Bringing back old product lines as one-shot books

[BOZ]

I had posted this idea in another thread, but it was a bit off-topic. It was directed at Andy Collins (who may or may not have still been reading the thread at that point), but I think it has enough merit to get people talking about it enough to bring up its possibilities to more WotC folks.

instead of attempting to revive product lines, have you considered going more of the Ghostwalk-type route? you know, release a single all-inclusive package book that details a particular campaign setting and what differentiates it from the norm. this would give DMs and players enough to start building on, and if they wanted more stuff they could seek out older edition product. this reintroduces the material without a large commitment from the publisher. if the demand proved to be great enough, you could consider providing additional material. Ravenloft (AFAIK) is still licensed out, but you could publish such a book for Spelljammer, Mystara, etc this way.

 

[TheBadElf]

I would very willingly buy FRCS sized books for Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Birthright, Al Quadim, and especially Planescape. Wonderful idea; I hope the powers that be at Wizards see this and put some thought into the idea.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I dunno about one-shots. A module/expansion like they did for Wheel of Time would also be nice. But if they dropped it there, I'd be happy.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I would be 100% totally, completely, absolutely and religiously all for this. While I'd love to see many of the settings in question come back as entire lines, I would be satisfied--even delighted--with one-shot books, so long as they were truly complete enough to serve as campaign guides.

 

[scourger]

I think this is a good idea. It's much better for me than campaign settings that are developed over several books with no adventure support. If there isn't going to be any adventure support anyway (which it looks like there will not be for many, many new campaigns), then give me the product in 1 book.

I think it's also implicit in the original post, but I'll say it specifically. A D&D campaign setting is NOT a new game. The idea is to present new options, not to supplant the core game. That's what I'm looking for anyway.

 

[Umbran]

I think the problem is in the "all inclusive" bit. The settings we are talking about have been aroudn for a long time, and the canon for each has grown over time. At this point, you cannot include all of any one of them into a single tome. They simply won't fit.

And then you hit the "they missed my favorite bit" phenomenon. And those favorite bits are each pretty darned big...

 

[JDowling]

I will express the concerns about this sort of endeavor that I expressed in the Spelljammer thread, but I won't be so wordy.

stay true to the setting

if WoTC can't...
1 - leave out 3/3.5e elements that really don't fit the setting
-and-
2 - alter classes from their vanilla 3/3.5e to reflect how they are supposed to work in the world...

then they shouldn't bother.

If they can respect the settings and not make gross alterations that ruin the flavor (paladins/sorcerers in darksun? come on....) then go ahead and I'd gladly buy the books in a heartbeat and love WoTC forever.

I know you can just say, "my worldX doesn't have stupidAdditionY" but, meyh.

EDIT:

I think the problem is in the "all inclusive" bit. . .

I agree with this, if such a project is undertaken - I'd recommend just converting the core for the world. Once the races, classes, et ceteral general are presented the stuff from other products largely falls into place easily, or is converted with little trouble.

 

[MerricB]

Given the reaction of the Planescape "fans" to the Planar Handbook, I think any chance of this happening has been lost.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I think the problem is in the "all inclusive" bit. The settings we are talking about have been aroudn for a long time, and the canon for each has grown over time. At this point, you cannot include all of any one of them into a single tome. They simply won't fit.

And then you hit the "they missed my favorite bit" phenomenon. And those favorite bits are each pretty darned big...

True enough. It wouldn't be "complete" per se. But I think you could make such a book complete enough to be a fully playable setting. And I'd rather have a playable 3.5-version that didn't please everybody, due to the necessity of leaving stuff out, than to have none at all.

 

[MonsterMash]

About the only one I really want to see is Al-Qadim, but I don't think that one book would easily encapsulate all the stuff given the size of it. I was never too much of a fan of the other settings.

I'd also agree its most important to stay true to the setting.