Zardnaar
Legend
Back in the day our group pooled resources and we bought most of the TSR campaign setting we could that were in print, and each player tended to focus on a different setting. I was more or less a perma DM and I got to run a few failing that I got to read them. Between us we had.
FR boxed set
Darksun boxed set (1991 and 1995 revised)
Mystara (Glantri+Karameikos)
Planescape
Birthright (has anyone played this ever?)
Dragonlance
Spelljammer
Thats off the top of my head. We had very little supplements for them though. My mate had the FR boxed set I had a few FR splats, for Darksun the Darksun guy had a photocopy of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and I was the one who had a few novels from various settings.
As it turns out this was kind of good we were mostly insulated from TSR metaplot. We played Spelljammer like we would Star Wars almost, when I got a glimpse of the Dragonkings book I was shocked along with the Prism Pentad. I had no idea what the 2 second Unhuman war was and I had to pick up the planescape and grand conjunction metaplots via 3E sources and the interwebz.
I also got a few hints from thins like Dragon Magazine and I did not get a hold of Dragons of Summer Flame until around 1997.
And all of these campaign settings also helped split the TSR fanbase, which means smaller print runs combined with high cost resulted in them going under. The lavish boxed sets should have been sold for $100 or more apparently Planescape they were losing money on along with he 1995 revised boxed set. Al Qadim made a small profit according to Stan! as it was not very lavish. As an example I could buy a second hand boxed set on Ebay for a similar price to what a local printer could make a full sized colour map off the PDFs I had bought.
So basically WoTC is a lot better at making money than TSR an/or cutting their losses hence why 5E is publishing reasonably few books compared with 2E,3E,4E. Each book sells more which means higher profits (cost per unit for example). Books are cheaper to make than boxed sets obviously. So any 5E repriont of a campaign setting I personally would make similar to the 3.0 or 3.5 FRCS and Eberron book with a fold out map in the back. The FRCS sold for $40 back i the day so I expect this to cost $50-$60 at least retail, Amazon cheaper.
I would also not support each reprinted setting with a novel line with maybe a few exceptions (probably FR or Dragonlance) and even then maybe just reprint the main books (again). Where possible I would want the original authors involved (Weiss, Hickman, Bruce Heard, and Baker for DL, Mystara, Eberron) assuming they want to do it.
I would also go back to the original material with updated art for 5E with perhaps original maps as well although you could update them as well. The TSR/WoTC metaplot would not be jettisoned but if you want to use it you can via the older material. This is because TSR for example was in free fall and I think a lot of metaplot ruined what the worlds were originally about. Dragonlance is a prime example I am not 100% sure bit to me the classic DL is war of the lance era, in any event one could run surveys for what people wanted. \
This does not mean no revision can take place, some things would need to be updated to 5E mechanics, and you could expand the world a bit. For example the 1987 FR box if redone in book form could have more information on the rest of the world, that is just an example FR would be an exception to a lot of this as it is the one world that did not die.
The TSR metaplot back in the day was also to drive novel and adventure sales. A lot of the novels and most of the adventures were also terrible, there is a reason 2E is remembered for the settings and not its adventures unlike 1E/BECMI. I don't think we need to open uip the Dragonlance adventure modules or the Avatar Trilogy adventures to modern gamers- they are terrible. The good 2E adventures are in Dungeon magazine or late 2E/after the WoTC buyout when they realised things were wrong.
For the 2E adventures back to the originals means the original boxed set and perhaps some of the early supplements that are metaplot neutral. This means no Unhuman War in Spelljammer, no Prism Pentad on Darksun, no Grand Conjunction on Ravenloft, no Wrath of the Immortals on Mystara. The books should contain the mechanical tools to let you play those eras if you like and have the original material/PD's detailing that era.
For some settings they never really had a boxed set of book detailing a point in time or a definitive product that defined them early (1983 Greyhawk boxed set, Dragonlance Adventures book etc). Mystara and Nerath for example fit this description. For those worlds I would pick a point in time (1000 AC for Mystara) and compile some of the old material into a book for fans of those settings.
I would also make a somewhat faithful adaption of the original material and not shoe horn in modern races and perhaps classes into the older setting nor would I remove races from new settings. Dragonborn for example would not be put on Athas but would feature strongly on Nerath this is to help define those settings. Dragonborn for example exist on FR, are key to Nerath. Half Orcs would not be put on Athas, Krynn and probably Mystara.
