here's the scenario: you are at your house just doing whatever it is you usually do when all of a sudden the CEOs of WOTC break in through your walls and offer to make your world become the main setting of one DND. Here are the rules

- it can be a world for any sort of media. Games, anime, novels.
- you don't have to censor anything
- you can bend one DND's rules around your setting or bend your setting around one DND's rules
- you have infinite budget to hire as many artists you can to draw whatever the fuck you want

assuming you accept the offer:

- how would WOTC's target audience receive it as well as the greater rpg community
- how much would you have to bend your setting/one DND?
- how would you advertise it (live action advertisements, animated ones, billboards, etc)

for my own world, it depends on the time period. my world's lore spans over 400,000 years and is rooted in Gnostic mythology so that could be a bit offensive. the earlier sections of the world are more like a space opera, the latter more like a jrpg with giant robots. i'll be assuming the latter.

- I don't think WOTC's audience would like a game with no traditional DND races (you have animal people, like people with cat ears and a tail or fox ears and a tail but nothing outright 'furry'), a strange magic system (it's based off of imagination), mecha, as well as 'problematic' lore (one faction is full of crossdressing pedophiles- drag queens), Gnostic mythology (main villain is a superweapon created by an ancient world that calls itself God, it's a fake God the real God wants you to kill it because it knows you can do it)
- if one DND can handle those things then great! If not then I would hack one DND to work.
- animated video of giant robots engaging in swordfights with each other

The main setting I've been building is based around the different worlds of the norse mythology, where "Valhalla" is a gas giant, and each world, Midgard, Asgard, Niflheim, etc, are moons orbiting around the gas giant, and weird science stuff allows the travel of raiding parties using longships and riding on monsters between the worlds under certain alignments.

I have no idea how this would be accepted, might get panned for focusing on, you know, stuff similar to my own ancestry, but whatever.

My main idea for a poster/billboard would be buff people in furs or chainmail or spike helmets, holding swords and axes, with a gas giant floating in the sky, rainbows arcing in the sky with monsters flying down. 

Frankly I think D&D One would have to bend a lot to fit my setting because I take the idea of instead of getting different +2 modifiers to specific stats, you roll different dice for each stat based on your species (yeah I use species instead of race, I want to be clear about no half-breeding in the setting).   

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on October 27, 2022, 11:50:13 AM
The main setting I've been building is based around the different worlds of the norse mythology, where "Valhalla" is a gas giant, and each world, Midgard, Asgard, Niflheim, etc, are moons orbiting around the gas giant, and weird science stuff allows the travel of raiding parties using longships and riding on monsters between the worlds under certain alignments.

I have no idea how this would be accepted, might get panned for focusing on, you know, stuff similar to my own ancestry, but whatever.

My main idea for a poster/billboard would be buff people in furs or chainmail or spike helmets, holding swords and axes, with a gas giant floating in the sky, rainbows arcing in the sky with monsters flying down. 

Frankly I think D&D One would have to bend a lot to fit my setting because I take the idea of instead of getting different +2 modifiers to specific stats, you roll different dice for each stat based on your species (yeah I use species instead of race, I want to be clear about no half-breeding in the setting).

very interesting, do you have a system for your world already?

Quote from: MeganovaStella on October 27, 2022, 12:09:58 PM

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on October 27, 2022, 11:50:13 AM
The main setting I've been building is based around the different worlds of the norse mythology, where "Valhalla" is a gas giant, and each world, Midgard, Asgard, Niflheim, etc, are moons orbiting around the gas giant, and weird science stuff allows the travel of raiding parties using longships and riding on monsters between the worlds under certain alignments.

I have no idea how this would be accepted, might get panned for focusing on, you know, stuff similar to my own ancestry, but whatever.

My main idea for a poster/billboard would be buff people in furs or chainmail or spike helmets, holding swords and axes, with a gas giant floating in the sky, rainbows arcing in the sky with monsters flying down. 

Frankly I think D&D One would have to bend a lot to fit my setting because I take the idea of instead of getting different +2 modifiers to specific stats, you roll different dice for each stat based on your species (yeah I use species instead of race, I want to be clear about no half-breeding in the setting).

very interesting, do you have a system for your world already?

