D&D 5E Old settings coming back?

[Patrick Lewis]

Mystara, it's not been about since 2nd and yet its the Mystara stuff that's selling on drive through RPG. The Cyclopedia is often held up as the best single DND book, and it is still selling( in PDF that is). The known world is a straight forward setting for beginners....

 

[Knightfall]

For me, I want to see Birthright, Greyhawk, and Mystara official come back as full-fledged settings, as well as Spelljammer (in some form or another). My gut tells me we will see Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Eberron, and Ravenloft products, as well as Planescape.

Also, I hope WotC creates a new version of Kara-Tur that stands on its own.

 

[Jester David]

One other thing to keep in mind is that if WotC wants to retain their trademarks to old settings they will have to do something with them sooner or later. The big names are likely fine but the smaller content that hasn't been updated since the middle of second edition might be on the verge of being contestable.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Be careful that there isn't too much being read into some of these comments of late. I've worked with Margaret throughout the years, and she is always willing to work to keep Dragonlance alive. From my understanding, nothing is currently in the works.

My guess is that WotC will follow a path similar to Paizo, and focus on the one setting. We may see a second...maybe. I anticipate that if we do see other setting books, it may be along the lines of the original plan for 4e - one or two books a year. I'm okay with that, as I love the old 2e settings. What I don't want to see is the old settings completely abandoned.

Dragonlance and Ravenloft had 2nd Party support in 3e but it would be nice to have official versions.

The Dragonlance run by Margaret Weis Productions was official. It was officially licensed, and had Margaret Weis behind it. Many Dragonlance creators, including Tracy Hickman, worked on it. Wizards of the Coast reviewed everything before it went into print, and all gaming books had to follow the novels, which were produced by Wizards of the Coast.

 

[Jester David]

The Dragonlance run by Margaret Weis Productions was official. It was officially licensed, and had Margaret Weis behind it. Many Dragonlance creators, including Tracy Hickman, worked on it. Wizards of the Coast reviewed everything before it went into print, and all gaming books had to follow the novels, which were produced by Wizards of the Coast.

Right, which is why I said it was a 2nd Party Product (licenced), as opposed to a 3rd Party Product. It was sanctioned and rubber stamped, but that's still not quite the same thing as a WotC written, developed, and published product.

 

[variant]

I would like to see a lower magic and more gritty medieval campaign setting. There are already a lot of high fantasy, very large world, settings.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Right, which is why I said it was a 2nd Party Product (licenced), as opposed to a 3rd Party Product. It was sanctioned and rubber stamped, but that's still not quite the same thing as a WotC written, developed, and published product.

I guess I don't understand why having WotC tackle Dragonlance would be better.

 

[Jester David]

I guess I don't understand why having WotC tackle Dragonlance would be better.

Having the mechanics being written, designed, and developed by people who created the game system for one. While the fluff text of the 3e Dragonlance books (and the Ravenloft 2PP) was excellent, the mechanics were often a little shaky and unbalanced.
How many different versions of the Knights of Solamnia PrC were there again?

Oh, and not having books become Out of Print less than a year after release and becoming impossible to find.

 

[JeffB]

The Gazetteer published by the RPGA (also known as the driest campaign setting book ever released).

I would vote the Kingdoms of Kalamar book #1, but yeah...LGG is awful unless you just want a snoozefest history lesson for a campaign setting book.

They need to find and hire Carl Sargent, and Roger Moore again. I understand many do not like the WARS era story as originally penned by Zeb,but had FTA been any other new setting besides GH, it would have sold like gangbusters and praised by the masses- its a fantastic product that is full of utility. Roger's The Adventure Begins is also excellent and handles post Flight of the Fiends GH far better as a book of utility than the LGG did.

/tangent

 

[Warbringer]

They need to find and hire Carl Sargent, and Roger Moore again
/tangent

Finding Carl would actually trump Next release as the RPG event of 2014 (or 2015, or whenever he damn thing goes to market)

 

[Paraxis]

I don't think they needed to talk to Keith Baker at all about Eberron. I am pretty sure that part of the deal when entering the setting contest that Eberron won was that WoTC owned your ip out right.

On topic would love to see Mystara and Thunder Rift supported again.

