Rules Reprints And Setting Proliferation

[Yora]

I think more important that digital distribution is internet mail order. Might be a bit more costly, but today I can import books easily since making contact with foreign sellers is very easy.
I have a dislike for translations and almost all my entertainment stuff now comes from the UK. If I had to go to a bookstore and ask if they could order an english version printing and then have to wait for two weeks for it to arrive, this would be way too much work. And that's books. Stores that sell movies and video games don't do special orders for individual customers.

 

[Water Bob]

There's not a single setting in the list below that we hadn't seen before 3E, except for Spycraft, which is not a D&D setting, and any new settings with D20 Modern which is also not D&D. The statement you were replying to asked for new settings.

I see the clarification you are making. I'm pretty sure that The Black Company and Kalamar are what are called "D&D" settings. They are fantasy settings using the d20 system, both newly published in the 3.0 D&D era. Then, there's Freeport. Midnight is another. WotC's Eberron. Iron Kingdoms. Ptolus. Scarred Lands. Legend of the Five Rings. Pathfinder. Everquest. Slaine. Iron Heroes....

There are a ton of them, all newly published with D&D 3rd edition.

 

[JeffB]

Nitpick : Kalamar predates 3e.

 

[Stormonu]

[MENTION=1465]Li Shenron[/MENTION], I can see that the "slipcase 3" would most likely appeal to collectors, like me. If the price is right, a few might see getting multiple campaigns in one fell swoop a deal (if they can price it like the 4E PHB1/PHB2 Christmas combo they put out a few years back). Sounds like most folks would just want to buy one, maybe two campaign worlds (it makes me sad to see such the hate for Spelljammer, for instance).

With some of the less interesting/well-known campaign worlds (Horde, Maztica, Jakandor, Mahasarpa), I think they'd have to be bundled just to sell a few. The more popular ones - Eberron, FR, Greyhawk - could be sold singularly.

Anybody want to chime in with a list of the TSR/Wotc campaign worlds that have gotten a book/boxed set treatment? The ones I can remember right now are:

Al-Qadim
Birthright
Dark Sun
Dragonfist (Tianguo)
Dragonlance
Council of Wyrms
Eberron
Forgotten Realms
Greyhawk
Hollow World
Horde
Jakandor
Karu-Tur
Lankhmar/Newhon
Mahasarpa
Maztica
Mystara
Planescape
Red Steel
Ravenloft/Masque of the Red Death
Spelljammer/Spider Moon

(I don't count Rokugan, that's AEG's baby and I don't think WotC has the reprint rights anymore)

 

[Treebore]

Nitpick : Kalamar predates 3e.

Indeed it does, and I have one of the zip lock bag copies somewhere around here. Probably in one of my storage boxes.

 

[Treebore]

[MENTION=1465]Li Shenron[/MENTION], I can see that the "slipcase 3" would most likely appeal to collectors, like me. If the price is right, a few might see getting multiple campaigns in one fell swoop a deal (if they can price it like the 4E PHB1/PHB2 Christmas combo they put out a few years back). Sounds like most folks would just want to buy one, maybe two campaign worlds (it makes me sad to see such the hate for Spelljammer, for instance).

With some of the less interesting/well-known campaign worlds (Horde, Maztica, Jakandor, Mahasarpa), I think they'd have to be bundled just to sell a few. The more popular ones - Eberron, FR, Greyhawk - could be sold singularly.

Anybody want to chime in with a list of the TSR/Wotc campaign worlds that have gotten a book/boxed set treatment? The ones I can remember right now are:

Al-Qadim
Birthright
Dark Sun
Dragonfist (Tianguo)
Dragonlance
Council of Wyrms
Eberron
Forgotten Realms
Greyhawk
Hollow World
Horde
Jakandor
Karu-Tur
Lankhmar/Newhon
Mahasarpa
Maztica
Mystara
Planescape
Red Steel
Ravenloft/Masque of the Red Death
Spelljammer/Spider Moon

(I don't count Rokugan, that's AEG's baby and I don't think WotC has the reprint rights anymore)

Lets not forget the FR/Faerun got a lot of additional boxed sets beyond the over all setting. The North, City System, the Horde, setting/adventures such as the Myth Drannor and Undermountain boxed sets, etc...

Ravenloft also has like 4 boxed sets.

 

[Kaodi]

I suppose the attendant point now is: With a list of popular settings in hand, where do you think the most obvious opportunities lie for type of campaign settings?

Or, to put another way: Do we have an official sky islands setting? Whether we do or not, what else are we missing?

 

[Lanefan]

As for maps, the recent hardcovers had poster maps tacked into the back, didn't they? And they could always sell larger maps in packs (like Pathfinder does and they did back in the printed Dragon days of 3E).

I found both of these options less than satisfactory - the hardcover map-in-back option meant your book was no longer "complete" once you'd taken the map out, and there was the risk of shredding map or book or both if one wasn't careful. The map-in-magazine idea meant you had to wait several months/issues to get the whole map, and ended up with some magazines you may or may not want...never mind the magazines ain't in print anymore.

Al-Qadim
Birthright
Dark Sun
Dragonfist (Tianguo)
Dragonlance
Council of Wyrms
Eberron
Forgotten Realms
Greyhawk
Hollow World
Horde
Jakandor
Karu-Tur
Lankhmar/Newhon
Mahasarpa
Maztica
Mystara
Planescape
Red Steel
Ravenloft/Masque of the Red Death
Spelljammer/Spider Moon

With all the 4e books and splats WotC have put out I'm somewhat shocked not to see "Points of Light" or "Nentir Vale" on that list, unless it's hiding under another name I don't recognize.

And if they never did write up the default 4e setting as its own 'thing' I'd call that a mistake: an edition's settings to some extent define it which would have helped 4e develop its own identity; and non-4e DMs may well have bought it to use for other systems or for ideas.

Lanefan

 

[Stormonu]

With all the 4e books and splats WotC have put out I'm somewhat shocked not to see "Points of Light" or "Nentir Vale" on that list, unless it's hiding under another name I don't recognize.

Lanefan

I know there were plans to release a 4E Nentir Vale Gazetteer and some point (as part of the Essentials line?), but I haven't seen it and I'm not sure if it got canned along the way.

 

[Stormonu]

I suppose the attendant point now is: With a list of popular settings in hand, where do you think the most obvious opportunities lie for type of campaign settings?

Or, to put another way: Do we have an official sky islands setting? Whether we do or not, what else are we missing?

Does [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Ballista-Creature-Crucible-Accessory-Dungeons/dp/0880387742"]Top Ballista[/ame] count?

There were four Creature Crucible mini-campaigns as I recall, Top Ballista, Night Howlers, Tall Tales of the Wee Ones and The Sea People. Being mini-campaigns and part of Mystra, I didn't think to list them.

What genres WotC didn't cover in 3E, other OGL publishers pretty much filled in. However, campaign worlds I'd like to see done as official D&D worlds might include:

A Pirate Campaign: The world is a bunch of islands and the primary source of trade is via ship. Lost cities of gold, a tyrannical seaborne empire and vicious natives on monster-infested isles beckon adventurers with promises of profit and death.

City-States of Death: Outside the city walls lie death. Fortified, overpopulated towns and cities are linked together by armored, raised roads that rise above the encroaching jungles. Intrigue abounds within the walls of these fortress-towns, but strange monsters and abandoned ruins lined with treasure await those brave enough to venture into the wild overgrowth.