Dungeons & Dragons fans love to craft their own worlds for campaigns, but some also like to put their own twist on established D&D worlds. Wizards of the Coast has published adventures and setting books for a number of its most famous settings already, including Eberron and Ravenloft, and new books related to Spelljammer and Dragonlance are on the way. Whether players explore these settings in campaigns or just borrow lore and statistics, all of these settings books expand D&D in valuable ways. Still, D&D 5th edition has yet to get a major expansion in one important setting: the real world.
As a general rule, Dungeons & Dragons sticks to medieval fantasy, since that's what it's designed around. Certain settings like Eberron and Spelljammer bend the rules slightly by adding steampunk or other sci-fi elements, but the game's medieval roots stay prevalent in each world. However, players like to try out a much broadier variety of settings, including modern magic campaigns. Wizards of the Coast could therefore stand to profit from releasing a D&D book that provides players with tools for playing in the real world. Whether it's a small supplement or a large book complete with adventures, a D&D book set on Earth could be invaluable.
An Unorthodox Dungeons & Dragons Adventure
Earth could be a fantastic new non-canonical setting for the D&D franchise. Whether it treats Earth as a later version of the Forgotten Realms or simply an entirely different Material Plane, it would be a great opportunity to weave entirely new lore for all of D&D's races and classes in an alternate history world. Wizards of the Coast could offer fans new looks at classic characters like Mordenkainen and Vecna by dropping them into a world with modern technology and recognizable landmarks. WotC could also offer different versions of a magical Earth within one book, giving fans tools for both a world where magic is secret or a fully magical Earth.
An Earth-based book would be a great excuse to expand on D&D content that WotC has already experimented with. For instance, D&D hints at firearms as a possible weapon category, but so far fans generally still have to turn to homebrew if they want to play gunslingers. An Earth campaign book with modern technology could provide players with more robust official statistics for different gun types. WotC has also experimented with magic based on urban settings and technomancy in D&D Unearthed Arcana. These modern magic spells and subclasses could make new appearances in a book about Earth.
Ideally, Wizards of the Coast would release the book with an adventure that give players an example of how to best run a modern magic campaign within the D&D 5e rules. However, D&D fans may get the most mileage out of the book if it's more of a setting guide like Eberron: Rising from the Last War, rather than an adventure. Charts with downtime activities in the modern world, ideas for modern D&D character backstories, systems for handling money and the Internet, and magic items fit for Earth would all be invaluable resources to DMs that may not fit in an adventure-focused book.
D&D fans running their own modern magic campaigns on Earth would greatly appreciate official resources that make adventures in the real world possible. As of now, D&D campaigns set on Earth or other modern magic worlds require a lot of hand-waiving or D&D homebrew to work, so it would be a relief for these DMs and players to have more official support for their playstyle. A new book taking place on Earth admittedly seems unlikely, and even if it does happen, it wouldn't be until well after the Dragonlance expansion releases. Nevertheless, Wizards of the Coast could get some great mileage out of Earth as a D&D setting, and fans stand to benefit from it too.
Dungeons & Dragons 5e is available now.