Mercurius
Legend
Yesterday I was going to respond to someone in a thread about current setting coverage, but forgot which thread it was in, so decided to just start a new thread -- and with a pretty chart!
One of the things that struck me when I was going over 2E's vast number of books (as an ongoing project to do similar charts to my 5E one, that some of you might have seen) is that it essentially had separate product lines for each setting. Meaning, unlike today where 5E is published as a single product line - which was the same as in 4E - 2E (and to a lesser extent, 3.5) was published with "sub-lines" for each setting. This is illustrated by the brand of the setting, each with their distinct logo.
In 5E, most settings are "one and done" - at least so far, the exceptions being the Forgotten Realms and Exandria, and I suppose Ravenloft. But even those either have a setting and adventure (Ravenloft, Exandria) or one regional setting/splat hybrid and only adventures, but no setting expansions (FR - at least thus far).
This approach of a setting line really started in the late 80s -- 1987, to be exact -- with the beginnings of the Forgotten Realms books (the gray box and first two FR supplements), as well as on the BECMI side of things with the first four gazetteers. 1988 followed with the Kara-Tur box set -- now officially part of the Realms -- plus three more FR books, and the City System box set, as well as six more Known World/Mystara gazetteers.
Before that, there were sprinklings of setting products, but no real setting expansions. The default setting for D&D, both OD&D and 1E, had been Greyhawk, but there were no setting books published beyond the Folio (1980) and World of Greyhawk box set (1983); even the Greyhawk Adventures hardcover (1988) wasn't really a setting book, but more of a splat.
There was also a bit of Dragonlance material, but beyond a few products -- DL5: Dragons of Mystery (1984), and somewhat Dragonlance Adventures (1987), all of it was adventures.
So the so-called "Golden Age of Settings" began in 1987, and exploded with 2E. And with 2E, the settings became distinct lines, which is illustrated in the chart below:
Take especial notice of that last light blue row - those are the number of settings that received some kind of support in each year. It was never less than 3, with as many as 8 in four different years (1992-94, '98) and 6+ between 1990-96.
(As a side note, I made some judgement calls with the color assignments - but regardless of quibbling over whether a given year was "huge" or "major," the basic principle holds: the darker the color, the more support a product line received. Furthermore, the numbers are as accurate as possible - while there may be some mistakes, I think they're close enough to serve the point of this thread. ALSO: This only includes 2E products, not BECMI, which had Mystara setting books from 1987-93).
What is striking is the sheer number of products. The Realms (93 products) received by far the most support, then Ravenloft (64), and then a handful received a similar amount: Dark Sun (32), Dragonlance (30), Planescape (30), Birthright (29), and Greyhawk (27), with Spelljammer (20) a bit behind, and everything else significantly less.
Lankhmar is interesting, because it received a steady 1-3 adventures for five out of six years in 1990-95, then a setting book in '96, which I believe was an update of the 1985 2E book.
In terms of product lines in 2E, we could categorize them like so:
Flagship setting line: Forgotten Realms
Secondary/themed line: Ravenloft
Major lines: Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright
Minor lines: Lankhmar, Al-Qadim, Mystara
One-shots: Council of Wyrms, Jakandor, Diablo II
Meaning, the flagship was the kitchen sink setting, with the secondary setting being highly theme-specific, then half a dozen major lines and a half dozen more minor lines and one-shots that explored different styles and themes of game play.
As I mentioned, WotC continued this somewhat in 3E, but much trimmed down, mostly to two major lines: Forgotten Realms and later Eberron, with a few others sprinkled in: Greyhawk, Rokugan in Oriental Adventures, and Ghostwalk. 4E shifted again, with one major setting book released in its first three years, and each supplemented by another hardcover, plus adventures set in Nentir Vale, and a few later FR books.
5E's approach seems to mix that of 1E and 4E, eschewing the more in-depth approaches of 2E and 3E. But it also seems to have a bit of 2E in that they're published a wider range of settings than 1E or 4E, exploring different themes and styles of settings.
