WotC Why WotC SHOULD Make A New Setting

[Reynard]

So apparently I need to spell out the joke.

Ravnica isn't the urban fantasy genre. Just because it is fantasy and has an urban environment, doesn't make it the urban fantasy genre, any more than the presence of death knights makes Dragonlance Gothic horror despite some tragic and spooky elements.

I realize sarcasm is the lowest form of whit, but I was only attempting to draw comparison between people saying Pholtus or Planescape qualifies as urban fantasy by saying that by that metric, Krynn is a horror setting.

Are we clear now?

I for one was enjoying the bit.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Like...why isnt Wizards doing something like this? When was the last time Wizards even tried? MtG makes settings all the time, 3PP does it all the time.

Why do people just accept Wizards coasting on past glory when it comes to D&D?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dndshorts/ryoko-and-helianas-guide-to-mythozoology

I don't think that idea needs 800 pages, but yeah, at least it's enthusiastically doing something new.

 

[Artamo]

.

 

[Scribe]

I don't think that idea needs 800 pages, but yeah, at least it's enthusiastically doing something new.

Yeah, thats the thing that kind of kills it for me. I just dont need all that text in my life anymore but it sure hits the right note.

My wife would likely be way more into it, from a visual/tonal perspective, than Shadowdark and my beloved grimdarkness...

I could go into it more, but I'll probably just buy it and stick it on a shelf to flip through later.

 

[mamba]

Are we clear now?

yes, apparently your sarcasm font is broken

 

[Remathilis]

yes, apparently your sarcasm font is broken

Sure Jan

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don't know why I don't get a response to this part of it but the same team members who make settings when they work at WOTC also make settings when they're not at WOTC:

• Midgard (Wolfgang Baur, Dan Dillon)
• Islands of Sina Una (Mackenzie De Armas)
• Tal'Dorei Reborn (James Haeck)
• Numenera (Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds)
• Arora (Shawn Merwin)
• Aethereal Expanse (James Haeck)
• Primeval Thule (Dave Noonan, Rich Baker, Stephen Schubert)
• Ptolus (Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds)
• Path of the Planebreaker (Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds)
• Grim Hollow (Shawn Merwin, James Haeck)
• Tal'Dorei Reborn (James Haeck)

All made by D&D team members but not when they were at WOTC.

It's not the team members folks are focusing on here when they say they want a new D&D setting, it's strictly a focus on the brand and the company.

Okay? Great?

How does that invalidate wanting a new wotc setting?

And that "objective" answer is "they have the trademark". That's it. There's no other super magical secret sauce going on.

Absolutely no one is unaware of what makes a thing official. I promise.

The product quality of current D&D products is really good. The art is awesome (though some disagree). The physical construction is great. So is the construction by Cubicle 7 and Ghostfire and Monte Cook Games and Kobold Press.

Okay...i also like stuff by some of them but it doesnt change this topic in any way.

The desire for an "official D&D" setting is a desire to see a product the D&D ampersand on it. That's the only difference. And I think that focus dismisses the work published by other publishers, work often done by the same designers.

Okay who in this discussion has been doing that? Maybe i missed it because i have someone ignored.

I argue 13th Age is a more official take on D&D 3e and 4e because it was the version of D&D both of the lead designers of 3e and 4e wanted to make. It just doesn't have the trademark.

But it objectively isn't official. Quality is a separate question.

People can want want they want, but the desire to see an "official D&D setting" is strictly a desire to see the D&D trademark on a book. It's not a love of the work of the designers. It's not a feeling that the quality of every WOTC product surpasses that of all other publishers. It's just a focus on the legal trademark of D&D.

I think we should judge all settings and all published RPG work based on the quality of the work, not the trademarked brand it happens to have or not have.

So you really do not see the appeal of having a setting crafted by the exact team that is currently building the game at thw time that the setting gets written? You dont see the value of that concurrence? Really?

Because it isnt just a trademark, it is about the difference that exists between what a specific designer will do on their own vs with a specific team vs with a different specific team, and the different ways people design when they do or do not have to worry about the legacy of the game and being good stewards of it and all that.

13th Age is very cool. The same team woukd have made a different game under wotc, because the needs of the game would be different, the enviroment, the pressures and incentives, all different.

Not better or worse, but certainly different.

Just like we want Kobold Press and Ghostfire Games to both be making their setting stuff, we also want wotc to make a new setting thst is completely steeped in the current rules with no need to "stand out from official dnd" and with a need to very much be a 2026 5e dnd by wotc setting.

 

[Corinnguard]

A couple minutes ago, a friend and fellow D&D player of mine linked me to this article:

Introducing the Urban Fantasy Gazetteer

Click through for an interactive map of contemporary fantasy by state at One of the pleasures of reading contemporary or urban fantasy, as opposed to epic fantasy, is the fact that it is set in ou…

www.genrify.com

The first two paragraphs of this article talk about what makes Urban Fantasy so appealing to some people. The rest of the article mentions which state each Urban Fantasy series took place in.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A couple minutes ago, a friend and fellow D&D player of mine linked me to this article:

Introducing the Urban Fantasy Gazetteer

Click through for an interactive map of contemporary fantasy by state at One of the pleasures of reading contemporary or urban fantasy, as opposed to epic fantasy, is the fact that it is set in ou…

www.genrify.com

The first two paragraphs of this article talk about what makes Urban Fantasy so appealing to some people. The rest of the article mentions which state each Urban Fantasy series took place in.

I'm surprised to see so few stories in New Orleans -- Anne Rice's works not being counted as urban fantasy for the purposes of this list doesn't help -- although a ton of stories being set in San Francisco checks out.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh for sure. Given how many settings Magic has created since 2014 though? At a glance.

Khans of Tarkir
Kaladesh
Amonkhet
Ixalan
Throne of Eldraine
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Kaldheim
Streets of New Capenna
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Bloomburrow
Duskmourn: House of Horror

And D&D has, if we are generous in our definition released...1 new one?

I mean, thats actually embarrassing.

While i want to see a new setting, nah. They arent obligated to ever make a new setting. Them not doing so is not any sort of sign of some character failing or whatever, it is simply a perfectly valid choice they have thus far made that you don't prefer.