Other races and classes would only be included if you could make a fairly compelling and logical case for them to be there and not shoe horned in with some BS original story. For example on Greyhawk Cambions exist and are fairly common in the Iuz's lands so Tieflings make sense, Drow would also be fine Dragonborn not so much.
One could even look at bringing back racial and class restrictions although the only woulds I would consider this on would be Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Mystara. This would be to help define those worlds and make them different from the other worlds and be faithful to the original material. No Dwarven wizards on Greyhawk, Pladins are LG and Rangers are any good and if you need an in world explanation you have Hieroneous and Ehlonna as deities of those classes. Greyhawk and Mystara are a bit sandboxy though so (not as much as FR/Eberron) so you could make the argument either way. FR, Eberron, Nerath would be the sandbox worlds the AD&D worlds would be a bit more restrictive with the exception of Spelljammer and Planescape which even in AD&D were very sandbox based compared with something like Ravenloft.
I think racial and alignment restrictions though should definitely be used on Dragonlance. This is both due to the Towers of High Sorcery and there will always be that type of player who wants a Kender Wildmage. Kender should definitely be included on Krynn, they can stay on Krynn as well. I would support a Kender genocide metaplot though with bonus points if they can get the Gully Dwarves as well. Crashing a mile long spaceship (the Spelljammer perhaps) could cause an extinction level event in Kenderhome (I will make a note of this brilliant idea). Retconning the cataclysm to hitting Kenderhome would also be fine.
That is most of the ideas, obviously not all of the worlds will be redone and the more popular and obvious candidates would be Ravenloft, Planescape, Darksun, Eberron, and at one point WoTC had the 5 key worlds thing. I can't 100% rememebr what those 5 worlds were I think it was those 4+ FR I can't remember if ragonlance and Greyhawk made the list. Mystara would also be another one as while its not obvious apparently Bruce Heard is keen on doing it and has a Mystara Reborn facebook group so I suspect it would be cheap to do and he can decide what elements of the TSR metaplot to use or exclude as it was his baby back in the day.
There would be no tie in adventures, novels or splat at least initially but any world reprinted would be opened up on the DMGuild so fans and authors of those settings can do their thing there.
FR boxed set
Darksun boxed set (1991 and 1995 revised)
Mystara (Glantri+Karameikos)
Planescape
Birthright (has anyone played this ever?)
Dragonlance
Spelljammer
Thats off the top of my head. We had very little supplements for them though. My mate had the FR boxed set I had a few FR splats, for Darksun the Darksun guy had a photocopy of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and I was the one who had a few novels from various settings.
As it turns out this was kind of good we were mostly insulated from TSR metaplot. We played Spelljammer like we would Star Wars almost, when I got a glimpse of the Dragonkings book I was shocked along with the Prism Pentad. I had no idea what the 2 second Unhuman war was and I had to pick up the planescape and grand conjunction metaplots via 3E sources and the interwebz.
I also got a few hints from thins like Dragon Magazine and I did not get a hold of Dragons of Summer Flame until around 1997.
And all of these campaign settings also helped split the TSR fanbase, which means smaller print runs combined with high cost resulted in them going under. The lavish boxed sets should have been sold for $100 or more apparently Planescape they were losing money on along with he 1995 revised boxed set. Al Qadim made a small profit according to Stan! as it was not very lavish. As an example I could buy a second hand boxed set on Ebay for a similar price to what a local printer could make a full sized colour map off the PDFs I had bought.
So basically WoTC is a lot better at making money than TSR an/or cutting their losses hence why 5E is publishing reasonably few books compared with 2E,3E,4E. Each book sells more which means higher profits (cost per unit for example). Books are cheaper to make than boxed sets obviously. So any 5E repriont of a campaign setting I personally would make similar to the 3.0 or 3.5 FRCS and Eberron book with a fold out map in the back. The FRCS sold for $40 back i the day so I expect this to cost $50-$60 at least retail, Amazon cheaper.
I would also not support each reprinted setting with a novel line with maybe a few exceptions (probably FR or Dragonlance) and even then maybe just reprint the main books (again). Where possible I would want the original authors involved (Weiss, Hickman, Bruce Heard, and Baker for DL, Mystara, Eberron) assuming they want to do it.
