Brilliant Idea for WotC: "Classic Settings" books (and a poll, of sorts)
- Thread starter Mercurius
- Start date
arscott
First Post
What I think should happen to each setting:
Al-Qadim: I've never played it, but I've heard great things about it. I'd love to see it re-released for 4e.
Birthright: No experience with it, but I haven't heard many good things. The idea of playing kings/rulers sounds pretty interesting, but I'm not sure we need to pull an old setting out of the attic to make that happen.
Dark Sun: Oh please dear god make this happen. Dark Sun is awesome. The Dragon Magazine 3e version was right to try and ditch the annoying metaplot, but rather that move 300 years into the future, they'd be better off moving a few years into the past. Go with the Original Boxed set, and forget that the Prism Pentad ever existed.
Dragonlance: Only if they advance the setting by 500 years and kill off most of the characters that people care about. The Realms-fans got their crappy, over-hyped, metaplot-heavy, pseudomedieval setting roughed up a bit, and it's only fair that DL lovers get the same. I'd be vaguely interested in a Taladas book though--Taladas seemed to ditch the most annoying parts of Dragonlance and keep the best. And it's arguably already got Eladrin, in the form of hulderfolk.
Greyhawk: Don't try. You'll only piss of the Grognards with your unfaithful adaptation, and annoy or confuse everyone else. If you're going to release a greyhawk product, just reprint the 1980 booklet and be done with it.
Jakandor: I'd never heard of this mini-setting before today, but it looks like a clever experiment--something that pushed the bounds of 2e D&D in an interesting direction. The thing is though, there's little logic in rehashing a 10-year-old experiment. WotC would do better to put out a new product that embraces the same philosophy of experimentation, and seeing what the rules can do. (Or not, as such products are usually commercial failures. But it's still the sort of thing I might buy).
Kara-Tur: Is there anything about Kara Tur that Makes it special or unique? Or is it just a generic, Pseudo-Oriental setting in the same way that Greyhawk is a generic, Pseudomedieval setting? If Kara Tur isn't anything special, then I'd rather that WotC put out a new Oriental Adventures book that captures the best of Kara Tur and re-envisions the rest in the same way that 4e will deal with core D&D.
Maztica: No experience. I think that mesoamerican fantasy is unfamiliar enough that it deserves its own setting in a way that asian fantasy probably doesn't. After all, we've got plenty of Anime, Wu Xi, and so forth to let us know what an Oriental Adventures setting might be like. The same is not true of an Aztec-or Mayan inspired setting.
Mystara: Mystara seems like it's got some cool things going for it. When 4e writers are pulling cool stuff from older D&D setting for their points-of-light setting, I hope they don't negelct the known world. Not sure if it really needs its own setting book, though. Still, if any of the more traditional D&D settings get re-released for 4e, I hope Mystara is the one.
Planescape (obviously updated for the new planar scheme, with Sigil as the basis): Not sure that this would be a very good idea. It seems like the cosmology has changed enough that planescape just wouldn't work out well any more. Of course, it should still be mined for inspiration, just as it was in 3e (though with the cosmological changes, the mining might get harder.)
Ravenloft: I'd like to see a lot of Ravenloft stuff re-conceptualized as Shadowfell stuff. The Idea of people so covered in darkness that they're drawn into the shadowfell is pretty cool. Less of an emphasis on the whole "Villians from every world", though. Soth should stay in Dragonlance and so forth. I'd also like to see Masque of Red Death published as a standalone setting (or as a setting for an eventual Modern 4e).
Spelljammer: I'd like to see them draw on a lot of spelljammer stuff for the 4e planar products in the same way that they drew on a lot of planescape stuff for the 3e planar products. But with an actual astral sea.
General Observaitions:
"I'm fine with the core book, thanks."
--I don't really need a setting book for games based on Medieval Legend, Tolkienesque High Fantasy, or Sword & Sorcery. I'd be clever enough to come up with such a setting on my own, even if there weren't already such a backlog from earlier editions that I can easily convert on my own.
"Sweet. Azerbaijani Adventures? I'm buying that"
--If it's based on a culture that's not western European, I'll probably enjoy it. The less often said culture shows up in modern movies/tv/video games, the more likely I am to enjoy it.
"No, I don't want my peanut butter in your chocolate. This tastes terrible"
--I like my settings to be discreet. FR and Greyhawk are seperate worlds, and never the twain shall meet. Since that's part of the shtick for Planescape, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft, those settings will need a bit of rethinking before I enjoy them.
"Whose **** do I have to **** to get Dark Sun around here?"
--That one's probably pretty self explanatory.
