If WOTC chose an E6 setting, what would it be?

[johnbragg]

First of all, handwave that the owners of the D&D trademarks and IP decide to give up on One Edition to Rule Them All, and instead support all (or most) editions at least through PDF and Print-on-Demand. Basically what this guy said: http://uadnd.blogspot.com/2012/05/dear-wizards-of-coast.html

Or more briefly:


I like my game for what it gives me; you like your game for what it gives you.

There's no such thing as the one game that we would all like best if we knew about it, for the same reason that there is more than one TV channel, and more than one song.

So different editions for different playstyles--including E6. What setting would they pick to sell 3.5 E6 supplements?

I would guess Lankhmar, since TSR lost the rights back in the AD&D 1st Edition days, and I think the RuneQuest owners have lost the rights in turn. But it's probably the richest setting and background that hasn't been updated or supported by TSR/WOTC in a generation, so you wouldn't have pushback from (many) diehards that their 2E/3E/4E campaign books are now non-canon.

[LibraryOgre]

I'd vote for Birthight, myself. I think it fits well with the more human focus of the setting.

[Eldan]

Eberron? You'd have to scale back some of the more powerful monsters and a handful of NPCs, but overall, it is halfway there already.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I think that Eberron would make a pretty good E6 setting; I mean, I've DM'd one in Eberron and it works pretty well.

[Psyren]

Thirding Eberron, it's practically designed for E6. I especially like their idea to have high-level casting at points in the world but sharply restrict its influence, e.g. what they did in the Silver Flame with Jaela Daran.

[Person_Man]

Spelljammer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/Spelljammer?from=Main.Spelljammer)

Dungeons & Dragons meets Star Trek. Why wouldn't you want to play in this setting?

The additional setting specific crunch is mostly about getting and using really cool magic spaceships and steampunk equipment, you can visit any other campaign setting you want on your magic spaceship, and because I miss Spelljammer and want it back.

[Psyren]

Spelljammer sounds more high-level to me, if you're hopping around - the planes can be very dangerous. Though I suppose you could leave it low level if you wanted the PCs to be in peril and running from most things, or relying on their ship to handle threats (kinda like a traditional starship crew, maybe?)

[Krobar]

They would probably go with the Forgotten Realms and screw around with the entire pantheon. Again.

[ZamielVanWeber]

They would probably go with the Forgotten Realms and screw around with the entire pantheon. Again.

FR is so high-end powerful though. Eberron works out much more nicely.

[Gemini476]

As much as I love Oriental Adventures, Rokugan just doesn't work with D&D mechanics.

It's pretty much the epitome of a low-power setting, though.

Somehow I think Mystara might work in an E6 environment as well. But I suspect that's mostly because the old editions were so horribly lethal.

[Roguenewb]

This is the opposite of an answer, but I'll give it anyway: a handbook for designing custom settings. Most of the blunders and pitfalls in designing a custom setting derive from the problem of "what the archmages and dragons" do to world building. And "how does my level 18 cleric fit in?" is a similar problem. E6 covers for a lot of setting design problems because you're never all that much more powerful than anyone else.

[Tvtyrant]

Spelljammer (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/Spelljammer?from=Main.Spelljammer)

Dungeons & Dragons meets Star Trek. Why wouldn't you want to play in this setting?

The additional setting specific crunch is mostly about getting and using really cool magic spaceships and steampunk equipment, you can visit any other campaign setting you want on your magic spaceship, and because I miss Spelljammer and want it back.

This. Spelljammer villains are all CR 1-10, and major threats like Neogi are CR 4ish.

[Deox]

Dark Sun could lead to some very interesting things within the constraints of E6.

[johnbragg]

I figured this would be The Lords of D&D (WOTC or new owners) shifting to a "let's give everyone what they want and try not to anger anyone" policy. Part of this would be continuing to support different settings in different editions. (Support = make available new adventures, new gazetteers)

A lot of votes for Eberron, and I think there have been a lot of Eberron E6 campaigns. If D&D Enterprises announced that all new Eberron material would be E6(3.5), how angry would people be who bought Eberron 4E material?

Forgotten Realms--people are angry enough already after the 4E conversion. Besides, I think the setting relies pretty heavily on level 10-20+ characters being there. Greyhawk has too many demons and devils running around for E6, I think.

Spelljammer I don't see how 6th level characters survive, no matter how many feats you stack on. (Folks who want Spelljammer back I think mostly just want Spelljammer back.)

Birthright the power level seems to fit, but you'd need to write adventures and modules from scratch, which goes against the business model of "it's on the shelf, people want it, give it to them and take their money." Although I guess you'd have to do the same at this point for Lankhmar, plus get the licensing from Fritz Lieber's estate.

Mystara was never officially updated to 3rd edition, so nobody's going to be mad that their new Mystara books are now outdated. As for established NPCs above the E6 power level, let's say the Immortals did it.

[Hecuba]

Pelinore
whitespace for minlength

[Gemini476]

Mystara was never officially updated to 3rd edition, so nobody's going to be mad that their new Mystara books are now outdated. As for established NPCs above the E6 power level, let's say the Immortals did it.

Wait, you need to clear out the high-level NPCs from the setting? Use a plague. A magical plague, to get through resistances. It needs a snazzy name though - it's a plague from a spell. A spellplague. I am a genius.

