I hope Eberron is a flop. Am I evil?

[Frostmarrow]

Will Eberron hatch and destroy the world? Seems like a good idea to have a built-in Harkonnen-style death plug so you can kill off the setting when you want to start over. Look at World of Darkness, for a perfect example. If so, how long does Eberron have? Five years? Ten?

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

I'm sure Eberron is a great campaign and folks are having loads of fun with it but dead wishes nothing but evil for the setting.

I'm sure if the WotC production staff knew, or cared about your hopes, they'd take a moment to offer a hearty "I hope you lose your job, too."

Because the really real world consequence of "We just took a massive, massive loss on this setting" isn't "Let's roll up our sleeves boys, and give 'em those great old campaign settings of yore!", it's "I'm really sorry about this, but we've got to cut more staff, and those who stay won't be getting Christmas bonuses or raises this year."

You aren't "evil", just spoiled and thoughtless.

Patrick Y.

 

[trollwad]

"I don't think it was so much that the old settings failed. The lesson they learned was: beyond a certain point, the more supplements/support you provide for a setting, the less profit as sales decline. So it makes sense for them to "get in and get out". However, there may be exceptions (FR is certainly one) -- and they're probably hoping that Eberron is another."


I think Eric Noah is right. The big advertising plug for the "NEW SETTING, NEW SETTING" generates a lot more $25 purchases than detailing some new area of Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms for a constant level of quality -- at least in the short term. Over the longer term, creating a "NEW SETTING" or v 4.0 every three years subjectively seems likely to wear out your fan base. I think you are likely to 'strand' portions of your fan base at preceding versions over time (i.e. in addition to od&d grognards, you'll see 3.5 grognards the next time they upgrade, in addition to greyhawk, forgotten realms, planescape and ravenloft, you'll see eberron grognards in 5 years when they come out with the "NEW SETTING"), thus increasing the amount of fragmentation in the fan base at different stages of d&d's evolution.

 

[Chronosome]

Go, WotC, go! Rah! Rah! Rah!
Make lots of money so the game goes fah!

 

[Greatwyrm]

dead wants them to realise that they've got enough great settings up their Armani shirt sleeves without having to churn out new material.

Henry Ford once said people could have a Model T in any color they wanted, so long as it was black. Not everybody likes black.

Yes, the classic settings are good. That's why they're classics. The thing is, if you want to attract new people, you have to try new things.

 

[Wraith Form]

Am I evil?

If you are, than I am too (because I feel pretty much the same way). The diff? I actually purchased the Eberron book and still feel that way....

P.S.

Because the really real world consequence of "We just took a massive, massive loss on this setting" isn't "Let's roll up our sleeves boys, and give 'em those great old campaign settings of yore!", it's "I'm really sorry about this, but we've got to cut more staff, and those who stay won't be getting Christmas bonuses or raises this year."

I don't wish anyone to be unemployed, but layoffs have actually produced some positive results. Look, for example, at Malhavoc, Green Ronin & The Games Mechanics, three examples among other smaller "independant" companies that put out quality, engaging and often avant-garde (sp?) material that employ former/current TSR/WotC staff. (Yes, I do realize that not all of these companies sprang up due to layoffs....but you get my point.)

 

[Sir Brennen]

dead wants them to realise that they've got enough great settings up their Armani shirt sleeves without having to churn out new material.

Yeah, you know, that always annoyed me too when the WoTC game designers pulled up to the conventions in their Porsches and stepped out in their Armani suits, talking in the third person. Those SOBs.

Really, though, the cool thing about Eberron, is that it is a purely 3rd edition setting. All the others you mentioned were designed around earlier editions, and even though FR seems to be doing fairly well (by WotC standards, if not Hasbro), there was still a lot of retro-fitting to be done. Eberron took into consideration the full scope of the 3.x rules, and even pushed them forward a little. That's cool.

And as far as Greyhawk goes - as the default setting, everything about it is and should continue to be based on the core rules alone. It's been presented as the player's sandbox, not WotC's, so no meta-events, no timelines, nada beyond the gazeteer. This, IMHO, is a good thing.

Yeah, I wish Eberron great success, because, if it did flop, it might open the door for the parent company to have WotC start walking the botom- line plank that TSR did in the bad ole' days.

 

[Remathilis]

Evil is a subjective term...

If Eberron flops, I HIGHLY doubt that WotC will consider higher risk material like PS or SJ profitable. I also think that Mystara, while a great setting. is too generic to be deferenciated from Core or Greyhawk D&D. (plenty of Mystara fans will debate this, but at the end of the day, what does Mystara uniquly offer that can't be replecated in core?)

Instead, if Eberron flops, they will have to look into what DOES generate profit margins. Adventures? Nope. Campaign Settings? Nope. Sourcebooks? Getting warmer. Core Books? BINGO!

Eberron flop = 4th edition by 2007.

 

[Belegbeth]

Evil is a subjective term...

No it's not.

 

[Tatsukun]

dead wants the money-making machine called WotC-MegaCorp to really make a loss on this one.

dead wants them to realise that they've got enough great settings up their Armani shirt sleeves without having to churn out new material.

These are the secret thoughts of dead.

Evil? Maybe, I have no idea.
The only thing I can tell from your obsessive use of the third person is that you are either a bit insane, a pro-wrestler (see option 1), or really in love with your nickname.

Those aren't evil, so again, I have no idea.

- Tatsu