D&D 4E What Kinds of Settings do You Want to See for 4E?

[buzz]

I'd like to see a 4e Oathbound or Scarred Lands, though too.

I admit that I'd buy a 4e Midnight in a heartbeat.

 

[bringerofbroom]

Ancient India-style. Either something equivalent to the early moghul period, or really ancient, going back to a setting similar to the tales of the mahabharat.

Some of the stories really sound like Epic scale gaming !

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Off the top of my head

I think that 4 different kinds of setting ought to cover things nicely. Vanilla Fantasy, Alternative Fantasy, Oriental Fantasy, and Oddball Fantasy

Vanilla Fantasy: We need it, and the Realms ought to cover it. I prefer Dragonlance or Birthright however.

Alternative Fantasy: We get this with Eberron: It may not be everyones idea of a good setting, but it does offer a pretty good alternative to standard issue fantasy. More importantly, a strong and distinct alternative is needed. I like that it extrapolates on the magi-tech kind of think, with the Lightning rail. Despite these additions, it is recognizable as Medieval / Rennaisance Europe in many ways.

Oriental Fantasy: Basing the Oriental Adventures off of L5R was a good idea, and probably worth repeating. Oriental based D&D is a niche that has enough demand to address it

Oddball Fantasy: This is the niche that gets addressed by getting as far away from anything that resembles earth based fantasy tropes as you can. Darksun, Spelljammer, Planescape are all this type, as they stay well away from the classic standards. This is the kind of niche that I do not think Wizards will touch themselves though. I just think that it is a good thing to have the game stretch its self in this manner.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[I'm A Banana]

Replace "oriental fantasy" with "non-Medieval Western fantasy" and I think you'll be closer to the truth of it. Ancient Greek, Ancient Rome, the Near East (Arabia, The Holy Land, Byzantium), The Inca, the Aztec, the Maya, African kingdoms, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient China, Polynesia, "Stone-Age"/Tribal settings....all deserve to be represented, IMO.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Replace "oriental fantasy" with "non-Medieval Western fantasy" and I think you'll be closer to the truth of it. Ancient Greek, Ancient Rome, the Near East (Arabia, The Holy Land, Byzantium), The Inca, the Aztec, the Maya, African kingdoms, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient China, Polynesia, "Stone-Age"/Tribal settings....all deserve to be represented, IMO.

I really have to say, though, unless those were amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing and had much stronger "fantasy" than "rip-off of real-world culture" elements, there's just no chance I'd buy any of those books. I know about all of those cultures already (seriously), and shovelling D&D shiz all over them will not "improve" them.

I know that there is a certain part of the market that is all about "culture fans" who will buy anything that's "quasi-japanese" "demi-chinese" or whatever, though. So I guess there's profit to be had, even if it makes more so bored I think playing RIFTS is a good idea.

The Ubbergeek - Why must a black culture be "based on Africa"? Because white cultures tend to be based on Europe? That seems like shoddy reasoning. Human civilization develops in certain patterns, which are followed pretty much regardless of locale (though influenced by food, climate, etc. of course). Why not have really nice "medieval fantasy" setting, with cities and so on, but with very dark-skinned people as the default race, and with different cultural ideals/traditions to say, medieval Europe. They'd still probably have a warrior caste (knights/samurai), a peasant caste, a nobility and so on, but it's be really nice if it was only DISTANTLY derived from a SPECIFIC real world culture instead of a stone cold rip-off.

Again, too, I've got to say that it would be nice to have fantasy set in a society that is basically kind of unpleasant, where, instead of there being clearly "good" nations and "bad" nations, there are just nations, and where the players actually might want to, y'know, OVERTHROW many of the rulers, without having a clear "good guy" realm for them to very safely come from and so on.

This would be nice particularly for fans of Sword and Sorcery like myself, where whilst some nations are "mostly bad", there are certainly none which are "good" in any but the most relative sense.

Edit - Strikes me that Dark Sun did precisely that, what with the unpleasant setting and the bad leaders, and is certainly very positively remembered.

 

[buzz]

I really have to say, though, unless those were amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing and had much stronger "fantasy" than "rip-off of real-world culture" elements, there's just no chance I'd buy any of those books. I know about all of those cultures already (seriously), and shovelling D&D shiz all over them will not "improve" them.

Not so much improve as implement, so instead of work, I just expend money.

The Ubbergeek

"Ubber"?

Again, too, I've got to say that it would be nice to have fantasy set in a society that is basically kind of unpleasant, where, instead of there being clearly "good" nations and "bad" nations, there are just nations, and where the players actually might want to, y'know, OVERTHROW many of the rulers, without having a clear "good guy" realm for them to very safely come from and so on.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/midnight.html

 

[Fallen Seraph]

If they plan on doing that setting per-year idea. Perhaps they could do it like:

2008 - Technology: Four different books come out with setting-rules and new-rules for technologically based games.

2009 - Culture: Four different books based off various real-world cultures and ways to adapt other cultures to your game.

2010 - Otherwordly: Four different books comprising of different ways one can do Planar, Spelljammer, etc. games.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

"Ubber"?

I know, typo... kept it however all those years ago, for the quirky effect.


Ruin, my point was to draw on non-occidental sources more. SImply.

 

[hamishspence]

Settings

First, i'd like the 4th ed ruleset, monsters and weapons especially, to give me room to work with. That was what I liked about 3rd ed, it had a wide range of monsters and planes and weapons that left cultural flavoring in your hands. Indian? Rakshasas, demons, monkeys, punch daggers, tiger claws. Norse? Giants, barbarians, sea serpents. Greek? EASY. so many D&D monsters derived from the Greek mythos.

Now if 4th ed encourages this: Shadowfell = Hades OR Niflheim OR "Void" (David Gemmell) it will be good. A generic world with DMs having a free hand to customise stuff to give it a cultural flavor is IMO a good idea.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Greyhawk & Ravenloft.