I've been modifying DCC RPG.  But at some point you gotta wonder whether its just a heavily modified version of what you started from, or you have to wonder if it has become its own thing

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on October 27, 2022, 12:41:27 PM

Quote from: MeganovaStella on October 27, 2022, 12:09:58 PM

Quote from: Banjo Destructo on October 27, 2022, 11:50:13 AM
The main setting I've been building is based around the different worlds of the norse mythology, where "Valhalla" is a gas giant, and each world, Midgard, Asgard, Niflheim, etc, are moons orbiting around the gas giant, and weird science stuff allows the travel of raiding parties using longships and riding on monsters between the worlds under certain alignments.

I have no idea how this would be accepted, might get panned for focusing on, you know, stuff similar to my own ancestry, but whatever.

My main idea for a poster/billboard would be buff people in furs or chainmail or spike helmets, holding swords and axes, with a gas giant floating in the sky, rainbows arcing in the sky with monsters flying down. 

Frankly I think D&D One would have to bend a lot to fit my setting because I take the idea of instead of getting different +2 modifiers to specific stats, you roll different dice for each stat based on your species (yeah I use species instead of race, I want to be clear about no half-breeding in the setting).

very interesting, do you have a system for your world already?

I've been modifying DCC RPG.  But at some point you gotta wonder whether its just a heavily modified version of what you started from, or you have to wonder if it has become its own thing

dungeon crawl classics is a good system from what i hear.

I have a very well established setting designed for my own system.

- how would WOTC's target audience receive it as well as the greater rpg community
The vast majority of people who play D&D style games would probably greatly enjoy it because its built around creating a fun setting where heroic deeds are rewarded. WotC would never publish it as it is, because regardless of what they say, they've sold their soul to whatever demon dreamed up Wokeness and could never allow to see the light of day a setting that embraces the value of traditional virtues and doesn't pay obeisance to the genderqueer Christian-hating anti-life soldiers of societal collapse.

- how much would you have to bend your setting/one DND?
Which is why I'd tell WotC to shove off. Nothing of what I actually consider fundamental to my setting (sympathetic portrayals of monotheistic faith; traditional virtues, family and community as the goods for which heroes fight and die against the forces of evil) would be allowed by WotC.

- how would you advertise it (live action advertisements, animated ones, billboards, etc)
Word of mouth, because WotC will never get their mitts on it... and a very simple premise at that.

"Remember when you played games for fun and not as struggle sessions? Ruins & Realms remembers."

I mostly run games in what you might call setting fragments.

Even so, I've been using the same world for games I run at my store since fifth edition came out.  I think the key difference in what's mainly a generic D&D setting is that the games tend to run in the evil kingdoms of Boaz, Throndar and Veltania.  I had some real murder hobo players so I gave them a setting where things are really nasty.  Throndar is supported by evil gods and has mostly Tieflings in the nobility whereas Veltania is ruled by vampires, Boaz is more of a brutal warmongering place full of hobgoblins and half ogres.  At one point a wizard PC was mistaken for a Warlock and the villagers carried them around on their shoulders shouting, "A WITCH! HORAY A WITCH!" because warlocks are popular folk heroes among the poor drowntrodden masses.  Kingdoms so evil that they have minimum wage jobs instead of slavery.

Quote from: David Johansen on October 27, 2022, 12:56:38 PM
I mostly run games in what you might call setting fragments.

Even so, I've been using the same world for games I run at my store since fifth edition came out.  I think the key difference in what's mainly a generic D&D setting is that the games tend to run in the evil kingdoms of Boaz, Throndar and Veltania.  I had some real murder hobo players so I gave them a setting where things are really nasty.  Throndar is supported by evil gods and has mostly Tieflings in the nobility whereas Veltania is ruled by vampires, Boaz is more of a brutal warmongering place full of hobgoblins and half ogres.  At one point a wizard PC was mistaken for a Warlock and the villagers carried them around on their shoulders shouting, "A WITCH! HORAY A WITCH!" because warlocks are popular folk heroes among the poor drowntrodden masses.  Kingdoms so evil that they have minimum wage jobs instead of slavery.

so an evil campaign world. i like it. woketc won't like it though

Oh, there's good places too.  The evil kingdoms need victims to invade after all.  And, I try to make them functional evil kingdoms, so they're lawful evil not chaotic evil.  Boaz leans to neutral evil but all of the kingdoms need food and resources and armies that can cooperate.  The lords are mostly immortal or very long lived so there's no hereditary nobility.  The king of Throndar is a 20th level fighter and generally is supported by a couple 20th level wizards and a 20th level cleric of the god of friendly foriegn relations (war).  But bear in mind he's a smart, wise, and charismatic 20th level fighter and armed with powerful magic items because you can't rule an evil D&D kingdom if you're weak or foolish.