I would also go back to the original material with updated art for 5E with perhaps original maps as well although you could update them as well. The TSR/WoTC metaplot would not be jettisoned but if you want to use it you can via the older material. This is because TSR for example was in free fall and I think a lot of metaplot ruined what the worlds were originally about. Dragonlance is a prime example I am not 100% sure bit to me the classic DL is war of the lance era, in any event one could run surveys for what people wanted. \
This does not mean no revision can take place, some things would need to be updated to 5E mechanics, and you could expand the world a bit. For example the 1987 FR box if redone in book form could have more information on the rest of the world, that is just an example FR would be an exception to a lot of this as it is the one world that did not die.
The TSR metaplot back in the day was also to drive novel and adventure sales. A lot of the novels and most of the adventures were also terrible, there is a reason 2E is remembered for the settings and not its adventures unlike 1E/BECMI. I don't think we need to open uip the Dragonlance adventure modules or the Avatar Trilogy adventures to modern gamers- they are terrible. The good 2E adventures are in Dungeon magazine or late 2E/after the WoTC buyout when they realised things were wrong.
For the 2E adventures back to the originals means the original boxed set and perhaps some of the early supplements that are metaplot neutral. This means no Unhuman War in Spelljammer, no Prism Pentad on Darksun, no Grand Conjunction on Ravenloft, no Wrath of the Immortals on Mystara. The books should contain the mechanical tools to let you play those eras if you like and have the original material/PD's detailing that era.
For some settings they never really had a boxed set of book detailing a point in time or a definitive product that defined them early (1983 Greyhawk boxed set, Dragonlance Adventures book etc). Mystara and Nerath for example fit this description. For those worlds I would pick a point in time (1000 AC for Mystara) and compile some of the old material into a book for fans of those settings.
I would also make a somewhat faithful adaption of the original material and not shoe horn in modern races and perhaps classes into the older setting nor would I remove races from new settings. Dragonborn for example would not be put on Athas but would feature strongly on Nerath this is to help define those settings. Dragonborn for example exist on FR, are key to Nerath. Half Orcs would not be put on Athas, Krynn and probably Mystara.
Other races and classes would only be included if you could make a fairly compelling and logical case for them to be there and not shoe horned in with some BS original story. For example on Greyhawk Cambions exist and are fairly common in the Iuz's lands so Tieflings make sense, Drow would also be fine Dragonborn not so much.
One could even look at bringing back racial and class restrictions although the only woulds I would consider this on would be Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Mystara. This would be to help define those worlds and make them different from the other worlds and be faithful to the original material. No Dwarven wizards on Greyhawk, Pladins are LG and Rangers are any good and if you need an in world explanation you have Hieroneous and Ehlonna as deities of those classes. Greyhawk and Mystara are a bit sandboxy though so (not as much as FR/Eberron) so you could make the argument either way. FR, Eberron, Nerath would be the sandbox worlds the AD&D worlds would be a bit more restrictive with the exception of Spelljammer and Planescape which even in AD&D were very sandbox based compared with something like Ravenloft.
I think racial and alignment restrictions though should definitely be used on Dragonlance. This is both due to the Towers of High Sorcery and there will always be that type of player who wants a Kender Wildmage. Kender should definitely be included on Krynn, they can stay on Krynn as well. I would support a Kender genocide metaplot though with bonus points if they can get the Gully Dwarves as well. Crashing a mile long spaceship (the Spelljammer perhaps) could cause an extinction level event in Kenderhome (I will make a note of this brilliant idea). Retconning the cataclysm to hitting Kenderhome would also be fine.
That is most of the ideas, obviously not all of the worlds will be redone and the more popular and obvious candidates would be Ravenloft, Planescape, Darksun, Eberron, and at one point WoTC had the 5 key worlds thing. I can't 100% rememebr what those 5 worlds were I think it was those 4+ FR I can't remember if ragonlance and Greyhawk made the list. Mystara would also be another one as while its not obvious apparently Bruce Heard is keen on doing it and has a Mystara Reborn facebook group so I suspect it would be cheap to do and he can decide what elements of the TSR metaplot to use or exclude as it was his baby back in the day.
There would be no tie in adventures, novels or splat at least initially but any world reprinted would be opened up on the DMGuild so fans and authors of those settings can do their thing there.
