Menzoberranzan is Editionless... Good move?

[Li Shenron]

Count me in on the "it's a great idea!" wagon.

Why?

Because a setting should provide a sahred experience in terms of stories, characters, locations, monsters, magic items and artifacts and so on...

It doesn't matter what ruleset you use, imagine meeting someone new and finding out they play D&D too. On one hand you may find that both you and them played the same edition, and can share experiences on the rules. On the other hand you may discovered you played in the same settings or even the same adventure, and then you'll be talking about stuff like "how did you kill that huge dragon?" or "did you find the secret door to the uber treasure?" or "did you dare to trigger the cursed item to gain more power?".

Also, there is a widespread belief that the rules and character materials are haaard to design so it should be left to the designers (yeah, but then the majority of gaming groups have house rules), while the fluff is eaaasy to make and we don't want to pay for that. I believe this is so untrue... If you want "perfect balance" then maybe you should leave rules to the designers (then again... those who want "perfect balance" always complain that the same designers aren't good enough but they can "fix it" with their own house rules), but otherwise it's actually easier to come up with custom feats and spells than it is to actually write a damn good story or character. Most of the house fluff is IMHO plain unimaginative, so for me it's best to let the fluff in the hands of good writers. But then if it's really good, why restricted it to an edition-specific book?

 

[delericho]

This certainly is an interesting choice, both because in the past WotC have tended to be crunch-heavy with their books; and because in the past books produced during an edition-change have tended to be edition-light but not edition free.

It will be interesting to see if this pays off for them.

 

[Yora]

The 2nd Edition Forgotten Realms and Planescape books are still the best references when playing in these settings. You need the Monster Manuals for the Edition you play to get all the original planescape critters, but except for that you take you PHB of choice and are ready to play.

 

[Tonguez]

it's about drow so of no interest to me
but
absolutely support all sourcebooks being edition neutral. That was the best thing about the GURPS settings books afterall

 

[Zireael]

The press made it clear that it is able to support several timelines - classic FR, War of the Spider Queen, Post-Spellplague... Judging by WotC's recent activity, I will bet it's lip service to the latter

-O

Love the fact that it will support several timelines!

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I have some older edition Underdark books that are comprehensive enough for my uses so I'll pass on this new book.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I'm not all that excited by drow, so I voted that I wouldn't be interested either way.

I do think its a good idea to do an edition free book though. Once a new edition is announced sales of current edition specific books tend to drop off.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Personally, I would prefer to have an edition-free book about the major cities of the Underdark. FR's Underdark book was too vague for me.

 

[TerraDave]

Its not like they really had a choice...

The preview referred to some status type mechanics. So there will be a little crunch..that can be used in multiple editions?

 

[Obryn]

Good to know.

I don't care for drow much at all (at least the FR versions of them; I'd be on board if this were about Erelhei-Cinlu) but I might have bought it for some good crunch. I, myself am a corner case here.

Otherwise, I am in the process of adapting my 2e Dark Sun material for my 4e Dark Sun game (City by the Silt Sea is simply splendid), so I'm certainly on board with edition-free setting books in general. Just, not Menzoberranzan in particular.

-O