It's never really come up but the queen of Veltania is a vampiric minotaur who's bascially an avatar of Orcus.  The director of Boaz is a thug, really, just a big, tough thug.  Fat, ugly and ruthless.  10th level barbarian, 10th level rogue he may be the love child of Jabba the Hut and Tony Soprano.

The ruins of an ancient civilization that dot the lands are actually the remnants of a good kingdom long gone and thoroughly slandered by evil historians.  The mummies that protect such sites are actually lawful good grave guardians.

There are a couple of dead kingdoms one a desert wasteland cursed by the gods because noboby gets mad about breach of contract like lawful evil gods.  The other, Dead Telaire was masacred by one of the king of Throndar's many sons and as treaties were violated, the gods raised up the dead and the place is now crawling with zombies and ghouls.  The king of Throndar keeps trying to pawn off the responsibility on someone else but his relationship with the gods is a bit rocky these days.

Quote from: David Johansen on October 27, 2022, 01:20:35 PM
Oh, there's good places too.  The evil kingdoms need victims to invade after all.  And, I try to make them functional evil kingdoms, so they're lawful evil not chaotic evil.  Boaz leans to neutral evil but all of the kingdoms need food and resources and armies that can cooperate.  The lords are mostly immortal or very long lived so there's no hereditary nobility.  The king of Throndar is a 20th level fighter and generally is supported by a couple 20th level wizards and a 20th level cleric of the god of friendly foriegn relations (war).  But bear in mind he's a smart, wise, and charismatic 20th level fighter and armed with powerful magic items because you can't rule an evil D&D kingdom if you're weak or foolish.

It's never really come up but the queen of Veltania is a vampiric minotaur who's bascially an avatar of Orcus.  The director of Boaz is a thug, really, just a big, tough thug.  Fat, ugly and ruthless.  10th level barbarian, 10th level rogue he may be the love child of Jabba the Hut and Tony Soprano.

The ruins of an ancient civilization that dot the lands are actually the remnants of a good kingdom long gone and thoroughly slandered by evil historians.  The mummies that protect such sites are actually lawful good grave guardians.

There are a couple of dead kingdoms one a desert wasteland cursed by the gods because noboby gets mad about breach of contract like lawful evil gods.  The other, Dead Telaire was masacred by one of the king of Throndar's many sons and as treaties were violated, the gods raised up the dead and the place is now crawling with zombies and ghouls.  The king of Throndar keeps trying to pawn off the responsibility on someone else but his relationship with the gods is a bit rocky these days.

lots of high level npcs. are they involved in your campaigns or not

Well, the PCs decided they wanted to fight the king so they got into his court where he fought them for the amusement of his courtiers.  As he took on the whole party of fifth and sixth level characters they started thinking they wanted a short rest, so he offered them lunch and they accepted.  By the end of lunch they were working for him and he gave them the kingdom of Telair to rule

I don't think the setting would be too objectionable for WotC.  It's more evil as oppression and unfair systems of government than Caligula's orgies and sex slavery.  If you went into relationship law you'd find indentured vampire thralls, debt bondage, serfdom, religious canibalism and human sacrifice.  Pretty much any legal relationship is in terms of obligation and ownership.  What it isn't is a place where people will try to appease and accomodate unruly adventurers.  Nope, if you get out of line, you get slapped down hard without any mercy. And as this is fifth edition D&D guards are fourth and fifth level.

