Dragonlance?
Hm.
We'll see.
I see them being pretty anxious about touching DL. It's closely tied to a specific set of authors who were producing a fairly popular (?) line of products before WotC cut them off at the knees.
And, by the time the third setting rolls out, we'll be on the 3rd or 4th Player's Handbook. Things like Knights, Dragonriders, will all already be available.
And, finally, you have a bigger verison of the problem with FR, the fact that the metaplot of the game centers around a handful of major NPCs and the PCs aren't supposed to do much.
(Obviously most people don't run DL that way, but it's a perception.)
You'd either have to push the timeline past the 5th age to make space, gut the setting to make space for 4e style PCs, or -redo- the Dragonlance adventures (the ones that allowed your party to replace the characters in the books).
Actually that last idea would be pretty hot.
Of course, you'd wind up with a setting without Raistlin (or however you spell it).
Anyway, what i'm saying is
- that your DL cannon is large and popular.
- Powerful non-wizards people (Weis, Hickman) would have a lot of impact on how well it sold.
- Its a traditional fantasy world (i.e. it's pretty elves, wizards in robes, powerful dragons, dwarf-dwarfs, etc.)
- It's
beyond tractiongot too much traction , it's been it's own, successful, product line several times. It really only suffers because it's owned by Wizards and wizards has traditionally split marketing efforts between FR/Greyhawk/DL.
I think all of that argues against it being the 3rd setting. It will almost certainly be done, but probably later, after a more non-traditional setting.
- The Dark Sun cannon is loathed by the fanbase.
- There are no "outside authorities" (except maybe brom, and you could easily hire him to do the art I think, and help with the reconceptualization).
- It's a non-traditional world, which will be attractive given that at least the first two settings are pretty much "standard" fantasy.
- It's got some "traction" but it's still a cult thing. More people are interested in it than have actually sat down and played it. People would be curious.
So after doing two settings that are "normal" (wizards, fighters, dragons, long lived wise elves, etc etc -- FR/Eberron) and one high-fantasy mystic-journeys (astral)seafaring game (the SJ/Planescape mashup) then they'll probably be inclined to do something gritty, and tough.
The Psionics power source will have been thoroughly tested. They'll have had time to develop a complete set of new rules for things like "armor-lite" setting, to think about preserving/defiling, etc.
Anyway, I think DL has a forum because it's popular now, but that support will be limited to DDI for a number of years.
