Rule of Three 6/13/2011: "semi-obscure but flavorful setting" in Dungeon and Dragon

[FireLance]

I'm actually more dissatisfied with the first answer. Sometimes I don't feel these answers are well thought out (though are earnest as they can be). But there's a great wealth of game mechanics that cannot be retrained. It's that simple. Some things just can't be retrained. The Ranger could have their "favored enemy" type at first level and that's it. Maybe a feat at Paragon/Epic that's like "I got better at fighting this enemy too!".

I think that WotC's "blind spot" is that Favored Enemy was originally flavored as the ranger hating the type of creature so much that he got combat bonuses against it. From that perspective, of course, it makes no narrative sense for the ranger to "switch hatreds" regularly and without justification.

However, flavor it as the ranger recalling combat techniques for use against specific types of creatures, and it becomes less limiting. Something along the following lines, for example:

Favored Enemy
Ranger Attack 1

You refresh your memory of the special combat techniques you have learned to battle specific foes.

Daily * Martial
Minor Action
Personal

Effect: Pick one type of creature, such as Humaniod, Beast, or Aberration. Until your next extended rest, you gain a +2 power bonus to weapon damage rolls against creatures of that type.​

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I believe it is Al-Quadim!

Reasons:
- it was mentioned several times by several designers in the last few months
- it would fit with the elemental heroes handbook

I don´t see similaities to dark sun

Why I hope it is al-Quadim?

Th computer game was one of my first D&D RPGs and ven though I did not notice that, I really really liked it.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

A "semi-obscure but flavorful setting this fall"? I SO want it to be Birthright.

That would be über-awesome.
Birthright's Shadow World fits well with the Shadow power source, plus it has a ton of unique BBEG's in the paragon and epic tiers.

An Elemental-flavored Al-Qadim could also fit the bill, as could a heavily Primal Maztica that's been transplanted to Abeir during the Spellplague.

If it's any one of these three settings I'll be happy.

 

[erleni]

Maztica would be great, but my real hope would be for Red Steel.

 

[Psikus]

What about Ravenloft? There was a book (or box, whatever) announced and cancelled for the end of this year. I wouldn't be surprised if they used that material for a DDI release a la Class Compendium. Or doesn't that sound (semi)obscure enough?

 

[Quickleaf]

I was just thinking of older settings that never got official publication but were either implied in adventures (like the Thunder Rift setting for BD&D) or were released as free online supplements (like Mahasarpa). There's also Pellinore from Imagine magazine but AFAIK that was a fairly generic setting.

Al-Qadim and Birthright were pretty popular, I'd even say right behind Ravenloft & Planescape. Those don't strike me as "semi-obscure".

 

[Riastlin]

I could definitely see Birthright getting a nod, particularly given all the articles, advice, etc. they've been giving relating to DM's delving into PC backgrounds and the like. The only thing to be careful of here though is not to get our hopes up too much. The impression I got from the answer was that while this semi-obscure setting will get some support, it won't be on par with say, a full release like Dark Sun, Eberron, FR, etc. I could see that as just a few articles to give us enough info to start it up and then make it our own.

As for the Ranger question, I have to admit that I too felt as though the answer was a bit of a cop-out. It would be easy enough to make it akin to a class feature like (one-hand weapon talent, virtue of cunning, etc. which can't be retrained). That being said though, I'm not certain the favored enemy is really needed. Although 4ed has done a much better job at widening the spectrum of encounter levels for given monsters, I still have always felt that the favored enemy ran the risk of being relatively moot for large parts of the campaign (level 1 and 2 characters are not likely to fight a lot of gnolls for instance, while paragons are unlikely to fight many goblins). Sure, you could add extra favored enemies and such, but then you get back to just having the ranger making choices based on the "monster of the month" or so. More to the point though, although this has always been a fairly unique feature of the ranger class, I really don't think the ranger needs any more help.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I was just thinking of older settings that never got official publication but were either implied in adventures (like the Thunder Rift setting for BD&D) or were released as free online supplements (like Mahasarpa). There's also Pellinore from Imagine magazine but AFAIK that was a fairly generic setting.

Al-Qadim and Birthright were pretty popular, I'd even say right behind Ravenloft & Planescape. Those don't strike me as "semi-obscure".

I'm pretty sure that when he says "semi-obscure", he means that in regard to all D&D players and DMs. We here are hardcore-experts. So i guess Al-Quadim or Birthright. That one was created by Rich Baker, right? I'm sure he would love to bring it back for Dragon/Dungeon.

 

[Aegeri]

Ravenloft and Planescape are hardly obscure settings, so those are right out. Whatever they do I will be interested in it though.

 

[The Halfling]

I'd put my money on Al'Qadim. This reminded me of one of the other things Chris Perkins said at Comicpalooza in Houston. WotC will be releasing a Sha'ir class in Dragon in the coming year.

Given the Sha'ir elemental ties, and the upcoming Elemental Heroes book, I can see Al'Qadim as being a showcase for a campaign world that uses the Elemental Power source as a focus.