2011 Campaign Setting... Azeroth?

[TwoSix]

A 4e version of WoW?

I am not prepared!

 

[morgul97]

I had to look this up on wikipedia.

I'm a big CG fan, my no1 hobby, but WOW is a complete hole to me I know nothing about it - nor do I ever want too..

Exactly. Everyone else in my weekly 4e group plays WoW and they are like "WotC took this thing directly from WoW." And I'm like "uh, ok." I've played about 1 hour of WoW (the free download). I was kind of like, "huh, this is interesting"... followed by "this is sort of dumb"... followed by "I don't need any more of this."

So, for me, anything WotC does with 4e stands on it's own merits. If it's good, it's good, and I don't care what game the inspiration came from, and I probably wouldn't know it was ripped off anyway. If it sucks, it sucks. With that being said, standing on its own, 4e is a solid game. If they want to do a WoW campaign setting, that's cool with me too, so long as it doesn't, on its own merits, suck.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

While I think the system of 4th Edition would be a good fit for WoW as far as currently released RPG systems go, I also think the entire game of WoW just doesn't lend itself well to an RPG in the first place. Blizzard has shown it is perfectly willing to throw the story and mechanics out the window at a later date if it makes for better gameplay, which makes it extremly hard to do an accurate portrayal through an RPG released asynchonously to the computer product.

 

[Theroc]

While I think the system of 4th Edition would be a good fit for WoW as far as currently released RPG systems go, I also think the entire game of WoW just doesn't lend itself well to an RPG in the first place. Blizzard has shown it is perfectly willing to throw the story and mechanics out the window at a later date if it makes for better gameplay, which makes it extremly hard to do an accurate portrayal through an RPG released asynchonously to the computer product.

Well, I've a bit of advice for anyone wanting to attempt to 'homebrew' Azeroth, or anyone else looking into taking the WoW lore for an RPG.

Don't use WoW.

Use the Warcraft - Warcraft 3 games, use the Warcraft Novels. WoW continuously trashes previously established plot-type stuff. I'm not POSITIVE, but I believe the RTS games did not do this as significantly.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

Well, I've a bit of advice for anyone wanting to attempt to 'homebrew' Azeroth, or anyone else looking into taking the WoW lore for an RPG.

Don't use WoW.

Use the Warcraft - Warcraft 3 games, use the Warcraft Novels. WoW continuously trashes previously established plot-type stuff. I'm not POSITIVE, but I believe the RTS games did not do this as significantly.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH..

Oh god that's a good one.

Warcraft 3 and the first set of Warcraft books were the start of Blizzard's crazy inconsistency wagon, but if you look hard enough you can even find incongruence’s between Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2.

Granted, WoW's size and scope kind of necessitates a greater volume of these things, but Blizzard habit of screwing with established stuff definitely didn't start with WoW, and isn't even limited to the Warcraft universe. (StarCraft and even Diablo get hits with this stuff. )

Though I will say WoW was really where things got absolutely nuts, and where I stopped follow the Warcraft series like a fanboy. Then again, I was rather disappointed with Warcraft 3 in regards to its treatment of the existing story. Probably more than the average fan.

 

[Theroc]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH..

Oh god that's a good one.

Warcraft 3 and the first set of Warcraft books were the start of Blizzard's crazy inconsistency wagon, but if you look hard enough you can even find incongruence’s between Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2.

Granted, WoW's size and scope kind of necessitates a greater volume of these things, but Blizzard habit of screwing with established stuff definitely didn't start with WoW, and isn't even limited to the Warcraft universe. (StarCraft and even Diablo get hits with this stuff. )

Though I will say WoW was really where things got absolutely nuts, and where I stopped follow the Warcraft series like a fanboy. Then again, I was rather disappointed with Warcraft 3 in regards to its treatment of the existing story. Probably more than the average fan.

I stand corrected, lol. I didn't follow it too precisely, (seeing as I only really played WCIII), but somewhere I'd gotten the impression that the inconsistencies were minor up until WoW, where they threw story out of the window in favor of Arenas&grinds.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

I stand corrected, lol. I didn't follow it too precisely, (seeing as I only really played WCIII), but somewhere I'd gotten the impression that the inconsistencies were minor up until WoW, where they threw story out of the window in favor of Arenas&grinds.

You could still reconcile stuff (aside from the Novel "The Last Guardian" which completely screwed up any sense of timeline from Warcraft I) but they really started to marfle some stuff circa War3 and with the books that came out during that time.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Blizzard has shown it is perfectly willing to throw the story and mechanics out the window at a later date if it makes for better gameplay, which makes it extremly hard to do an accurate portrayal through an RPG released asynchonously to the computer product.

So has WotC. Forgotten Realms blows up. Eberron has no metaplot (precisely to avoid this thing, IIRC). Dragonlance has that one story. Even Greyhawk has the Greyhawk Wars.

I think the best solution would have the RPG book just stand on it's own as a broad overview, without going into a lot of fiddly detail, and without necessitating fidelity to every bit of history. If you could play night elves and tauren, and fight mulocs and kobolds, and maybe have some PvP and crafting, people might be happy.

 

[cdrcjsn]

I've been out of touch with WoW for several months now (even though I'm still subscribed technically), but this thread made me look up what's new with the game.

Holy Crap! There's a new expansion and they're blowing up the world! Werewolves and Goblins as PCs! Gnome Priests! Tauren Paladins! Simplified gear/stats!

Gah! I can feel entire months of my life being sucked away by just reading the new stuff coming out and compelling me to play again.

Must...resist...