WotC What Official 5E non-D&D Game Do You Want To See from WotC?

[Ruin Explorer]

I won't make a strict line by line case, but the feel of a D&D party has more of John Wayne than Mallory.

Oh for sure!

Yeah, if you're putting it on a sliding scale with, say, Westerns on one end, and Arthurian romance on the other, most D&D, hell most fantasy (TTRPG or literary) is a lot closer to Westerns. I mean, a Wizard of Earthsea is more a Western than it is an Arthurian romance. Lord of the Rings is maybe midway between them on that scale (in part because Tolkien, that naughty boy, decided Arthurian stuff was "un-English").

But if you keep testing D&D on other sliding scales between Western and and other genres, like say, Pulp, or Road Trip, or Heist, or whatever the hell genre The Fast and The Furious has become (because it does seem like that is a genre), or like, Shonen anime (which even when set in the Wild West tends to defy the genre norms - I mean, Trigun is far less of a Western than Cowboy Bebop - note Cowboy Bebop isn't Shonen, per se), then I think you'll see more complex picture emerge. Eventually if you keep doing this with genre pairs, I think you'll find there's only a limited amount of Western influence in modern D&D, especially as it attempts to avoid sliding into problematic tropes.

 

[Reynard]

Absolutely the latter - it's actually the 7th edition of Gamma World but will always and forever in my heart be considered the "4e version". The one based on 4e mechanics. The one with the templating for character creation, the random mutations and the crunchy tactical 4e combat that made for the best version of Gamma World I've ever run - and I've been running Gamma World since 2nd edition.

(The one based on 2e mechanics could probably be made into a 5e D&D campaign setting - it would barely need to rise to the level of a new game except for all of those magic rules you'd have to ignore or reskin into "mutations". I'd be fine with that, though our table would continue to play the most awesome edition of Gamma World ever published if they did).

I like the 4E version as a gonzo beer-n-pretzels one off game but I don't think it is a particularly good Gamma World game. For me, the 1991 4th Edition is the best version, both mechanically and setting wise.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh for sure!

Yeah, if you're putting it on a sliding scale with, say, Westerns on one end, and Arthurian romance on the other, most D&D, hell most fantasy (TTRPG or literary) is a lot closer to Westerns. I mean, a Wizard of Earthsea is more a Western than it is an Arthurian romance. Lord of the Rings is maybe midway between them on that scale (in part because Tolkien, that naughty boy, decided Arthurian stuff was "un-English").

But if you keep testing D&D on other sliding scales between Western and and other genres, like say, Pulp, or Road Trip, or Heist, or whatever the hell genre The Fast and The Furious has become (because it does seem like that is a genre), or like, Shonen anime (which even when set in the Wild West tends to defy the genre norms - I mean, Trigun is far less of a Western than Cowboy Bebop - note Cowboy Bebop isn't Shonen, per se), then I think you'll see more complex picture emerge. Eventually if you keep doing this with genre pairs, I think you'll find there's only a limited amount of Western influence in modern D&D, especially as it attempts to avoid sliding into problematic tropes.

I think that speaks to the malleable nature if Fantasy as a genre (you can put in pretty much anything imaginable) and TTRPGs as a medium (being centered in imagination).

Anime and The Fast & Furious are sort of examples of recursion. D&D, specifically Basic, has had sizeable influence on Anime, and the director of the F&F franchise from Tokyo Drift onwards has been very open that F&F is a D&D story as conceived and executed.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I am thinking a new Gamma World shouldn't be set in our Earth but in a postapocalyptic fictional planet, to avoid troubles, and allowing more creative freedom. I think it has got a great potential, not only to sell toys, but also videogames or distopian young adult novels. Now I wonder how would be a postapocaliptic rock-punk version of "Jem & Holograms". Omega Earth could be a new plane for Magic: the Gathering, mixture of postapocaliptic Raypunk and 80's look. And a "G.I.Joe+Transformers+Gamma World? The villains would be the Cobra Cult, (Oficially a megacorporation ruling from arcologies(super skycrappers) as independient mini-states, but really a secret lodge). And a megalopolis would be the home of a "C.o.p.s vs crooks".

 

[Reynard]

Now I am thinking a new Gamma World shouldn't be set in our Earth but in a postapocalyptic fictional planet, to avoid troubles, and allowing more creative freedom. I think it has got a great potential, not only to sell toys, but also videogames or distopian young adult novels. Now I wonder how would be a postapocaliptic rock-punk version of "Jem & Holograms". Omega Earth could be a new plane for Magic: the Gathering, mixture of postapocaliptic Raypunk and 80's look. And a "G.I.Joe+Transformers+Gamma World? The villains would be the Cobra Cult, (Oficially a megacorporation ruling from arcologies(super skycrappers) as independient mini-states, but really a secret lodge). And a megalopolis would be the home of a "C.o.p.s vs crooks".

Not putting it on Earth just makes it more restrictive. Remember, Gamma World is not Fallout. It is a LONG TIME into the future and has more in common with Thundaar than Damnation Alley.

 

[Jer]

Remember, Gamma World is not Fallout. It is a LONG TIME into the future and has more in common with Thundaar than Damnation Alley.

Unless you're playing the 6th edition of the game put out by White Wolf under the 3e rules. Which for some reason decided that Gamma World needed to be more serious.

 

[TheDelphian]

5e would be an easy conversion for WOTC. I mean if rank amateurs can do it

D&D 5E - 5e Compatible Gamma World

So I recently (past year) finished my conversion of Gamma World to 5th edition. I know a few exist but they are of the more recent D&D 4th edition version which, while I liked it in some ways, was not my favorite. I preferred the actually 4th edition published in 1992 (I think). It was pre 3rd...

www.enworld.org

Then professionals should do it better.

 

[Parmandur]

Unless you're playing the 6th edition of the game put out by White Wolf under the 3e rules. Which for some reason decided that Gamma World needed to be more serious.

As was the style at the time.

 

[Reynard]

Unless you're playing the 6th edition of the game put out by White Wolf under the 3e rules. Which for some reason decided that Gamma World needed to be more serious.

I worked on that edition and am very proud of the writing and design I did, but it was definitely a different flavor of PA than what GW usually is.

 

[LordEntrails]

If I could cast negative votes it would be for Star Frontiers. I do not want to see a 5e D&D version of Star Frontiers - in fact, it wouldn't be Star Frontiers because Star Frontiers is a game system, not a setting, and taking D&D mechanics, wrapping them up in sci-fi trappings, and presenting them as a new Star Frontiers would be the absolute last thing I'd want to see them do. (I'd much prefer to see them open up Star Frontiers on DM's Guild for anyone to publish material for and be able to charge for it)

I find this fascinating. To me SF is about the setting and not the mechanics. Mechanics are certainly important in so far as it is level-less and they give a feel for the game. I'm currently reading and considering the Frontier Space rules, and not surprisingly, they seem to be a great fit for the Star Frontiers setting.

I'm going to free stream think about what SF is for me...

• Sathar are important. An alien adversary that is cleary evil. That have powers (hypnotism) that no one else has and are hard to fight against (even if the party almost never faces the challenge).
• A frontier feel, lawlessness and the frequent might makes right, plus of course the unexplored.
• mega corporations
• a touch of hard sci-fi, no artificial gravity, and jump times and travel times are long
• lethality, combat is deadly, survival is hard,
• and there is much more than combat.

Somehow a very similar thought to cyberpunk... ;P