So I guess my list is as follows:
1) Dark Sun
2) Al-Qadim
3) Maztica
4) Kara-Tur
5) Spelljammer
6) Dragonlance (Taladas)
7) Mystara
8) Ravenloft
Don't care/wouldn't buy: Birthright, Dragonlance (Anaslon), Greyhawk, Jakandor, Planescape
Al-Qadim: I've never played it, but I've heard great things about it. I'd love to see it re-released for 4e.
Birthright: No experience with it, but I haven't heard many good things. The idea of playing kings/rulers sounds pretty interesting, but I'm not sure we need to pull an old setting out of the attic to make that happen.
Dark Sun: Oh please dear god make this happen. Dark Sun is awesome. The Dragon Magazine 3e version was right to try and ditch the annoying metaplot, but rather that move 300 years into the future, they'd be better off moving a few years into the past. Go with the Original Boxed set, and forget that the Prism Pentad ever existed.
Dragonlance: Only if they advance the setting by 500 years and kill off most of the characters that people care about. The Realms-fans got their crappy, over-hyped, metaplot-heavy, pseudomedieval setting roughed up a bit, and it's only fair that DL lovers get the same. I'd be vaguely interested in a Taladas book though--Taladas seemed to ditch the most annoying parts of Dragonlance and keep the best. And it's arguably already got Eladrin, in the form of hulderfolk.
Greyhawk: Don't try. You'll only piss of the Grognards with your unfaithful adaptation, and annoy or confuse everyone else. If you're going to release a greyhawk product, just reprint the 1980 booklet and be done with it.
Jakandor: I'd never heard of this mini-setting before today, but it looks like a clever experiment--something that pushed the bounds of 2e D&D in an interesting direction. The thing is though, there's little logic in rehashing a 10-year-old experiment. WotC would do better to put out a new product that embraces the same philosophy of experimentation, and seeing what the rules can do. (Or not, as such products are usually commercial failures. But it's still the sort of thing I might buy).
Kara-Tur: Is there anything about Kara Tur that Makes it special or unique? Or is it just a generic, Pseudo-Oriental setting in the same way that Greyhawk is a generic, Pseudomedieval setting? If Kara Tur isn't anything special, then I'd rather that WotC put out a new Oriental Adventures book that captures the best of Kara Tur and re-envisions the rest in the same way that 4e will deal with core D&D.
Maztica: No experience. I think that mesoamerican fantasy is unfamiliar enough that it deserves its own setting in a way that asian fantasy probably doesn't. After all, we've got plenty of Anime, Wu Xi, and so forth to let us know what an Oriental Adventures setting might be like. The same is not true of an Aztec-or Mayan inspired setting.
Mystara: Mystara seems like it's got some cool things going for it. When 4e writers are pulling cool stuff from older D&D setting for their points-of-light setting, I hope they don't negelct the known world. Not sure if it really needs its own setting book, though. Still, if any of the more traditional D&D settings get re-released for 4e, I hope Mystara is the one.
Planescape (obviously updated for the new planar scheme, with Sigil as the basis): Not sure that this would be a very good idea. It seems like the cosmology has changed enough that planescape just wouldn't work out well any more. Of course, it should still be mined for inspiration, just as it was in 3e (though with the cosmological changes, the mining might get harder.)
Ravenloft: I'd like to see a lot of Ravenloft stuff re-conceptualized as Shadowfell stuff. The Idea of people so covered in darkness that they're drawn into the shadowfell is pretty cool. Less of an emphasis on the whole "Villians from every world", though. Soth should stay in Dragonlance and so forth. I'd also like to see Masque of Red Death published as a standalone setting (or as a setting for an eventual Modern 4e).
Spelljammer: I'd like to see them draw on a lot of spelljammer stuff for the 4e planar products in the same way that they drew on a lot of planescape stuff for the 3e planar products. But with an actual astral sea.
General Observaitions:
"I'm fine with the core book, thanks."
--I don't really need a setting book for games based on Medieval Legend, Tolkienesque High Fantasy, or Sword & Sorcery. I'd be clever enough to come up with such a setting on my own, even if there weren't already such a backlog from earlier editions that I can easily convert on my own.
"Sweet. Azerbaijani Adventures? I'm buying that"
--If it's based on a culture that's not western European, I'll probably enjoy it. The less often said culture shows up in modern movies/tv/video games, the more likely I am to enjoy it.
"No, I don't want my peanut butter in your chocolate. This tastes terrible"
--I like my settings to be discreet. FR and Greyhawk are seperate worlds, and never the twain shall meet. Since that's part of the shtick for Planescape, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft, those settings will need a bit of rethinking before I enjoy them.
"Whose **** do I have to **** to get Dark Sun around here?"
--That one's probably pretty self explanatory.
