Setting Reboots are Good

[ki11erDM]

They should reboot Grayhawk back to the war. Or better yet have the Age of Worms happen… that would damn fun to DM : )

 

[Arnwyn]

What does everyone else think about this? Is a periodic reboot of continuing series generally desirable?

Not as far as I'm concerned.

The exact opposite, actually.

 

[Scribble]

It would be neat to see another take on certain campaigns... But they should also do the thing Comics tend to do and give it the sub name...

Like batman The Dark Knight, vrs Batman Detective...

 

[ferratus]

Just to add some clarity:

Events like DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths or Infinite Crisis, Marvel's Heroes Reborn or One More Day, and the Forgotten Realm's ToT and Spellplague (along with Dragonlance: 5th Age) are not what I consider a reboot. They are rather extensive patches, which often cause more issues than they solve.

Also, I think everyone will agree that when a continuing series is going strong and has stories to tell, you should leave it alone. A reboot is necessary when it has been creatively loused up, the original canon is no longer relevant to the times (ie. the Soviet Union fell 20 years ago), or has sat on the shelf for a long time and needs to be introduced to a new or wider fanbase.

In these cases a reboot is necessary, which you then make the assumption within the fiction that the original series didn't exist prior to the version you are writing.

Perhaps to be clear I should have used the term "remake".

 

[Psion]

It depends. Reboots for the sake of selling more stuff are annoying. Reboots for the sake of cleaning out tons of contradictory and broken crap are annoying, but occasionally necessary.

Personally, I'd rather have settings that didn't acquire the tons of canon that make reboots necessary.

This.

Yes, reboots have the positive effect of cleaning out cluttered canon assumptions. They have the bad effect of making stuff that did work not work.

But company driven canon evolution (aka "metaplot") should be done in a very measured fashion in RPGs. If you get to the point the setting authentically needs a reboot, you have ganked your RPG audience by treating them like a literary property instead of a game setting. Not good.

This being the case, it seems to me that in an RPG, setting reboots only have the negative effects that they would have in a literary property, but with a much smaller positive effect.

So I think I'll go with "no" on this one.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Just to add some clarity:

Events like DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths or Infinite Crisis, Marvel's Heroes Reborn or One More Day, and the Forgotten Realm's ToT and Spellplague (along with Dragonlance: 5th Age) are not what I consider a reboot. They are rather extensive patches, which often cause more issues than they solve.

Yes that seems to be a big confusion in this thread, and something I've confused myself with before.

Time of Troubles/Spellplague/Crisis on Infinite Earths = Patch.

New Battlestar Galactica/Marvel Ultimates = Reboot.

They're entirely different things. I'd love to see a GENUINE REBOOT of various settings, where they took what was good about the setting/ideas, and removed the idiocy/convolution. A patch, on the other hand, has to try and keep some vague continuity, has to try and integrate all the old threads, and I've never seen one which didn't end up pretty damned ugly.

So yes, setting reboots are good. Setting patches range from "decent" to "terrible", but I can't think of any "good" ones, really.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I would have preferred it if the Forgotten Realms had done a complete setting reboot.

Their approach reminds me of the transition to the Fifth Age in Dragonlance. The end result was a divided fan base, both in terms of setting (4th age vs. 5th age) and system (AD&D vs. SAGA).

Most movie franchises, comic books, tv shows and campaign settings generally run out steam somewhere in that length of time. When the reimagined series is bad, it can usually just be easily ignored. If it is good, it can be really, really, good without the baggage of the old canon. Battlestar Galactica is a prime example, but you wouldn't have to go far to find more. The old continuing storyline is a great source to mine for ideas, but the reboot allows those ideas to wanked together in a more coherent storyline.

Reboots can be both good and bad. MASH was a better TV show than a movie. BSG's original series was good at the time (still a fan), but the new version is fantastic. Marvel's Ultimates line is also quite popular, enough so that it influences the movies.

At the same time, I couldn't imagine rebooting Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

It just kind of depends on the property, its initial success and iconic status, and its fans.

If Dragonlance is released again for 4e, I hope they don't just do a literal translation of the original War of the Lance and call it a day. I would like them to go back to the original design notes. Take the original goal of placing an emphasis on dragons, and do an overarching series of adventures.

I'd say to build upon the Holy Six (Chronicles and Legends), then maybe reboot. Maybe. I'm not convinced that a reboot is in order for Dragonlance yet, but it could be fun.

Heck, I'd even be okay with rewriting the Chronicles as a novel trilogy tie-in with authors that aren't Weis and Hickman.

I totally disagree with this. The Dragonlance Chronicles is a classic series beloved by a multitude of fans. To rewrite Chronicles would be a disservice to Weis and Hickman and to Dragonlance fans everywhere.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

I agree with Dragonhelm. Build off of Chronicles and Legends and then do a clean wipe after that. The River of Time would allow it you know.

 

[Neil Bishop]

I like what the FRCS did in terms of a reboot for Forgotten Realms in 3rd Edition. That's my baseline now: I ignore everything post-1372 DR and have written up my own rough outlines of the events of the years since then otherwise covered by novels.