Campaign world themes

[Flobby]

I can't remember who said it, but I remember reading somewhere that they will make a high-fantasy FS version, and one with intrigue for Eboron (sp?) for Keep on the Shadowfell in DDI.

So it sounds like they are emphasizing certain themes for each campaign world. Want to play high-fantasy - FS, want to play dark (urban?) fantasy? - Eboron.

What about other campaign worlds?
Ravenloft - obvious horror
Darksun - post-apacolyptic, survival

But what about Dragonlance? Isn't than just another high-fantasy? What could be different about from FS?

Any ideas?

 

[Serendipity]

Honestly, if WotC is going to tie each setting that strongly to a given default theme (not a bad idea in and of itself IMO) then the 'core' settings (past and present) become fairly redundant quickly. The Realms can be swapped out with Greyhawk fairly easily by that logic, with Krynn a close second.
Of course, extrapolating this, we get the idea that WotC will stick to campaign settings that re extremely varried from one another (not a bad idea from a "I like different cool settings" perspective, but it helped shovel dirt on TSRs grave).....or WotC will decide "Hey, the Nerfherder Setting has lots of fanbase support but it's too close to the extant settings. Let's change it up!" which would be, um, bad. At least from a fan standpoint.

Much as I want to see Greyhawk supported, I'm at this point no more likely to buy three greyhawk books as I am Realms books...or DL books for that matter. I'd much prefer some Planescape, Spelljammer, and Dark Sun action but WotC has to sell books to people besides me unfortunately.

 

[Cam Banks]

FS? What's that, fantasy setting?

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Asmor]

FS? What's that, fantasy setting?

Cheers,
Cam

I suspect he means Forgotten Realms, which perhaps translates strangely to Japanese and back.

Actually, I just ran it through Google (English -> Japanese -> English) and the result was "Forget Space," so maybe I'm actually right! Weird.

Spelljammer's got the fantasy-meets-sci-fi theme.

Planescape has the theme of belief mattering a lot.

 

[Flobby]

Sorry, yeah I meant Forgotten Realms. (I actually am a native English speaker, just don't check what I wrote when posting enough...apparently ) I was in a hurry for some reason when I wrote that.
Spelled Eberron wrong too...

It does seem that Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk would fill the same niche (high-fantasy). So I was wondering what they could do to make them original. Maybe for Dragonlance introduce a noble class and emphasize... nobility? I don't know.

 

[Cam Banks]

Dragonlance does well when it's at war, or has war as a backdrop. It's high fantasy, but most of the magic is in the hands of the heroes and villains, not the commonfolk. I like to describe it as post-apocalyptic romantic fantasy, with strong moral overtones, a trifold pantheon, and humor featured right next door to horror and drama. It doesn't have very many super-powerful NPCs running around in it, and if you run a campaign in the Age of Mortals (the current era, post-War of Souls trilogy) there are literally hundreds of story ideas floating about that can be pursued.

Cheers,
Cam