Editing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (section)

== Setting ==
Fifth edition's cosmological setup is basically the [[Great Wheel]], but has some new features. Most notably, the Inner Planes have been changed to have an [[Exalted]]-esque "Border Elemental Plane/Elemental Plane/Elemental Chaos" layout. The Border Elemental Planes are closer to 4e's envisioning/reason for revamping the elemental planes; they resemble the material plane, but with the chosen element being more dominant. As one ventures "deeper" into the elemental plane, though, that element becomes more dominant, similar to approaching the Elemental Poles in Creation. Eventually, it's nothing but pure element wherever you look, unless you head back towards the Material Plane. And then, beyond the Elemental Planes, you have the Elemental Chaos, where they all go mad and become a swirling tide of insane elemental matter and energy, giving you stuff like 4e's Riverweb, mountains of burning ice, seas of liquid salt, storms of acid, etc. For an example; the Border Elemental Plane of Air would look like an infinite sky with lots of floating islands in it, perhaps even the size of continents. As you venture even deeper into the Plane of Air, those "earthbergs" become rarer and rarer, until eventually there's nothing but infinite, empty space all around you.

The idea of an "official campaign setting" is handled a little differently than in previous editions. Whereas 3e used "[[Greyhawk]] with the serial numbers filed off" and 4e used "[[Nentir_Vale|Points of Light]]" with the assumption that you would wait for a sourcebook if you wanted to play something different, the 5e corebooks just give you suggestions for playing in various officially-published settings (including [[Forgotten Realms]], [[Greyhawk]], [[Dragonlance]] and [[Eberron]]) and trust you to work the rest out on your own. At least, in theory. In practice, the 5e setting is the [[Forgotten Realms]], specifically the iconic "Sword Coast" region; the official online adventuring program is explicitly set there, 98% of the adventures have been set explicitly in the Realms, and the first major sourcebook was named after [[Volo|a prominent Realms NPC]].

That's not to say that 5e hasn't released ''some'' setting splatbooks, but they've been a definite low priority, and combined with the sluggish release schedule of 5e books in general, it has made many fans of less-popular D&D settings very annoyed. Currently, 5e supports the following settings with detailed splatbooks:
* [[Forgotten Realms]] - The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was the very first setting splatbook to be released, and it's actually much shorter than any others to follow.
* [[Eberron]] - It took until 2019 for Eberron: Rising from the Last War to see the light of day, but it finally made it.
* [[Ravnica]] - The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica was the first official crossover between the [[multiverse]]s of D&D and [[Magic: The Gathering]], releasing in November 2018.
* [[Exandria]] - Initially a 3rd party setting, it made the jump to an official 5e setting with the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount in early 2020.
* [[Theros]] - A second MtG crossover setting, Mythic Odysseys of Theros released in 2020 as well.

Outside of the above, [[Ravenloft]] and [[Greyhawk]] both got very small bones thrown their way in the form of a dedicated adventure for each (Ravenloft also got Van Richten’s guide, which covers some general stuff about the Domains of Dread and important characters within them). [[Curse of Strahd]] is an update of the original Ravenloft module that at least hints at the existence of a wider [[Demiplane of Dread]] beyond Barovia's borders. [[Ghosts of Saltmarsh]] is explicitly set in [[Greyhawk]]. Neither setting has seen dedicated splatbooks released yet.

When called out on this lack of support, WotC's usual bluster is to point to the [[Dungeon Master's Guild]], which has almost the entirety of the AD&D sourcebook library available for purchase, and to bleat about how easy it is to convert material from AD&D to 5e. This is true only in the barest sense; a [[Dark Sun]] campaign, for instance, would probably prefer an updated set of survival rules that's more in-depth than 5e's core ones but less artificially complex and clunky than 2e's, or a [[Birthright]] campaign some dramatically-reworked kingdom management rules to make that aspect of the game less of a drag for PCs who aren't Blooded.

===The Return of OGL===
Thankfully, one thing that 5e has brought back from 3e is the concept of open game licensing. This means that 5e is becoming a system of choice for third-party publishers/designers, with both custom settings and adaptations of previously existing settings entering the market, some not even for the first time. There is also few 3rd party Science-Fiction, Cyberpunk and Science Fantasy settings that are based on 5e rules.

5e adaptations of previously existing RPG settings include:
* [[Arcadian]]
* [[Blue Rose]]
* [[Iron Kingdoms]]
* [[Legend of the Five Rings]]
* [[Numenera]]
* [[Talislanta]]
* [[The One Ring]] aka The Lord of the Rings
* [[Trudvang]]
* [[Space 1889]]
* [[Symbaroum]]


3rd party settings for 5e include:
* [[Age of Antiquity]]
* [[Anchorome]]
* [[Arkadia]]
* [[Auroboros]]
* [[Askis]]
* [[Blackstorm Realms]]
* [[Blood and Bone]]
* [[Brancalonia]]
* [[Dragongrin]]
* [[Dragon Heresy]]
* [[Dungeons of Drakkenheim]]
* [[Fading Embers]]
* [[Fallen Camelot]]
* [[Grim Hollow]]
* [[Historia]]
* [[Humblewood]]
* [[Inferno]]
* [[Lost Lands]]
* [[Inferno]]
* [[Lor'Zun]]
* [[Midnight]]
* [[Mists of Akuma]]
* [[Nightfell]]
* [[Odyssey of the Dragonlords]]
* [[Omeria]]
* [[Primeval Thule]]
* [[Ptolus]]
* [[Runewild]]
* [[Scarred Lands]]
* [[Seas of Vodari]]
* [[Svilland]]
* [[The Lost Citadel]]
* [[The Shade Lands]]
* [[Vast Kaviya]]
* [[World of Aetaltis]]
* [[World of Eana]]
* [[World of Farland]]

Modern and Science fiction 3rd party settings for 5e include:
* Dark Matter ([[Dark Matter|Not that one]])
* [[Carbon 2185]]
* [[Crystalpunk]]
* [[Esper Genesis]]
* [[Farsight (5e)]] 
* [[Genefunk 2090]]
* [[Hellscapes]] (Post-Apocalyptic setting) 
* [[Legendary Planet]]
* [[Hyperlanes]]
* [[NeuroSpasta]]
* [[Rocket Age]]
* [[The Secret World]]
* [[Shintiara]]
* Spaceships & Starwyrms
* [[Ultramodern5]] (technically a ruleset, not a setting) 

Fans have also been trying to exploit 5e's OGL to update missing settings to 5e themselves: [[Ravenloft]], [[Masque of the Red Death]] and [[Maztica]] updates can all be found on the DM's Guild. [[Mr. Welch]] has a Player's Handbook for 5e [[Mystara]] completed, but sadly the final version is in limbo until and unless he can coax the idiots at Hasbro to let him sell it on the DM's Guild.