Originally Posted by Seeker95
Next year seems to be Dark Sun, if hints and asides are any indication.
Recycling old material, they can release:
• Greyhawk
• Hollow World and/or Mystara
• DragonLance
• Ravenloft (now a demiplane, but it could get a full setting flesh-out)
Deviating from "world" settings, there is also:
• Planescape
• Spelljammer
And there are also a ton of second and later round runner-ups from the setting search. But I think the above gets us far enough into 4e (seven more years) to last until 5th edition.
Some of the settings you mention have had their key concepts "absorbed" into 4E. For instance, Manual of the Planes contains information on "spelljammers" (from the Spelljammer® setting), "domains of dread" (from the Ravenloft® setting), and Sigil (from the Planescape® setting). One of the goals was to show how well these elements can work together in 4E without having to fracture the D&D game or its audience.
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Originally Posted by XunValDorl of HouseKilsek
What about the people who don't have DDI and only use physical books?? Should we have to suffer cause we don't want to pay a monthly subscription to a table top game??
My glib answer is "Yup" because, honestly, no reply I can give you will make you jump with joy.
We can get content out faster online than in book format, and without cluttering up store shelves with campaign setting supplements that appeal and sell only to a fraction of the D&D audience. We can also present a broader range of topics and more depth in the form of standalone online articles.
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A petition isn't likely to resurrect Mystara, I'm afraid. What Mystara lacks is a real hook that sets it apart from generic D&D and other specific D&D settings. (I've always considered Hollow World a more intriguing setting for exactly this reason.)
On the other hand, Ravenloft has a hook (Gothic horror fantasy) that no other D&D setting treads on, which is something worth exploring when the time is right.
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We are planning to do new stuff as well as resurrect some "classic" stuff. Whenever we decide to do something new, it takes time to get the ball rolling because we're essentially building an entirely new intellectual property from scratch.
We resurrect old campaign settings for more than just nostalgia reasons. We do it to keep those worlds and intellectual properties alive and active. Names like "Ravenloft" and "Dark Sun" and "Dragonlance" mean a lot to Wizards and to a great many other people. In most cases, it would be a shame to let them simply wither and die. Just like Disney animated movies, we need to pull them out of the vault and dust them off once in a while.
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Originally Posted by sigil_beguiler
It would be nice to here how WoTC goes about deciding what settings to build. Perhaps even a bit behind their building process.
Now THAT'S a multi-layered conversation that usually starts with us asking a bunch of questions and doing some research. Some questions that spring to mind whenever someone says the words "campaign setting" to me:
1. Is there a business need or opportunity for a new setting or a reincarnated old setting?
2. Where is popular culture heading? Can we create a setting that isn't irrelevant one or two years from now?
3. Are there any non-active settings that we're revitalizing in other arenas (digital games, novels, Hollywood, etc.)?
4. Is there an important niche that a new or old setting can fill?
5. Is there a particular setting that a significant number of D&D players want to see resurrected or reincarnated?
6. Is there a setting that we can turn into a $X million sub-brand with multiple revenue streams?
7. Can we design a setting that doesn't fracture the D&D audience into a dozen squabbling sects that utterly loathe one another (a la TSR circa 1997)?
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Originally Posted by CelticMutt
And speaking of Birthright, . . . at this point in time it seems pretty much a foregone conclusion that if not 2010 then at least eventually Dark Sun and Dragonlance are getting the 4e treatment. But can you tell us whether or not Birthright is in consideration as well?
We're ruling out nothing.
However, whether we treat a past setting as a full-blown campaign setting or simply absorb its best concepts or qualities into a core D&D book would be a topic of debate. Taking Birthright as an example, we could put the mechanics for leading armies, building strongholds, and ruling kingdoms into a future DMG. I'm not saying we would do that, but if we did, would we need a Birthright campaign setting reboot? Hmm.
