Why is Forgotten Realms the first setting?

[Arkhandus]

The Living Greyhawk Gazeteer came out shortly after the 3E core rules though, so there was an initial overview of the setting available at the start of Living Greyhawk.

They probably just kept LG alive for so long because it had some dedicated supporters at WotC and such for a while, and then it was probably just not much effort for WotC to keep up the minimal support they gave LG.

And, they likely didn't want to start up a new Living campaign too close to the 4E launch, not until after the launch anyway.

 

[jdrakeh]

Drastically changing an existing setting that many fans are really attached to is really risky business.

Not so much. See my above post. Also see the end result of the FR 1e to 2e changes (which were at least as prolific as the proposed 3e to 4e changes).

 

[MerricB]

That's an interesting point.

But there was no Greyhawk support the last several years and we still had Living Greyhawk right?

The Living Greyhawk Campaign Setting book came out very soon after 3e.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Not so much. See my above post. Also see the end result of the FR 1e to 2e changes (which were at least as prolific as the proposed 3e to 4e changes).

Also, they may have been seeing a dramatic reduction in the support for the brand from the RPG side of things...

Cheers!

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Living Greyhawk Campaign Setting book came out very soon after 3e.

Cheers!

I know you're the official optimist amigo but...

But there was no Greyhawk support the last several years and we still had Living Greyhawk right?

So last several years would be correct no? Unless you're saying (and I don't know if you are), that Living Greyhawk hasn't been in play since that setting book came out.

 

[jdrakeh]

Also, they may have been seeing a dramatic reduction in the support for the brand from the RPG side of things...

Cheers!

Very possible. This seems to have played at least some role in past setting revisions of this magnitude.

 

[Arkhandus]

I know you're the official optimist amigo but...

But there was no Greyhawk support the last several years and we still had Living Greyhawk right?

So last several years would be correct no? Unless you're saying (and I don't know if you are), that Living Greyhawk hasn't been in play since that setting book came out.

And it's not been doing as well as WotC would've liked. They need to draw in the legions of Forgotten Realms fans, not the smaller legion of Greyhawk fans, to buy more of their products and such. As far as I can recall, the number of Greyhawk-supporters in WotC's offices has dwindled, so there's not much of a push around there to keep Greyhawk actively supported in any form. Also, WotC can make more money selling even more reams of FR supplements than they can with GH material, so they can snare the FR fanboys into buying lots of 4E material, especially in 4E's first year.

They'll bring Greyhawk back later when 4E's relatively well established, but they want to start 4E off with drawing in the big FR and Eberron fanbases to be active consumers and to feel like they're getting lots of attention.

 

[Ranger REG]

I thought it was because Living Forgotten Realms is replacing Living Greyhawk and they want the campaign stuff out ASAP...

Not many of us are ... nor want to be ... RPGA members.

 

[Vigilance]

. . . and, more to the point, Forgotten Realms novels and other licensed products such as computer games sell like crazy.

WINNAH!!!!

 

[Hussar]

Something to remember as well that was mentioned in the (oh bugger I forgot his name) podcast by Gamer0 - They are going to expand FR far beyond Faerun. Toril has gotten all the source material for years, but, what about the other half of the equation - Abeir?

I can see almost all the new material, tieflings, Eladrin, etc - being focused almost entirely on the OTHER side of the world. With the Spell Plague, and the subsequent fast forward of the timeline, you simply have to connect the two sides somehow and you can slot in all your new 4e material with a mininum of fuss. "Where were the Eladrin?" Well, they were always there, but, because they were on the other side of the planet, you never met them. Now your Realms get to be twice as big!

My prediction anyway.