WotC Why WotC SHOULD Make A New Setting

[Umbran]

How do you feel?

I feel... meh?

For D&D, I don't seem to get into settings qua settings.

I typically pick up adventure content. For longer form adventures, I use whatever setting is implicit in it, but only as far as my players need it. For shorter pieces, I wedge it into whatever setting I am otherwise using.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I know that WotC is full of extremely talented and creative folks, and that they have vast resources for quality production.

I'll just add that part of my point is that those same talented and creative folks have worked at WOTC or now work at WOTC as well. Same people.

And for the campaign settings I mentioned (and many I didn't), I argue their production quality is on par with WOTC.

And my other argument is that many of these companies make campaign books that WOTC does not make due to other business factors that smaller companies may not be burdened with. I'm pretty sure we're not going to see a 600 page city sourcebook coming out of WOTC. Maybe you don't want that book, but others do. I do. I think Ptolus is pretty awesome.

 

[Reynard]

Maybe you don't want that book, but others do. I do. I think Ptolus is pretty awesome.

You seem to keep missing that this is NOT about me not liking or "wanting" settings from other publishers, large or small. it is about the desire to be excited for something great from official D&D -- in this case a setting that creates the same excitement and wonder as Eberron when it came out. That's all. It isn't a referendum on 3PP products.

 

[SlyFlourish]

If they did decide to work on a new setting, what would most people actually want to see?

That's the trick isn't it. They put something out and the very next reaction is "not like that". The setting we have in our head isn't what they're going to put out. I don't have a desire for any particular setting. I like to get excited by what people make. That's true except for D&D settings where I have something particular in mind and I often don't see it the way I want.

One big hole they could fill in the lineup that I think would sell really well is something that really embraces Urban Fantasy.

Zobeck Clockwork City by Kobold Press is pretty awesome and I already mentioned Ptolus.

Based on the reaction from WotC fans when Hasbro announced the Potter partnership with toys, adding official Potter to D&D would result in a revolt larger than the OGL debacle.

I don't think it would be as big as the OGL debacle, but it would be really really bad. I'd definitely consider just walking away from WOTC at that point.

This is a noble goal, and nobody else has the resources to do it like Wizards could.

I don't think that's true. Many publishers have published many awesome campaign settings.

But I don't want new settings if the Character Builder doesn't allow limitations at the campaign level.

And here lies my big issue with D&D Beyond as the centralized platform for D&D. If you require it for your game, you're bound to whatever choices they want to make or not make with it. Your happiness with D&D depends on the business goals of WOTC at that point.

This is exactly why people want it. They want 'their' version, 'their' gameplay with 'their' tone, immortalized and validated by the 800lb gorilla.

Yeah, that's the habit I'd love to help people break. When the books are on your table, it doesn't matter who made them. They're great books. They serve you and your players or they don't. It's not for everyone but I think I've gotten more out of the Kobold Press Midgard World Book than any other single campaign book at this point. Each region of the world can be its own campaign.

My point being, campaign settings can cover a very small geographical area or an incredibly large one. They can take place at a single point in time or span ages. So...what are we talking about here, really?

My point being, campaign settings can cover a very small geographical area or an incredibly large one. They can take place at a single point in time or span ages. So...what are we talking about here, really?

5E has released gobs of campaign settings. In addition to Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravnica, Theros, etc...I would argue that Tomb of Annihilation doubled as a Chult setting, Rime of the Frost Maiden as an Icewind Dale setting, Descent Into Avernus as a Nine Hells setting, etc. And I really like that approach!

I would love to see more regional books like what TSR produced for Forgotten Realms for a while. Shorter focused regional guides. I'd love to see them with a more modern GM-focused and adventure-focused style.

One of the points in my video is that I get a lot more out of a setting book than an adventure book. Sure, they sometimes have small regional gazetteers in them but I'd like even more to help me build adventures instead of spoon-feeding ones I tend not to like (I did like Tomb of Annihilation, however). But even WOTC clearly didn't think Icewind Dale got enough love in Rime of the Frostmaiden or Baldur's Gate got enough in Descent into Avernus. They stuck both of them in the Forgotten Realms book too...

it is about the desire to be excited for something great from official D&D

We're all free to desire what we want but when we bind our desires to "official D&D" we're asking for disappointment when their business-driven goals don't meet our desires and we're discounting the incredible talent and effort of hundreds of designers and dozens of publishers who make fantastic products.

Instead, we can look at the work of publishers equally, recognize the talent of their designers (who, again, often worked for or later work for WOTC), and share our experiences with these awesome products.

 

[Scribe]

I don't think that's true. Many publishers have published many awesome campaign settings.

I'm not saying other companies cannot create something great, obviously they can, on a fraction of the Wizards budget (hi Arcane Library!). Nobody however HAS the potential budget in the traditional TTRPG space, to create something huge and sprawling and epic.

At least I dont think so?

 

[SkidAce]

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.

Because you deserve two thumbs up.

 

[SkidAce]

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).

I would say the different aesthetics would be different locations/countries. And I would ignore the fact that that would be unlikely over time. But!

Maybe the different areas are isolated enough that we have a points of light, and because of the dangers in-between the countries have remained insular for ages?

I could work that...

 

[nyvinter]

Why should WotC make a new setting when they could bring back the old ones?

First off, it's not a pick one. You can do both.

And second, because making something that's your own is way more fun than update something from between 50 to 30 years ago. The people there deserve some of that too and not just do new mechanics while rewriting someone else's texts. Especially since the last new D&D setting from WotC were Eberron.

I've liked the MtG settings they've done but those are also things designed and originally written by others, they're a bit newer than Forgotten Realms but they still have the same problem from a creative standpoint — it still needs to adhere to the original themes and texts.

So let the people at WotC go wild and make worlds again. Even if you or I don't end up liking it, it really good for them to be enthusiastic about something they've made. And that enthusiasm spills over into their next thing.

 

[Reynard]

Zobeck Clockwork City by Kobold Press is pretty awesome and I already mentioned Ptolus.

Neither of those are Urban Fantasy.

 

[Artamo]

Neither of those are Urban Fantasy.

What do you mean by Urban Fantasy if Ptolus does not fit that definition?