Scarred Lands Canceled?

[Turjan]

This is a nuance really. Both games run on the d20 system and there's no secret about it if you open the book. whol not d20 branded, they are built on the d20 skeleton. Hence I, and I'm sure many other people, consider them a d20 game*.

*Yes OGL games != d20 brand, but so what?

Well, you just have to see it in the context of the question at hand, which is the future of the "Scarred Lands". And here it makes a difference. AU has a similar engine to D&D, yes, but the classes, the magic system and the power progression are very distinctive from D&D, which is part of its special appeal. M&M is a supers game, something completely different, with a very much streamlined version of the d20 engine. That's why they are "only" OGL products.

On the other hand, most d20 products on the market (I said most, not all) are nothing else than D&D supplements. The Scarred Lands fall into this category; they are a somewhat grittier version of the Forgotten Realms, of course with a few very interesting ideas as far as the setting specifics go. However, it's still near vanilla D&D. And it's these near vanilla D&D supplements by other companies than WotC which have a hard time on the market at the moment.

 

[Starman]

Um...all setting even the forgotten REalms will die eventually, its just a matter of when. Without a time frame, the prediction is bound to come through given enough time.

On a long enought timeline the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.

Starman courtesy of Chuck Pahlahniuk

 

[dead]

Um...all setting even the forgotten REalms will die eventually, its just a matter of when. Without a time frame, the prediction is bound to come through given enough time.

OK. You want time frame. In the neer furture. 1 to 3 year. Like Planescpe. Mystara. Birthrite. etc. etc.

 

[johnsemlak]

Guys. While I understand the need to speculate, there is no CONFIRMED word that WW is doing this. Until I hear otherwise I'll keep believing.

But again we'll see.

Nightfall, I also hope that Scarred Lands is still alive and (un)well, but the problem with waiting for official word is that it may never come. Companies don't like to make negative announcements. So we may have to rely on rumors or comments by various designers/staffers who have some inside knowledge.

I would imagine that even if WW has decided not to publish any SL stuff for the time being, they'd want to leave the window open for future possibilities.

 

[Numion]

Maybe they're just gearing for relaunch. Tweak it a little and release it all over again, with some cool noun added to it. Like 'Scarred Lands: The Requeim' .. no that's taken .. howabout 'Scarred Lands: The Remix' ..

 

[Telperion]

Maybe they're just gearing for relaunch. Tweak it a little and release it all over again, with some cool noun added to it. Like 'Scarred Lands: The Requeim' .. no that's taken .. howabout 'Scarred Lands: The Remix' ..

Sounds good to me. Revise the first two Relics and Rituals books, Creature Collection 2 and get back to publishing quality books!

 

[Fevil]

Its not like people will stop playing or buying the setting. Its a really good setting with strong support.

Its just a shame that the most important people, S&SS, never supported it (how many of us are still waiting for the MM creature descriptions?). This, more than anything else, is why my attention is turning to other campaign settings, where the publishers are taking an active part in the online community.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Its just a shame that the most important people, S&SS, never supported it (how many of us are still waiting for the MM creature descriptions?). This, more than anything else, is why my attention is turning to other campaign settings, where the publishers are taking an active part in the online community.

Umm, excuse me?

Quite a few of the writers/developers for Scarred Lands are involved in forums across the length and breadth of the internet. Joe Carriker, who's been the primary SL developer for a couple of years now, is on several forums. I can't even keep track of all the D&D/D20 forums I participate on, and I know several of the writers pop in regularly to the Scarred Lands forum on the SSS web site.

If there's something specific you've been waiting for, I apologize; I'm not involved in the publishing of actual web material. But if you're actually saying that we don't participate in the online community, you're way off-base.

 

[Crothian]

I just picked up Edge of Infinity...really well done planar book. Its going to meld well with Book of the Planes and Planes and Portals.

 

[buzz]

Hardly any d20 products are held by bookshops any more (except WotC and WW products).

Not true at all.

d6, Gurps, WoD and Ars Magica see new editions, and there have been more games published lately that are completely unrelated to d20 or OGL than in a long time before.

With the exception of WoD and GURPS, you're talking about systems that have less than 1% market share. WW has a chunk (25% or so), while GURPS has maybe 2-3%. While the "rebooting" of the WoD is certainly a momentous event, as is the 4th edition of GURPS, I don't see them having much of any effect on the d20 world. And the ArM and D6 markets are so unbelieveably niche that there's no point mentioning them; if there are any RPGs you won't find in your average bookstore, it's them.

As to whether there are more non-d20 games being pubshied now than "a long time before", I'm not sure how we would verify this. If anything, there are probably fewer than there were pre-d20 simply due to the OGL. Though it may be true that the lure of going d20 might be waning a bit, but that's just equilibrium.

The boom may be over, but d20 is here to stay. It's just still finding a balance point.