What do you think the new setting will be, from Ampersand?

[Silverblade The Ench]

James Wyatt and Rich Baker are getting ready to launch into next year’s campaign setting, which I know is going to surprise and delight many of you out there. I’ll start dropping hints about the setting over the next few columns, and we’ll see how many of you can figure out what’s coming.

Hm?
I'd Hope spelljammer (maybe mixed with the Planes) as there's been hints, or Dark Sun, which again was mentioned in Manual of the Planes.

 

[Belphanior]

I'm unure if WotC would make a setting that's already largely handled by the Manual of the Planes. Just like in 3e, that book alone can do most of Planescape (and now also bits of Spelljammer).

Dark Sun is a fan favorite, but it totally clashes with the new systems and assumptions of 4e. I don't think the time is ready yet for such a setting.

Would many of us really be surprised, I wonder, if a new edition of Dark Sun, Birthright or Dragonlance were to be released? I somewhat doubt it. I think it might be a "new" setting. One that hasn't been done before in D&D, but already exists as general concept or for another gameline.

 

[Hawke]

I think it's likely it will be entirely new. I thought there was talk about that and it seems like a good time for them to release a new setting, FR, Eb, New, DarkSun would be a good way to go for them. It's released a good 2 years into 4E so they can reference existing material and have a good idea of where the next 2 years are going and prepare for that. If so, I hope they really setup the political intrigue and factions and really make heavy use of the player races available as common / integral with many of the kingdoms out there rather than the extra races feeling like Warforged in Forgotten Realms.

I think Dark Sun is dark, restricted, and post-apocalyptic. It makes sense wotc would spend more time with expansive, everything-goes, open for a few settings before it strips it down. Also gives people 3 settings to choose from w/o having to get into the dark aspects (slavery, relativism when it comes to good/evil).

I want DS so bad, though.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Al Qadim for me, the 2e setting I regret missing, but it won't be as it's a Faerun sub setting. I'd like something with an arabian style or maybe classical Mediterranean would be cool.

 

[OchreJelly]

Can someone summarize what makes Al Qadim standout? It's something I totally bypassed during my 2E days, but I see it come up here occasionally as a fan-favorite. I'm interested in both mechanics and tone.

 

[Shadowsong666]

None of the settings in the poll imho.

Dragonlance
​

 

[Obryn]

If PHB3 = Psionics + Shadow, then I think Dark Sun is a lock.

-O

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I think Dark sun is a strong possiblity, after all they're rereleasing the prism pentad. That maybe thier way of testing the waters to see if there is any fan base for the setting as well as helping to bring the setting to the attention of folks that came in with 4e.

 

[Shemeska]

I'd prefer none of them, given what happened to FR. I'd much prefer the 4e design team create their own, new setting for 4e rather than forcefit a 2e setting into the default PoL tropes (at the risk of losing a setting's atmosphere, unique points, etc).

But depending on how radical the changes to Eberron are in 4e, if they've learned anything from 4e FR's reception, my opinion on the matter might change. I suspect they may do Dark Sun, but I truly worry about how much it will end up looking like Dark Sun once they get done fitting it into the 4e setting cookie cutter.

 

[kenmarable]

Can someone summarize what makes Al Qadim standout? It's something I totally bypassed during my 2E days, but I see it come up here occasionally as a fan-favorite. I'm interested in both mechanics and tone.

Mechanically, to me at least, the one thing that really stood out was that it fully embraced the 2e kit system. All PCs were expected to take a kit, and there were a lot of very flavorful kits in the setting. The other thing was the sha'ir class that relied on having a little 1-foot tall genie you would send off to retrieve spells for you. Fun idea, but I was never super-keen on the implementation of it (you need a lot of planning ahead, because you could, for example, get even priest spells, but sometimes you needed to wait hours for it).

However, I think what makes it such a fan favorite isn't the mechanics, but the flavor of the setting. It was pure Arabian Nights-style fun. Genies, sultans, pick pocket thieves going on epic quests, or my personal favorite - the religious assassin. It was abounding in fun adventure possibilities, and with the strong use of kits, it hit a nice balance of "flavor impacting mechanics" without having to create drastic new mechanics like new classes and such.

But that's just my recollection from 15 years or so ago. I'm sure others will have other opinions of what made Al Qadim great.


As for the original topic, my money is on Dark Sun, but I think "New setting" would have been a good option to have in the poll. I can see it really going in any number of ways, but if I have to pick, I'd go with Dark Sun. And I'm fine with there being some changes, like including all of the core races in some form - and given how strange Dark Sun is, I don't think it would be hard to retrofit them in unless you are a canon purist.

But I guess part of that is that I prefer "This is a new edition, and we're saying dragonborn have always been in the world, just maybe over those mountains or something. Whatever." rather than another Time of Troubles/Spellplague world-altering explanation of the changes. Considering it hasn't been actively published in a very long time, and the number of groups that will convert an existing campaign to 4e Dark Sun rather than start a new one is probably exceedingly small, I would prefer a "It's just different" than having some grand explanation of the changes.

I would really hate to see some convoluted the gods return to Athas, try to re-shape the world to better match other worlds they oversee, only to be driven off by an unholy alliance of an escaped female mul gladiator and Borys reborn who give birth to the dragonborn race, while elves take to the newly grown forests and reclaim their heritage as eladrin and then teaching the halflings literacy and proper hygene (and focusing on their psionic surfboards because that was the awesomest part of Dark Sun in one of the designer's high school games), but it's all 12,000 years later, so none of that actually matters, and on and on. Sometimes trying to explain the difference just makes more of a mess than saying, "Hey, it's different now."