[SCOOP] Psionics 3.5, The New Setting, and Dark Sun!!

[Alzrius]

*sings* Do you believe The Dragon, and I hope you do...

Ahem. Sorry. Anyway, I just want to say that I'm really jazzed about this news. I've been hearing "under the table" rumors from people I talked to at some cons about whether or not Dark Sun could come back, and Im extremely pleased to see that it may very well be! It was, other than Ravenloft, my favorite setting.

About the poll, its interesting that they may be doing 3.5E psionics. If so however, I hope they make up their minds to do so soon. I'd prefer to buy all the 3.5E books at once and have that be that. I don't want to keep buying 3.5E revisions of other books every few months. One revision, all at once, is enough.

I'm not going to comment on how I would like to see psionics revised, since I did that at the poll, save to say that I can only guess that their sudden reversal on not revising psionics can only come from a very loud cry from the fans. Its good to know (or at least presume) that a collectively loud voice is still heard.

All that said, I'm curious about how Dark Sun will be presented in a new incarnation. Mostly:

- Will everyone still have wild talents (or some psionic power thereof)? Or will the massive prevalence of psionics be scaled back so only psionicists actually have that power?

- Will they make it so that Psionics Are Different, not like their default rules in the PsiHB?

- Will they take into account the current official materials presented at Athas.org, referencing them and using some of the things presented there? Or will it invalidate the items there, and force them to be taken down?

Still, I'm sure if will be great however its done, since anything is better than nothing. Thanks for the news The Dragon! All hail Borys of Eb-*goes back and reads the revised boxed set for 2E Dark Sun* er, all hail Lord Dregoth!

 

[Mark]

At first I thought, "This is some sort of troll." The I read on and MoRuss chimed in and I thought, "MoRuss must know something and certainly wouldn't participate in a troll." Then I decided to try and work through this logically. So let me get this straight...

They've spent a great many hours going through 11,000 entries to find, and give prize money to, a person who has a new campaign setting that appeals to a portion of their market. In fact, they feel that the popularity of this search (and perhaps have figures that the many entrants support this) shows that a psionics-heavy setting is what everyone is clammering to buy? Mind you, I do not recall a plethora of the ones revealed here (or elsewhere) being psionics-oriented, but let's say that all of the ones not revealed were psionics oriented.

Regarding older settings, they purposefuly kept only two; Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, the two most popular. They felt that they did not have the manpower to develop setting material that would appeal to a smaller segment of the market. Let's not forget that this was back in the day when they had quite a few more employees to throw at their projects and Hasbro wasn't looking over their shoulder at the bottom line. So they decided (and cleared this with Hasbro) that they would search the fan base for a setting. The prevailing wisdom, as I understood it, was not that they were going to be looking for something very different and new. I had thought they they were looking for something along the lines of FR...but not FR. Something that would be widely popular and reap high profits. Something "crunch-heavy" because we all know from SKR's mythical scenario that the people in charge wanted to gear things toward crunch.

Of the older, undeveloped settings that they tried to license out, all but a few are gone. The ones that are now being developed outside of WotC are assumably the ones that people have clammored to see. These were the ones that some folks have felt they would risk their money to develop as outside companies. How many of these were psionics-heavy? Is this an indication of how popular a psionics-heavy setting might be?

How many other ways does WotC have to figure out how popular psionics might be? They could check the message boards. (I've seen threads here on psionics that have some of the best and brightest of psionics game adherents but they seem to be in a relative minority, aren't they?) They could look to which of the older settings that they chosen not to develop, that also were not the ones that people were stepping up to risk money to purchase, and determine if any of these that were psionics-heavy settings and still had some merit to develop in-house. (How many older settings were psionics-heavy that weren't licensed out?) They can look to how third party publishers are selling. (How many third party settings are psionics-heavy?) They can look at how prevalent the wish for use of psionics is among the RPGA which is a fairly large group of gamers. (How many psionics-heavy Living settings are out there?) They can look at how well the numbers are on sales of the Psionics Handbook. (What were the print run numbers of the Psionics Handbook?)