Quote from: David Johansen on October 27, 2022, 02:05:40 PM
Well, the PCs decided they wanted to fight the king so they got into his court where he fought them for the amusement of his courtiers.  As he took on the whole party of fifth and sixth level characters they started thinking they wanted a short rest, so he offered them lunch and they accepted.  By the end of lunch they were working for him and he gave them the kingdom of Telair to rule

I don't think the setting would be too objectionable for WotC.  It's more evil as oppression and unfair systems of government than Caligula's orgies and sex slavery.  If you went into relationship law you'd find indentured vampire thralls, debt bondage, serfdom, religious canibalism and human sacrifice.  Pretty much any legal relationship is in terms of obligation and ownership.  What it isn't is a place where people will try to appease and accomodate unruly adventurers.  Nope, if you get out of line, you get slapped down hard without any mercy. And as this is fifth edition D&D guards are fourth and fifth level.

so this is a setting where you work for epeople strogger than you. like in the real world. not my deal but it sounds good

now, back on topic. if I wanted to use an earlier version of my setting then there would be a different set of problems

- I'm really not sure if people would like a setting that focuses more on science rather than fantasy. No aliens, only humans and the A.G.I that lord them over. Almost no magic other than a select few people. Little to no freedom required for adventuring. A lot more religious references (space pope, several ships named after biblical characters, etc)
- One DND becomes broken on every level
- video advertisement of everyone sitting around the table and making their own robot girl waifus that serve as state-sponsored idols at day and demon killers at night. That is possible

but then, i'd rather write novels so i'd take the infinite budget WOTC gives me and use it to hire an artist for my novels

I don't have "a setting".  I do a setting specific for whatever campaign I'm running. Occasionally, the current setting gets used in more than one campaign.  Often, there are elements that are similar from setting to setting, but not always.  So a standard setting is completely orthogonal to how I do them.

Assuming an "average" setting of all that (even though I've never run the average), it's only a so-so fit for a standard setting for earlier D&D.  Earlier D&D is a lot closer to a good fit than anything WotC has done.  Unlike this theoretical Kool Aid man busting into my home, I've got more respect for the history of D&D than to inflict my average setting on something it isn't suited for.

I don't run a fixed specific setting per se, although I do have a bunch of setting ideas I've been working on for my own game system, some of which may work better for D&D than others. But I wouldn't want to inflict One D&D(to rule them all)'s or WotC's standards on my settings, and I wouldn't wanna bend D&D to fit my settings' vision or even my personal preferences either. IMO D&D's core setting should be something that represents D&D and helps highlight its core elements and features, so I wouldn't even pick my favorite D&D setting to be D&D's core setting either (though, my second favorite setting is a contender for what D&D has become, so I'd be tempted to go that route).

So I would ultimately just go with Forgotten Realms, drop all the woke elements that have made their way into it, and maybe go back to earlier iterations of it and try to steal what works then try to adapt it to its current rendition to incorporate newer elements, like all the kitchen sink races (except for Ardlings, which are arbitrary made up crap that would be expunged from the records, and rolled back to being Aasimar). I would pick one major city (probably Neverwinter or Waterdeep) as the default city of adventure/start up city in the world, and try to highlight that location with plenty of adventure seeds built around it then expand from there. And also highlight a handful of other cities as well, as major adventure locales (including Luskan as the central hive of scum and villainy, and Menzoberranzan as the main Drow city, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, and Baldur's Gate), and drop a couple of adventure seeds tying whichever city I pick as the main city to those locations.

I would also get someone who really loves Forgotten Realms for some pointers on what to emphasize from a fan's perspective, and try to incorporate their feedback into a new vision for the setting that doesn't pretend that changes made over the past few years don't exist, but tries to steer it back to what originally made it great.

OR, alternatively I could just lean into the new kitchen sink snowflake vision of D&D, and make Planescape the new main setting, where all the kitchen sink races would instantly fit right in. Bring Sigil back as the main city of adventure, tying it with all the planes and every D&D setting (except maybe Dark Sun, which is supposed to be cut off from planes other than the Elemental Planes), with adventure seeds tying it to at least one major city per setting and plane. And I would try to find a way to incorporate changes to the game's cosmology without breaking too much the Great Wheel cosmology Planescape was originally built upon.

