hawkeyefan
Legend
which brings me to Hawkeyefan’s comments - there’s a lot of people who are familiar with old material and are hoping for a current update - often because they don’t access to the old material (or it’s dated and could use some modernization). Some people just don’t know how or what they should do to update old campaigns, and an “official” product can do that for them.
Sure, I get that. I don’t know if not having the old material is a significant obstacle given how easily and cheaply all that material can be had. But the question of how to update it is the question.
Honestly, I think that’s more of a challenge for WotC than for any individual fan. I mean, I’ve used many of the settings in my 5E game (there’s a lot of world hopping) and I just present the settings in a way that I consider best.
WotC will have to somehow please a myriad of fans for each setting, each with their own take on what matters most to the setting, and what should or should not be included. That’s gonna be tough to pull off.
Some people might think laziness as a factor. It's a lot of work to port something over. But a lot of people don't have the time, energy, or talent to do it themselves. That's understandable.
More important to consider, however, is gaining an official consensus. D&D is very easily the most open and accessible system to play. You can get a random group of players to sit at the table at a moment's notice, or gather publicly in random groups during events, like AL. In these cases, it can be much less of a hassle to have an officially sanctioned set of rules and options to ensure everyone is on a similar page from the start.
For a home or private game, however, house rules and interpretations are much easier to pass for a small group. But then again, it could go back to a lack of time, talent, and energy.
Yeah, AL play and similar games benefit from having set materials to use. This is one of the stronger reasons for the request for old settings, in my opinion.
And I agree that it’s not about laziness. I’d never say that someone is lazy for asking for a setting guide rather than doing all that work themselves.
But, in the absence of an official setting guide, I think people can manage without needing to do as much work as it seems, if they really want to play in a specific setting.
It doesn’t need to be a 300 page book, when you get down to it.