Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ferratus" data-source="post: 4685469" data-attributes="member: 55966">I think making Birthright a ruleset to deal with ruling a realm and having bloodlines is perfect, because the setting itself isn't that interesting.  Sure there are gems to be found in the details, but it is just a pseudo-earth culture like Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms.Speaking Greyhawk, I think it already has been adapted for 4e in the best way it can be adapted.  We've pillaged its storylines, monsters, demon lords, and classic dungeons ruthlessly for the "undefined" 4e setting.  It is extremely easy to convert and play the old Greyhawk modules in 4e if you are not married to the minutae of the setting and 4e.  You still see some complaints some minor changes (like Graz'zt's backstory), but because it isn't "Greyhawk Canon" it largely is accepted by the fan community without venom.   I can't imagine the notoriously fussy Greyhawk fanbase not screaming sacriledge if 4e assumptions were imposed on the setting and room made in the Greyhawk for things like Dragonborn or Shifters.The Dragonlance fans would probably take it better given that we went through the hard revision (and not for the better) with the 5th Age storyline a decade ago, along with a new continent of Taladas with different setting assumptions about the world a decade before that.  The suspicion among the fans though is that rather than releasing new campaign materials, WotC will just release the classic Chronicles modules over again.  We all recognize it as a smart business move (because it sells better than the campaign materials for the setting) but we who choose it as our favourite setting have played through those adventures already.   Though I'm a fan of the setting myself, like Birthright its gems are found in the minutae.  Aside from some rather popular/unpopular racial choices (kender, gully dwarves, and gnomes) there isn't anything that really distinguishes it in flavour-wise from the "undefined" setting.Ravenloft, Spelljammer and Planescape have also already been adapted for 4e with Manual of the Planes.  Like Greyhawk, they had the canon and some of the problematic setting assumptions removed, and folded it into the "undefined" campaign setting.  Also like Greyhawk, it has largely been adapted and adopted without huge protests from fans because it borrows instead of replacing the setting's canon.   I imagine more borrowing of these two settings will occur if they ever release sourcebooks for specific planes, though planar-specific sourcebooks might be more of a niche market than WotC is willing to bet on.Dark Sun has definate possibility of being adapted because it has a distinctive flavour (gritty, post-apocolyptic) and because it the only setting that has psionics as a core part of its campaign flavour.  So thus, of all the settings it is the best positioned to showcase both an alternate playing style and an alternate magic system.   However, Dark Sun fans are at least as touchy as Greyhawk fans, given the massive negative reaction to the 3e adaptation in Dungeon Magazine.  That was about as faithful to the source material and backstory of the setting as one could get, and it is pretty much hated for mentioning that a player who likes paladins can play a paladin in the setting.  Given that WotC probably wants players to use its sourcebooks (PHB1, PHB2 etc) in the Dark Sun world, a certain amount of reinterpretation is probably required.   I can't think of any PHB2 race that would be allowed in Dark Sun if you are a purist about setting canon.  So does WotC count on selling Dark Sun and appease the fanbase, or does it hope enough of the fanbase likes a little bit of reinterpretation enough to buy it anyway?  With less sourcebooks being released, do they hope people with an RPG budget will buy the book out of curiosity for the Psionic rules? I'd say the better money would be to make the Dark Sun setting a backdrop for showcasing those psionic rules, rather than releasing a full on campaign guide like the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.   Wider audience (psionics fans are larger than Dark Sun fans) and the Dark Sun fans who are interested in playing 4e will pick it up for the psionics rules system.</blockquote>

Verification