WotC Why WotC SHOULD Make A New Setting

[Tonguez]

We need a thread here to cover favorite Urban Fantasy books.

and define what even is Urban Fantasy for instance is either the Dresden Files or Garrett PI series Urban fantasy?

 

[Corinnguard]

and define what even is Urban Fantasy for instance is either the Dresden Files or Garrett PI series Urban fantasy?

Urban Fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy that places supernatural elements (magic, psychic abilities, fantasy races, monsters, etc.) into a contemporary urban setting. This sub-genre acts as a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements and unusual characters without the need to create an entire imaginary world. Take Chicago in the Dresden Files series, to anyone who lives or visits there in RL, it actually resembles the Chicago that exists in our world. However, in this Chicago (and presumably the rest of that alternate Earth), magic exists and so do supernatural beings such as the Fey and Vampires.

Urban Fantasy is a mix of the stuff we in RL consider familiar and the strange. Only the latter is considered to be something ordinary by those that live there.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i think the Final Fantasy aesthetic would do well for a new DnD setting, that whole magi-crystal-tech retro-futurism vibe, where you get knights and ninjas alongside summoners and a guy with a gun for an arm, people throw out thunderbolts, shuriken, swordbeams and grenades and it all fits alongside each other, you don't blink an eye when one town has Chocobo drawn carts, another has a monorail and the third has airships.

 

[Tigris]

i think the Final Fantasy aesthetic would do well for a new DnD setting, that whole magi-crystal-tech retro-futurism vibe, where you get knights and ninjas alongside summoners and a guy with a gun for an arm, people throw out thunderbolts, shuriken, swordbeams and grenades and it all fits alongside each other, you don't blink an eye when one town has Chocobo drawn carts, another has a monorail and the third has airships.

I agree. They could do a cooperation with Square Enix and do a crosspromotion.


They release a new Final Fantasy Tactics playing in Ivalice "powered by D&D" snd D&D releases a Ivalice Campaign setting.

 

[Remathilis]

i think the Final Fantasy aesthetic would do well for a new DnD setting, that whole magi-crystal-tech retro-futurism vibe, where you get knights and ninjas alongside summoners and a guy with a gun for an arm, people throw out thunderbolts, shuriken, swordbeams and grenades and it all fits alongside each other, you don't blink an eye when one town has Chocobo drawn carts, another has a monorail and the third has airships.

I'd argue Final Fantasy doesn't have any single aesthetic but (like D&D) a bunch of shared tropes over multiple settings. It's hard to look at Final Fantasy 4 (which feels very traditional of a kitchen sink D&D world) Final Fantasy 8 (which is very futuristic) and Final Fantasy 15 (which is almost urban fantasy like modernistic) and say they are the same setting. You would either have just a collection of FF inspired elements that DMs could pick from OR pick one gent to describe in detail. (I would pick 14 since the MMO aspect is easiest to port to a ttrpg style, and 14 does manage to reference the best of the others though homage).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd argue Final Fantasy doesn't have any single aesthetic but (like D&D) a bunch of shared tropes over multiple settings. It's hard to look at Final Fantasy 4 (which feels very traditional of a kitchen sink D&D world) Final Fantasy 8 (which is very futuristic) and Final Fantasy 15 (which is almost urban fantasy like modernistic) and say they are the same setting. You would either have just a collection of FF inspired elements that DMs could pick from OR pick one gent to describe in detail. (I would pick 14 since the MMO aspect is easiest to port to a ttrpg style, and 14 does manage to reference the best of the others though homage).

You can do Eberron as Final Fantasy. It’s just a matter of hitting the tone.

 

[Tigris]

I'd argue Final Fantasy doesn't have any single aesthetic but (like D&D) a bunch of shared tropes over multiple settings. It's hard to look at Final Fantasy 4 (which feels very traditional of a kitchen sink D&D world) Final Fantasy 8 (which is very futuristic) and Final Fantasy 15 (which is almost urban fantasy like modernistic) and say they are the same setting. You would either have just a collection of FF inspired elements that DMs could pick from OR pick one gent to describe in detail. (I would pick 14 since the MMO aspect is easiest to port to a ttrpg style, and 14 does manage to reference the best of the others though homage).

On the other hand the Ivalice setting was used by multiple final fantasies including the final fantasy tactics. Also being a lot about political intrigue ans is more specificetc. It could be a quite different D&D settting to the "mixed" forgotten worlds. I feel the 14 one is also like forgotten words just a bit too mixed everything alltogether to stand out as a setting too much from forgotten realms.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

An option to create a new setting could be recovering the chronomancers. The time dragons would be an independient and relatively neutral faction, and independient groups of chronomancer guilds could some times cooperate against a common enemy. To solve the possible risk the time paradoxes some timelines, or time-spheres, would be astral-domains within the Dream-plane. Here we could find alternate version of offical settings. Some time-spheres would be like Ravenloft but more post-apocaliptic or distipia than true horror, and others would be like utopia close to domains of delight(Witchlight).

WotC could want to create a setting specifically for the Chinese market, but this could be a risky move (due certain reasons we know and to say them here isn't necessary). It would be easier for Tencent to hire WotC for worldbuilding and then have WotC fine-tune it as needed. The deal could be WotC designs the worldbuilding, Tecent produces the videogame and WotC is allowed to create an independient spiritual succesor. Tencent would controll the metaplot of this videogame but WotC would enjoy total creative freedom for its spiritual-sucessor or possible spin-off. It would be like Sony with its independient Marvel superheroes cinematographic universe. Possible but risky.

Other option could be to create a magitek version of "Gamma World". This time wouldn't be set in our "real life" but into a totally fictional planet.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Ding!

Which is why I have no idea why people are so dead-set on wanting D&D to be this singular, tightly-focused game of theirs. Why D&D and not any other game? What's wrong with all the other hundreds of RPGs out there? Why does it have to be D&D? Because it's the ubiquitous one? The one everyone knows? But so what? What difference does that make?

There's zero reason why any particular game master shouldn't find a game that fits their idea of the tight, focused, roleplay experience they are looking for and then get players for it and play it... D&D or no. It doesn't HAVE to be D&D. And if it turns out that the game master CAN'T find players to play this tight, focused, roleplay experience they are looking for... then perhaps their idea of that kind of game just isn't worth playing. And if that's the case... turning D&D into that game is completely pointless.

D&D is just a roleplaying game. No better and no worse than any other roleplaying game. So there's no reason to turn it into something it's not. Especially if people want that change for no other reason than because they want "Dungeons & Dragons" to be their uber-game. You don't need it to be.

You really have no idea why people would like for all rhe trrpg play they do to sbe plugged into the same core rules engine?

None at all?

 

[Remathilis]

On the other hand the Ivalice setting was used by multiple final fantasies including the final fantasy tactics. Also being a lot about political intrigue ans is more specificetc. It could be a quite different D&D settting to the "mixed" forgotten worlds. I feel the 14 one is also like forgotten words just a bit too mixed everything alltogether to stand out as a setting too much from forgotten realms.

I've long stopped following FF (12 was the last one I owned and 9 the last one I completed) but I would wonder how much Ivalice would be popular with people looking at the FF TTRPG and expecting a more FF7 style world. That's kinda my problem with it: I would probably want something that captures the OS 1-6(+9) classical fantasy vibe while I wager most of the fan base would want a more 7 onwards futuristic style. Not sure you could reconcile that unless they did two versions (classic and modern).