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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 4431582" data-attributes="member: 59082">It is hard to believe that after September 16th, there will be no more new Forgotten Realms material printed by Wizards of the Coast. At least if WotC stays true to their word ("two books, one adventure for each setting"). I suppose the Realms are somewhat tapped out: we've gone through two whole cycles of products, 1E/2E and 3E, and now the setting is re-made, presumably in such a way that less supplements are needed to detail the world (I cannot say yet; my book shipped today). On one hand I am surprised that WotC not only drastically changed the tried-and-true Realms, but is (supposedly) letting the letting go after September. Which got me thinking...Each edition of D&D, aside from OD&D, seems to have a "signature setting":BECMI - Mystara1E - Greyhawk2E - Forgotten Realms3E - Eberron4E - ?The first FR box set came out in 1987, before 2E, but it was just by a year or two, and most FR products of that line were 2E products (If I remember correctly, the first FR supplement, Waterdeep and the North, was "2ed compatible", or something like that). And of course every edition had multiple campaign settings--especially 2E--but each edition had a dominant, flagship, "signature" setting. It wasn't necessarily the most popular (I would think Dragonlance outsold Greyhawk, and the Realms Eberron) but it was the setting that best defined the tone of the edition, and perhaps what that edition might best be remembered by. The flagship/signature setting for every edition was of the "kitchen sink" variety: everyone goes into the mix, because we need examples of every rule, race, class, and monster in this setting. With Pathfinder's rising popularity, and with Greyhawk dwindling into the past and the Realms re-made in a seemingly unpopular way, it may be that Golarion becomes the pre-eminent D&D "kitchen sink" style campaign setting, at least for a time. Right now I have the Golarion map from the Gazetteer and the 3E FRCS Faerun map laid out side by side. I am struck by the overall similarities; it seems likely that the Realms were a primary inspiration for Golarion. Anyways, if I remember correctly Wizards of the Coast said that they will publish only one campaign setting each year for the run of 4E (Or was it two? The product list for the next two years shows only one each, so I'm going with that). In 2008 it is the Forgotten Realms, in 2009 Eberron, in 2010...who knows? And this is where it gets interesting, because once Eberron is published and gone, we might step into new territory (I hope). It seems that Sigil is being covered in Manual of the Planes and I would think that if WotC updates Dark Sun or one of the older settings for 4E (Spelljammer!), it would be down the line. I'm thinking (hoping) that 2010 will see the 4E flagship campaign setting. If there is going to be one, and if there is then 2010--after the farewells to the Realms and Eberron and with 4E, in its 3rd year, in full swing--would be the time to do it. If so, any speculations as to what that might be like? 4E is quite different than previous editions of D&D in terms of the default setting, the "points of light" theme, which in many ways is a harkening back to swords & sorcery, more emphasized in OD&D and, to a lesser extent, 1E. So if WotC is really going to come out with the 4E signature setting in 2010, my guess is that it will be very points of light, heavily swords & sorcery/pulp fantasy, with strong hints of old school Gygaxian tones. Let the two-year speculations begin <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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