Strange Lands brings Scarred Lands line to a close

[J_A_Garlock]

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Metaplot: This started to kill the setting for me. Within a relatively short span of time, as I saw it, the setting started to change. A god was brought back from the dead. Locked djinn cities were burst open. Unique setting races were turned over to humdrum, vanilla normal versions of that race. Things I initially enjoyed about the setting were destroyed by the grindstone of plot. For my part, I don't pick up campaign settings so they can change on me, I pick them up for the pieces that I can later move. Once a setting begins changing, it starts to look less like what initially attracted people to it in the first place.







Not to get off topic, but this is the reason I dislike the current Greyhawk. Never "caught on" to Forgotten Realms ( glad too... cause I hear its a bit expensive after a while... ).





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[Fevil]

This is not really surprising. I have been expecting this announcement for a while now.
Like others that have posted I have been a bit of a doomsayer with regards to whether SL would be rekindled or not.
At least now we have been put out of our misery.

I'll miss it, maybe not the metaplot, but certainly the vibrant setting.

 

[Psion]

De gustibus non est disputandum. Relics & Rituals I and II are excellent d20 books.

Indeed. As is CC2. More useful and more interesting than any of the WotC monster supplements IMO.

 

[Zelda Themelin]

I liked CC1 and CC2 very much. They were great inspirational books for me.

I actually disliked CC Revised.
Stat's didn't get more right, just different way wrong. And the way hag templates were, didn't exactly feel good idea.

CC3 failed to to impress me as much as CC1 and CC2 had. Partially because it lacked chaotic good and chaotic neutral outsiders among other things. There were few great critters, but it didn't feel as imaginative and inspired than prior books had.

I liked the way monsters were presented, monster manuals feel to me a bit statblockish, there ain't enough monster background. What I loved about CC:s monsters was that extra story, that helped to tie them better into the world. And generally gave them more feeling.

Continues errors with rules made be go like "wow, do these people ever play D&D?".

All in all, I was really waiting for C&C 4.

R&R 1 and 2 (to some extent) were great books. Hehe, we have foundly nicknamed them "Book of Broken Spells 1 & 2". They have been used (and abused) so much in games I've been to. I like Malhavoc spells too, though they aren't as catching as R&R:s.
I didn't like all new plot-stuff that was in R&R 2. Most of it was really cool.
R&R 3 book I was really waiting for.

I loved the Ghelspad Gazetter.

Mithril book was good enough, I didn't expect continets only paladin-city to be so special, and it succeeded at being better book than I had thought (there was the first issue, missing npc:s. Only one of them was fixed in web "extra")

Hollowfaust was good book. Perhaps not the best place to start a game for all types of parties. I had some issues with Nemorga-power-up, but hey, authors pet-god apperantly, what can I say.

Both starting locations also are pretty lawful.

After these books Scarn extreme makeover - world edition (to give this some reality show spin) started.

Campaing Setting books weren't quite the same world. I found those actually pretty boring and lacking some intereresting ideas spell and monster books had hinted at. They were good books, though despite the changes and all those paladin prestige classes (doh, as if didn't have enough of them).

Divane and Defeated was both great and somewhat off direction. Still, despite my disagreements with some mythology, statting the divane and humancentric titans, I really loved that book. And I had no problems adjusting some ideas fit my campaing.
(mine and my friend's had been going on for quite a long time at this point).

After this the world went to different direction, and fewer and fewer books got any use as they were.

Some publishing ideas make me really wonder.

Now, why they didn't write about Vesh, Albadia and Darakeene. Most ideal places to start adventures. Maybe it has to do with Campaing book, and french publishing, dunno. But IMO that was a mistake.

Books for Asaathi and Slithering weren't that interesting.
Bloodsea was kind of plah.
Hornsaw Forest was uninteresting and lamer than it's reputation.
Any of these could have been replaced with Vesh or Albadia for starters.

Calastia book was partially as boring as my history book. Why nothing detailed about Galeeda's Grove even?

Penumbral Pentagon was a bad book. And also made mistake of not giving people stuff they wanted. Drendarian Shadow walkers and stuff like for starters.

And wasn't "players book to slarecians" something we did NOT want. Ruins were the cool part, return of slarecians should have been something left for dm:s. As the truth what slarecians were. So instead of usable multible maybe:s they told us "the Truth".

So, at this point I gave up, and thought, oh well, now they really have forgotten.

My Scarn had far gone from "official" campaing but I continued buying the books. For interesting bits and pieces (as do those that only use books for some another campaing world), and out of curiosity what they "break" next.

So this is why I buy and whine.

 

[Numion]

But apparently by the way what sells in most gamers minds is probably this: WotC = fanboy screams

I think my ironymeter just blew. Nightfall calling out fanboys?

 

[Ruined]

I was a bit saddened to hear this, but honestly I've been numbed to it by the other White Wolf setting news over the past year. I'm a Vampire player, ended that setting for something new, don't like it. They ended Dark Ages, which I absolutely love. So, the Scarred Lands end wasn't a complete shocker.

And to tell the sad truth, I haven't bought many of the recent releases. They haven't appealed to me, and I don't have a lot of use for them in game. I picked up Blood Sea and the Infinity planes book because I knew I'd get use from them and they looked like interesting reads. As it stands, my campaign is in full-steam mode and doesn't really need any brand-new material. That could be the issue with other fans of the setting, who knows.

And once it's finished, I'll be heading to a different setting. Something where I don't have to worry about cancellations or support... Planescape. =)

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Indeed. As is CC2. More useful and more interesting than any of the WotC monster supplements IMO.

Ghelspad is another awesome book; I found its "fluff" to be far superior to that of FRCS (although the mechanics of the two are about even in my mind).

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Mods/Admin,

May I suggest combining this thread with the other one started by Nightfall?

 

[Desdichado]

When a product fails, is it the markets or the products fault?

My thought exactly. Granted, they may still be putting out totally fine products for all I know. But I think they probably hit a saturation point a while ago; how much new Scarred Lands sourcebooks do we really need anymore, anyway? It's entirely possible that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of ideas that could still be done with the setting, and that drove the falling sales.

Presumably sales have fallen, although I guess that's only implied, not stated, in the press release.

 

[Desdichado]

I could have cared LESS about the fact that yes, Faithful and forsaken brought back Jandevos. (But that I blame more on the fact people wanted novels. Can't get novels without breaking a setting folks. FR and Dragonlance proved that time and again.)

No they didn't, really. Dragonlance and FR in many ways had a bad novel strategy, because the authors weren't good enough to write good stories without being too epic, and thereby changing the setting. Either that, as in the case of DL, they told the only story worth telling in the setting and went to pains to tell us that, "no, whatever your PCs do can't be as important as what the authors' PCs do, sorry."

So, I don't think DL and FR prove that you can't get novels without breaking the setting. They do, however, show that a bad novel strategy can run a game setting into the ground.