D&D 5E Updating Dark Sun to 5th Ed

[Charlaquin]

Or...just ignore the parts out of the old one that you don't like?

That puts the onus of fixing the issues with the game/setting on the players, which is a great deal of work for them. The point of releasing a setting book is so players don’t have to do that kind of work.

Things are what they are. The evolution of ideas should lie in new creation, not revisionism.

To the people that like something as it is, changing it is disrespectful, and gains you nothing that you couldn't accomplish better by making something new.

It's not only mean-spirited, it's sub-optimal.

But the old material isn’t being changed. It still exists, exactly as it ever did. The new version is a new creation, inspired by the original.

 

[Charlaquin]

WotC should create a new setting if they cannot hack the older ones (or think their customers would reject the older ones) - a setting with the new customers' tastes and preferences in mind.

That’s exactly what they’ve done. The setting presented in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is not the setting presented in the 2e Ravenloft campaign setting (which is not the setting presented in I6).

 

[DemoMonkey]

We may be narrowing in on the essence of our disagreement, Charlaquin.

I feel a retcon is not just a newer version. It is an ex cathedra disavowal by the company of what came before, a pronunciation that "That thing didn't happen, and you are wrong if you continue to think it does."

It's insulting to anyone who loved the old version. Yes the old version still physically exists. No enforcement arm will come to your house to take it from you.

But it's still diminishing and mean and again, even worse, unnecessary.

 

[Parmandur]

That’s exactly what they’ve done. The setting presented in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is not the setting presented in the 2e Ravenloft campaign setting (which is not the setting presented in I6).

That's a really, really excellent point: 2E Rabemloft is even more 9f a departure from Laura & Tracy Hickmans ideas than the new book is from the 2E material. In fact, the Hickmans had major input on CURSE OF Strahd, which informs this new take pretty heavily.

 

[Parmandur]

We may be narrowing in on the essence of our disagreement, Charlaquin.

I feel a retcon is not just a newer version. It is an ex cathedra disavowal by the company of what came before, a pronunciation that "That thing didn't happen, and you are wrong if you continue to think it does."

It's insulting to anyone who loved the old version. Yes the old version still physically exists. No enforcement arm will come to your house to take it from you.

But it's still diminishing and mean and again, even worse, unnecessary.

The old books don't just exist in the world, WotC is still printing them and selling them.

 

[Sithlord]

Nobody is destroying anything. The old ones still exist. Play them if you prefer them. Or take your favorite bits from each version and make it your own.

Updating a timeline is just railroading on a big scale

 

[Charlaquin]

We may be narrowing in on the essence of our disagreement, Charlaquin.

I feel a retcon is not just a newer version. It is an ex cathedra disavowal by the company of what came before, a pronunciation that "That thing didn't happen, and you are wrong if you continue to think it does."

It's insulting to anyone who loved the old version. Yes the old version still physically exists. No enforcement arm will come to your house to take it from you.

But it's still diminishing and mean and again, even worse, unnecessary.

It isn’t a retcon though. It’s a new, separate continuity.

 

[Sithlord]

It isn’t a retcon though. It’s a new, separate continuity.

Was there some Star Trek time travel event that I missed.

 

[Charlaquin]

Updating a timeline is just railroading on a big scale

I think I agree with this? That’s kinda why metaplots went out of fashion in the early 00s. Within the same few-year timespan the World of Darkness metaplot straight-up ended, the Forgotten Realms advanced in a direction the majority of fans disliked, everyone hated the ending of Mass Effect 3 for “not respecting the players’ choices”and the entire gaming industry collectively realized, maybe metaplots are a bad idea, actually.

 

[Charlaquin]

Was there some Star Trek time travel event that I missed.

No. That’s exactly my point. It’s not the same setting, so it being different from the other setting isn’t retroactive continuity.