I grant you that if a second printing of the Psionics Handbook is warranted it certainly makes more sense to include any errata that they may have and add new sections that they either left out of the first or that is new and supports the revised core books. They'd have to do this or they'd be printing up a slew of books that not many people would purchase, and I say this meaning that most would not re-purchase a book that contained little more than a bit or errata.

According to the information being proffered in this thread at least some of that research has suggested that not only one, but two settings should be developed in-house at WotC? ...with their ever-shrinking manpower and resources?

I'm a bit skeptical. If anyone can address the questions I have and give me some solid reasoning why this makes sesne, I would appreciate the insight.

 

[Kesh]

Maybe this is a crazy idea but...

What if Dark Sun 3 is the revised Psionics HB?

Think about it. They could roll all the revised rules right into the book with the new setting material. That might alleviate some of the concerns people have about repurchasing the rules. (Though it creates another problem for those who don't care about DS. )

 

[Alzrius]

Maybe this is a crazy idea but...

What if Dark Sun 3 is the revised Psionics HB?

Think about it.

My thought is: cool, but highly unlikely, for several reasons.

1) A revision of a book is just supposed to clean up messy things and clarify definitions. Adding setting flavor would be too much.

2) Given the amount of stuff people think could/should be added to a revised PsiHB, there just wouldn't be enough room to do the campaign justice.

3) It would scare off everyone who just wanted psionics but not a new setting.

4) Thats not a financially-sound plan for WotC. Why have people buying one book (a hybrid PsiHB/DSCS) when they could buy two (PsiHB 3.5E and the DSCS).

Anyone else want to continue this list?

 

[Spatula]

I don't think they'll be developing two settings from scratch in-house, Athas.org has been the (fan-run) home of the official 3E Dark Sun conversion for some time now. If WOTC does intend to publish a DS book, they will probably just take what athas.org has produced and tweak it.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Well, i'm gonna keep my fingers crossed and hope this is true. Psionics deserve more love.

 

[ascendance]

Umm, didn't AEG or White Wolf license Dark Sun a while back? However, dropping a short setting into the Psionics Handbook, and letting a third party do the real support, like with Rokugan D20, might work for them.

 

[rounser]

If anyone can address the questions I have and give me some solid reasoning why this makes sesne, I would appreciate the insight.

Can't do that, but I can speculate.

Theory:
Winning setting uses psionics a lot. Wizards realises that new setting alone won't sell quite enough Psi Handbooks if they did a big print run of them alongside it....and that the requirement to buy the Psi Handbook may drive off some buyers.

Wizards thinks:
Well, not everyone's going to shell out for this setting alone and a psi handbook....so, if we re-release Dark Sun, another setting which requires psionics, we can count on everyone buying either one or other of the settings, and getting a Psi Handbook sale from each of them in the bargain. Then they're set up to buy the other setting! Marketing synergy! The Dark Sunners may well buy the New Setting too.

Result:
Wizards effectively sells a setting, and a fourth rulebook to everyone who wants to use either setting, and those who've bought the psi handbook and one of the settings will be more inclined to buy the other, because now they own the psi handbook that's required to use it.

 

[WanderingMonster]

At first I thought, "This is some sort of troll." The I read on and MoRuss chimed in and I thought, "MoRuss must know something and certainly wouldn't participate in a troll." Then I decided to try and work through this logically. So let me get this straight...

...MY EDIT...

I'm a bit skeptical. If anyone can address the questions I have and give me some solid reasoning why this makes sesne, I would appreciate the insight.

Mark? You're supposed to be the lighthearted, witty, optimistic one! And now your rose-colored glasses are half-empty?

Sure this might just be internet rumour, I'll grant you that. Would it help if we called it Unofficial News?

And yes, I realize that this post lacks solid reasoning and/or insight. But it has riboflavin and retsyn!

 

[Morrus]

Bear in mind, folks, that nobody has said that WotC WILL be reviving Dark Sun, or that they WILL be producing a PsiHB 3.5. The recent poll was an information-gathering exercise.

As for the allegedly Psi-heavy nature of the new setting - yeah, that's what I've heard.