Planescape 3.5 petition

[omedon]

I think some of the Poster's here have missed the point a little. If you read the petition it isn't asking for WotC to remake Planescape; it is asking WotC to license out Planescape to White Wolf Publishing so they can remake it for 3.5.

The petition author cites the high quality job that S&S (White Wolf) did with the Ravenloft Campaign Setting and wishes to see the same sort of thing happen to Planescape.

And last I checked Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press is under the Sword & Sorcery label. Course he might not want anything to do with the project even if it did happen, but I see no reason why he couldn't work on it.


Here is the skinny of it if anyone cares to know.

To: Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

We, The Undersigned, make the following request of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. (henceforth "White Wolf"), and Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (henceforth "Wizards of the Coast"):

We are fans of the Planescape setting for AD&D 2nd Edition as published by TSR, Inc. between 1994 and 1998. We feel that, with Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Ravenloft brought into Third Edition D&D; and considering the popularity of the Computer RPG Planescape: Torment (declared RPG of the Year of 1999) published by Black Isle/Interplay; and considering the vast number of fans the new edition of D&D and the D20 License has brought into the hobby; and considering general fan turnover; that the Planescape setting deserves a chance to be brought into Third Edition.

We also acknowledge the fantastic work White Wolf, under its Sword & Sorcery imprint, has done with the Ravenloft license.

Given the current state of affairs in the RPG industry in general, as well as the existing relationship between Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf for such licenses as Ravenloft, Gamma World and Warcraft, we The Undersigned request of Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf that they come to some form of licensing agreement such that White Wolf, under its Sword & Sorcery imprint, would be licensed to produce a Planescape core book and subsequent supplements for the Third Edition Revised ruleset.

 

[Pseudonym]

Has there been any indication as to if White Wolf would be interested in such an undertaking, or research done as to if it would be economically viable?

 

[Mach2.5]

I think some of the Poster's here have missed the point a little. If you read the petition it isn't asking for WotC to remake Planescape; it is asking WotC to license out Planescape to White Wolf Publishing so they can remake it for 3.5.

White Wolf, when it purchased the liscense to produce Ravenloft setting material, received a very astounding deal on the liscense agreement. WOTC does not issue liscenses in the same way any longer, unfortunately. They are sightly more costly (most rumors put the innitial liscense purchase at around 20,000, with the additional rumor of yearly costs to be incured as well, along with marginal profit fees for additional material published by the 3rd party) with WOTC getting the rights to publish the 'core booklet'. Since its the core book of any setting that nets the most sales, the fan base for a setting must be incredibly huge in order to garner the kind of sales neccessary to cover the costs of aquiring a liscense agreement with WOTC. Most people will buy the core book, no doubt. But the fan base may not be in high enough numbers to support the 3rd party through the publishing of additional supplements.

The saying: "No one is getting rich in the RPG industry." holds thrice as much weight when your talking about liscenses from WOTC under their current framework.

 

[Ashy]

I doubt it will happen, but one can hope. When Planewalker.com became the official site, I spoke with WotC about buying the license to produce the line and they wanted a HEAP o' cash - JUST TO COME TO THE TABLE TO BEGIN TALKS - not to mention the actual money involved...

Does White Wolf have that kinda dough - beats me - they probably do - but sadly, I think that the possibility of making that money back on the line just isn't there. Planescape has lots of fans, but not that many....

Oh, and for those that don't know it, I started Planewalker.com....

 

[Taelorn76]

Planescape has lots of fans, but not that many....

Well one can hope that high numbers in the petition would also equal high numbers in sales and maybe that could persuade them.


BTW Ashy Thank you for the Planewalkers site

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

As for a 3rd party publisher getting access to the PS line, there's little chance of that. PS doesn't have enough market appeal to warrent the cost of the liscense and the hassles of having WOTC publish the core book.

I understand the point you are making but I have only one question to ask concerning market appeal... but Gamma World does?

Planescape has lots of fans, but not that many...

Same question concerning the number of fans.


Personally I only played GW twice and once was with AD&D characters, while I played several campaigns in PS, but that's me.

Oh, and Ashy, thanks from me too.

 

[Ashy]

You are both most welcome!

 

[Mach2.5]

I understand the point you are making but I have only one question to ask concerning market appeal... but Gamma World does?

Actually, that appears to have been a testing gamble. Chunk it out and see what happens. I don't own it, but it didn't appear to be too bad, actually a good book if the genre appeals to you. It failed though. You don't see tons of Gamma World support products do you? Nope. Even if companies can be abit thick of head and slow of thought sometimes, they do learn their lessons when it comes down to paycheck time. If it can be proved that PS can be done in the minimal amount of 3 books (rules, setting, and monsters) then you may at least have a selling point (since its after the 3rd release book that sales for a setting slow to a veritable crawl). Alas, such a limited amount of information though would irk me off to no end and probably not garner very well amongst the older community members.

 

[Buttercup]

Does anyone (besides WotC) have sales figures for the old Planescape books? They kept FR alive but killed the other worlds--they must have based their decisions on actual numbers. It would be interesting to know what the cut-off for commercial viability is, in WotC's eyes.

 

[herald]

Honestly I seem to remember that the boxed sets lost money simply because many people didn't want to get caught buying something without knowing the content.

And while I like the idea of Planescape, I hate the idea of all those panthions <sp> brushing up against each other.

If they made the "Great Wheel" just Greyhawk, connected the FR "tree" though the Shadow Plane, and other cosmos in the same way, I would buy it. But I never liked the "Great Wheel" kludge.

Ironically, I think that you could save Spelljammer if you could rebuild Planescape the right way. (Large Shadow Plane gates in space working like worm holes sort of suits me.)