D&D 5E What would you want for a *new* 5E campaign world?

[Stormonu]

As the title says, if WotC were to produce a new - not a reprint, but new - campaign world, what would you want to see?

My hope
[sblock]

I'd like to see a campaign world set in a moderately middle/near-east setting that allows it to easily straddle western european classes/characters and asian characters. Not like Al-Qadim, but perhaps a bit Spanish moors or North Africa kind backdrop.

[/sblock]

 

[Celebrim]

[sblock]
I'd like to see a campaign world set in a moderately middle/near-east setting that allows it to easily straddle western european classes/characters and asian characters. Not like Al-Qadim, but perhaps a bit Spanish moors or North Africa kind backdrop.
[/sblock]

That sounds alright as a setting within the campaign world, but hardly enough of a trope for a whole world. In general, I dislike 'world as trope' settings as principle settings. You can always set a Moorish themed campaign in a subsection of the setting, but if it is the whole setting then you are stuck with one theme.

For that reason I prefer a generally generic fantasy world to a 'hook as world' or 'trope as world' setting. If you can describe what is interesting about your world in 5 sentences or less, then your world isn't generic enough to serve as a stage for the variaty of tables that would want to use it. Some of those settings might be really interesting - Ravenloft, Planescape, etc. - but you don't want to offer that up as the setting that is default for your generic fantasy rules set.

For me, the things that would be really important to see about a world is really thoughtful world building using the most modern standards. I should be able to tell just by looking at it that all the following is true:

a) They used a climate simulator to place the ecosystems of the world. And they've provided maps that explain climate, rainfall, ocean currents, prevailing winds, ect.
b) They've put some serious thoughts into the world's demographics. City sizes and placements make sense. Villages cluster around population centers.
c) They've built up a many layered global history of the world that helps me understand what people might believe about themselves.
d) They've put some serious thought into the world's cosmology. The world's cosmology needs to not only meet the game needs and address questions like, "Who might my ranger worship?", but they've addressed religion on something other than a gamist level so that I know why people might venerate these beings and that they are meeting basic human needs and aren't just relevant to some guy down in a dungeon. Frankly, to this point only 'The Book of the Righteous' has ever attempted that among any of the 'Dieties and Demigods' style supplements I've seen.
e) Almost immediately as an outgrowth of this examination in 'c' and 'd', the world needs to have a detailed calendar and suggestions about how to localize the calendar for different regions.
f) We've got the outline of something like cooherent economics for the world. I don't really need to know what NPC's you think should exist in a city when getting this world level overview, and I sure as heck don't want statblocks. We can have modules for that. But I'd like to know what the major imports and exports of a city or region are, and who their major trading partners are. I'd like to know what customs or laws make this city or region unique. What is the city famous for? Who are they friends with? Who is vying for their friendship? Who do they hate and why?
g) I'd like to see real exploration of the consequences of magic on the politics and sociology of the world. Make me believe in your setting.

In other words, I want to see work and craftmanship, not tropes and cheap hooks. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Sell me on your setting because it will save me countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears.

 

[Pour]

Fresh blood. I want new designers creating the new settings. A fresh approach, even if it retreads some old ground, drawn from open calls, MtG team, an author, whoever. You can't underestimate a new perspective, and with all of this nostalgia I need something original- even slightly original, meant to be new and explored. And I'm just so tired of hearing RA Salvatore and Ed Greenwood's names in front of everything from books to comics to campaign books...

Also, I wish Chris Perkin's Iomandra was actually explored in a setting book during the 4e life cycle. That would have been awesome.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

That sounds alright as a setting within the campaign world, but hardly enough of a trope for a whole world. In general, I dislike 'world as trope' settings as principle settings. You can always set a Moorish themed campaign in a subsection of the setting, but if it is the whole setting then you are stuck with one theme.

For that reason I prefer a generally generic fantasy world to a 'hook as world' or 'trope as world' setting. If you can describe what is interesting about your world in 5 sentences or less, then your world isn't generic enough to serve as a stage for the variaty of tables that would want to use it. Some of those settings might be really interesting - Ravenloft, Planescape, etc. - but you don't want to offer that up as the setting that is default for your generic fantasy rules set.

For me, the things that would be really important to see about a world is really thoughtful world building using the most modern standards. I should be able to tell just by looking at it that all the following is true:

a) They used a climate simulator to place the ecosystems of the world. And they've provided maps that explain climate, rainfall, ocean currents, prevailing winds, ect.
b) They've put some serious thoughts into the world's demographics. City sizes and placements make sense. Villages cluster around population centers.
c) They've built up a many layered global history of the world that helps me understand what people might believe about themselves.
d) They've put some serious thought into the world's cosmology. The world's cosmology needs to not only meet the game needs and address questions like, "Who might my ranger worship?", but they've addressed religion on something other than a gamist level so that I know why people might venerate these beings and that they are meeting basic human needs and aren't just relevant to some guy down in a dungeon. Frankly, to this point only 'The Book of the Righteous' has ever attempted that among any of the 'Dieties and Demigods' style supplements I've seen.
e) Almost immediately as an outgrowth of this examination in 'c' and 'd', the world needs to have a detailed calendar and suggestions about how to localize the calendar for different regions.
f) We've got the outline of something like cooherent economics for the world. I don't really need to know what NPC's you think should exist in a city when getting this world level overview, and I sure as heck don't want statblocks. We can have modules for that. But I'd like to know what the major imports and exports of a city or region are, and who their major trading partners are. I'd like to know what customs or laws make this city or region unique. What is the city famous for? Who are they friends with? Who is vying for their friendship? Who do they hate and why?
g) I'd like to see real exploration of the consequences of magic on the politics and sociology of the world. Make me believe in your setting.