Hopefully the community will receive it well, since I'd be respectful of the source material, although the woke may cry, but they will cry anyways. The people who don't care enough will eat up anything that WotC serves them, and since I won't be making sweeping changes, but working with the game's original content and being true to it, it will look "official" enough. And the people who care about the game's integrity may cry that it's not OG D&D or Greyhawk, but they'll see that it tries to be true to the source material while not ignoring the last few years of development, so hopefully they won't cry too much.

Advertisement would be on YouTube and Social Media, hopefully get someone to do some animated shorts about a band of brave and enterprising adventurers embarking on quests set around the setting's main city. Release them regularly on the setting's YT channel to work the algorithm, along with general announcements about the setting's development and how it ties to D&D's new edition. Playtest sessions using the revised setting and OneD&D, etc. If the animated shorts take off, maybe turn them into a full-blown series serving as D&D/Setting placement, and expand to sell stuff like T-Shirts, mugs, etc, for extra revenue (injected back into the show and promo clips) and further advertisement by fans sporting animated series/setting paraphernalia.

Quote from: VisionStorm on October 27, 2022, 06:16:59 PM
I don't run a fixed specific setting per se, although I do have a bunch of setting ideas I've been working on for my own game system, some of which may work better for D&D than others. But I wouldn't want to inflict One D&D(to rule them all)'s or WotC's standards on my settings, and I wouldn't wanna bend D&D to fit my settings' vision or even my personal preferences either. IMO D&D's core setting should be something that represents D&D and helps highlight its core elements and features, so I wouldn't even pick my favorite D&D setting to be D&D's core setting either (though, my second favorite setting is a contender for what D&D has become, so I'd be tempted to go that route).

So I would ultimately just go with Forgotten Realms, drop all the woke elements that have made their way into it, and maybe go back to earlier iterations of it and try to steal what works then try to adapt it to its current rendition to incorporate newer elements, like all the kitchen sink races (except for Ardlings, which are arbitrary made up crap that would be expunged from the records, and rolled back to being Aasimar). I would pick one major city (probably Neverwinter or Waterdeep) as the default city of adventure/start up city in the world, and try to highlight that location with plenty of adventure seeds built around it then expand from there. And also highlight a handful of other cities as well, as major adventure locales (including Luskan as the central hive of scum and villainy, and Menzoberranzan as the main Drow city, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, and Baldur's Gate), and drop a couple of adventure seeds tying whichever city I pick as the main city to those locations.

I would also get someone who really loves Forgotten Realms for some pointers on what to emphasize from a fan's perspective, and try to incorporate their feedback into a new vision for the setting that doesn't pretend that changes made over the past few years don't exist, but tries to steer it back to what originally made it great.

OR, alternatively I could just lean into the new kitchen sink snowflake vision of D&D, and make Planescape the new main setting, where all the kitchen sink races would instantly fit right in. Bring Sigil back as the main city of adventure, tying it with all the planes and every D&D setting (except maybe Dark Sun, which is supposed to be cut off from planes other than the Elemental Planes), with adventure seeds tying it to at least one major city per setting and plane. And I would try to find a way to incorporate changes to the game's cosmology without breaking too much the Great Wheel cosmology Planescape was originally built upon.

Hopefully the community will receive it well, since I'd be respectful of the source material, although the woke may cry, but they will cry anyways. The people who don't care enough will eat up anything that WotC serves them, and since I won't be making sweeping changes, but working with the game's original content and being true to it, it will look "official" enough. And the people who care about the game's integrity may cry that it's not OG D&D or Greyhawk, but they'll see that it tries to be true to the source material while not ignoring the last few years of development, so hopefully they won't cry too much.

Advertisement would be on YouTube and Social Media, hopefully get someone to do some animated shorts about a band of brave and enterprising adventurers embarking on quests set around the setting's main city. Release them regularly on the setting's YT channel to work the algorithm, along with general announcements about the setting's development and how it ties to D&D's new edition. Playtest sessions using the revised setting and OneD&D, etc. If the animated shorts take off, maybe turn them into a full-blown series serving as D&D/Setting placement, and expand to sell stuff like T-Shirts, mugs, etc, for extra revenue (injected back into the show and promo clips) and further advertisement by fans sporting animated series/setting paraphernalia.

finally, planescape instead of spelljammer