Underdark? Again?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Saw in the news the "Into the Depths" editorial that announced this year's theme of "Rise of the Underdark".

My first response was: Again? Already?

Now don't get me wrong -- I loves me some deep underground adventures, and while drow are completely overdone and overused it still does not prevent them from being great opponents. It's just that it seems like we just did a "Year of the Underdark" kind of thing very recently.

In other observations ... what's with not actually posting the article on the page at the WotC site? Why does it just provide a link to a *.pdf download? Seems to be designed to annoy your customers ... click ... click ... wait to download ... open, hoping it isn't a trojan or other infected file ... I almost just skipped the whole thing. If I'd been on a mobile device, I would have just forgotten the whole thing.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This is because WOTC is no longer creative, they are just cycling through older stuff for different versions.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I don't understand why a one page editorial is a PDF download in the first place. Why not simply put it on the same page? Heck, Chris's DM articles are actually worth keeping - and are often significantly longer - but they aren't PDF files.

 

[Harlock]

Drizzt sells?

 

[MerricB]

If you were playing in the D&D Encounters and Lair Assault programs, you'd already know that it was a big year for Drow and the Underdark. (Heck, Morrus had it in the news in April).

And, as far as Wizards doing "years" of product...

2002 (ten years ago) was the Year of the Drow.

Cheers!

 

[Deuce Traveler]

As Sade knows, "It's Never As Good As the First Time."

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfzmVUrZplw]Sade - Never As Good As The First Time - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Yora]

Isn't it Year of the Underdark since they released Drow of the Underdark in 2007? Or maybe further back since they started War of the Spiderqueen in 2002.

 

[Janx]

What I don't get is how the drow keep coming back.

We flooded the entire underdark with a couple decanters of endless water back in '02.

then we followed up with Raid in '07, followed by a a lot of portals to the elemental plane of magma.

Honestly, it's like WotC doesn't review our campaign reports and update their material accordingly,

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Clearly, drow and Underdark products sell... and that's vital to maintain some sort of revenue level when many people think 4E is dead.

What I don't get is how the drow keep coming back.

We flooded the entire underdark with a couple decanters of endless water back in '02.

then we followed up with Raid in '07, followed by a a lot of portals to the elemental plane of magma.

Honestly, it's like WotC doesn't review our campaign reports and update their material accordingly,

I think you need to review your campaign reports. Clearly your PCs aren't as effective as they think.

 

[Mercurius]

I feel your pain - I'm rather sick of the drow in particular. In the campaign setting that I'm designing, I'm cutting them out completely and instead making the "bad guy elves" modeled after a hybrid of Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone and Martin's Whitewalkers - pale skinned sorcerers living in the far north with little to no emotional content . There are dark skinned elves, but they live high in the mountains and are more mystical and focused on studying the stars and higher philosophies of life.