2010: Is it Dragonlance? (hint)

[rounser]

DL has been through the retcon reboot wringer more times than perhaps any other setting. It's like Lazurus with a triple bypass, so applying the paddles one more time will hardly matter.

 

[Leatherhead]

At this point, if they announce anything different, the greatest fans of the Dragonlance setting are going to be pissed and out for blood. You just don't invite people to a show where you are going to announce the new D&D setting and turn around and kick them in the Jimmy.

I was thinking it would be Ravenloft. It fits all the clues and has much better niche protection.

 

[drothgery]

Well if it is, it will be the first 4e setting I'll buy. It isn't my first choice (Al'Qadim, oh how I miss thee), but Dragonlance has always had a special place in my heart.

Hmm... I'm thinking that I'll probably keep getting Player's Guides as long as I'm gainfully employed or otherwise not broke (and WotC keeps up with the Player's Guide/Campaign Guide setup for settings), but assuming Dragonlance is the next setting, I think Eberron is going to stay the only Campaign Guide I pick up for a while.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Ravenloft, however, like Planescape and Spelljammer, has been killed and had its stuff taken for the core assumptions of the game. Domains of dread exist in the Shadowfell; they don't need a whole setting of their own, it seems.

Also, I strongly doubt that the "So you think you can Dragonlance" promotion is about anything more than the anniversary (a year late though it may be) and the novels' relaunch. I'd be surprised if Dragonlance works in the context of Fourth Edition's de-emphasised alignments, non-Good metallic dragons, et cetera.

Or compare that to Star Wars, with the Old Republic in one generation, the Rebellion Era in another, and the New Republic/New Jedi Order in a third. 130 years after that is the Legacy Era. Sounds like they have galaxy-shattering events every generation.

The Old Republic era is something more like 150 generations before the Dark Times/Rebellion era. There's a difference between the "Republic era" that exists during the time of the prequel films, before Palpatine becomes Emperor, and the "Old Republic era" of the Knights of the Old Republic comics and CRPGs and the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO that's coming up in 2010 or 2011.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well if it is Dragonlance then I am just gonna steal whatever crunch is good from DDI and that is about it.

 

[Derren]

I'd be surprised if Dragonlance works in the context of Fourth Edition's de-emphasised alignments, non-Good metallic dragons, et cetera.

WotC will make it work one way or the other.
Thats why I am not too thrilled if WotC decides to 4Eize Dragonlance. The results will likely be worse than what they did to FR.

 

[Dausuul]

Hmm... I'm thinking that I'll probably keep getting Player's Guides as long as I'm gainfully employed or otherwise not broke (and WotC keeps up with the Player's Guide/Campaign Guide setup for settings), but assuming Dragonlance is the next setting, I think Eberron is going to stay the only Campaign Guide I pick up for a while.

I probably won't even get the Player's Guide, unless the new class is really good. If it's just a handful of nice feats, well, that's what I have DDI for.

WotC will make it work one way or the other.
Thats why I am not too thrilled if WotC decides to 4Eize Dragonlance. The results will likely be worse than what they did to FR.

It cannot possibly be worse than what Dragonlance did to itself over the last 10 years or so. The setting is an utter hash at this point.

 

[Orius]

Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Greyhawk and Ravenloft were all popular in their day, and all have vocal followings, so the anniversary clue would be key. 2010 is the 25th Anniversary of the Dragonlance novels, and the 20th anniversary of the Ravenloft campaign setting. Dark Sun, meanwhile, celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2011.

If they want to leverage anniversaries, I'd say it'll be DL in 2010, and DS in 2011.

This seems likely to me. DL is popular enough to be one of the next setting books to be released. The only problem is that the setting was very much tied to the 1e rules originally. This wasn't a huge problem in 2e, and I have no idea how it worked in 3e. With 4e I'm not sure because of the drop of Vancian magic, which was pretty heavily tied in with the Orders of High Sorcery. They could still work it out.

I'd imagine Dark Sun is probably under consideration. It has a somewhat strong fan base, and it's usually counted among the good 2e settings. The only problem is trying to shoehorn core 4e classes and races into the DS setting; they tried that with the 3.5 stuff in Dragon, and it didn't go over well at all. If they're just doing limited support for setting with a player's guide, a DM guide and a module, and just continuing support through DDI, there shouldn't be any reason for them to not cut some of the core stuff out. It's better to present that stuff as options than say, "You have to use everything from this book if you want to use anything".

Greyhawk is harder to tell. It's the most classic setting, but a lot of the fans haven't always been happy with new material, and that goes back to 2e. If the people who are most interested in Greyhawk aren't interested in playing it with the 4e rules, then it may not be worth it for WotC to try to revive it again. Then there's also how much in the world needs to be adapted to accommodate some of 4e's changes which also will not sit well with some of the older fans. Doing Greyhawk with be a Catch-22 for WotC no matter how they approach it, I feel.

Birthright's an iffy case. From what Perkin said, WotC may not fully revise the entire setting, but use the rules for the domains and stuff in a wat that any DM can apply it to any setting. IMO, this is really what TSR should have done with Birthright back in 1995 instead of creating yet another setting to clog up 2e, and if an example setting was needed, they could have grafted it onto the Realms or something. But, OTOH Birthright's setting had some really good ideas, it was at least more interesting than a vanilla kitchen sink setting.

Mystara I think is unlikely. As Perkins said, there's no hook. There's really nothing in Mystara that distinguishes it from Greyhawk or the Realms, and D&D doesn't need three generic setting that cover nearly the exact same ground. Yes, it's home to the B/X modules, the Savage Coast and Hollow World, and there's a good deal of stuff there upon which DM can build a campaign, but then again, Greyhawk and the Realms do just about the same thing. As a whole, the three settings differ only in the details.

 

[Jack99]

Regarding the "So you think you can Dragonlance", I think it reeks of The_Rouse. Keep in mind that he reads these (and other) boards and I wouldn't put it past him to have some fun providing us clues but leading us in the wrong direction if possible.

 

[The_Fan]

I can see it now. Wizards holds a contest to see who is the biggest Dragonlance fan. The lucky winners are taken to Gencon Indy, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dragonlance, and holding a panel discussion with the creators of Dragonlance. Wizards will also use the opportunity to announce it's long awaited setting for 2010...


...DARK SUN!

Personally I was hoping for Dark Sun, but it's not looking likely at this point.