What WotC hasnt done yet: Old Settings

[TheYeti1775]

The problem isn't so much the market for the older settings. Many will buy it just because it is an older setting. I admit I'm guilty of owning two 4E books just because of that. Tomb of Horrors and Darksun Campaign. I own no other 4E books.

While I would love Spelljammer/Planescape new material, I personally couldn't use it except the fluff because I don't use the current version of D&D.

Now if they were to license some of the stuff out to 3pp and allow for different version support, well I would support it than. But that is a pipe dream I won't worry about.

Till than, I have all my notes over the years and all the books I need. If they publish something that interests me I'll buy it.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I mean, if you own all the Eberron sourcebooks, like Five Nations, or Sharn, or Secrets of Xen'drik etc... what exactly do you need them reprinted in a 4E format for except for so-called "official" 4E statblocks for the monsters and NPCs? Isn't all the fluff still completely valid and usable? It seems so to me. And if you don't own these books... you can pick almost all of them up on Amazon at a much cheaper price than you would if WotC recreated them with a 4E logo slapped on the front.

If they ever get over their PDF-phobia, they could satisfy a lot of people by extracting text and artwork from old products, cut out the rule bits and simply sell the fluff for cheap. I mean, it might be more problematic for crunch-heavy settings, but Greyhawk or Mystara?

 

[rogueattorney]

I'm a Mystara fan from way back who doesn't play 4e (or 3.x e). I have to wonder what WotC could sell that would interest both me and a new-ish 4e player who isn't particularly familiar with Mystara.

Would a book that is 9/10ths 4e character builds for the setting interest either of us? Probably not. I mean, I'm sure there's a small subset of 4e players who are big Mystara fans, but I can't believe the number is all that great.

A fluff-heavy, stats-lite campaign world book/box - see, for example, the 3.x version of the Wilderlands campaign - would certainly pique my interest. Like the aforementioned Wilderlands campaign, Mystara never really had a single unified starter product a la the Greyhawk folio or the Forgotten Realms grey box and had disparate materials scattered all over the place.

Something like that would certainly interest the older fans of the setting, and if done well enough, could get new players interested as well. Enough new players? Don't know. But 4e fans certainly seem starved for new product.

However, that all sounds like it's the complete opposite of the direction WotC has been heading with their physical products.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Uh... they do.

Uh... thanks... :/

 

[Quickleaf]

By contrast, a setting like Spelljammer (or Birthright, or Al-Qadim, but probably exempting Ravenloft, Dragonlance and maybe Greyhawk) is an extremely niche product. Even at their height, they were only really of interest to a very small number of players. Of those, how many are still interested, are currently playing 4e, and are willing to pay WotC for an updated book? How many new players are really interested in "D&D Adventures in Space", and willing to pay $35 to find out?

Actually Al-Qadim was given an extra year of production due to it's popularity. I'm not comparing it to Dragonlance in popularity but I think you're selling Al-Qadim, Birthright, and Spelljammer short.

Also I think if these settings were redone it would be with an eye toward the broad strokes.

With Al-Qadim you could do an adventure/location book (much like Gloomwrought) on the City of Brass or Assassin Mountain and support that with a Dragon article with Al-Qadim character themes.

With Birthright put out a book on realm building & mass combat with a third devoted to describing Cerilea (or a portion thereof), bloodlines, and some iconic threats/encounters. Or the bloodlines could be part of a Dragon article and made a little more generic.

With Spelljammer tie it into an epic adventure, including a description of the Rock of Bral and spelljamming/astral sailing, and support it with an article with Spelljammer PC races. Better yet tie it into a Far Realms book (with the illithid/aboleth/neogi) and a trio of novels with a Lovecraftian feel.

This ideas would capture the essence of those settings without rehashing old ground or solely appealing to old timers.

 

[Mercurius]

Personally speaking I'm really tired of seeing the same old campaign settings endless recycled, updated to the latest edition. I'd much rather see WotC build an entirely new world for 5E and develop it as a "tone setter" and source of inspiration as Golarion is for Pathfinder.

As DEFCON 1 said, it is quite easy to simply take old setting material and use it in a 4E campaign.

"Rebooting," to me, is usually a sign of creative lack and will produce a product that isn't as good as it could be if they had the right people come up with something fresh. That's one of the reasons the early 90s was so excited for setting junkies--you had some really fresh new ideas with Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, Birthright, etc. Do we need another reboot of X campaign setting? Did we really need a Star Trek reboot? Aren't there other good science fiction ideas out there?

On the other hand, a product that I would love to see produced is some kind of mega-hardcover book that gives rundowns of every somewhat major campaign setting. Imagine a 300+ page book with chapters describing each major TSR/WotC campaign setting world, and perhaps a final chapter describing lesser known worlds (Blackmoor, Jakandor, Al-Qadim, etc). Each chapter would be 20-40 pages or so, depending upon the popularity and depth of the world. Each would also include a source page that lists every product for that world; if WotC ever got their shyt together and put the PDFs back online, it would be a way to direct folks to further purchases.

Just a thought.

 

[rogueattorney]

On the other hand, a product that I would love to see produced is some kind of mega-hardcover book that gives rundowns of every somewhat major campaign setting. Imagine a 300+ page book with chapters describing each major TSR/WotC campaign setting world, and perhaps a final chapter describing lesser known worlds (Blackmoor, Jakandor, Al-Qadim, etc). Each chapter would be 20-40 pages or so, depending upon the popularity and depth of the world. Each would also include a source page that lists every product for that world; if WotC ever got their shyt together and put the PDFs back online, it would be a way to direct folks to further purchases.

The Thirty Years of Adventure coffee table art book actually does this to some extent. No stats or maps or anything. But it gives a short run down of all the major settings with some evocative art. It doesn't go into enough depth for anyone to run a game, but as a resource to just give people an idea of what the setting was about and what products to look for, it's O.K.

I'm not a big fan of the book, but you can find it used for pretty cheap these days.

 

[qstor]

I agree perhaps apart from Dragonlance that there isn't much market for a 4e hardback setting book. Fans of Dragonlance novels might buy the product for any new material that is produced.

I own a few 4e books. I'm a fan of Fey/Fairy related stuff so I bought Heroes of the Feywild my first 4e book in over a year. I'd buy a 4e Greyhawk or Dragonlance book probably cause I'm a fan of those settings.

Mike

 

[thedungeondelver]

Ain't gonna happen/not gonna work.

First of all, the work to (re)create new settings, even if only to tweak them, will have to fall to the Incredible Shrinking WIZARDS OF THE COAST Staff. There won't be a Gary Gygax handling WORLD OF GREYHAWK, an Ed Greenwood doing FORGOTTEN REALMS, or a Tracy Hickman doing DRAGONLANCE.

There are too many incongruous things about the current game-with-the-D&D-name to fit those older campaigns. Dragon-people are now default in a GREYHAWK setting? And gnomes just don't exist as PC races? Devil people and blink-Elves are now the norm too?

Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm unimaginative but ultimately I think you'd be asking DMs to add too much stuff to their campaigns for revamps of old settings to really sell.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In some ways, I'm very glad that WoTC has stayed away from the settings.

While I agree with some that Dark Sun received excellent treatment and that Eberron came in solid, the treatment the Forgotten Realms received irks me still. One of my friends ran a great campaign in it so its not that its impossible to enjoy the setting, but it seemed to me, to throw out the baby with the bathwater and still kept the elements of the setting that the vocalists of critics didn't want anyway.