D&D 5E Which Non-Classic/Magic Settings Would You like to see WotC Publish?


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Hasbro would be glad with an Urban Arcana setting because it is the easiest option to be adapted into action-live productions, and also to can publish crossovers with other franchises, but in the tabletop there is a serious conflict between gameplay/power balance and fidelity realism. If firearms are too powerful the classic classes would be forgotten and everybody would want to be gunmen or one-man-army as Rambo. The calculation of XPs rewards/challenge rating had to be totally different, because with the right weapon a elephant, dinosaur or megafaun specimen could be killed with one shot. In the first movie "Alien the eight passenger" only one xenomorph was enough to kill almost all Nostromo crew, but in the sequel, James Cameron's Aliens dozens, maybe hundreds of them, could be killed from other room thanks two turrets. Have you played any battle royal videogame? let's imagine the enemy is using only an axe and a shield. After other enemy with the same stats but this time with a gun. Now it's not so easy. The next is the enemy as sniper from the top of a tree or a window. Then menace is different, practically the equivalent to survive a trap. But It can become worse if the enemy can use an exo-suit (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare), a powered armor (Fallout or Anthem) or a mecha (Titanfall or the B.R.U.T.E. from Fortnite). This enemy in a d20 game is more powerful than adding a monster template. Do you understand? Haven't you thought about WotC publishing any famous videogame franchise? not only Blizzard's Diablo or Warcraft, but also sci-fi shooters as Fortnite: Save the World or Blizzard's Overwatch.

He-Man and the Master of the Universe, as the superheroes, aren't easy to be adapted to games, because these need a right balance between power and weakness, success and weakness. If Hasbro wants a planetary romance, better to start from zero with their own new IP.
 



Aldarc

Legend
I think He-Man is unlikely, only because Mattel owns that brand.
Also, a Masters of the Universe RPG was announced last year for Cortex Prime. It looks like a pretty good fit, since it's meant to be a system where He-Man can fight alongside characters the like of Orko, Man-E-Faces, and Mek-a-Nek.
 

Marc_C

Solitary Role Playing
What if the Urban Arcana wasn't like, normal Earth, but one of the D&D setting thrown like 1500-2000 years into the future? Mystara with cars and computers for exemple.
Well that wouldn't be Urban Arcana. Supernatural, Buffy are urban arcana. The fact that it is the real Earth is very important. Players can relate to every day things and places they know. For example my UA campaigns are always locate in our home town of Montreal.

Mystara 2,021 would be Sci-Fantasy.
 

Undrave

Hero
Well that wouldn't be Urban Arcana. Supernatural, Buffy are urban arcana. The fact that it is the real Earth is very important. Players can relate to every day things and places they know. For example my UA campaigns are always locate in our home town of Montreal.

Mystara 2,021 would be Sci-Fantasy.
I think both could be interesting. I don't think there's a lot of 'Modern day version of Fantasy settings' out there that aren't just Earth.
 

delericho

Legend
The #1 thing I'd like to see is something completely new. I'm almost completely certain it will never happen, but it's something I'd like to see.

The other thing that I would find intriguing are a young adult "modern Appendix N" setting - take things like Harry Potter, Eragon, Pokemon, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games/Maze Runner, file off the serial numbers very thoroughly, mash them up, and see what you've got. (The PCs would be trainee wizards, beast trainers, dragon riders, and scions of divine bloodlines, all trapped in an horrible dystopia.) Of course, the big problem with it would be the horror that is IP rights - Rowling doesn't have a monopoly on "magical Eton", but I can readily understand people not wanting to test that. :)
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

100% that gnome
The #1 thing I'd like to see is something completely new. I'm almost completely certain it will never happen, but it's something I'd like to see.

The other thing that I would find intriguing are a young adult "modern Appendix N" setting - take things like Harry Potter, Eragon, Pokemon, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games/Maze Runner, file off the serial numbers very thoroughly, mash them up, and see what you've got. (The PCs would be trainee wizards, beast trainers, dragon riders, and scions of divine bloodlines, all trapped in an horrible dystopia.) Of course, the big problem with it would be the horror that is IP rights - Rowling doesn't have a monopoly on "magical Eton", but I can readily understand people not wanting to test that. :)
Kids on Brooms and other not-Hogwarts games are already a thing.