So I guess my list is as follows:
1) Dark Sun
2) Al-Qadim
3) Maztica
4) Kara-Tur
5) Spelljammer
6) Dragonlance (Taladas)
7) Mystara
8) Ravenloft
Don't care/wouldn't buy: Birthright, Dragonlance (Anaslon), Greyhawk, Jakandor, Planescape
The Cardinal
First Post
1. Mystara
2. Dark Sun
3. Planescape
4. Spelljammer
5. Dragonlance (only with major changes)
2. Dark Sun
3. Planescape
4. Spelljammer
5. Dragonlance (only with major changes)
Darrius Adler
First Post
1. Ravenloft
2. Darksun
Its the only one of the old settings I would buy for certain if it came back. I have been a fan of Ravenloft since I first started playing D&D. Purchased Van Richten's Guide to Vampires along with my core books. Eberron suits me fine for a more standard fantasy setting. I never played in Darksun (though I did buy the main boxed sets for it) but it did seem interesting so I will put in a vote to help those fans.
2. Darksun
Its the only one of the old settings I would buy for certain if it came back. I have been a fan of Ravenloft since I first started playing D&D. Purchased Van Richten's Guide to Vampires along with my core books. Eberron suits me fine for a more standard fantasy setting. I never played in Darksun (though I did buy the main boxed sets for it) but it did seem interesting so I will put in a vote to help those fans.
Cam Banks
Adventurer
arscott said:
The current era of Dragonlance is between 422 and 432 AC, which is 70 or 80 years after the War of the Lance (352 AC). All of the characters people cared about from the Chronicles are dead or gone, so that's already done. As for Taladas, Chris Pierson wrote an excellent trilogy about that continent, which would have to be taken into account with any Taladas sourcebook. If we had kept the license for another year, a Taladas sourcebook was the first thing on our list.
Cheers,
Cam
Dronehound
First Post
My ideas are not really for the reprinting of most of the classic settings, but more of an adaptation of their concept.
1 - The other Forgotten Realms (Zakhara, Kara-Tur, Maztica & Golden Horde). Instead of a "new setting", these could be incorporated into the Forgotten Realms, with the special flavours added by way of feats, talent trees and paths/destinies. Samurai, for example, could be a paragon path, while Sha'ir would be a talent tree available to arcane controllers. No need for a boatload of new rules and new systems, just the flavour. Albeir-Toril would be a real planet, instead of just the continent.
2 - Birthright. My favourite 2ed setting. There new rules should be created for domain rulership and everything in addition to the flavour. And most importantly, the war cards system should be totally scrapped. In my opinion, the Birghtright setting could be used to serve as the backdrop of the rulership and mass combat rules for 4e.
3 - Planescape. With the Great Wheel. I'm not impressed at all of what i've seen of the new planes. I loved the Great Wheel, it was simple and functional. But with the whole Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos, I think that combining Planescape and Spelljammer could create something cool. Instead of the Crystal Spheres and the Phlogiston, the Spelljammers would navigate the Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos between the different Material Planes. The more I think about it, the more I think I could build an epic campaign out of this concept...
Mystara, Dark Sun, Greyhawk (in that order) should be reinstated as offical campaign settings. Dark Sun had something unique with the survival concept and had plenty of flavour. Greyhawk is a classic, and with the same treatment as the realms (100 years in the future), then it could be viable again. Mystara, with the lost of the Alphatians, the collapse of Thyatis and the colonisation of Norworld, could also be an interresting place.
In my opinion, WotC should do like White Wolf does with it's new World of Darkness, have a couple of major official lines (nWoD, Vamp, Were and Mage) and print 5-6 books of minor lines (Promethean, Changeling, Scion, Rome, etc.) Make sure that the books have more flavour then rule heavy. A lot of people I know buy books of lines they don't even intend to play just to read and be inspired by the flavour.
1 - The other Forgotten Realms (Zakhara, Kara-Tur, Maztica & Golden Horde). Instead of a "new setting", these could be incorporated into the Forgotten Realms, with the special flavours added by way of feats, talent trees and paths/destinies. Samurai, for example, could be a paragon path, while Sha'ir would be a talent tree available to arcane controllers. No need for a boatload of new rules and new systems, just the flavour. Albeir-Toril would be a real planet, instead of just the continent.
2 - Birthright. My favourite 2ed setting. There new rules should be created for domain rulership and everything in addition to the flavour. And most importantly, the war cards system should be totally scrapped. In my opinion, the Birghtright setting could be used to serve as the backdrop of the rulership and mass combat rules for 4e.
