Dungeon #110

reiella · Mar 30, 2004

Eric Anondson said:
Something which the fansites can do which other "official" producers of material can't do (and often seemed not to care about as they cycled through new authors again and again) is reconcile differences. Dark Sun's publishing history is a lengthy list of conflicts of "fact". Athas.org can, and has, worked out wrinkles like this.

Eric Anondson (pseudo-retired Athas.org stiff)

And those decisions were some of those turned some individuals away from athas.org. Not myself mind you, just one of the most common complaints I've seen.

Although, I think it's mostly something that they don't care to do. Unless you're refering specifically to "Dead Worlds" (that aren't supported by WotC directly). The intent of Beyond the Prism Pentad was mostly a reconcile attempt, but I think I see your point, looking at PGF and the new Cosmology I don't see any attempt to resolve some of the other FR canon in those regards.

Alzrius · Mar 30, 2004

Eric Anondson said:
Something which the fansites can do which other "official" producers of material can't do (and often seemed not to care about as they cycled through new authors again and again) is reconcile differences. Dark Sun's publishing history is a lengthy list of conflicts of "fact". Athas.org can, and has, worked out wrinkles like this.

First point: This doesn't necessarily change anything about which is more official.

Second point: Who says only official fan sites can reconcile things that don't match up? WotC/TSR has done that before, and probably will do so again (Wulgreth from FR comes to mind).

Erebus · Mar 30, 2004

In regards to canon, I consider any material produced by WotC directly to be such. Therein lies the confusion I had over the "official" status of athas.org. (In hindsight and after my incorrect assumption had been pointed out by Nytcrawler, I do seem to vaguely recall reading about this at one time. Alas, that was several years ago and my memory isn't very good. My apologies.)

From reading what appears to be the agreement between WotC and the fan sites in another thread, it sounds to me like this official status can be revoked at any time by WotC. If this is the case, in the future couldn't they simply ignore the hard work being done over at athas.org if they chose to do so, thus nullifying any of this material? They do, after all, still hold the IP rights.

It could end up like that season of Dallas where Bobby died but it turned out it was all just a dream. (Jeez, I'm really beginning to show my age now.) It's like someone else mentioned regarding the Star Wars license... it's official and "correct" until George says it isn't and/or does something in his movies that completely contradicts it.

Kesh · Mar 30, 2004

In a manner of speaking, that's what happend with Ravenloft and its fansite. There was a lot of good work there, but once that liscence was sold off to be published, the website was no longer allowed to do independant work on the setting.

On the one hand, this means we will likely never see some of the unpublished material the folks on the site were working on (some of them were authors of Ravenloft material of old). For the flip side, we now have a fully published and supported version of Ravenloft 3.5e that's available offline.

Some good, some bad.

irdeggman · Mar 30, 2004

Erebus said:
It could end up like that season of Dallas where Bobby died but it turned out it was all just a dream. (Jeez, I'm really beginning to show my age now.) It's like someone else mentioned regarding the Star Wars license... it's official and "correct" until George says it isn't and/or does something in his movies that completely contradicts it.

Actually I remember watching the 'shower' scene myself - although I was more of a Knot's Landing fan. I remember Alec Baldwin's (in Knot's Landing) appearance there.

And I also know what the "G" stood for in Maynard G. Crebbs (from the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis TV show).

WanderingMonster · Mar 31, 2004

irdeggman said:
And I also know what the "G" stood for in Maynard G. Crebbs (from the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis TV show).

Okay, I'll bite. What does the G stand for? Gilligan?

Emirikol · Mar 31, 2004

pogre said:
I do not feel very strongly about what they present in Poly, but old campaign worlds do not appeal to me as much.

I'd rather see DUNGEON print adventures and Dragon take care of stuff like Poly (which I consider redundant and 85% useless).

Subscriptions are $45.00. Dungeon is worth about $30. Well, that's about it. I'm paying $15 for 'maybe' something useful about 1/12th of the time in Poly.

Poly's got to go if Paizo expects people to pay for Dungeon. Occasional stuff like this DARK SUN blockbuster is nice, but every issue is otherwise a waste and I'd rather see adventures (which I can use

(IMHO).

There, I finally said it.

jh

Mach2.5 · Mar 31, 2004

Eric Anondson (pseudo-retired Athas.org stiff)

Straying off topic for a moment, how retired from the athas.org team are you then Eric? Not asking for explanations that are none of my business, just curious to know if you are, even in a small way, still working with them.

irdeggman · Mar 31, 2004

WanderingMonster said:
Okay, I'll bite. What does the G stand for? Gilligan?

"Like Walter, Dobe."

For those who don't know the reference - The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was a sitcom with Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver (as Maynard G Crebs) {prior to Gilligan's Island}. Maynard was the coffee-house beatnik type character (remember this was in the early 60's after all)

It also 'introduced' Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld to national exposure.

mroberon1972 · Mar 31, 2004

I built this a while back.

Try it:

http://www.ancient-awakenings.com/singlepages/NPC.html

Makes for an interesting read. Seems to fit d20 modern better than D&D though...