D&D 4E What should the next new official campaign setting for 4e be like?

[moxcamel]

Didn't the Forgotten Realms start off as a series of articles reflecting Greenwood's campaign that eventually became popular enough to becoming a full official setting? Might be a good way to approach settings in general - let people write articles until something catches on, continue writing articles until demand builds, then go for the setting book when everyone's drooling for one. If that never happens, hey, no risk taken.

Correct. Although neither Greenwood's nor TSR's intent at the time was to eventually publish the world. Greenwood used his campaign as back-story to monsters and other info he had published in Dragon, and if memory servers, somebody at TSR looking to publish a new campaign setting rang him up and asked if he'd actually formalized his Forgotten Realms.

 

[KahnyaGnorc]

Wasn't Mystara (more specifically, Blackmoor within the world of Mystara) Dave Arneson's default D&D campaign, while Greyhawk was Gygax's default D&D setting?

With the mention of creating new settings from Dragon/Dungeon articles (and making popular ones into "official settings"), I think that could be expanded. What if all new stuff came out in Dragon/Dungeon first, then popular stuff gets all errata'd and fleshed out (so they aren't just compilations of articles) for published books? (That would mean the published books would contain already-popular elements and an already-popular theme, while also giving DDI subs the "bleeding edge" of D&D)

 

[moxcamel]

Blackmoor, which is technically part of Mystara, was the first campaign setting. But Greyhawk eventually became the 'default' campaign setting, and remained so for many years.

ETA: I actually might be wrong about Blackmoor being the first, now that I think about it. Someone please feel free to correct me.

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

Re: Planescape and/or Spelljammer.

In the 4e Manual of the Planes, they mention Spelljamming as a means of traveling the Astral Sea and introduce Sigil as a setting. My impression was that Planescape and Spelljammer were effectively rolled into the default cosmology.

Still, more support for using both as the basis for a campaign would be nice.

Spelljamming and Sigil just aren't remotely the same compared to the original settings.

 

[Incenjucar]

You have to be careful about putting all new stuff through the "magazines." It will take a matter of seconds before someone insists that they are now paying to beta test for Wizards. The mags could be great for learning what people want, but you can't use it to filter final products directly.

 

[Knightfall]

Odyssey Settings?

Perhaps WotC could revisit one of the settings done under the Odyssey line of 2e products.

I've heard that people really liked Jakandor books, and that setting hasn't been overdone. Barbarians vs. Necromancers with a very primal focus. (It could lend itself to a seafaring campaign as well.)

The Savage Coast setting is part of Mystara but it isn't as detailed as the Known World. Plus, you could divorce it completely/partially from Mystara in order to make its appeal broader.

The Tale of the Comet boxed set was only one product, but it was an interesting cross between fantasy and sci-fi. A revised version under 4e could be done similar to Gamma World and be a test run of a more modern version of 4e.

Just some ideas...

 

[Ahrimon]

You have to be careful about putting all new stuff through the "magazines." It will take a matter of seconds before someone insists that they are now paying to beta test for Wizards. The mags could be great for learning what people want, but you can't use it to filter final products directly.

Saddly your probably right with the attitudes of a lot of people these days.

But, if it were true, then we've been beta testing material since Dragon and Dungeon began. The magazines have been introducing new material since day one.

 

[Incenjucar]

Saddly your probably right with the attitudes of a lot of people these days.

But, if it were true, then we've been beta testing material since Dragon and Dungeon began. The magazines have been introducing new material since day one.

Only small portions of it, though.

And they seem to ignore a lot of the feedback, given how psionics came out.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

It is really hard for me to get excited on this campaign setting treadmill that WotC has on us. I mean, when was it decided that our attention spans were too short for a product to hold our interest for more than a few weeks at a time? Two books and an introductory adventure hardly constitutes as a fully-supported world setting. Not for me, at least.

So before I start looking forward to the next great flash in the pan idea, which in all likelihood would be nothing more than a regurgitation of materials that was once original more than a decade ago, I'd really appreciate a little more time and attention to one of these wayward campaigns *coughdarksuncough* being dropped on my gaming doorstep.

Seriously, would it kill anyone to produce a couple more adventures and maybe another supplement or two to help round things out instead of leaving us all the work for ourselves? It should be obvious by now that the majority of us are willing to pay for good, quality stuff. Adventure path anyone? Lets get the "campaign" back into "campaign settings".

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am very happy with the short campaign settings, especially because it always seems FR is the first (and frequently only) campaign to get the full treatment.

If there were a new setting ,well done with good detail, I would like that.

Actually, I would prefer to see an AP in a new world, and that is the whole things, except maybe a side book that adds some mechanical features, like races, a class, feats and the like.

But basically, short is sweet.