D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

[Paul Farquhar]

It is.

The point is it isn't a gentle decision. It has major setting ramifications.

In a sense - Dragonborn are very rare for a reason - so there is simply not enough of them that it’s possible to field units of breath weapon infantry. If you had a setting with a significant Dragonborn population you would either have to rule that most did not have breath weapons, or that they ruled the world. You can’t put a unit of flamethrowers on a medieval battlefield without massively changing the world.

There is a similar issue with elves, of course - a company of Fire Bolters on the battlefield would be like adding automatic weapons. It’s the norm for Eberron of course, and you have the same on both sides, but it would end any pretence of pseudo-medievalism in a setting like FR or Greyhawk. So it falls to the DM to handwave why that doesn’t happen.

And then the humans all use their bonus feat to pick up arcane initiate…

Most settings, especially pseudo-medieval ones, only work because normal folk don’t have the same abilities as PCs, including the ones they get from their species.

 

[mamba]

I am less a fan of isolationist Elf. Actually most of the creepy "pure blood" tropes in D&D seem to enter via Elf campaigns.

That can be anyone, I just ran with the example that was provided. Also, these do not need to be the only elves either, others can be more open. To me that is much more culture driven than species driven

 

[Minigiant]

In a sense - Dragonborn are very rare for a reason - so there is simply not enough of them that it’s possible to field units of breath weapon infantry. If you had a setting with a significant Dragonborn population you would either have to rule that most did not have breath weapons, or that they ruled the world. You can’t put a unit of flamethrowers on a medieval battlefield without massively changing the world.

There is a similar issue with elves, of course - a company of Fire Bolters on the battlefield would be like adding automatic weapons. It’s the norm for Eberron of course, and you have the same on both sides, but it would end any pretence of pseudo-medievalism in a setting like FR or Greyhawk. So it falls to the DM to handwave why that doesn’t happen.

And then the humans all use their bonus feat to pick up arcane initiate…

Most settings, especially pseudo-medieval ones, only work because normal folk don’t have the same abilities as PCs, including the ones they get from their species.

But again that becomes an excuse to never deal with the situation.

You allow all these magical races available for PCs but nerf them hard because you don't want to think about the consequences.

Thinking about the consequences is exactly what you pay publishers for.

It's the publishers job to do the hard work to make purchasing work it.

 

[Yaarel]

That can be anyone, I just ran with the example that was provided. Also, these do not need to be the only elves either, others can be more open. To me that is much more culture driven than species driven

Old school Forgotten Realms occasionally got carried away with off-putting elven fantasy racism, supremacism, purity, along with a fetish of skin colors and eye colors. I am glad 5e drops these Elf "traditions". I hope they dont resurface accidentally later as content creators look to older editions for inspiration.

By contrast, I doubt people would care if there was some weird rivalry between Dragonborn descending from Green Dragon poison breath versus Blue Dragonborn lightning breath. It seems little more than sports team rivalries.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But again that becomes an excuse to never deal with the situation.

You allow all these magical races available for PCs but nerf them hard because you don't want to think about the consequences.

Thinking about the consequences is exactly what you pay publishers for.

It's the publishers job to do the hard work to make purchasing work it.

If you think about the consequences, no D&D setting works, and it’s not possible to create one that does.

The game runs on creative vaguery, player character exceptionalism and the willing suspension of disbelief. In other words, D&D works only because of a social contract to never deal with the situation.

 

[TwoSix]

By contrast, I doubt people would care if there was some weird rivalry between Dragonborn descending from Green Dragon poison breath versus Blue Dragonborn lightning breath. It seems little more than sports team rivalries.

That just doesn't make sense. Blue Lightning is so obviously superior, how can it be a competition?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You are totally free to change according your own preferences the demography of the different species. We are going to suppose several years have passed after each new edition. In trade centers you can find people from different origins. For example we can say tabaxi arrived from Maztica and no-evil hobgoblins from Zakhara(al-Qadim).

We are talking about details that are very easy to be rewritten. It would be more difficult to add factions that are too closely tied to some non-core classes, for example the sha'ir from al-Qadim or the psionic ardents.

A new setting has to be interesting even after a new edition. Why should I buy it instead FR or Greyhawk?

OK, my suggestion is a reimagination of Red Steel/Savage Coast. Le'ts imagine there are special dust, the vermeil, in several points of the multiverse. One of them is in Mystara but there are more in other wildspaces. In the zones with vermeil planar gates can be opened toward a special demiplane, working this like a planar trade hub. The handicap is people afficted by the Scarlet-curse suffer several secondary effects. It is possible but not easy. One of the zones is within the Athaspace.

 

[Minigiant]

If you think about the consequences, no D&D setting works, and it’s not possible to create one that does.

The game runs on creative vaguery, player character exceptionalism and the willing suspension of disbelief. In other words, D&D works only because of a social contract to never deal with the situation.

There are layers.

There is no reason why you could possibly not include all of these fantasy species and give the common folks some level of fantasyness and still maintain the base assumptions of the game.

Sci-fi does it all the time.

It feels like people are forcing their biases as an excuse to not update things.

I mean we accept that small races can carry huge weapons and wear heavy armor to tank against a dragon.

Fire breathing people and people who can teleport once a day won't completely destroy a set in unless the setting is based completely on it scarcity of technology.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sci-fi does it all the time.

Sci fi puts them on different planets.

No one is the Mos Eisley Cantina is from Mos Eisley.

 

[Yaarel]

Re Dragonborn in Greyhawk.

The DMs Guide has Ket the only place that mentions a "sizable population" of Dragonborn. Ket is on the western border of the Flanaess subcontinent, and is a station on the main continental traderoute (analogous to reallife Silk Route). The location implies the Dragonborn originate from elsewhere and arrived to Flanaess as merchants.

By extension, the Dragon Magazine map of planet Oerth mentions tales about the Dragon Prince on "Dragon Island" that probably is the place of origin for the Dragonborn species, at least as a draconic civilization. The traderoute is ancient, probably prehistoric. The Dragonborn of Ket may have arrived long ago, and often continue to function traditionally as merchants across Flanaess. Thus families relocated to elsewhere in Flannaess, along trade routes, including a presence among the species diversity in Old Keoland (which mentions all core species plus Goblinoid, but not Elf, Tiefling, nor Awsimar).

Ket also has sizable numbers of Tiefling but these likely come from Iuz in Flanaess, following the continental traderoute.

The Greyhawk Dragonborn would mainly originate from Dragon Island. Nevertheless, because Dragons can birthe Dragonborn anywhere at any time, there can be smaller populations that are indigenous to Flanaess. These independent populations help explain the occasional presence of tails, wings, or other anatomical variant.