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Originally Posted by dmccoy1693  When Wizards of the Coast announced they were (basickly) rebooting the Forgotten Realms, I was not happy. I remember them citing reasons for the reboot as: there is so much canon that it was difficult for new authors to join in, if a throwaway line clashed with something written 15 years ago the internet would jump all over it, etc. I also remember thinking that those were bunk. And I am sure I said as much. Repeatedly and publickly.
Now I am a publisher. Working on the Traveller License from Mongoose, I'm getting to know the ins and outs of its long time fans. Lately I have seen changes made (regardless of why the change was made, ranging from conscious decision to standardize conflicting canon to not possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of 30 years of canon) get jumped all over. After 30 years of a setting there is a substantial amount of setting to know.
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The flipside, though, is that settings are popular for a reason. And one of those reasons may indeed be the large amount of information available. Significantly changing or rebooting that setting may instantly remove things that people loved about it. To me, if you're starting from scratch on name-recognition alone, you're doing a dis-service to fans. (Which, to me, means you are using the brand name - rather than the content - to lure people in.) If the new stuff you're writing is that good, put a new name on it and sell it as such. Or sell it as "with the wealth of knowledge we've learned over the years from [brand name], we've created this new setting [x] to succeed it." That way, fans of the old setting aren't pissed off that you're screwing up the things they love, and you can still use the brand as a draw.
Also, if you're going to write for a brand with a rich history, you'd better either educate yourself thoroughly on the areas you're writing about or have a good editor(s)/developer(s) who has(have) the knowledge. (For example, if I was ever going to write about Greyhawk, I sure as hell would want someone like Erik Mona checking my work.) If not, enjoy the (
IMO) deserved criticism.
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