What's the best way to adapt a setting to a new edition?

[Glyfair]

A new edition of the game is on the horizon, with major rules changes. It's time for you to decide how to deal with those rules changes for an established setting. What do you favor?

 

[freyar]

I voted to ignore the change completely. Heh, I guess you can tell how I feel about the FR stuff . That's the closest to how I feel, anyway. There should probably be some in game explanation of some of the mechanics, but there's just no need for a major in game event that changes a lot of the fluff just because the rules change. For example, why did WotC bother to change the FR cosmology in 3e? Just because? Not that I won't ignore that, but I don't quite get the reasoning.

 

[Glyfair]

I voted to ignore the change completely.

Glorantha is a good example of my "ignore the rules changes" answer. Runequest was the initial roleplaying setting for Glorantha. After the disastrous mess of their ending their relationship with Avalon Hill they lost the rights to that system. Eventually a completely different system, Hero Wars/Heroquest took it's place.

Greg's explanation of the change was that the system is just a lens to model the world. The world really works differently than both systems. They are just what you use to model it within the game. The world didn't change, our perception of the world might have, though.

 

[Pygon]

I chose Completely Ignore, with a caveat.

Sometimes a new system changes character and creature power levels around, and that can require some adjustments. Depending on how drastic that is, you might want to explain the differences, unless everyone just agrees on the new arrangement.

But for the most part, you should be playing the same world and circumstances with a different rule set is all. The setting and circumstances should define the challenges to face, not the rule set.

 

[Glyfair]

But for the most part, you should be playing the same world and circumstances with a different rule set is all. The setting and circumstances should define the challenges to face, not the rule set.

The difficulty with this approach is that you can't tie the world into the mechanics. For example, "Ernie failed to save Bert because he ran out of spells" can't be a key element of the setting because running out of spells is a systemic bit that might be changed.

 

[Pygon]

I suppose so.

But then the idea of Elminster running out of spells makes him seem too mortal, doesn't it Maybe he just ran out of good spells! You know, the good per day and per encounter ones.

 

[Fobok]

I suppose so.

But then the idea of Elminster running out of spells makes him seem too mortal, doesn't it Maybe he just ran out of good spells! You know, the good per day and per encounter ones.

I don't know about Elminster, but other FR novels have wizards running out of spells quite often. Look at the Last Mythal trilogy, for example.

 

[delericho]

It depends very much on the nature of the setting, and the nature and scope of the proposed changes to the setting.

For this change, and for the Forgotten Realms... I have no idea. Sorry.

 

[Glyfair]

But then the idea of Elminster running out of spells makes him seem too mortal, doesn't it Maybe he just ran out of good spells! You know, the good per day and per encounter ones.

I knew using Elminster as an example would be distracting to the point I changed the example to something not tied to an RPG setting.

 

[dmccoy1693]

IMHO, It really depends on what the company feels works best.

Examples:

Have a world changing event to explain why things work differently now. This worked very well for Shadowrun 4E. They advanced the timeline 5 years, declared the world suffered a computer crash and remade the whole world wireless. Granted, this had little to do with the system, but it was, none the less, a new edition.

"Retcon" the background so that things always worked the way they will in the new edition. Exalted 2E did this BEAUTIFULLY! Very little was changed officially, but alot of the gaping holes were filled in with much needed retcon.

Scrap the setting and start a new one tied to the new edition. Traveller does this with EVERY new edition. Some go over well. Other's ... the lead balloon. Some convert over to the new system. Others, well ... there are still 1E Traveller grognards as well as GURPS Traveller grognards.

Completely ignore it. The system shouldn't define the setting. Its common knowledge that Exalted's system was a tweaked version of the oWoD system (Storyteller System). In 2004 when WW launched the nWoD with a brand new system (Storytelling System), Exalted was not changed over and neither was 2E's version changed.

So, my best advise is, "Whatever you think (or your market research tells you) your target customers will buy."