[Ampersand] Bill Slavicsek on campaign settings

[Voss]

Just give me a blank spot on the map called "Sembia" and I'll be pleased as punch.

/Sembian Peace Wall

Doubtful. But they can offer a charred patch of crystal with a sign that says:
'Used to be Sembia, Fell to Blue Plague Fire, Year of Immolated Merchants'

 

[nothing to see here]

Heh. Henry (and others): considering Bill's well-known fondness for Dark Sun, there's no question that it's at the top of the list for consideration. We've been thinking about ALL of our worlds and how they'd best be presented with the new edition.

Dronehound: v. good thinking re: Birthright. I'm on the same page.

Of course, I remain a Planescape advocate. And Al-Qadim is dear to me as well.

Can't do everything at once, but it's all on the list!

...and with a few key strokes, Michele twists the stomachs of the Spelljammer, Raveloft, Dargonlance and other unnamed settings into knots.

 

[Mercutio01]

Planescape would be odd with the redesign of the planes away from the Great Wheel. But since the redesign of the planes is part of the 4E design, at least a bunch of the groundwork remains.

I could live without SpellJammer. Ravenloft I think I can work in just using adventures rather than needing a whole new setting. Dragonlance is something I grew out of and Birthright was never a setting I particularly cared for.

Dark Sun, however, I'd really love to see updated.

 

[MaelStorm]

Heh. Henry (and others): considering Bill's well-known fondness for Dark Sun, there's no question that it's at the top of the list for consideration. We've been thinking about ALL of our worlds and how they'd best be presented with the new edition.

Dronehound: v. good thinking re: Birthright. I'm on the same page.

Of course, I remain a Planescape advocate. And Al-Qadim is dear to me as well.

Can't do everything at once, but it's all on the list!

Emphasis mine.

Thank you Michele. Birthright seem interesting also. I'll check for more info, never heard of it.

 

[Green Knight]

Heh. Henry (and others): considering Bill's well-known fondness for Dark Sun, there's no question that it's at the top of the list for consideration. We've been thinking about ALL of our worlds and how they'd best be presented with the new edition.

Dronehound: v. good thinking re: Birthright. I'm on the same page.

Of course, I remain a Planescape advocate. And Al-Qadim is dear to me as well.

Can't do everything at once, but it's all on the list!

I've got a couple questions. I hope you don't mind. I understand that some things about the settings will have to be forced into the 4E mold (like cosmology changes. No great wheel in Planescape, Spelljammer probably in the Astral Sea, etc). But will campaign settings be forced to have everything available in 4E available in them?

For instance, I'm no expert on Dark Sun, but if I understand right, there aren't any Orcs or Dragons in it. Will a revitalized Dark Sun be forced to include Orcs and Dragons? Will it have to include other races which didn't exist because they'd been exterminated in the setting? Ravenloft is another setting which derives some of its flavor from the things it doesn't include. It doesn't have Orcs or Dragons, either, and the setting is better for it. Will a 4E Ravenloft have to include anything and everything available in D&D 4E?

Personally, I hope not. Orcs and Dragons running rampant in Ravenloft would just detract from the setting (as would Dragonborn player characters). Besides, I think you folks have a lot to gain by not only maintaining the differences the various settings have, but embracing them. It's an opportunity to show just how many different campaign concepts the 4E rules set can encompass, as well as an example for DM's of how they can create their own campaigns by not only adding things, but subtracting things as well. I'm fine with a blurb that says that DM's can add anything they want to their version of the setting, but personally I'd prefer it if many of the elements of the setting which defined them remained intact, even if it means the campaign guide makes no mention whatsoever of certain monster races, classes, or player races, or even discourages their use in the setting.

Nevermind that each setting can bring interesting things to the table for 4E gameplay, as well as accentuating certain aspects of 4E gameplay. Dark Sun, for instance, doesn't just have new player races and classes to offer, although it does have plenty of that (player character rules for Muls, Thri-Kreen, and Half-Giants would be fantastic, as would be rules for Defilers). It also provides an opportunity to create rules for running desert based campaigns, and a chance to create options which are appropriate for characters in such a setting (like providing balanced alternatives to wearing armor).

Ravenloft, likewise, has similar to offer in that regard. In addition to introducing new races like the Caliban, Vistani and Half-Vistani, it's also an opportunity to introduce more indepth psychological rules into 4E, like horror and insanity. Not to mention curses. It'd also be a great opportunity to possibly expand on your "Social Combat" rules.

And in Birthrights case, it'll give you the opportunity to create a system for mass combat rules and rules for governing kingdoms (not to mention the possibilities of playing in a "super-heroic" fantasy campaign with Blooded characters). There's lots of possibilities, there. I just really, really hope that those settings aren't forced to fit into the 4E mold in every way. Hope I didn't ramble to much, here. Thanks a bunch!

 

[katahn]

Planescape would be odd with the redesign of the planes away from the Great Wheel. But since the redesign of the planes is part of the 4E design, at least a bunch of the groundwork remains.

I could live without SpellJammer. Ravenloft I think I can work in just using adventures rather than needing a whole new setting. Dragonlance is something I grew out of and Birthright was never a setting I particularly cared for.

Dark Sun, however, I'd really love to see updated.

Spelljammer as it was I enjoyed at the time, but honestly the hints about the "astral sea" and some of the artwork has me hoping that the new Spelljammer will be merged with Planescape into something fitting the epic tier of play. Sailing the astral sea sounds so much more heroic-fantasy to me than crystal spheres, asteroid bases, the phlogiston, and suchnot.

When it comes to Ravenloft I agree with you - my use of it will probably come into the form of "small kingdoms devoured by darkness." That would fit fantastically well in the generic "points of light".

Dragonlance... was fun as a campaign when doing the war and for which Tanis, Raistlin, et. al., were just the sample characters. It's also a kind of interesting retelling of how the Mormon Church was founded (a great apostasy, finding hidden metal plates with the "true knowledge" of the gods, a return of the "true priesthood" and thus real clerics...) Makes me wonder which of Weis or Hickman was a member of that church.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've wanted to like Al-Qadim, but I hated how it was linked to FR.

I'm pretty sure it can be severed from Aber-Toril with only gains.

Planescape would be awesome, but it almost seems like PS is becoming core, so there might not be a seperate need for it.

Ravenloft and Dark Sun remain some of the most intriguing settings to me, but both are difficult fits with 4e's model of "everything's a little generic!" where the settings can accept stuff that's in the 4e core, and vice-versa (though more one way than the other).

You guys should also send out some letters to the Nyambe and the Oathbound people, but maybe they'll do it for me themselves?

 

[Green Knight]

Makes me wonder which of Weis or Hickman was a member of that church.

Hickman's from Utah, so my vote's on him.

 

[Voss]

Hickman is explicitly Mormon. Dragonlance is the closest thing to a 'Conversion Guide for Gamers' that I've ever seen. Take a look at the annotated chronicles with his side commentary. Its actually a bit on the creepy side, as the religious aspects are almost specifically a Mormon homily.

 

[Cam Banks]

Dragonlance is the closest thing to a 'Conversion Guide for Gamers' that I've ever seen.

It's about as much a conversion guide for gamers to the LDS Church as D&D is a conversion guide for gamers to Satanism. Don't be ridiculous.

Cheers,
Cam