Rampant Speculation: A Whole Lotta Settings

[I'm A Banana]

One of the 4e quotes being tossed around in speculation is "One setting per year." Originally, I figured this meant in the context of current 3e settings that are getting the 4e treatment: FR and Eberron will be realased in '08 and '09, respectively.

HOWEVER, I'm going to go out on a limb here and forecast that New Settings are going to be a big part of 4e.

Whyfor? I'll tell your face!

#1: What's Not In The PHB. As far as classes go, we're (probably) going to be missing the Bard, the Druid, and the Monk. All three of these are culturally specific in their best incarnations, the Bard and Druid for the Celts and the Monk for Oriental Adventures. Certainly these will be "converted." My guess is that they'll be converted in cultural products similar to 3e's OA. Oriental Adventures, Celtic Adventures...and that could be only the beginning. One of the other quotes is that the 4e designers didn't want to ignore the stock placed in not only Greyhawk characters, but also mythic characters (Thor was mentioned)...Viking Adventures for nordic campaigns? Imperial Adventures for Roman campaigns? I'm thinking "Probably!"

#2: The Fan Community. A large part of why WotC has steered away from a bunch of settings in 3e is because they didn't want to split the brand. With a vocal and active fan community (and a central locale for them), WotC doesn't need to: the fans can create material and have it published in the Insider for their favorite settings. WotC can publish these new settings as one-offs: 256 pages on the Orient, 256 pages on the Celts (all seen through D&D's lens)...and that's it. Anything else comes from the Fans.

#3: "Things to bring people from older editions back." This is a little bit of wishful thinking, but if they're pumping out one setting per year (ish), then it would makes sense for them to also return to the 2e settings. Birthright, Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft...even perhaps Mystara? Greyhawk? Dragonlance? The different areas of FR might not be explored in that much detail (Kara-Tur, Al-Quadim, Maztica) because they're tied up in FR, but I bet we get Oriental Adventures, Arabian Adventures, and Jungle Kingdom Adventures too. If they're pumping out settings ANYWAY, it would only make sense to tap that wellspring.

 

[Hjorimir]

One of the 4e quotes being tossed around in speculation is "One setting per year." Originally, I figured this meant in the context of current 3e settings that are getting the 4e treatment: FR and Eberron will be realased in '09 and '10, respectively.

FR = 2008 (August, in fact), Eberron = 2009. (I'm just posting this so others who may read this don't get confused.)

I'd love to see a wider range of Campaign Setting books as well, though they don't need to be reprints of odler settings; new creations would be perfectly fine with me.

 

[KingCrab]

New creations might be cool, but it sure would be sweet if they brought Ravenloft back.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

I strongly suspect that these new setting books will have a limited book run. They'll be a preplanned run of about 1-5 books, rather than the ongoing and open-ended runs that they used for FR, Eberron, and all the 2nd edition settings. That way they can create playable settings that don't suffer from detail overload. And, more importantly, which don't compete with each other like they did in 2e.

White Wolf has already started doing this with their new games, to great success.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I can say that I'd definitely buy a campaign setting every year, I'd play most if not all of them, and easily poach the rest.

I'm not married to any setting, though.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I wouldn't mind being able to play D&D in Tamriel or Bas-Lag, actually.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I strongly suspect that these new setting books will have a limited book run. They'll be a preplanned run of about 1-5 books, rather than the ongoing and open-ended runs that they used for FR, Eberron, and all the 2nd edition settings. That way they can create playable settings that don't suffer from detail overload. And, more importantly, which don't compete with each other like they did in 2e.

White Wolf has already started doing this with their new games, to great success.

I agree. White Wolf killed WoD and soon the dragon inside Eberron's logo will hatch and the whole thing will be gone (it's a theory). I think this is the way to go; with a bang and not a whimper!

Moreover, I think they will pour more effort into the setting D&D is by itself. Thor is a character in D&D just like he is in Marvel. The existance of Thor does not necessarly mean Heimdal is around too. This suggests that Mordenkainen is a force to be reckoned with in FR and Eberron too, in some way or another. Mordenkainen is being elevated to D&D-status not just Greyhawk. (This made me think of Lord Soth. Funny.)