One of the things that struck me when I was going over 2E's vast number of books (as an ongoing project to do similar charts to my 5E one, that some of you might have seen) is that it essentially had separate product lines for each setting. Meaning, unlike today where 5E is published as a single product line - which was the same as in 4E - 2E (and to a lesser extent, 3.5) was published with "sub-lines" for each setting. This is illustrated by the brand of the setting, each with their distinct logo.
In 5E, most settings are "one and done" - at least so far, the exceptions being the Forgotten Realms and Exandria, and I suppose Ravenloft. But even those either have a setting and adventure (Ravenloft, Exandria) or one regional setting/splat hybrid and only adventures, but no setting expansions (FR - at least thus far).
This approach of a setting line really started in the late 80s -- 1987, to be exact -- with the beginnings of the Forgotten Realms books (the gray box and first two FR supplements), as well as on the BECMI side of things with the first four gazetteers. 1988 followed with the Kara-Tur box set -- now officially part of the Realms -- plus three more FR books, and the City System box set, as well as six more Known World/Mystara gazetteers.
Before that, there were sprinklings of setting products, but no real setting expansions. The default setting for D&D, both OD&D and 1E, had been Greyhawk, but there were no setting books published beyond the Folio (1980) and World of Greyhawk box set (1983); even the Greyhawk Adventures hardcover (1988) wasn't really a setting book, but more of a splat.
There was also a bit of Dragonlance material, but beyond a few products -- DL5: Dragons of Mystery (1984), and somewhat Dragonlance Adventures (1987), all of it was adventures.
So the so-called "Golden Age of Settings" began in 1987, and exploded with 2E. And with 2E, the settings became distinct lines, which is illustrated in the chart below:
Take especial notice of that last light blue row - those are the number of settings that received some kind of support in each year. It was never less than 3, with as many as 8 in four different years (1992-94, '98) and 6+ between 1990-96.
(As a side note, I made some judgement calls with the color assignments - but regardless of quibbling over whether a given year was "huge" or "major," the basic principle holds: the darker the color, the more support a product line received. Furthermore, the numbers are as accurate as possible - while there may be some mistakes, I think they're close enough to serve the point of this thread. ALSO: This only includes 2E products, not BECMI, which had Mystara setting books from 1987-93).
What is striking is the sheer number of products. The Realms (93 products) received by far the most support, then Ravenloft (64), and then a handful received a similar amount: Dark Sun (32), Dragonlance (30), Planescape (30), Birthright (29), and Greyhawk (27), with Spelljammer (20) a bit behind, and everything else significantly less.
Lankhmar is interesting, because it received a steady 1-3 adventures for five out of six years in 1990-95, then a setting book in '96, which I believe was an update of the 1985 2E book.
In terms of product lines in 2E, we could categorize them like so:
Flagship setting line: Forgotten Realms
Secondary/themed line: Ravenloft
Major lines: Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright
Minor lines: Lankhmar, Al-Qadim, Mystara
One-shots: Council of Wyrms, Jakandor, Diablo II
Meaning, the flagship was the kitchen sink setting, with the secondary setting being highly theme-specific, then half a dozen major lines and a half dozen more minor lines and one-shots that explored different styles and themes of game play.
As I mentioned, WotC continued this somewhat in 3E, but much trimmed down, mostly to two major lines: Forgotten Realms and later Eberron, with a few others sprinkled in: Greyhawk, Rokugan in Oriental Adventures, and Ghostwalk. 4E shifted again, with one major setting book released in its first three years, and each supplemented by another hardcover, plus adventures set in Nentir Vale, and a few later FR books.
5E's approach seems to mix that of 1E and 4E, eschewing the more in-depth approaches of 2E and 3E. But it also seems to have a bit of 2E in that they're published a wider range of settings than 1E or 4E, exploring different themes and styles of settings.
