What were the Setting Search Semifinalists?

Sitara · Dec 31, 2007

wizardoftheplains said:
Hi, Scott
My semi-final setting was the 'Sunset Kingdoms', with the 'Alfar Tower' being the future version of the same setting. Both have continued to evolve and are now in one book and I'm planning on having it available in April 04. It won't be d20. It will include the system within it so you'll only need the single book.

I should have my new site up by the end of November and will post on ENWorld when that happens. I've spent the majority of the last month setting up a business.

Other than the settings that have already been listed, I have no idea what happened to the others.

Gary

So...whatever happened to this?

Glyfair · Dec 31, 2007

Sitara said:
So...whatever happened to this?

His setting or the other list of other settings? IIRC, around the time of the 4E announcement someone posted a list of about 8 of the 10 settings. Can't find it now, though.

Edit: here it is.

Mondbuchstaben · Jan 8, 2008

Sitara said:
So...whatever happened to this?

See John Kim's review of the finished product

Varianor Abroad · Jan 9, 2008

I think we know what could happen to the other two settings. A couple years after 4E releases, and Eberron plays out, they'll release a new setting. Around the time 5E rolls out, Forgotten Realms joins Greyhawk at the Active Adult Setting Community, only to be heard from at the holidays when you pop by for a brief visit, and Eberron moves over to become Living Eberron.

3catcircus · Jan 9, 2008

Hmm - the two runners-up - I wonder what would happen if they refused to allow WotC to publish? IIRC, in addition to Keith Baker, WotC profiled Nathan Toomey and Rich Burlew as the other finalists. They only had to submit 100 pages worth of stuff to get to the final round, so even if WotC owns that stuff, they still don't own the entire setting. The only problem seems to be that in order to get that $20,000 runner-up prize, you had to execute a work-for-hire contract.

I don't know the details of their situation, but it seems to be a bad idea, financially, to put yourself in a work-for-hire situation without the setting being the winner - now you are beholden to WotC if you ever want to publish your campaign setting, and since they will own it, they will own you. I would think it would've been better to license it to them for an appropriate level of compensation.

jdrakeh · Jan 9, 2008

3catcircus said:
I don't know the details of their situation, but it seems to be a bad idea, financially, to put yourself in a work-for-hire situation without the setting being the winner - now you are beholden to WotC if you ever want to publish your campaign setting, and since they will own it, they will own you. I would think it would've been better to license it to them for an appropriate level of compensation.

You're assuming that an unknown setting published by an independent publisher is likely to earn said publisher more than 20k in profit. As many independent publishers can tell you, that assumption is more than a little at odds with reality. Financially speaking, many small press or independent publishers would sacrifice parts of their anatomy to see a five figure return on a single property of theirs.

Teflon Billy · Jan 9, 2008

Jurgen's setting Urbis was in the running wasn't it?

jdrakeh · Jan 10, 2008

Teflon Billy said:
Jurgen's setting Urbis was in the running wasn't it?

I sure thought it was, and I believe that Jurgen confirmed this but somebody further up the thread said that it wasn't. In other news, I've just opurchased Code of Unaris thanks to this thread. I had meant to check it out long ago. Apparently it's a bit of a rarity now.

charlesatan · Jan 10, 2008

One of the finalists if I'm not mistaken is Rich Burlew who works on Order of the Stick and some D&D supplements (i.e. Dungeonscape).

Source: http://www.giantitp.com/tg0003.html

Jürgen Hubert · Jan 29, 2008

jdrakeh said:
I sure thought it was, and I believe that Jurgen confirmed this but somebody further up the thread said that it wasn't. In other news, I've just opurchased Code of Unaris thanks to this thread. I had meant to check it out long ago. Apparently it's a bit of a rarity now.

Urbis was created with the Setting Search in mind, but I didn't make it past the first round. In retrospect, I know why - the one-page proposal could have been written much better...

What were the Setting Search Semifinalists?

Sitara

Explorer

Glyfair

Explorer

Mondbuchstaben

First Post

Varianor Abroad

Explorer

3catcircus

Adventurer

jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock

Teflon Billy

Explorer

jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock

charlesatan

Explorer

Jürgen Hubert

First Post

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