D&D 5E WotC Strixhaven/Kickstarter Red Dawn

[Waller]

Didnt WoTC have that Red Dawn Kickstarter taken down?

Red Dawn: Into The Dawnlands (Canceled)

Red Dawn is a 5E Campaign setting in a harsh desert wasteland, by a team with decades of RPG experience.

www.kickstarter.com

Feels a bit hypocritical to be bragging about magic schools with owls delivering invitations. D&D is based on plundering other IP and cultures.

 

[Scribe]

Red Dawn was the one that was pretty much exactly Dark Sun right?

 

[LordEntrails]

No. Every magic school is not modelled after Hogwarts. Nor is Hogwarts even particularly original when it comes to magic schools. Sure, was it a poor decision to refer to Hogwarts in their social media? Probably.

But trying to equate Red Dawn and that are a pretty ... far fetched unless one doesn't care about the importance of details and just wants to bask the biggest company in the room.

 

[Morrus]

No. Every magic school is not modelled after Hogwarts. Nor is Hogwarts even particularly original when it comes to magic schools. Sure, was it a poor decision to refer to Hogwarts in their social media? Probably.

It's not Hogwarts, maybe, unless you clearly say it is on Facebook?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

They made a joke about using owl emojis. Every pop culture reference isn't an unreasonable theft of IP.

Meanwhile from everything I heard about Red Dawn it was pretty committed to being Dark Sun with the serial numbers filed off. And honestly they probably could have gotten away with it if they'd scrubbed the the names a bit more thoroughly. Desert city states ruled by ancient despot mages on a ruined planet that also has psionics and half giants isn't a breach of IP. But Red Dawn actually called the despotic mage rulers "Sorcerer Kings" and their servants "Templars", in what I can only assume was a dare to WotC's legal department. I suspect if they'd named them Mage Lords and had them served by Hospitallers you could probably be awaiting your Red Dawn backer rewards right now. That is, of course, assuming the project could still get funding if it wasn't so blatantly rejiggered Dark Sun.

 

[LordEntrails]

It's not Hogwarts, maybe, unless you clearly say it is on Facebook?

Care to show us where WotC did that? Because the quote in the OP is far from "clearly saying it is".

To me, the quote provided above is far from saying Strixhaven IS Hogwarts. Not even sure how someone could draw that conclusion.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Shame: Red Dawn had some original ideas.

(Though are we sure it didn't get taken down because someone owns "Red Dawn" as a name?)

 

[AtomicPope]

Why would we think any other corporation than Wizards of the Coast would take down a 5e product by a former TSR campaign developer and writer?

Wizards is looking to re-release old campaign settings. Dark Sun is popular with the old crowd, the old crowd that spends money. I highly doubt they would allow anyone to offer an alternative, especially before they had a chance to publish the setting first. This is WotC getting ahead of a problem.

I don't agree with their position, either. WotC should be looking to rehire the original Dark Sun team freelance to relaunch their product in 5e. It would make more sense to get the ball rolling when the original creators are eager to work on a project, but here we are fighting with lawyers instead. That gives me no hope for Dark Sun.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I don't agree with their position, either. WotC should be looking to rehire the original Dark Sun team freelance to relaunch their product in 5e. It would make more sense to get the ball rolling when the original creators are eager to work on a project, but here we are fighting with lawyers instead. That gives me no hope for Dark Sun.

In terms of protecting one's IP, a cease and desist letter is a much lower investment than creating an rpg product.

 

[AtomicPope]

In terms of protecting one's IP, a cease and desist letter is a much lower investment than creating an rpg product.

And what does that do for me? From where I'm sitting there's still no product.