Darksun TSR sales! From Benjamin Riggs.

[darjr]

Question. Was the content in the next playtest Greyhawk or Greyhawk adjacent?

 

[Parmandur]

I never thought they had done enough with Greyhawk. There was SO much more to be done with that setting. I still don't understand why it didn't continue like Forgotten Realms did. I can only assume there was some level of politics involved, given the sales were there.

They threw it under the bus after Gygax left, whereas Greenwood stuck around and supported the fans to this very day.

 

[TerraDave]

For me, it's because Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms/etc. are all pretty much played out. Even back in the 1990s I wasn't especially interested in basic fantasy worlds. The creativity of settings like Dark Sun were much more interesting to me.

But apparently not for a lot of other people.


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[Parmandur]

Because they primarily stopped publishing it. Can't sell stuff you're not...selling. They made a decision to support FR over it. That much we know. But we also know it was selling second only to FR before they stopped primary support for it.

Well, what we see in these charts is that Forgotten Realms stayed strong throughout 2E, while Greyhawk crashed and burned with From the Ashes. The revised FR Set did not crash and burn. Greenwoods continued involvement is probably a big part of thst: no reboots that went against the original flavor of the Setting.

 

[Parmandur]

But apparently not for a lot of other people.

Yeah, generic Fantasy is Evergreen for a reason. What's the big breakout hit new Setting of recent years? Exandria from Critical Role, which is just as generic as fR and Greyhawk.

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, generic Fantasy is Evergreen for a reason. What's the big breakout hit new Setting of recent years? Exandria from Critical Role, which is just as generic as fR and Greyhawk.

Hilariously, it’s quite literally 4E’s points-of-light with a modern anime-fantasy kitchen sink spin.

 

[Parmandur]

Hilariously, it’s quite literally 4E’s points-of-light with a modern anime-fantasy kitchen sink spin.

I mean, the PoL Setting was meant to be a generic toolkits so working as designed.

I guess there are probably anime influences, but anime fantasy is derived from old Basic D&D, really, so that seems fairly legit.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

They threw it under the bus after Gygax left, whereas Greenwood stuck around and supported the fans to this very day.

Did they really though? It was continually published until 1993 with products almost every year (except 1991) and then came back in 1997. It only left for 4 years or so really and lasted all through 3e until 2007. It outlasted Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Planescape and many others.

 

[Parmandur]

Did they really though? It was continually published until 1993 with products almost every year (except 1991) and then came back in 1997. It only left for 4 years or so really and lasted all through 3e until 2007. It outlasted Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Planescape and many others.

They changed the Setting pretty radically, with stuff like the joke module Castle Greyhawk. I don't know if you saw the thread with the Greyhawk numbers, but From the Ashes was a total collapse in sales from the original box and Greyhawk Adventures. They were putting outnsome stuff, but without Gygax and Gygaxes friends being involved and going in weird directiona by all reports. And the sales tanked.

The Forgotten Realms on the other hand had Ed Greenwood intimately involved throughout, and there was no major tonal shift away from the creators intentions.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

They changed the Setting pretty radically, with stuff like the joke module Castle Greyhawk. I don't know if you saw the thread with the Greyhawk numbers, but From the Ashes was a total collapse in sales from the original box and Greyhawk Adventures. They were putting outnsome stuff, but without Gygax and Gygaxes friends being involved and going in weird directiona by all reports. And the sales tanked.

The Forgotten Realms on the other hand had Ed Greenwood intimately involved throughout, and there was no major tonal shift away from the creators intentions.

I think Ed Greenwood’s presence is key not any changes to the setting. The Realms also suffered from terrible adventures, tonal changes and setting changes as bad as Greyhawk. Greenwood’s continuing presence on the author list assured them that it was all still legit (even when half the FR stinkers had his fingerprints on them)