What kinds of New Settings do you want?

[Yora]

You frequently see people proclaiming that they want 5th Edition to introduce new campaign settings instead of reviving old settings.
While I am quite sure I wouldn't use any, it would still be interesting to see what new directions the game can go in the new edition.

What kinds of setting would you like to see for 5th Edition?

Personally, I would love to see something based more on Antiquity or the Dark Ages than just another late Renaissance/Early Modern world like about every single one that was officially published for D&D, with the exception of Dark Sun, possibly.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, I always thought that antiquity was a better fit for D&D.

Instead of the whole world (more or less) being known, you had countries full of mysterious, unknown peoples, or "Here Be Dragons"

 

[GX.Sigma]

I would like to see something so original I would never have thought of it.

 

[Sunseeker]

I would like to see a moderate-magic setting for starters. One in which fighting dragons would be reasonable, but considerably high on the list of achievements. I'd like to see a world with a moderate to low level of civilization, ideally with good sums of "unexplored" territory. I'd like to see said civilizations be a little more diverse than "human kingdoms" and "elven kingdoms". Lets get us some small halfling provinces or some giant/goliath empires, or even empires of mixed races ruled by dragons and their spawn.

I dunno, just throwing stuff out there.

 

[Minigiant]

I like to see a city plane where the whole setting is contain in a small handful of giant metropolises.

Like a giant version of New York City surrounded by a harsh desert, thick forest, endless sea or giant mountain range where the big scary monsters are. Goblins are gangsters. Paladins are police. Etc...

 

[Gilladian]

I wouldn't mind a more dark-ages type setting, lower magic, and with something that resembles a functional economic system. I want to be able to at least pretend that there's room for enough crops to grow on enough arable land that is safe enough for farmers to live on to feed everyone who lives in the city nearby. And that travel between cities/nations is feasible so resources can be safely transported to where they are needed.

Other than that, yeah, pile on the wilderness areas, the ancient ruins, the mystery realms, the monstrous dragons, etc...

 

[avin]

I like to see a city plane where the whole setting is contain in a small handful of giant metropolises.

Like a giant version of New York City surrounded by a harsh desert, thick forest, endless sea or giant mountain range where the big scary monsters are. Goblins are gangsters. Paladins are police. Etc...

Shadowrun?

 

[groklynn]

The whole pop-mainstream culture (e.g. movies, videogames, comics etc.) nowadays tends to give some "realism", just compare Nolan's Batman and Tim Burton's and you get a point. So, I think of a low-magic, less non-humans and else but with more precious and wondrous feel in terms of absolutely rare and powerful mages/monsters/artifacts (no stupid noname "+1 swords"). I mean, back to the roots of Arthurian/Celtic/Scandinavian/Slavic epos, maybe with mixture of Egyptian/Babylonian/Greek mythology - that's what we had in first D&D. So dwarf in tavern on a surface is a big happening, and magician casting fireball is one of the most powerful wizards in his city. But extraplanar/ancient/mystical powers will be a tough challenge and a source of great experience/rare items.

 

[Bluenose]

Dark Ages for me too. Old imperial ruins to explore, the tribes that wrecked it to thwart or lead to greatness, remnants of the old empire still around. It can of course be done in an "Antiquity" context, as at the transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age in the Middle East. I might even prefer that, since the other thing I'd like for a new setting would be that it didn't start with European pseudo-medieval as the default cultural style.

 

[RangerWickett]

Time travel. Every campaign ends when the party accrues too many paradoxes and they are erased from existence, resetting the status quo.