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Nov 16, 2012 -- 1:42PM, mvincent wrote:

Nov 15, 2012 -- 7:27PM, Plaguescarred wrote:

WoTC didn't announce that Forgotten Realms would be the default setting for D&D Next, only that it would be supported.

Certainly, but given the ginormity of Realms support leading up to (and into) 5e, it seems fairly semantic.

It would be a terrible idea to do so for the "default settings", because forgotten realms is way too detailed and restricted for new players (and for people that don't care for FR)

Nov 16, 2012 -- 2:24PM, mvincent wrote:

Nov 16, 2012 -- 2:11PM, mexrage wrote:

forgotten realms is way too detailed and restricted for new players

Off-topic: they could probably find room somewhere in the Realms for a less detailed, less restricted Vale of some sort.

fwiw: I too disliked the Realms for decades, before I discovered that it had effectively become the default D&D setting.

I still think the best way to go is for a "skeleton base settings" as default, basically some general information, maybe some not as detailed cosmology and planes description and some general descriptions of how things works on the world...but the rest up to the DM and players to basically them it their own (and also being able to insert some stuff from other settings into it)

As a big D20 Modern/Masque of the Red Death/other RPGs with an Earthy setting, I would love a Dark Age Earth (with or without fantasy elements) setting!  It helps that I love Arthurian Legend and Chivalric Romance, classic Sword and Sorcery.  Now, I don't know if this would be the best idea for a new setting because it wouldn't be too hard to refluff the content in Birthright or Greyhawk to fit that description.  For a new setting, Wizards has to strive for something unique, appealing, not really seen before that can appeal to old and new players alike.  While they tried this with the Vale, it felt like a bunch of haphazardly mish-mashed elements of previous settings that didn't appeal in the slightest.  I'm talking a can of fresh air, like the introduction of Eberron!  But, at the same time, there are so many settings that many haven't heard or played before.

As for a "default setting", I'd prefer that there is no default.  Now, I LOOOOOVE the Realms (Well, pre-spellplague) but I really don't want it to be an assumed default.  In my opinion, core settings plague everything else.  We've seen it with 3.5 with greyhawk-esque content appearing everywhere as an assumption and then in 4.0 with Points of Light shoehorning into every setting (I'm still less than happy about that.)  While it can attract new people to a setting they probably wouldn't buy otherwise, it has a less than helpful tendency to cause waves of backlash for fandoms devoted to said settings.  (Hell hath no fury like the Forgotten Realms fandom!)