3 - Planescape. With the Great Wheel. I'm not impressed at all of what i've seen of the new planes. I loved the Great Wheel, it was simple and functional. But with the whole Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos, I think that combining Planescape and Spelljammer could create something cool. Instead of the Crystal Spheres and the Phlogiston, the Spelljammers would navigate the Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos between the different Material Planes. The more I think about it, the more I think I could build an epic campaign out of this concept...
Mystara, Dark Sun, Greyhawk (in that order) should be reinstated as offical campaign settings. Dark Sun had something unique with the survival concept and had plenty of flavour. Greyhawk is a classic, and with the same treatment as the realms (100 years in the future), then it could be viable again. Mystara, with the lost of the Alphatians, the collapse of Thyatis and the colonisation of Norworld, could also be an interresting place.
In my opinion, WotC should do like White Wolf does with it's new World of Darkness, have a couple of major official lines (nWoD, Vamp, Were and Mage) and print 5-6 books of minor lines (Promethean, Changeling, Scion, Rome, etc.) Make sure that the books have more flavour then rule heavy. A lot of people I know buy books of lines they don't even intend to play just to read and be inspired by the flavour.
Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Why I'd like to see some of those as well, I really doubt they would sell enough to justify the cost of producing them:
- Each of them is a niche market, especially since there will be no follow-up line of supplements which would boost sales of the core book.
- Each would require a lot of research of the older books involving this setting to get it right.
- It would require less effort to produce a generic "rules supplement" for D&D which would also likely sell far more.
So no, I can't see it.
- Each of them is a niche market, especially since there will be no follow-up line of supplements which would boost sales of the core book.
- Each would require a lot of research of the older books involving this setting to get it right.
- It would require less effort to produce a generic "rules supplement" for D&D which would also likely sell far more.
So no, I can't see it.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
A few thoughts on each one:
Al-Qadim - I'd like to see more done with this one from an interest standpoint, but I rather doubt I'd buy it new.
Birthright - while I'd love to see this one re-done and would probably even buy it, I just can't see the Birthright setting being compatible with 4e's Points-of-Light design parameters.
Dark Sun - heard of it but never seen it (though it seems to have some fans here!)
Dragonlance - works well as a series of books, somewhat well as a series of adventures, but does nothing for me as an overall setting. I'll pass.
Greyhawk - having played in it, I can't say it does anything for me...though it has some nicely stealable deities for insertion into other settings...
Jakandor - never heard of it.
Kara-Tur - barely heard of it.
Maztica - again, from an interest standpoint I'd want to see what could be done with this, but I probably wouldn't buy it.
Mystara - sign me up. Now. If I was ever going to use a pre-conned setting again, Mystara would probably be it.
Planescape - I'm not a big fan, though doing something with this might force a rethink of the rather bizarre (and minimal) plane system 4e has shown us so far; and that alone would make it worthwhile.
Ravenloft - I always thought this was a setting with a ton of potential that was never quite realized. It deserves another chance, but I'd want to see what was done with it before deciding to buy or not.
Spelljammer - though this setting has some fans, I am not one. Sink it.
So, I guess my list would go something like:
Mystara
Birthright (if they could find a way to make it work with PoL)
Ravenloft
(Al-Qadim - for interest only)
(Maztica - for interest only)
After that, I don't care very much.
Lanefan
Al-Qadim - I'd like to see more done with this one from an interest standpoint, but I rather doubt I'd buy it new.
Birthright - while I'd love to see this one re-done and would probably even buy it, I just can't see the Birthright setting being compatible with 4e's Points-of-Light design parameters.
Dark Sun - heard of it but never seen it (though it seems to have some fans here!)
Dragonlance - works well as a series of books, somewhat well as a series of adventures, but does nothing for me as an overall setting. I'll pass.
Greyhawk - having played in it, I can't say it does anything for me...though it has some nicely stealable deities for insertion into other settings...
Jakandor - never heard of it.
Kara-Tur - barely heard of it.
Maztica - again, from an interest standpoint I'd want to see what could be done with this, but I probably wouldn't buy it.
Mystara - sign me up. Now. If I was ever going to use a pre-conned setting again, Mystara would probably be it.
Planescape - I'm not a big fan, though doing something with this might force a rethink of the rather bizarre (and minimal) plane system 4e has shown us so far; and that alone would make it worthwhile.
Ravenloft - I always thought this was a setting with a ton of potential that was never quite realized. It deserves another chance, but I'd want to see what was done with it before deciding to buy or not.
Spelljammer - though this setting has some fans, I am not one. Sink it.
So, I guess my list would go something like:
Mystara
Birthright (if they could find a way to make it work with PoL)
Ravenloft
(Al-Qadim - for interest only)
(Maztica - for interest only)
After that, I don't care very much.
Lanefan
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