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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 9883653" data-attributes="member: 54840">I don't know why I don't get a response to this part of it but the same team members who make settings when they work at WOTC also make settings when they're not at WOTC:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Midgard (Wolfgang Baur, Dan Dillon)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Islands of Sina Una (Mackenzie De Armas)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tal'Dorei Reborn (James Haeck)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Numenera (Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Arora (Shawn Merwin)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aethereal Expanse (James Haeck)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Primeval Thule (Dave Noonan, Rich Baker, Stephen Schubert)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ptolus (Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Path of the Planebreaker (Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Grim Hollow (Shawn Merwin, James Haeck)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tal'Dorei Reborn (James Haeck)</li> </ul>All made by D&D team members but not when they were at WOTC.It's not the team members folks are focusing on here when they say they want a new D&D setting, it's strictly a focus on the brand and the company.And that "objective" answer is "they have the trademark". That's it. There's no other super magical secret sauce going on.The product quality of current D&D products is really good. The art is awesome (though some disagree). The physical construction is great. So is the construction by Cubicle 7 and Ghostfire and Monte Cook Games and Kobold Press.The desire for an "official D&D" setting is a desire to see a product the D&D ampersand on it. That's the only difference. And I think that focus dismisses the work published by other publishers, work often done by the same designers.I argue 13th Age is a more official take on D&D 3e and 4e because it was the version of D&D both of the lead designers of 3e and 4e wanted to make. It just doesn't have the trademark.People can want want they want, but the desire to see an "official D&D setting" is strictly a desire to see the D&D trademark on a book. It's not a love of the work of the designers. It's not a feeling that the quality of every WOTC product surpasses that of all other publishers. It's just a focus on the legal trademark of D&D.I think we should judge all settings and all published RPG work based on the quality of the work, not the trademarked brand it happens to have or not have.</blockquote>

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