WotC What classic setting SHOULD WotC publish and why?

[Parmandur]

That depends on how married to the status quo of "only those with the Spark can planeswalk" the MtG creative team are. Right now linking Planescape/Spelljammer officially with Magic would be a nightmare for them.

Less married than some Vorthoi on the Interwevs, probably.

 

[Kodiak3D]

I originally wrote a huge post, but realized it was unnecessary...

Dark Sun seems like the most logical choice to me. First, it's not like anything else. That alone makes it stand out and is why I think it should be published. Second, I think the rather grim nature of the world would be appealing to the modern audience. Third...it's just really cool and has always been popular with customers. I think it would sell tons of books. In my opinion, this is the one they SHOULD publish.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Should publish?

Dragonlance seems like the big one. The novels were in print for years and are still common in book stories and libraries. It's very visible and people who might not be familiar with the game, might be aware of the setting
There's a bunch of changes they could make to the setting. Drow, dragonborn, and tieflings need to be added. People hate tinker gnomes and kender. Dragonborn are problematic, and the painsfolk need to be non-white
Joe Manganiello is a big Dragonlance fan too, and the DnD team love him. They could bring him in to help revise and rewrite the setting

Al-Qadim seems like another good one. It's classic but non-European (by which I mean non-white)
And people are aware of ALADIN and ARABIAN NIGHTS. It's very familiar but entirely different. And there's all kinds of new options and monsters they could add
Bring in some people of Persian descent to consult and they're good to go

 

[overgeeked]

Al-Qadim. I’ve love the Arabian Nights stories, films, TV series, and cartoons since I was a kid. There’s a few problematic bits with the setting, but none that can’t be easily fixed. Doing something with a bit wider net would be nice. Go North Africa from Morocco through Egypt and through Mesopotamia, Iran, Iraq, etc and you agoid the essentializing and Orientalism of the original.

Dark Sun. As problematic as some elements are, it’s easily one of my top five settings. Apocalyptic ecological disaster caused by the misuse of magic. Evil has all but won. Harsh survival. Immortal sorcerer-kings. Psionics everywhere. Bronze age. Conan. Mad Max. Barsoom. It almost has it all.

Mystara / Known World / Hollow World. This is the top of my list. The setting is the most gonzo, crazy D&D setting. It’s so over-the-top TSR and WotC have stripped it for parts for decades now. Let’s see if I can find that post...ah, yes.

“A second, invisible moon with samurai cat people living on it. An ancient crashed spaceship. A buried nuclear reactor. An ancient Blackmoor device exploded, tilting the world. The Hollow World. The spell of preserving. Kalaktatla, the Amber Serpent...aka Ka the Preserver...an Immortal T-Rex who preserves ancient civilizations by moving them to the hollow world, including faux Romans and faux Aztecs. Flying continents. Flying cities. Crashed flying cities. Flying ships. Flying gnomes. A city of Immortals on the moon. Vast galactic empires. Time travel. Aliens. Genetic manipulation. Alternate dimensions. Thar. All the unique races and monsters. Immortals. Slowly dying magic. Shadow elves. The denial of the Hin. Bargle. Threshold. The Isle of Dread. The modules. I could almost swoon just thinking about it all.”

Ravenloft. Well...never mind. Carry on, then.

Spelljammer. Gimme Pirates of the Caribbean in space already. British hippo gun fetishists and giant space hamsters. Neogi and mind flayers. I’d prefer they not mix it with Planescape, but that almost seems inevitable at this point.

 

[Fenris-77]

People keeping asking for Spelljammer and Planescape, but I'd rather get a 5E adaptation of the material from The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea from 4E.

View attachment 137029

It essentially reimagined the Astral Plane as a cross between Spelljammer and Planescape by having islands in the Astral Plane, some of which were divine realms and some of which were independent from the gods (or were remains of dead gods themselves), as well as various ships piloted by all manner of beings: githyanki, a new race called the quom who scoured the plane for the remains of their goddess, angels, devils, etc.

The gods also had their own Astral fleets of dominion ships that their followers used to enact their god's will through the Astral Sea. The gods of Celestia, for example, had dominion ships complete with dragon roosts meant to patrol the Astral Plane and search for those lost souls in need of aid, such as the souls of people who were supposed to end up in an Outer Plane but instead somehow got stranded on an island (with some islands having entire communities of lost souls who occasionally come under attack from githyanki, devils, servants of evil gods, or even wandering aberrations or demons).

