth something? Doubly so when we never actually got a "gazetteer" book for the whole setting, just piecemeal lore drops. It would, in fact, actually be new to give it the full setting treatment.

I would love a Nentir Vale book (a real, detailed setting, not like what WotC has been doing lately), but I don't see the need to frame its existence as an apology to 4e players.

 

[cbwjm]

Did Nentir Vale have a setting book in 4e? I think I recall a monster book but can't recall a setting book. I think there were dragon articles on parts of the world so there was definitely some info out there.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Did Nentir Vale have a setting book in 4e? I think I recall a monster book but can't recall a setting book. I think there were dragon articles on parts of the world so there was definitely some info out there.

It never got an actual, dedicated setting book. The closest you'll get to a dedicated setting book is The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral sea.

I would love a Nentir Vale book (a real, detailed setting, not like what WotC has been doing lately), but I don't see the need to frame its existence as an apology to 4e players.

It doesn't have to be framed that way, sure. But unless it was intentionally unfaithful to the material, it would be one of the few olive branches this edition has ever offered, so why not embrace that? What's so wrong with being nice to 4e fans once in a while?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Nentir Vale is technically the 2nd newest official setting made for D&D specifically that isn't a port.

And the newest is...? It can't be Exandria, because that's just as much a port as any of the MtG stuff. (And Exandria already has books--plural!--anyway.)

 

[Micah Sweet]

It never got an actual, dedicated setting book. The closest you'll get to a dedicated setting book is The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral sea.


It doesn't have to be framed that way, sure. But unless it was intentionally unfaithful to the material, it would be one of the few olive branches this edition has ever offered, so why not embrace that? What's so wrong with being nice to 4e fans once in a while?

Nothing. But a 5e Nentir Vale is just as much 4e as a 5e Eberron was 3e.