What other settings should get the FR treatment?

[Waylander the Slayer]

None. Creating a "time line jump" and "reinvisoning" a setting has no real benefit other than trying to sell a new setting under a recognizable trademark. Just create a new setting and call it something else rather than trying to retrofit/blowup/add random elements to existant settings.

 

[jdrakeh]

None. Creating a "time line jump" and "reinvisoning" a setting has no real benefit other than trying to sell a new setting under a recognizable trademark.

What about rejuvinating widespread interest in a property that is no longer in print? If it was merely a matter of re-releasing the old content verbatim, the PDFs of old D&D settings currently made available by WotC should be RPGNow bestsellers. They aren't.

I think there is a very good chance that more people would be willing to pay for a Dark Sun or Planescape that was updated for use with a currently supported rule set than they are to pay for a bunch of information that doesn't work with either of the two currently most played editons of D&D*.

Further, re-tooling a given setting won't deprive people using the 2e or 1e versions of these settings in any way. WotC isn't kicking in doors and forcing us (I play FR 1e) to give up our boxed sets of choice.

*3.5 and 4e

 

[stonegod]

I don't think a "time-jump/restart" has to equate with "PoL-ization" (though it did with FR), and I certainly hope that is not the case with the ECS in 2009.

Of course, one could imagine more of a BSG '78 to BSG '04 transition where some names and initial ideas are used but its essentially a reboot.

Or I could just be rambling.

 

[humble minion]

Just as a minor thread-hijack - can anyone remember the last time a setting reinvention of the 4e FR type actually *worked*?

Dark Sun Revised was widely loathed, as was seemingly every incarnation of Dragonlance post the Twins trilogy. Not sure what the reaction to the Traveller timeline advance was like. New World of Darkness, while not strictly speaking a setting reinvention, doesn't seem to be as popular as the old one (i'm sure it's still selling piles though).

Any others?

 

[jadrax]

Just as a minor thread-hijack - can anyone remember the last time a setting reinvention of the 4e FR type actually *worked*?

Dark Sun Revised was widely loathed, as was seemingly every incarnation of Dragonlance post the Twins trilogy. Not sure what the reaction to the Traveller timeline advance was like. New World of Darkness, while not strictly speaking a setting reinvention, doesn't seem to be as popular as the old one (i'm sure it's still selling piles though).

Any others?

The only thing that comes to mind is the Clans returning in Mechwarrior, but I am unsure if that is a true edition style jump.

 

[jdrakeh]

Just as a minor thread-hijack - can anyone remember the last time a setting reinvention of the 4e FR type actually *worked*?

In D&D? FR 2e. I hate the Time of Troubles and the resulting major changes in the product line, but I'm in the minority. FR 2e became the most popular D&D setting for the better part of two decades. Until it was supplanted by FR 3e (which made some changes, but relatively minor ones by comparison). It's too soon to tell whether FR 4e will follow suit and be another hit but, if history is any indicator, it likely will be.

New World of Darkness. A lot of old WoD fans don't like it but enough people are buying it that it continues to generate profit and spawn new product lines. I think it only seems less popular because playing vampires and werewolves is no longer the novelty that it was in the early 1990s and, so, the nWoD doesn't get as much attention outside of its target demographic as the oWoD initially did.

2300 AD. Not technically Traveller by design, though originally billed as Traveller and still plenty popular with many hard core Traveller fans as an alternate setting for the game. In fact, it actually has more fans than some reiterrations of the official Traveller setting (such as Millieu 0) have.

Deadlands: Hell on Earth was very popular in its heyday and was, quite literally, a revisioning of the original setting via timeline progression. It took the Weird West into the post apocalypse (making it the Wasted West), introducing killer cyborgs, mutant doomsday cultists, and Mad Max road warriors along the way.

Rifts Earth is a special case, but it qualifies, IMHO. Nearly every RIFTS supplement drastically advances the timeline, redefines the cutting edge of technology, or alters the political climate of the entire setting through the medium of whatever region it focuses on. Supplements like Juicer Uprising (World Book 10) and the Coalition Wars series are great examples of this setting revision/updating.

There may be other examples, but those are the only ones that I can think of, currently.

 

[Irda Ranger]

Just another vote for Dark Sun.

As long as they don't try to crowbar in the Core Races and Classes like they did during 3E. What a travesty. I guess Dragonborn are ok in Core 4E World, sorry, Forgotten Realms, and Paladins have always been there, but they have no place in Dark Sun.

I'd appreciate a 4E update for Ravenloft and Spelljammer, but I don't see any benefit in a world-shaking event/time jump for them.

I don't think Planescape even can be updated. The cosmology is just so different that half to the factions and thematic plots don't even make sense any more. If they wanted to create a setting "inspired by" Planescape, I guess that could work as long as they put some thought into the factions. Planescape is hard to get right, because the philosophy has to be carefully thought out. The current generation of WotC developers don't really strike me as deep thinkers on a metaphysical level, even if they clearly give a great deal of thought to how to design good games.

 

[jdrakeh]

I guess Dragonborn are ok in Core 4E World, sorry, Forgotten Realms, and Paladins have always been there, but they have no place in Dark Sun.

Actually, I think that Dragonborn might work well (with a little bit of tweaking) as a race created by the mysterious Dragon Kings, a kind of ubermensch for fantasy introduced as the remnants of a failed plan to reforge the whole world in the vision of the Dragon Kings. If this angle was handled well, I'd buy it (the key is handling it well, though, because this could also be mucked up very badly).

 

[Jack99]

Dark Sun and Planescape in inverse order!

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Done in the same way FR was done? None.

Done in an overall change by completely different developers, I can see Dark Sun. Things were just getting too bright and happy near the end there