One new setting a year?

[Nellisir]

It's a little more complex than that, given that Rokugan had a preexisting fan base and its own rule set.

Given that Rokugan had 21 print supplements released to support it --- more than any other 3rd party setting I know of -- it's a curious thing to be citing as a failure.

 

[PeterWeller]

As to setting books giving me more work - yes they do. With a pure homebrew, while I do have to create some of the background material, I only have to create what I need. With a published book, assuming I'm actually going to use it, not only do I have to make all the adventures, but, I also have to make sure that those adventures fit within the canon established within the setting book. In other words, I'm working for two masters instead of one.

Yeah, I'm totally going to have to disagree with you on this one. In essence, you are saying that reading a book and remembering what you read is more difficult than coming up with your own original characters, regions, nations, religions, and conflicts. Unless you are developing only the most bare bones of a setting, this simply isn't the case. It's really not difficult at all to develop a European flavored fantasy setting, but thousands of DMs run Mystara, Greyhawk, and the Realms because it's still a lot easier to pick up a book and give it a good read. Also, who says you have to make sure that your adventures fit in with the setting's canon? That's total nonsense. Once you start rolling the dice, the world is yours to do with as you please.

...Dragons of Despair in Oriental Adventures...

This is a terrible example of a module that would take a lot of work to adapt outside of its home setting. At its core, Dragons of Despair involves a party traveling to ruins in a swamp to find a lost artifact. Oh, and there's a dragon in the ruins. Swap the hook, enlarge or shrink the overall conflict DoD sets up, and you can fit that module into any setting that has ruins, swamps, and dragons. Hell, you don't even need a dragon. You could swap Khisanth for a demon or devil or any other intelligent big bad that would chill at the bottom of some ruins. Now all you need is swamps and ruins. Every setting has ruins, and even Dark Sun has a swamp. Want to use it in your Spelljammer campaign? Make it a swamp planet.

I've adapted the Taladas adventures into FR. I've adapted Freedom from Dark Sun into a generic fantasy homebrew. I've even adapted Flashpoint: Brak Sector from WEG's old Star Wars into a nautical themed D&D homebrew. In each case, not only was I adapting a module from a different (and sometimes wildly different) setting, but I was also adapting rules from a different edition or different game entirely. In each case, it took me no more work than if I was to sit down and write out my own adventure. In fact, in each case, I chose to adapt a module partly because it would decrease my workload as a DM.

If you want inspiration for a new setting, read a novel. Watch a movie. Otherwise, why bother?

I don't get where you're coming from with this, but it does sound like you're telling people how to be creative, which is pretty crass, especially considering that one could take your whole argument to say that you aren't creative enough to adapt a pre-published setting or module to your needs.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Put it another way. Show me a successful setting that DOESN'T have module support.

Define success.

I'd say that Greyhawk is wildly successful. It's had two modules in the 3E era.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You mention that the module wouldn't even be recognizable if you convert it - the example was Dragons of Despair in Oriental Adventures. If you have to do that much work - about all you could salvage would be the map, that's no really any less work than doing it yourself.

Hey, you picked the module. Most modules I convert to a given setting, I do on the fly.

 

[SSquirrel]

Actually I'd say Greyhawk would be almost dead if it hadn't been the LIving setting for RPGA. Greyhawk had been comatose toward the end of 2E and they barely maintained it during 3E. Greyhawk's popularity was largely based in the fact that it was the first setting. OD&D and AD&D are the period of time it was big. Personally Greyhawk never impressed me, but I have some friends who are fanatical about it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Actually I'd say Greyhawk would be almost dead if it hadn't been the LIving setting for RPGA.

I suspect a lot of Greyhawk fans would view those as fighting words.

 

[Nellisir]

I suspect a lot of Greyhawk fans would view those as fighting words.

Let's be honest - alot of Greyhawk fans view everything as fighting words. Greyhawk is the perpetual underdog now, and the fanatics are scrappy about it.

 

[SSquirrel]

They can call them fighting words if they want. The setting is deceased. You can't breathe life into a corpse. I really don't see much that WotC could do to dress up Greyhawk and impress current gamers with it. It always struck me as a rather bland setting and considering what most people new to gaming are coming from material wise, it will be even more so.

Those are probably more accurately fighting words I would prefer to see SOME new settings in the mix. If they wanted to take some polls thru the website and dragon and such to find the most popular and tracked IP addresses to attempt to keep anyone from flooding any of the voting boxes, I would be fine w/pretty much anything being reissued.

 

[thundershot]

I would like to see Greyhawk and Mystara mined for the "points of light" setting. Personally, it's time to combine them together into something new and move on.

As for the other settings, I REALLY want to see:


Spelljammer: Sorry, but the "non-goofy" one in Polyhedron just didn't work out. It lost the flavor that it had. It didn't have a bar on an asteroid and hanging with beholders and mind flayers. It didn't have the Giff. I'm sorry, but the Giff are a GREAT and FUN race of gun toting hippos.

Dark Sun: Another setting that's very different. Everything works differently, and the classes are also different. I always loved the feel of... survival in that setting.

Planescape: As someone else pointed out, Planescape could be used to explore the new cosmology.... lots of potential in that.




Chris

 

[Ranger REG]

I think it's a lovely little decision, as I would like to see a fat, concentrated PHB, MM and DMG every year than the scattered, often mostly filler, crap splat books we’ve been getting by the dozen every year.

Would you like to keep buying books such as Complete Gnome Janitor Handbook?

Hey, if it's optional, then I have a choice.

I don't want to feel like I have to buy a PHB every year, just to keep up with the community. It's better to get the core rules right THE FIRST TIME.

So, I'm guessing Eberron fans are going to hold off buying 4e next year because it is, dare I say it, FR-themed? That would KILL their sale. Even Hasbro suits are going to look at this bottom line saying "WTF?!?!!!"

Bad decision. It's a gimmick.