View attachment 137030
Adventures in the Astral Sea include searching for lost islands and ships, fighting off pirates, dealing with the unusual locals of various Astral communities, and searching the remnants of former divine realms fallen into ruin (such as the White Desert of Shom, formerly under control of the goddess Ioun) for lost treasures and forgotten knowledge.

It also seems like it would be trivial to inject more aspects of Planescape and Spelljammer into this take on the Astral Plane. One could keep the Outer Planes separate, but have islands that have somehow "broken off" from various Outer Planes drifting throughout the Astral. 4E also had a similar locale in the Elemental Chaos (which technically is still mentioned in the 5E DMG but never brought-up elsewhere), so it wouldn't be hard to also incorporate locations from 4E's take on the Elemental Chaos as shards of the Elemental Planes that have ended up in the Astral somehow.

EDIT: I found a list of locations in the Astral Sea from official 4E publications. I thought I'd share some of the most interesting (IMO) ones:

• The Cloud Court: A stepped pyramid formed from solid clouds where the emperor of the couatl reigns.
• The Constellation of Eyes: This strange astral dominion, a sphere of reflective crystal orbited by countless massive, curved mirrors, is home of the nerras, a bizarre race that can see and move through mirrors.
• Kalandurren, the Darkened Pillars: Once a peaceful, well-ordered domain of shining castles and noble warriors, Kalandurren is now a ruined landscape where dark powers squabble over the choicest plunder. The Doomguard controls a stronghold here called Citadel Exalhus.
• Mutas: A free city inhabited by mortals. Its metal buildings ring the inside of a sunken structure that drops into the dim depths of the Astral Sea. According to legend, Mutas formed from a drinking goblet the god Moradin once tossed into the Astral Sea after hearing news that disgusted him.
• The Tower of Law: A bastion of the Mercykillers.
• The White Desert of Shom: A desert dominion of the mysterious race known as the Illumians who have passed into myth. Great sphinxes safeguard the domain, and the ruined City of Philosophers contains darkened vaults of lore lit only by the glowing runes that encircle the heads of Illumian mummies.
• Worldships: Pieces of a ruined divine dominion rebuilt into ships by a race known as the Quom. They search the Astral Sea for more pieces of their ancestral home so that it can one day be restored.

I've been beating the drum for a setting I call Planejammer for years. I think it makes too much sense not to portmanteau the two into a single thing. Take Sigil and add Treasure Planet, BOOM, awesome sauce.

 

[Kodiak3D]

I want to see them do Planescape, but I nervous about the art. Tony DiTerlizzi's art helped define the feel of that setting (for me at least). If they publish a 5e version, I doubt they would get him to do the art, and that's just going to be weird to me.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Pelinore. The world is flat and British and centered on cities (but not in an excessive Ravnicaesque way). Pelinore

 

[Aldarc]

The Nentir Vale got split as meal between Exandia and FR, leaving nothing but bones and leftovers. RIP.

I think that the Nentir Vale can still stand on its own. D&D has its own multiverse where multiple settings share a variety of basic elements, so it should be okay that Exandria and Forgotten Realms also share some things with Nerath/Nentir Vale too. That's D&D.

IMHO, part of the appeal for the Nentir Vale is that it's NOT the world of the FR books/games or Matt Mercer's world, but, rather, it exists mostly in minimal GM sketchbook form. It's a setting initially designed to be DIY starter set for GMs. It has a few base elements (e.g., Dawn War, the pantheon, a fallen Bael Turath/Arkhosia/Nerath, the map of the Vale, etc.), but most of that is undefined and open. Because of this, the GM doesn't have to worry about stumbling over catalogues and streams of highly-defined setting lore. This is why I still use Nentir Vale as one of my primary go-to settings for games. It's great for sandbox games or dropping old modules throughout the map.

 

[Don Durito]

WOTC should publish Dark Sun.

They should do it because it's my favourite setting, and even although I already own it in two editions and could easily run it already, publishing it again would validate my preferences.

 

[Fenris-77]

We would all like our preferences validated.