Now WotC has taken Dragonlance (merged)

[Lord Zardoz]

Answers

The original DL adventures were a serious railroad, but they included some of the coolest locations in the history of D&D. The sunken city on the edge of a cliff, the giant gate, the dwarven mountain, the floating tomb, Icewall, the really tall tower/seige, and the city with the erupting volcanoes are all really potent images. Can't remember the names of these places - and I hated the books - but I've raided the original Dragonlance modules for maps and inspiration over and over.

I'm not moved one way or the other by WOTC reclaiming the DL license. Seemed odd to have spun it off in the first place. Of course, it seemed odd to have spun the peiodicals section off as well. I wouldn'tve cared about that one as much, either, if they'dve promised to keep publishing the magazines.

Too lazy to see if someone already got to answering this for you.
Xak-Tsaroth: - Sunken City on the Edge of a Cliff
Thorbardin: Dwarven mountain kingdom
High Clerists Tower: the really tall tower/seige
Sanction: the city with the erupting volcanoes
Pax Tharkas: Dwarven gate fortress

The sunken city of Ishtar is also a pretty good site, as are the Towers of High Sorcery.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Gentlegamer]

This reminded me of James Bond:
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

Goldfinger was a wise man.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't think the sky is falling yet, But perhaps the d20/OGL market is shrinking enough that WotC doesn't want to make war with its own IP any longer (Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Rokugan, Kalamar) so its taking back its IP (worlds or logos) and battering down the hatches to work on a smaller selection of material which is more profitable.

Ryan Dancy said the market is pretty much shrinking, and I assume it will continue to in light of MMORPGS and other digital role-playing. WotC can't withdraw the OGL, but there is no reason it needs to compete with itself for shelf-room, esp as the Game-Store is slowly dying and bigger booksellers (Borders, Amazon) become the new marketing strategy.

Pulling back DL and RL (and GH via Dungeon/Dragon Mags) eliminates three outside sources of FRPG material. Removing the logos off L5R and Kalamar limit their exposure as well. These companies though, without WotC's swagger, will have to compete harder for shelf-space, while Hasbro/WotC will always have the upper-hand on this.

Now, WotC only has to compete with a handful of successful d20 publishers (Ronin, Malahavoc, Etc) who together don't have the same strength as WotC. WotCs modules have distribution edges of Goodman's, etc.

In fact, the only competition WotC is making for itself in the next 12 months is SW SAGA, which has enough Lucasites to make it viable (and doesn't compete deeply with traditional FRPG-style games).

I don't see this as the beginning of 4e or whatever, but I do see it as the final stanza for viable OGL content as is. Perhaps PDF, smaller web-publishing, and such will carry those games (not counting the successful ones, like Ronin) but I think the era of of OGL publishing is over...

 

[TerraDave]

WotC is taking it back!

We all know the details:

Licenses for the following are all being or have been cancelled/not renewed:

Dungeon
Dragon
Dragon Lance
E-tools
Ravenloft

They also decided to make D&D eXPerience (once Winter Fantasy), a convention they control, the main D&D convention, versus GenCon, which they sold off a while ago.

The pattern is pretty clear, and represents a major reversal from past strategy.

What does it all mean?

(my apologies for adding yet another thread...but, well, they are taking it back!).

 

[hong]

It's all another step on the road to the heat death of the universe, mang.

 

[mhensley]

This just in- WOTC INVADES POLAND!

 

[Finger Steeple]

I'm surprised it took WOTC this long to realize that the independent companies that have held licenses to their 'throw-aways' are putting out far superior quality products than when it was in their hands.

Their arrogant attitude of 'we know whats better for you' which permeated in their Public Relations response has me really turned off to the company.

 

[GreatLemur]

This just in- WOTC INVADES POLAND!

Niiiiiice.

 

[Land Outcast]

First:
Remove Possible Competitors for Future Products (Electronic Initiative, Adventure Publishing)

Second:
Publish those Products

Then:
Publish an "Updated But Not Core" set of rules with wide differences with the current rules, this results in a narrowing the official supply (effectively having the monopoly of Updated D&D).

This narrowing will "obviously" cause the brainless consumers to keep feeding only from that tight source and resulting in some tasty extra profit.

Have a nice day.

 

[morbiczer]

I guess it's up to Green Ronin to provide some good news. And look at that, tomorrow is the opening day of GTS...

OH. MY. GOD.

There has been no better RPG news for me in years.

Green Ronin is to produce an RPG for George R R Martin's a Song of Ice and Fire series!

http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=23499&mode=thread&order=0

I'm still sad because of Dragon's and Dungeon's canceling, but at least now I know where my gaming dollars (or in my case: forints) will go in the future.