WotC Can we salvage Toril?

[Mirtek]

I’m not sure why on earth I would need 5e to reprint it all over again.

Because while you have them, newer player don't. And while they could buy PDFs of the old books, these are exactly that: old. 20+ years old in most cases. That alone will keep many current players from purchasing them.

And ingame they are even older. More than 100 years outdated

 

[dave2008]

Fantasy created by people from Asia will likely be quite a bit different from fantasy created from people of Asian descent outside of Asia. From the Chinese-American friends and acquaintances I know there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between them and the general consensus in China in regards to certain issues (with one once expressing annoyance that Chinese nationals' opinions are sometimes framed as more legitimate, as if they were the only "real" Chinese).

I believe that. I have seen that in disagreement between Chinese-American friends who are from Taiwan vs those from mainland China too.

Personally, I am more familiar with modern fantasy from South Korea and Japan.

 

[dave2008]

Because while you have them, newer player don't. And while they could buy PDFs of the old books, these are exactly that: old. 20+ years old in most cases. That alone will keep many current players from purchasing them.

And ingame they are even older. More than 100 years outdated

I personally don't have a need for an updated Toril (or any setting really), but if you want to get new people into the setting, it is probably better to have a new book.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Fantasy created by people from Asia will likely be quite a bit different from fantasy created from people of Asian descent outside of Asia. From the Chinese-American friends and acquaintances I know there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between them and the general consensus in China in regards to certain issues (with one once expressing annoyance that Chinese nationals' opinions are sometimes framed as more legitimate, as if they were the only "real" Chinese).

I am sure that this is the case. But to be frank, these representation discussions are usually framed almost exclusively from American perspective, and I don't think that is very inclusive either.

 

[TheSword]

Because while you have them, newer player don't. And while they could buy PDFs of the old books, these are exactly that: old. 20+ years old in most cases. That alone will keep many current players from purchasing them.

And ingame they are even older. More than 100 years outdated

Outdated? I’m ok with the Mayor of Archenford being the same dude in DR2553 and DR2453 provided the players haven’t been hanging around in Archenford over the whole period - in which case a little effort to come up with a new name is warranted. Seriously though, is it not enough to have a detailed primer for the realms? Do we now need to have a detailed primer covering multiple time periods?

Players can purchase the older books for considerably less than I paid for them with pdf. I strongly, strongly suspect it isn’t current players demanding them, but older players who think the detail should be available. Good news… it is.

 

[TheSword]

Because, as an example, Maztica is just a copy/paste of Central America history, since it was written by former history teachers, and because of that a) it completely breaks immersion b) that younger generation will never accept it c) because of b WOTC will never develop it further.

The information is available and there to adventure in. If players don’t want to, because the themes don’t chime with them, then they have a million other locations to investigate.

You can’t expect WOC to properly detail hundreds of locations and in such a way that it will make subset A through F players happy.

They need to pick some things that inspire them and write about that, ideally stuff that will be commercially viable. If that’s reinvention of the old, then great. If it’s new then while it seems like harder work, great for them too.

I see little to be gained or credited for needlessly reprinting stuff that already exists. I don’t want to dismay you, but Maztica has as much chance of getting remade as a chocolate teapot.

 

[Greggy C]

I see little to be gained or credited for needlessly reprinting stuff that already exists. I don’t want to dismay you, but Maztica has as much chance of getting remade as a chocolate teapot.

It was removed in 4e apparently, returned in 5e, but yeah I agree will be ignored forever, which probably that answers the question, Toril is unsalvageable.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

In any case, I really don't care what they do with it, but if they wanted to salvage the setting, I think the best would just reboot it. Forget all the bizarre events caused by changing editions, continents popping in and out of existence and other such weirdness. Just choose the best bits from each editions, update where needed and pretend it was always like that. Keep it recognisable enough that people can mostly pretend that the events of most popular novels (whatever those may be) roughly happened as described, but don't sweat over minute details.

 

[TheSword]

It was removed in 4e apparently, returned in 5e, but yeah I agree will be ignored forever, which probably that answers the question, Toril is unsalvageable.

Well Toril is a big place. When I think of salvaging something I don’t normally expect every part to be pristine. Some bits will be rusted or dented and that’s ok.

Think of Maztica as the table leg that your new puppy savaged. Now that leg goes up against the wall where no one else can see it, so only you know it’s there. It doesn’t mean you can’t look at it fondly and remember happy dinners at that table.

 

[Maxperson]

Ok, after visiting this thread over the last few days I would say the answer to @Greggy C 's question "Can we salvage Toril" is pretty clearly: NO!

The dwarves and adventurers over the last 30+ years have stripped the place of nearly all its metal and treasures anyway. Not really worth the salvage attempt.