In other words, I want to see work and craftmanship, not tropes and cheap hooks. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Sell me on your setting because it will save me countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears.

This! It ain't a-gonna happen, but I sure wish it would! (Too expensive, I should think.)

 

[Blue]

I'm not sure I want WotC to put effort into a new campaign when there's so much to do with Next.

I've played in a bunch of official worlds. But when I run, I work more like an author, wrapping my world around my campaign. Ptolus is Ptolus because of the style of play it evokes, not just because it's got some less-trod take on fantasy culture. (Don't get me wrong, you need that too - I do love my worldbuilding.)

WotC has a lot of interesting worlds. And as things get more settled and they want to put out new ones for their revenue stream, that's fine. But for the near future I don't want them to put out any.

That said, if a 3rd party was putting something out, your ideas would be fun. What type of stories and adventures would that bring that differ from some of their other worlds? (Think of how Dark Sun or Eberron can inspire things different then Greyhawk or FR.)

 

[Texicles]

In general, Celebrim speaks for much of what I'd like to see in a new world.

I want a world to be large enough to have room for, detailed enough to inspire, but vague enough to accomodate, all manner of campaigns. High fantasy, low fantasy, quasi-historical, mythologically-based, et. al.

Give me a place where I can find or write the kind of campaign I want, regardless of what that may be at the time, and make it all fit together in a coherent planetary format (socially, politically, geographically and economically).

I'm not asking for a lot here, right?

 

[JeffB]

Sword & planet

 

[3catcircus]

That sounds alright as a setting within the campaign world, but hardly enough of a trope for a whole world. In general, I dislike 'world as trope' settings as principle settings. You can always set a Moorish themed campaign in a subsection of the setting, but if it is the whole setting then you are stuck with one theme.

For that reason I prefer a generally generic fantasy world to a 'hook as world' or 'trope as world' setting. If you can describe what is interesting about your world in 5 sentences or less, then your world isn't generic enough to serve as a stage for the variaty of tables that would want to use it. Some of those settings might be really interesting - Ravenloft, Planescape, etc. - but you don't want to offer that up as the setting that is default for your generic fantasy rules set.

For me, the things that would be really important to see about a world is really thoughtful world building using the most modern standards. I should be able to tell just by looking at it that all the following is true:

a) They used a climate simulator to place the ecosystems of the world. And they've provided maps that explain climate, rainfall, ocean currents, prevailing winds, ect.
b) They've put some serious thoughts into the world's demographics. City sizes and placements make sense. Villages cluster around population centers.
c) They've built up a many layered global history of the world that helps me understand what people might believe about themselves.
d) They've put some serious thought into the world's cosmology. The world's cosmology needs to not only meet the game needs and address questions like, "Who might my ranger worship?", but they've addressed religion on something other than a gamist level so that I know why people might venerate these beings and that they are meeting basic human needs and aren't just relevant to some guy down in a dungeon. Frankly, to this point only 'The Book of the Righteous' has ever attempted that among any of the 'Dieties and Demigods' style supplements I've seen.
e) Almost immediately as an outgrowth of this examination in 'c' and 'd', the world needs to have a detailed calendar and suggestions about how to localize the calendar for different regions.
f) We've got the outline of something like cooherent economics for the world. I don't really need to know what NPC's you think should exist in a city when getting this world level overview, and I sure as heck don't want statblocks. We can have modules for that. But I'd like to know what the major imports and exports of a city or region are, and who their major trading partners are. I'd like to know what customs or laws make this city or region unique. What is the city famous for? Who are they friends with? Who is vying for their friendship? Who do they hate and why?
g) I'd like to see real exploration of the consequences of magic on the politics and sociology of the world. Make me believe in your setting.

In other words, I want to see work and craftmanship, not tropes and cheap hooks. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Sell me on your setting because it will save me countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears.

They already did this. It's called Kingdoms of Kalamar...

 

[Mercurius]

I'd like to see a stronger meta-setting, one that can incorporate countless possible worlds. The 4E Astral Sea, as a kind of Planescape-Spelljammer hybrid, is a good starting point and I think one of the most under-appreciated aspects of the 4E milieu. Use that as the meta-setting, and then design individual worlds within that context, and even create an online platform for the community to post worlds.

But of course that's more of a paragon/epic setting, so you'd still need to have a starting fantasy world. While I love exotic settings like Talislanta or specific theme settings like Dark Sun, I think the best core setting for D&D is still the "vanilla fantasy" setting. The key is doing it well, and having strongly themed regions that embody archetypal domains of fantasy: vast monster-infested northern wilderness littered with countless ruins from a long-fallen civilization; magic-rich and exotic desert kingdoms; lush green forests with hidden secrets; inner sea with pirate isles; etc.

Sound like the Forgotten Realms or Golarion or Greyhawk? Sure. But that's the idea. The key, though, would be to tweak it a bit - different details, stories, deities, etc, to give it a freshness. Flavor it up a bit. Don't rely too much on real world analogues, but don't shy away from classic tropes and don't do silly things like horse-riding dwarven nomads that bust cliches just for the sake of busting cliches, but in the end just destroy a mythic archetype.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I want a rch setting with all kinds of adventure possibilities. Not really looking for the super detailed/realistic kind of setting (Not going to fret over real world geology or economics too much). But I do want a setting that feals grounded, not like it was just put there for a game. I also want to be surprised. I think TsR hit a lot of setting material out of the park in the 90s, and I have my favorites from that era, but just doing a rehash seems dull. Haven't been too impressed with wotc approach to setting material up to this point though. I think they should consider bringing in people from companies who have a reputation for top notch setting stuff (not for the core game design but to help them develop a setting for Next).