For the record I agree with you. I think what Wizards has done to them (allowing the license to produce Dragonlance material to lapse and effectively barring them (MWP) from putting out material for the world that they created) to be downright shameful, arrogant, and petty.
Hmm. Lets not forget that Wizards of the Coast was never obliged to hand out the Dragonlance licence in the first place. I wish there had been more 3.5 Dragonlance soucebooks, but if WotC hadn't given out the licence in the first place we would just have had DLCS.
It is obvious (in hindsight) that they were planning 4th edition for years. It might not be so obvious from the RPG stuff, but they have been setting up the Spellplague plot in novels knowing it is a 4e thing. I don't think it was a co-incidence the DL licence expired shortly before 4e - I think it was
planned to run out before 4e.
Actually, I'm more disapointed in EN World than Hasbro, because I was hoping that the Adlatum Campaign Setting (from the Dragonlance community) would be up for a ENnie this year.
They (WotC/Hasbro) have little to no interest in the world, but they are so scared of competition (and that is my opinion and belief as to their motivation behind many of these kinds of actions they've been doing ever since shortly after 3.5 was released (when they started working on 4e and started to turn away from the gaming community in general - incidentally I think this is around the time that Hasbro bought WotC and made it a part of a corporate machine and they lost that "small company of gamer-geeks" mindset)) and the risk of having to do business in a market with it that they'd essentially pull a coup against her/them much the way that certain parties did to Gygax years ago to kill off Greyhawk to ensure Forgotten Realms wouldn't have to compete with new products for it.
I've seen other people trying to blame the lack of a renewal of the DL licence on Hasbro. You can't blame Hasbro for this (if anyone
is to blame). Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in 1999, before 3rd edition was published. They were in charge before DLCS came out and they were already in charge of D&D when the DL licence came into operation. They were even in charge of D&D before MWP existed.
If I blame anything, it is the 4e plan for campaign settings. Back during 3rd edition WotC couldn't be bothered with campaign setting support. People complained, and they seem to have listened. Now they are saing they will bring back lots of settings. We have been told "one setting per year" is the plan.
The problem with that plan is that it would be undermined if Dragonlance carried on coming out. So to back up their plan, WotC need to get Dragonlance to "shut up" while they churn out Forgotten Realms (and almost certainly Eberron). Once they are out of the way, and WotC can publish its "three magic Dragonlance books" it will be able to consider a new licence (or other options). But the way things are now, if anything other than Forgotten Realms comes out in 2008, it will make WotC loose face.
You are not the only one who would have wanted more 3.5 DL books from MWP, but the "competition" that I think WotC is really trying to stamp out is the grognard market they have created with 3rd edition. There are people out there playing AD&D (and even OD&D) despite the fact that you really can't get hold of the books very easily. But 3rd edition has got a major presence in the market place and the d20 System licence has created a ton of compatible product lines that WotC has no power to shut down.
Things like the GSL are proof that WotC want to stop publishers from supporting their old version of D&D. IMO, it is D&D itself that WotC want to kill - the
old D&D. I don't think that the Dragonlance licence is anything more than an innocent victim targeted purely because it is tied to the wrong colour of D&D.
Truly sad that Dragonlance is effectively dead in the water now...
No way is Dragonlance dead. The Dragonlance film has done so well commercially (despite complaints about animation) that the second one has got the green light and is going to get more money spent on it. The possiblity that Dragonlance will be the background of a live action motion picture is going to get closer with every animated film. As long as Dragonlance stuff sells like hot cakes, Wizards of the Coast isn't going to get rid of it.
Maybe MWB will be able to get some sort of license deal worked out (if they've even got an interest in doing that - since it'd likely require them to make everything for 4e) and we'll see more material for the world come out. It'd be a shame if they couldn't do something for their fans. I've got some friends that are HUGE DL fans and they're heartbroken over how this has been done. They've said it's enough to make them not move to 4e... I don't know if that'll last or or not... They're pretty big RPGA (well, were until Living City and Living Death ended, anyhow) gamers.
I should think that the mess that is Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, should be enough to make fans of any other campaign setting think
very carefully before moving to 4e. I would rather have
no 4th edition version of Dragonlance (and keep the great 3.5 DL) than have a Dragonlance Campaign Guide that does for DL what FRCG did for FR.
Back with 3rd edition, Dragonlance Campaign Setting was published by WotC, but everything else was published by Soverign Press (and then Margeret Weis Productions). The same could be done with 4th edition. WotC could put out its splatbooks, get in the big cash and then farm out the little books, knowing that anyone wanting them would need to buy the big three books.
