2010: Is it Dragonlance? (hint)

[Dragonhelm]

What Cam said.

As for the mini having a sword in the wrong hand, that could be artist's discretion or the image might be reversed. Minor quibble.

Of course, when I wrote the Legend of Huma comic adaptation, I had to work very hard to make certain the artists knew that Huma was left-handed!

 

[avin]

Or it's a case of re-using art for inspiration, like the Tanis-but-not-Tanis mini.

Re-using art could be, but Feywild was cancelled and the set split between a set for monsters, with few minis that Feywild would have, and a player set.

Minis that would be used for the "monster" setting appeared on the player set, and repaints were made to fill the gap.

This is clearly Ariaka turned into "paladin" to fill the gap of the second PH series, that still has lots of repaints.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

Or it's a case of re-using art for inspiration, like the Tanis-but-not-Tanis mini.

Yeah, but even then, I could have sworn they made reference to everyone's favorite half-elf on their website when the picture of the Free League Ranger came out.

As to the Ariakas-but-not-Ariakas mini, we get no such reference made. But can you really blame them? "Oh yeah, your character looks exactly like the one of the most evil people to exist in one of the CSs".

 

[ProfessorCirno]

...Not to derail things, but does anyone else find that mini to look hilariously cartoonish, and not in a good way?

 

[Orius]

Heh. I notice the Ariakas in the picture is left-handed, but the mini is right-handed. (Not that I don't think it's the same character - it obviously is, just look at the sword hilt - but apparently the sculptor didn't pay attention to which hand the sword was in.)

Maybe he's pulling the Princess Bride schtick here: "I am not left-handed!"

 

[Novem5er]

Just a strange idea that occurred to me.

What if Dark Sun is released as an AREA of another campaign world (probably Eberron).

Think about it. Planscape has already been morphed into core 4e with Sigil. Ravenloft is part of core through Domains of Dread. The Underdark was once a Forgotten Realms area, but is now part of core 4e.

So who's to say that Dark Sun wont be released as a suppliment to either core 4e or even as an area of Xen'drik in Eberron? Half-giants and Thri-kreen in Stormwatch... psionics... wide open areas w/ the remenants of ancient empires.

Seriously, Dark Sun really strikes me as a campaign area, not so much as an entire world of its own.

I think Dragonlance is it.... which disapoints me a little b/c I'm not sure if they can make it unique enough from the Realms to compete for my dollars.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Just a strange idea that occurred to me.

What if Dark Sun is released as an AREA of another campaign world (probably Eberron).

Think about it. Planscape has already been morphed into core 4e with Sigil. Ravenloft is part of core through Domains of Dread. The Underdark was once a Forgotten Realms area, but is now part of core 4e.

So who's to say that Dark Sun wont be released as a suppliment to either core 4e or even as an area of Xen'drik in Eberron? Half-giants and Thri-kreen in Stormwatch... psionics... wide open areas w/ the remenants of ancient empires.

Seriously, Dark Sun really strikes me as a campaign area, not so much as an entire world of its own.

I think Dragonlance is it.... which disapoints me a little b/c I'm not sure if they can make it unique enough from the Realms to compete for my dollars.

...Because Dark Sun has it's own very unique cosmology and set of rules regarding magic that effectively shuts it off from all other planes, both figuretively and literally? Or really, because everything about Dark Sun requires that it be it's own thing and not some part of another world.

I mean...that...you...how would...GHAH!

 

[Leatherhead]

Just a strange idea that occurred to me.

What if Dark Sun is released as an AREA of another campaign world (probably Eberron).

Think about it. Planscape has already been morphed into core 4e with Sigil. Ravenloft is part of core through Domains of Dread. The Underdark was once a Forgotten Realms area, but is now part of core 4e.

So who's to say that Dark Sun wont be released as a suppliment to either core 4e or even as an area of Xen'drik in Eberron? Half-giants and Thri-kreen in Stormwatch... psionics... wide open areas w/ the remenants of ancient empires.

Seriously, Dark Sun really strikes me as a campaign area, not so much as an entire world of its own.

I'm not entirely convinced Darksun would work as an "adventure area." It assumes that metal and most other natural resources are incredibly rare if not practically non-existent, and that magic is killing the world around the people who use it. Being able to ride a ship to another part of the world for armor, weapons, and safer magic would trivialize the setting, and possibly compromise whatever setting it was anchored in. Eberron, with industrialized magic (and nearly everything else for that matter), is perhaps the worst setting you could possibly integrate it with.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Just a strange idea that occurred to me.

What if Dark Sun is released as an AREA of another campaign world (probably Eberron).

Think about it. Planscape has already been morphed into core 4e with Sigil. Ravenloft is part of core through Domains of Dread. The Underdark was once a Forgotten Realms area, but is now part of core 4e.

So who's to say that Dark Sun wont be released as a suppliment to either core 4e or even as an area of Xen'drik in Eberron? Half-giants and Thri-kreen in Stormwatch... psionics... wide open areas w/ the remenants of ancient empires.

Seriously, Dark Sun really strikes me as a campaign area, not so much as an entire world of its own.

I think Dragonlance is it.... which disapoints me a little b/c I'm not sure if they can make it unique enough from the Realms to compete for my dollars.

I think they learned with FR that plunking settings into settings is a bad idea and only leads to problems in the long run.
At least, i hope they did.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm not entirely convinced Darksun would work as an "adventure area." It assumes that metal and most other natural resources are incredibly rare if not practically non-existent, and that magic is killing the world around the people who use it. Being able to ride a ship to another part of the world for armor, weapons, and safer magic would trivialize the setting, and possibly compromise whatever setting it was anchored in. Eberron, with industrialized magic (and nearly everything else for that matter), is perhaps the worst setting you could possibly integrate it with.

This. It'd be like running a post-nuclear-apocalypse game in which Chicago got nuked, and everyone within 100 miles of Chicago is living a Mad Max lifestyle with battles over food and gasoline and basic necessities, and the rest of the world survived fine and is ticking along just like normal. Any sensible player is going to respond to this scenario with, "Well, we could stay here and struggle valiantly against the gangs and street scum. Or we could haul up stakes, scrape together some gas, and head for Texas. We'll load up on gas and food and guns, come back to Chicago, and blow the hell out of anyone who gets in our way... or, hell, just stay in Texas."

I'm not the sort of fan who thinks Dark Sun must remain forever preserved in amber, unchanged and inviolate. WotC could import eladrin and dragonborn and tieflings, or rearrange the cosmology, without harming the essence of the setting. In fact, I think the cosmology could really use a good kick in the pants. But I can't see how Dark Sun could possibly be imported into a small region of another world and be anything but silly.

(Although it would be possible to make Dark Sun into the desolate future state of another setting.)