[Ampersand] Bill Slavicsek on campaign settings

hong said:
Kevlarforged!

Best. Idea. Evar! Consider that stolen.

And i love this idea. Three books are manageable, and if you have a cool idea, you can always bring out one or two more. But jumping off of the "more supplements!" train? I´d never thought that Wotc would have the balls to do that.
My hats off to them: well done.
 

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I just have one thing to say to this.

2309276ravenloft1.jpg
 

If they want to shut me up/make me happy/buy me off then some Planescape, and some Spelljammer (the latter with or without Giant Cosmic Space Hamsters, I'm relatively easy to please).
 


Good, I'm glad I'm not the only one pining for the desert.

A 3 book line for Al-Qadim would be heaven for me. While in general I tend to run on homebrewed worlds, I have a massive soft spot for the Arabian Adventures.

Also, on behalf of one of my friends who isn't on ENWorld, I wish to stick my oar in for Dragonlance.
 

This is (somewhat) off topic, but what are some of the specifics of Dark Sun anyway? All I know about it is that I have an old CRPG that uses the setting, but it got irreparably scratched before I could play too far into it, and it's about the only 'main' setting I don't know anything about.
 


I don't like it. I don't think a future Complete Divine (-like product) would serve the players of Eberron as well as Faiths of Eberron. I don't think writing Faiths of Eberron to be appealing to players in FR would make the book better for players of Eberron. And so on. By trying to dance in all weddings, WotC will create so-so products that don't really serve well any one setting.

Can I take the Red Wizard and apply it to my Birthright game? Sure. But I would be better served by a Wizards of Anduria book, and the guy playing FR would be better served by a Red Wizards of Thay book than by a Red Wizard class in the Arcane Power book. By producing the Arcane Power book, WotC provides a so-so gaming experience to both of us; if they produced The Red Wizards of Thay, they would make a better game experience for the guy playing FR, and the guy playing Birthright could harvest ideas and mechanics from it about as well as it could from the generic Arcane Power book.

I don't think you can do both generic and setting specific. Well, you can't do it well.

As for settings, I'd love to see a new Birthright. But I doubt it. Birthright (like Darksun) appears to be too restrictive, i.e. not generic enough for WotC's new philosophy - you can't use much of the core (or, supposedly, expansions) material (certain races and classes in Darksun, for example, with their associated feats, paragon paths, and so on). Birthright is also far, far less common in popularity polls.

My bet is that after FR and Eberron, we'll see Planescape/Spelljammer, followed by Ravenloft. A new 4e-based setting is possible at any point too.
 


I'm all for this really, but for it to work I think the DDI articles helping you integrate new core books into the settings will have to be good.

Also the DDI pricing model needs to be flexible. I'll give you my money WOTC but you need to allow me to dip in an out, I'm not sure if I will be able to afford to subscribe for the rest of my life.
 

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