For non-modern YA fantasy, see Beyond the Wall, which is wonderful.

But a modern-ish take on it would be a great idea for a setting.
 


embee

Lawyer by day. Rules lawyer by night.
Who is the owner of Thundar the Barbarian? I think "Pirates of the Dark Waters" would be easier to be adapted into a D&D by setting, or maybe some partnership deal.
Both were Hanna Barbera, which made the most Hanna Barbaric cartoons in the 80s. So it's AT&T/WB/Cartoon Network.

Personally, I would give my left arm for a "Pirates of Dark Water" setting. Well, not MY left arm. But somebody's left arm. And a right leg too, if necessary, because PoDW was the most D&D cartoon of the 80s.

Even more than the actual D&D cartoon.
 

Both were Hanna Barbera, which made the most Hanna Barbaric cartoons in the 80s. So it's AT&T/WB/Cartoon Network.

Personally, I would give my left arm for a "Pirates of Dark Water" setting. Well, not MY left arm. But somebody's left arm. And a right leg too, if necessary, because PoDW was the most D&D cartoon of the 80s.

Even more than the actual D&D cartoon.
"I need that guy's leg."
 

MarkB

Legend
Even though it informs a lot of aspects of D&D I don't think there's been an official setting that really encompasses Arthurian myth and legend. So I'd be down for an Avalon setting.
 

King Arthur, the round table, Merlin, Lancelot and Avalon is public domain. It is a double-edge sword, because their names are known, but also they can be used by others. It would be like for the resurection of Disney when other studios broadcasted their own version of those public domain characters. The knights of the round table are present as the Arthurian myths in the sourcebooks "Deities and demigods" and "Legends and Lore".

I am open-minded about D&D version of famous videogame franchises: Runeterra, Final Fantasy, Warcraft.... but intercompany crossovers aren't easy to negotiate and reach and agremeent.

After Exandria(Critical Role) and Acquisition Inc.... do you thing any setting from any game-live steaming show would possible?

DC published its own D&D setting: The Last God. A new version of "Pirates of the Dark Waters" wouldn't be a surprise if we remember the "reboots" or mash-up of famous Hanna-Barbera characters.

589512-scooby-apocalipsis-reboot-scooby-doo-llega-25-mayo.jpg

(Mmmm, how would be a Scooby Doo - Ravenloft crossover?)

Wacky_Raceland%2C_DC_Comics%2C_Jun_2016.jpg

(And a Gamma World - Wacky Raceland? (and the dog is a secret transformers).

Settings by comic publishers? These could create wonderful lore, but I am afraid the weak point is the right crunch. I guess then the solution would be easy, buying some 3PP, and using this as other ideas-factory to later being adapted into videogame. I don't know enough DC's "the last god" but it looks a world too linked to the main plot of the comic, without enough space for other characters with their own adventures, something too close with Dragonlance.
 

jayoungr

Legend
Supporter
None. Hear me out.

WotC owns a lot of classic settings that no one else can publish.

Anyone can make a brand-new setting, and there are loads of wonderful ones out there.

If WotC publishes a brand-new setting, the classic settings continue to be neglected.
 


Whizbang Dustyboots

100% that gnome
None. Hear me out.

WotC owns a lot of classic settings that no one else can publish.

Anyone can make a brand-new setting, and there are loads of wonderful ones out there.

If WotC publishes a brand-new setting, the classic settings continue to be neglected.
Some creative works are dead ends or products of their time and are unlikely to see further life. There is no moral imperative for WotC to give us a Jakandor 5E. The world is not diminished by there not being a Thunder Rift 5E. There are arguments against even trying with Maztica, Al-Qadim and Kara Tur and, instead, channeling the impulse to do something with Meso-America, the Middle East and Asia into a new and better thing.
 
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Urriak Uruk

Gaming is fun, and fun is for everyone
but which of the classic settings even have a place in the world today beyond nostalgia?

What does this even mean? I think some of the classic settings do introduce styles of play that aren't really reflected well in the currently-released 5E settings, if that's what you mean.
 

What does this even mean? I think some of the classic settings do introduce styles of play that aren't really reflected well in the currently-released 5E settings, if that's what you mean.
name those styles of play and settings.

then list how difficult it would be to update them to not be incompatible with modern taste.

then list the setting unique selling points.
 

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