Throw everything we think we know about TTRPG world building out the window.
(and start over.)
There are alternatives to what Dungeons & Dragons has used for decades. I’m ready to chuck the whole thing out the window! Forgotten Realms and Planescape are not the only cosmology in TTRPGs. Even Pathfinder’s Golarion looks very familiar to me. Why do we keep flogging the same old stuff?
This is why I prefer to run my own homebrew campaign worlds. I know I heard an eye roll somewhere at the word, “homebrew.” I promise I won’t bore you with all of the fabulous details of my amazing homebrew campaign worlds, of which there are several in development.
This is one of my many fixes for the “New 2024” Dungeons & Dragons 5E.
If I could warp time and had the power to fire the entire D&D design team, we’d start over with a new campaign world. I’ve heard Jeremy Crawford say Planescape is going to be the new default setting. (Gosh, I sure hope we go back to saying “birk” all the time. <eye roll>) So, maybe they’re headed the direction I’m thinking of already.
What I think D&D should do, along with Pathfinder 2E Remastered, is drop the built-in settings completely. Use a completely blank generic fantasy setting for the core books and go back to making different setting guides. Let DMs/GMs create their own worlds.
Why are we constantly getting stuck with premade campaign settings? Some of us throw them right out the window anyway. Are today’s DMs/GMs incapable of creating their own world even if it’s just a matter of saying, “We’re in a medieval Western European type fantasy world.”
Am I giving modern players/DMs/GMs too much credit?
I don’t expect every DM/GM on the planet to create their own world setting. Back in the old days we held that if you were creative enough to create a dungeon or adventure, then you were creative enough to come up with your own world. These younger folx nowadays with their Minecraft and Roblox maybe not so much.
Player: Whose house are we going to?
Other Player: Travis’ house.
Player: Wait, was I supposed to DM this week?
Other Player: No, dummy. It’s Travis this week.
Player: Whose world?
Other Player: His world. Duh.
Player: I mean, he did run Greyhawk that one time…
Nowadays it’s pretty much given that the default world is Faerun or Golarion (Or whatever the “canonical” world is for the game in question.) I like that sense of unpredictability. I’ve read every edition of Forgotten Realms lore for every edition. (Sometimes there are textbooks that are probably more riveting, but…)
I don’t want a world that’s been explored top to bottom. For me, there’s no adventure left in some prewritten game worlds because the Great and Powerful Elminster has already been there; done that. What’s the point?
This is why I think we’ve seen an uptick on Hexcrawl discussions and products.
This is why I started my own Hexcrawl last year for Dungeon Crawl Classics. I wanted to explore a game world that had never been touched by other players, other GMs, or even by me until the dice hit the table.
I love the exploration component of fantasy games. I think it’s the one innocent bystander that gets chucked aside first by lazy game designers who just want to crank out dime-a-dozen hardcovers for $30 a pop. I have honestly been seeing a massive surge in Hexcrawl products on DriveThruRPG over the last few years. 280 results just on the word, “Hexcrawl.” I think if nothing else it gives GMs a chance to flex their creative muscles during downtimes.
Shadowdark has a hexcrawl generator built into the core book. The hexcrawl style of play does seem to be popular with the Old School Renaissance crowd. More recently I’ve seen products steered toward these new players, too. It’s almost as if people want to try something different.
Wizards of the Coast has a serious creativity deficit.
Other than Ravnica, a Magic the Gathering based setting, and Exandria which is mostly Matt Mercer’s brainchild, what new official settings have we had since 3.5E D&D? Unless I’m forgetting one, there haven’t been. It’s okay. There were no new settings in 4E at all.
I think part of the reason the Great OGL Debacle of 2023 is still burned into many minds of our TTRPG industry is the fear of losing our Third Party Publisher campaign worlds. I know I’d be pretty cheesed off if Mists of Akuma, Iron Kingdoms 5E, and Neverland went away. D&D is a household name (amongst tabletop gamers.) Not having all of those products available to start a campaign with would royally blow.
The DMsGuild is known for fixing or adding to the official product. WotC designers have developed a very drag-and-drop attitude when it comes to supplement design. Candlekeep Mysteries comes out. Additional support? None. Strixhaven: a month later it’s like no one at WotC cares. More recently with Planescape, they were onto the next product at WotC before the book even hit the shelves. Brennan Lee Mulligan did a series of ads for YouTube and social media for Planescape then…crickets.
Oh look, Makenzie De Armas created a paladin character to go along with the Book/Deck of Many Things. Nothing against Makenzie or Autism awareness, but I was tired of hearing about this product five minutes after it was announced. Good for her that she’s on staff fighting the good fight. I just can’t get into the book. They didn’t really do that much except wrap it up in a nice package IF the physical product ever comes out.
Jeremy Crawford has been with Wizards of the Coast since 2007! Chris Perkins has been with WotC since 1997?!? Am I reading that right? Yikes. I would imagine one of these two guys maybe has an old campaign world they could pull out as a new setting, but it’s been this long. I ain’t holding my breath. Yeesh.
If WotC has all of this highly paid creative talent, where’s it going? I hate to mention it, but sales have been steadily declining since Candlekeep Mysteries. A lot of critics panned Strixhaven, Spelljammer, Lost Mines of Phandelver and other releases since Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The ones not receiving boos and jeers from the crowd are met with a resounding, “Meh.”
Rereleasing Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and Planescape has garnered WotC’s D&D team no respect from me and probably a lot of other Old School gamers. They’re supposed to be leading the industry, not riding the coattails of past success. The only reason it seems they’re doing well is in part due to the mass production of their game, not the quality.
Side Note: I would love to interview any of the WotC design team especially Crawford or Perkins about their campaign settings or where the future of D&D is headed, but alas, WotC won’t even return my emails. Not even a lousy flush letter. I’m not too surprised because we’re a small family here in Jeff’s Game Box, but I’m still trying. I’m not even asking for PDFs to review (although that would be cool.) I just want to be able to ask the questions all of their freakin press releases don’t cover! Sigh…
We may never see a new campaign setting we didn’t create ourselves for D&D.
However, there is hope. Shadowdark, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Old School Essentials are still out there to pick up the ball and run where D&D sadly left off. (*I won’t shut up about Shadowdark and you can’t make me!) Tales of the Valiant and other upcoming releases will obviously be kicking the old D&D settings to the curb as well. I’m really okay writing and rewriting my game worlds to fit new rulesets.
Have I mentioned lately how adaptable Shadowdark and OSE are? You can even rewrite old WotC/TSR properties into these games with little-no effort. I know Shadowdark enthusiasts have already worked Dark Sun into a playable campaign for that system. (Yes, I occasionally go on Discord.) Greyhawk has been dropped onto the OSE framework many times already by the OSR crowd. It’s easy on the GM.
Some of use like to go the extra mile for our gameplay. I’m pretty intent on adapting Aether Nexus to my steampunk game when it comes in. Or I might re-do it for Shadowdark. (Please look for my “Mechanical Giants in the Dark” campaign coming to a PDF near you.) Maybe WotC will never touch me, but then again, do I want them to?
Thanks for stopping by today. There have been a couple of topics lately that are just like an itch that needs scratched barely out of reach. I appreciate you. (Even more if you come scratch my back LOL!)
Jeff's Game Box 