Future of Scarred Lands and other 3rd party settings

[Jürgen Hubert]

It will probably make Nightfall rather disappointed.

I wonder how Wheel of Time d20 and Call of Cthulhu d20 are doing in gaming circles? They are both examples of one-off campaign settings which were pretty well recieved at the time but have had little or no subsequent support (due to the terms of their license, I guess).

Chaosium had the right to publish more Cthulhu d20 books - but they never used that right.

Of course, many of their business decisions are a bit dubious these days...

 

[Teneb]

I think the Oathbound campaign setting by Bastion Press (which was mentioned above) definitely has staying power. The setting is one of the main focuses of the publisher, receiving regular support. I think the biggest thing going for Oathbound is the commitment by the publisher to support the setting. Examples:
1. The core setting book is now available as a PDF, giving a wider audience access to the book.
2. Future books in the line, starting with Wildwood, will be written in such a way that they can also be used as a stand-alone campaign setting in their own right. This way, Oathbound junkies have their next Oathbound book, but someone who's only interested in Wildwood can play in Wildwood without the need to have ALL the other books. I think this can be a downfall for other campaign settings.
3. Bastion has put out a number of free adventures online (which are quite good), including an introductory adventure meant to pull characters into the world of the Forge. They also have a column, the Raven's Report, which details people in the Forge, often giving some tidbit of gaming "crunch" along with the fluff. The recently released Legacies of Oathbound #1 offers and adventure and an expansive treatise on one of the major bloodholds in the city of Penance. There is more coming down the pipe as far as web support as well.

In my opinion, #3 is one of the major aspects that make Oathbound so appealing. Bastion goes out of their way to support the setting with regular updates, both free and for a modest cost (Legacies is a 140 page PDF for $5.99; that strikes me as fair). As a DM, the adventure offerings are one of the major reasons I selected Oathbound as my campaign setting; I often don't have time to write up my adventures. Tweaking existing adventures is easier for me.

To sum up: I think Publisher support is a major factor in campaign setting longevity.

 

[nothing to see here]

I agree wholeheartedly with Teneb. Oathbound is an outstanding example of a high-end, well supported campaign setting. It's critics tend to be those who don't like general tone of the setting -- which, of course, is fair. But it is a great example of a publisher trying to anticipate -- and adapt to - market needs.

 

[Nightfall]

*is only slightly devastated*

But my hope is that SL will come back.

But what I think hurt SL the most wasn't the number of products, it's the fact that again thanks to 3.5 changes along with some decisions I don't agree with, SL interested became mixed and confused. Part of that was also due to the fact that (and I take full responbility for that), a lot of errata for later books never came out.

Even so, which campaigns have staying power? The ones En World people will continue to support. Along with WotC fanboys that believe "Hey d20 can be COOL!" Anyway my two cents.

As for the future of SL, hey I'm not dead yet!

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Along with WotC fanboys that believe "Hey d20 can be COOL!" Anyway my two cents.

Hey, I'm an admitted WotC fanboy, but I digress...

I think the most important things for staying power are:

A quality product.
Focused production timeline.
A contact person.

To me, these three things keep people coming back.

 

[Nightfall]

*is something of a contact person!*

SL had several quality products. Just not everyone agreed which ones they were. (Most agreed though Penumbral Pentagon was FOUL!)

(WotC fanboys abound. I deal.)

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I strongly suspect that gamers on ENWorld (and message boards) are subject to fads. Quite possibly the non-message-board-using public Mearls is so fond of reminding us exists follows a similar curve. This means that Scarred Lands has (perhaps) set the benchmark for viability of a non-WotC setting.

Four years.

It will be interesting to see if I'm proven wrong! I hope so, especially with the Diamond Throne setting and Arcana Unearthed/Evolved! But time will tell.

 

[Pants]

(WotC fanboys abound. I deal.)

A fanboy calling out other fanboys... errrrr?

I hope to see Iron Kingdoms continue and with WarMachine being so profitable, it looks like it'll stay around.

 

[Nightfall]

Var,

I hope it's not a benchmark. More like WW playing around. But that's just my outraged side playing.

Pants,

Yeah so I call out WotC fan boys. Big deal. I don't call out Midnight or Kalamar guys like I might have years ago. But I mellow that way.

 

[johnsemlak]

I strongly suspect that gamers on ENWorld (and message boards) are subject to fads. Quite possibly the non-message-board-using public Mearls is so fond of reminding us exists follows a similar curve. This means that Scarred Lands has (perhaps) set the benchmark for viability of a non-WotC setting.

Four years.

It will be interesting to see if I'm proven wrong! I hope so, especially with the Diamond Throne setting and Arcana Unearthed/Evolved! But time will tell.

I believe Planescape only lasted 4 years by comparison.