 

[Dykstrav]

Count me amongst those who want some Greyhawk... But then again, maybe not. I was glad that there was no 4E Greyhawk after seeing what happened to the Forgotten Realms setting. I've been able to get by with my older Greyhawk material in the Pathfinder era. Still, it'd be nice to get some things like a monk archetype for the Scarlet Brotherhood, Greyhawk-based character traits, an adventure path with Saint Kargoth or Lorana Kath as the ultimate villain, and similar goodies.

I hope and pray for a new setting. The others have all been done enough.

I've got to spread the XP around before giving more to Dice4Hire, but yes. A thousand times yes. One of the right moves I think 4E made was in coming up with a new setting, even if we never got a hardcover book for it. For D&D to work, it has to keep things fresh, or "relevant," if you prefer that buzzword. I believe that part of Pathfinder's success was tied to the creation of Golarion. A new core setting can't be too far from classic fantasy tropes. It has to strike a careful balance of being new, but at the same time, seeming instantly familiar. I actually think the core 4E world works reasonably well in this respect except for the cosmology.

 

[Morrus]

I don't think they needed to talk to Keith Baker at all about Eberron. I am pretty sure that part of the deal when entering the setting contest that Eberron won was that WoTC owned your ip out right.

It's not so much about legal rights as it is about hiring the right man for the job.

 

[vagabundo]

Maybe they will do a new setting contest.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Maybe they will do a new setting contest.

I would support that.

 

[Nellisir]

Ah. That sounds a lot like someone who says there's been no Forgotten Realms support, because they don't like anything after (Time of Troubles, Spellplague, Sundering, etc).

Um, not at all. LG material is/was unavailable outside of the LG. Official mentions of Greyhawk IP were usually restricted to a name, and when it was more in-depth, often served to make Greyhawk more generic, rather than distinctive. Jester Canuck is absolutely correct in his statement.

The term "lip service" isn't just hyperbole. WotC did lip service to GH, nothing more.

 

[Nikosandros]

It's not so much about legal rights as it is about hiring the right man for the job.

Exactly. WotC owns all the previously mentioned setting and doesn't need any agreement with the original authors. This story (if confirmed) would be about having the authors on board in order to have a version faithful to the original spirit.

 

[Patrick Lewis]

Bruce Heard seems keen to write stuff in Mystara again, But it might have been his wanting to do more Voyages of the Princess Ark that WOTC weren't keen on. He still writes stuff on his blog. If they're gonna use a Red Box for their starter set again( Its 4E print was what caused me to get back into table top gaming after about a 12 year gap), then why not use Threshold, Karameikos setting. Basic D&D was the absolute model of modularity. If there is one thing strikes me as a gaming returnee, its the complexity of settings for to a starting player. The nentir vale setting was good in the respect that it is fairly simple, its just I don't really care for the whole points of light game style. I've personally had my fill of post apocalypse, and quite like the idea classic fantasy tropes of medieval fantasy. The advantage of the known world model was that for a young gamer who fancied playing vikings, he could buy that gazetteer for the fluff and crunch.

They need a simple, constructive setting for young gamers.

 

[Plaguescarred]

It's not so much about legal rights as it is about hiring the right man for the job.

That'd be AWESOME, last time they did this, we got an amazing setting!

 

[keterys]

Um, not at all. LG material is/was unavailable outside of the LG. Official mentions of Greyhawk IP were usually restricted to a name, and when it was more in-depth, often served to make Greyhawk more generic, rather than distinctive. Jester Canuck is absolutely correct in his statement.

I guess I just don't consider LG that bad a resource. Many campaigns could beg for hundreds of adventures and hundreds more articles on wotc's website. In addition to official sourcebooks, adventures, and various setting mentions in almost every published product. Generic or otherwise, saying it hasn't appeared since 2e is crazy. It's fine to say you didn't like the treatment of it in 3e, though, sure. I don't like the treatment of many campaign settings during many editions. Or, for that matter, after the primary source drops like when Dark Sun's 2nd box set was retconned away entirely.

To the extent that I'm not convinced support for a setting is necessarily a good thing, if you already have a ton of support for it in terms of previous publications. Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms support, for instance, seems largely to have fractured its fanbase and limited a DM's ability to get more creative about an area. Things which make a setting harder to get a gaming group setup, rather than easier.

Good luck, at any rate, getting someone who really groks the setting in the way you hope, making the books that are more what you're looking for.