What do you want in a fantasy setting?

[Wolfen Priest]

Well I won't be writing that setting. I find that sort of futility to be intolerable drek.

I totally agree with you on that. Make it an inspiring place, I say. The 'ley lines' idea was dead on, if you ask me. Remember the cartoon Dungeons & Dragons? To me, that show epitimized a good, mysterious place.

I suggest ideas that are easily visualized. Of course, YMMV

 

[Nightfall]

Hmmm. Both FR and DL sell a lot of novels, that's the common thread in their examples here, and that's where the real money is, I guess.

So I think you may well be off the mark, mostly because I doubt they're looking for a gamer's world in particular - that's probably just a bonus, and a marketing tie-in for novels. In other words, I don't think they've got gamers in mind except secondarily with this venture. Then again, novels returns helped send TSR bankrupt, and so I may be wrong and WotC may be returning to bread and butter...

EDIT: Silly me. WotC bread and butter isn't RPGs, it's TCGs...

I do think that TCGs are where the money is( have you seen how many commericals they have to things like Sci -fi shows and/or lucas board games?) I do think they get SOME profit from RPGs.

I'm willing to admit to be wrong...but I do think I'm justified in making this statement since it seems to me my gaming store no longer has any of the FR products that were put out, including Monsters of Faerun. Novels might sell, but you'll notice something, novels don't generate the kind of income that some of the card games do, mainly BECAUSE they can always fix things. Novels have to have continuity. Same is true with settings.

 

[rounser]

I do think that TCGs are where the money is( have you seen how many commericals they have to things like Sci -fi shows and/or lucas board games?) I do think they get SOME profit from RPGs.

Apart from Magic and Pokemon, both of which are past their heyday (from what I gather), I don't see any other gooses which lay golden eggs in the TCG world.

Novels might sell, but you'll notice something, novels don't generate the kind of income that some of the card games do, mainly BECAUSE they can always fix things. Novels have to have continuity. Same is true with settings.

It's not really fair to compare, I think...the markets are so different...

Time for some armchair speculation!

Kids and adults get addicted to TCGs if they're doing their job right...RPGs are more like a hobby rather than an addiction...and I'd assume that fantasy novels from WotC worlds cater to an existing base of fantasy readers, with gamers (from computer FRP and RPG crossovers) acting as a feeding and marketing mechanism on the side.

If you get a hit TCG, you can extract a lot of money over a short time from "users" as the craze spreads. It's a bit like gambling - you never know whether you might win next game - and collecting - if only you had that card!
T-ching!

RPGs have not much money in them unless they're D&D, it seems. It's already niche, and on top of that, difficult to make a particular product appeal to everyone in that niche, as TSR seemed to find out from all reports...

Novels don't necessarily cater just to the "geek" crowd, so make a hit there and the sky's the limit (e.g. Dragonlance Chronicles). Like movies, a good deal of books sell by word of mouth. I don't know how well fantasy books are selling at the moment, but given that they're often evergreens (I saw boxed set of DL Chronicles still on the shelves the other day, Belgariad too etc.) I suspect that it's a lot...

There's also another avenue. Fantasy is apparently hot in hollywood at the moment, so make a hit gaming/novel world with an existing fan base, and you can sell it to the studios like Marvel and DC have been able to do with superheroes. And then it feeds back into selling novels and games.

No wonder WotC wants another FR or DL!

 

[Nightfall]

Well I think they are trying. Just turn on the Saturday morning cartoon shows, and you'll see what I mean. I'm pretty sure there's a Powerpuff Girls CCG, along with stuff from Star Wars and other sources.

I do think you're right rounser to a degree BUT there's a reason why companies enjoy addictions. They can generate LARGER revenues than hobbies and/or word of mouth. Especially when you're talking about repeat business. Why do you think illicit drugs sell so well? Because people are ADDICTED to them. Same is true with other things in life, internet addictions, card gaming addictions, gambling addictions. The fact is, addictions are subtle and not always readily apparent. But the fact is, for the ones selling the stuff, the demand is FAIRLY high.

 

[rounser]

But Nightfall, don't you think that a new setting is a lot easier to turn into bestselling novels and a D&D setting than into a hit TCG, right?

Magic is like D&D in that it created an industry, so it doesn't really count as far as a model of making another hit TCG. Pokemon was a license with a lot of momentum from elsewhere that mapped particularly well onto the TCG market - but other hugely popular licenses don't always work, otherwise Star Wars and Harry Potter TCGs would be as big. (I don't know how well Harry Potter's doing, might it be gaining?)

So in this case, I very much doubt that whatever settings they buy will be turned into TCGs. At least, not initially.

 

[Nightfall]

But Nightfall, don't you think that a new setting is a lot easier to turn into bestselling novels and an RPG than into a hit TCG, right?

No you're right about that. But I DON'T see this setting pulling in numbers to help promote WotC RPG efforts. I had hoped that d20 would do that to a degree.

 

[Sulimo]

Well, as most settings are the Hollywood version of medieval europe as a core with the fantasy mixed in I for one would love a bronze age era (or earlier) setting like the Roman empire or Athenian Greece or even Ramses era Egypt as the core to which the fantasy elements were added.

 

[Valicor]

I want a setting where magic has a real price. I want a gnome-free setting. I want conspiracies, wars, famine, tragedies. I want a world of dark grittiness, where adventurers can make a difference, for a while, but where dreams of actually banishing the darkness are futile. Mud. Dirt. Treachery. And then I want something *really* bad to happen....

Where you reading proposal idea?

 

[Buttercup]

Valicor, I did read it. But Psion asked me what I want, so I told him. I don't think it would sell, but it's still what I want.

Whoever mentioned The Black Company upthread, good idea! That's the kind of darkness I'd like. I've never looked at Ravenloft. Isn't it a vampire setting?

 

[Dinkeldog]

Talking animals. Your iconic characters can feature toads, hedgehogs, and mice.

Whoever doesn't like the gnomes is 180 degrees from me. Gnomes are good, just don't make them tinker gnomes or some variation on tinker gnomes.

Honestly, just nothing too dark. If I want dark, I've got plenty to look at. Neutral should be good enough. Put in sources of conflict that make sense, like trade and religion. Treat psionics like it's core.