Or just reboot the setting without half the weirdness (hollow world! aliens!). That seems more likely to be liked by the fans, although I don't know how large a piece of the market knows about the original Known World.

[137beth]

Birthright sounds good.

It could work in Eberron, but Eberron also works pretty darn well at high levels. Part of Eberron is that there are a lot of powerful evils in the world, but not much in the way of really powerful good outsiders (Keith Baker said that out-of-game, the reason is to avoid the Elminster effect, while in-world, the reason is because Khyber killed Siberys).
Yea, I guess Eberron really works either way. I'm just generally a fan of higher level games so I instinctively look for ways to use it for high or epic level play. But the intrigue which defines Eberron transcends levels.

I'm not sure why spelljammer was suggested:smallconfused: Spelljammer is pretty much set up close to how I would design a setting for epic play, I can't imagine why anyone would use it for E6 unless they were already wild about the fluff.


EDIT: I'm not thinking clearly today...
the answer is RAVENLOFT!

[Flame of Anor]

There was a Lankhmar campaign setting?!?!

[Person_Man]

Dark Sun could lead to some very interesting things within the constraints of E6.

Wait, I thought that in Dark Sun, literally everyone on the planet starts at level 3+ (the weaker people are all dead) and there are Epic level Sorcerer Kings that suck the life energy from the world and rule it with an iron fist?

[Tvtyrant]

Spelljammer I don't see how 6th level characters survive, no matter how many feats you stack on. (Folks who want Spelljammer back I think mostly just want Spelljammer back.)


In a world where most of the major combat is between ships and the vast majority of enemies are low level? I'm not sure why a level 6 party would have any more difficulty surviving there than anywhere else...

[Greenish]

There was a Lankhmar campaign setting?!?!If you dig deep enough, there are preciously few fantasy worlds that haven't been used as campaign settings for RPGs. Discworld, Hyborian Age, Lankhmar, Middle Earth…

[Yogibear41]

Lord of the Rings/middle earth setting while the actual quest of the ring is taking place(I believe that is the 3rd era?) is pretty much e6 already. Not real up on my silmarillion facts but I think the first era when Sauron and Gandalf were still basically nobodies was super high powered, but when the actual ring books were published seems pretty e6 to me. Gandalf pretty much has insane power that he never uses, when he actually does stuff seems like a wizard5/monk1 to me would say wizard 6 but he fights way to well wearing no armor and with a sword staff combo to be a pure wizard, then again never seen him with a spellbook so hes probably a sorcerer ha.

[Scow2]

I second Spelljammer. It's already in the 1-10-level power range on the individual level, and is largely dependent on lateral or wealth-based advancement. Everyone hated Star Trek V. People don't like Sci-Fi heroes capable of shrugging off lightning bolts from God.

But, WotC wouldn't pass on the opportunity to screw with

Of course, this is all silly because 3.5 and all its variants are dead.. D&D Next is aiming for an E6 campaign-wide power level.

[johnbragg]

I second Spelljammer. It's already in the 1-10-level power range on the individual level, and is largely dependent on lateral or wealth-based advancement. Everyone hated Star Trek V. People don't like Sci-Fi heroes capable of shrugging off lightning bolts from God.

But, WotC wouldn't pass on the opportunity to screw with

Of course, this is all silly because 3.5 and all its variants are dead..

IT is silly, but the idea is that Wizards either changes their approach or sells out to someone with a different approach. Give up on the One Edition to Rule Them All and just let the editions coexist, with new material coming out for several of them, say Forgotten Realms in 4E, Greyhawk in 3E, Spelljammer in 2E, Eberron in 3E6 or 4E6. Create a short character conversion guide, and a short "Which D&D is Right For You" one-pager and make a big to-do about re-uniting the warring tribes.

Getting off topic for the thread though.


D&D Next is aiming for an E6 campaign-wide power level.

And that will just tick off everybody who doesn't care for the E6 style and wants wizards who can level cities, barbarians who can breach city walls by stomping and rogues with 20 ranks in Hide who can become invisible at will.

[Ravens_cry]

If you dig deep enough, there are preciously few fantasy worlds that haven't been used as campaign settings for RPGs. Discworld, Hyborian Age, Lankhmar, Middle Earth…
Even Narnia, though nothing official. The Lewis estate has always had a weird relationship with its fans.

[Psyren]

And that will just tick off everybody who doesn't care for the E6 style and wants wizards who can level cities, barbarians who can breach city walls by stomping and rogues with 20 ranks in Hide who can become invisible at will.

Those folks have Pathfinder though. 5e won't do any good going after those same folks, they need something different.

[johnbragg]

Those folks have Pathfinder though. 5e won't do any good going after those same folks, they need something different.

The business strategy would be "something for every playstyle--there is no badwrongfun", and would probably include trying to make a deal with Paizo where the Lords of D&D get a percentage and Paizo gets to label Pathfinder stuff with a "D&D 3E" tag. Make an effort to get Gygax' family back into the "family."

[137beth]

Those folks have Pathfinder though. 5e won't do any good going after those same folks, they need something different.

I like high and epic level play, and I also like most of the WotC-owned settings, but I absolutely abhor Golarion and would jump back in if they made a high-powered edition of D&D with Planescape/spelljammer/eberron/greyhawk...