Strange Lands brings Scarred Lands line to a close

[GrumpyOldMan]

Isn't this sort of the dirty little secret of the RPG world, that any setting -- heck, any game, to some extent -- will eventually destroy itself?

No, a good setting will, IMO last forever. I hate to bang on, but Glorantha survives and has undergone something of a renaissance, Hârn (and, I think, Talislanta) potter along happily in their own little ghettoes, these are venerable game worlds, which (again IMO) emphasise quality over quantity. I don’t think that the good game worlds do disappear.

GOM

 

[scourger]

Adventures only sell to DMs who might run them, while Rules books can sell to players.

Duncan

That's what I keep hearing, but I'm not convinced. In my little circle of 7 gaming friends, the best seller is the PHB. Not much else beyond that sells to the 5 who aren't regular DMs, and some players don't even buy the PHB. I think WOTC has the right idea using the d20 license to drive sales of PHBs. I've been burned by too many third party publishers' campaign settings that aren't supported by adventures. Even if I think a particular setting is awesome (as a couple have been), I'm the only one--as the DM--buying the stuff anyway; and I NEED modules to run so that I keep interested in the setting. I may buy supplements just to read for enjoyment, but I rarely even use them in play. The main setting book usually has more than enough new rules. I would rather have a product or series of products that is long on adventures and short on new, setting-specific rules. Otherwise, I don't get into it or I just quit it & sell the setting book.

The way I think of it is that adventures grow the market whereas settings exploit the market. A publisher may be able to sell me one or an entire line of modules that I will DM. I run the games. People play. Heck, they may even sell some information in which to set the campaign. The campaign ends, and the publisher can start a new series. That grows the market.

Or a publisher may sell a few setting books to DMs & players. (It's not in my gaming experience that players buy setting books, but I'll assume they do so for the sake of argument.) The lack of modules means that the Dm has to manufacture or convert advenutres to play in the setting. That's a lot of work on top of mastering the ever-increasing setting material. Eventually, the market is glutted. Now, the setting "dies" and there is nowhere else to go. That exploits the market.

That is why I hope to see more products like Mesopotamia (or the Shackled City Adventure Path from Dungeon Magazine or Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games) and fewer like Scarred Lands.