WotC support for Eberron?

[Shemeska]

Wishfull thinking, but they gave big rollouts to Dark Sun and Birthright and Planescape as well...

Eberron is different in tone from DnD, so it will likely end up on the niche side of things after the early hype quites down.

Well, Planescape is certainly still around, it just doesn't exist as a seperate product line anymore. *sigh* It's ostensibly part of core DnD, though with Ebberon having a deliberately seperate cosmology (which I have no problems with) and FR deciding that the Great Wheel was too good for them (for which I loathe and mock them) the exposure isn't as great as I could hope for. PS elements are the basis for the 3e MotP and there's certainly PS stuff or PS derived stuff in the BoVD, BoED, and the soon to be released Planar Handbook (from what has been shown thus far).

 

[reanjr]

I'm betting that Eberron will become the primary campaign world for D&D, and Forgotten Realms will--in about 3 years--die the gradual death that Greyhawk suffered in the early 90s.

I'm betting you are wrong.

Wizards will push the hell out of it. But the chances of Eberron ever supplanting FR are too minute to ponder. FR is a standard sword and sorcery campaign and is therefore very accessible. And it already has massive amounts of support, just counting 3e.

Then there's the fact that an Eberron novel line doesn't have the vacuum market that FR and Dragonlance did when they came out (not will it probably have authors that are as good). To make inroads into an oversaturated fantasy novel market (DL, FR, Tolkien [due to the movies, he's more relevent today than he has been in 20 years], Harry Potter, among others), the Eberron novel line would have to authors with industry-stature among the lines of Weis, Hickman, Salvatore, Denning, Knack, etc. Instead they're asking for amateur author proposals.

Without a novel line, the campaign just can't keep up with FR (maybe not even Dragonlance in the long term, though Sovereign Press is limited by their license with Wizards and cannot publish more than a handful of books a year). Alot of people come into D&D from novels, and hordes of DMs use them as basis or inspiration for adventures.

My best estimate is that Eberron will be wildly successful for upwards of two years, but will taper and become unsupported (or scantily so) by age 5.

 

[reanjr]

Wishfull thinking, but they gave big rollouts to Dark Sun and Birthright and Planescape as well...

You're forgetting one major difference, though. Those lines deserved to last. Planescape and Dark Sun were both so tremendously original, they were a great offering to the RPG industry. They broke new ground and gave us that weren't too fond of playing another Realms clone something to do.

Birthright was just absolutely wonderful, but I knew it was going to end. It was another Tolkien game. It may have had more lasting success as a rules-addition to the game, with campaign-specific sourcebooks to link the rules to existing campaigns (so you could run Waterdeep, Solamnia, or Tyr). Though it probably would have never created such a cult following.

 

[reanjr]

The one thing I think Eberron needs is pdf. support.

That would provide the continous support between print releases and keep it cheep enought for the casual Eberron fan to be drawn in.

It would also fill in gaps that might not be profitable enought in print, like a monster book with nothing but Living Spells! Or an "All Fluff" book like the Elminster's Ecologies to explain the Nature of Eberron and how about an Appendix series for other print books; XPH Psionics in Eberron, Vile Darkness in Eberron, Draconomicon in Eberron, etc.

Wizards won't do it. Not unless DRM becomes ubiquitous.

 

[reanjr]

Well, Planescape is certainly still around, it just doesn't exist as a seperate product line anymore. *sigh* It's ostensibly part of core DnD, though with Ebberon having a deliberately seperate cosmology (which I have no problems with) and FR deciding that the Great Wheel was too good for them (for which I loathe and mock them) the exposure isn't as great as I could hope for. PS elements are the basis for the 3e MotP and there's certainly PS stuff or PS derived stuff in the BoVD, BoED, and the soon to be released Planar Handbook (from what has been shown thus far).

Just treat those campaigns like Planescape already had treated them for years: confused.

Clueless sods rattle on like bubbers about how this plane and that plane work, but they never really understand what's going on. Makes a berk almost feel pity for them.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Your source is mistaken, as FR is fully-owned by WotC. Ed sold the whole thing to TSR for a one-time payment back in the 80s.

The problem is the what rights did that really include and the wording. Movies rights, royalities, computer games, multi-player online games, it could be an issue. Then you have TSR, WotC, Hasbro, Infogames (think that is who has the gaming rights). There are a lot of fingers in the pie and a lot of legal entanglements. Ebberron is a fresh start and removes a vast number of those entanglements. Sure FR will be around, like Greyhawk is around.

 

[Celtavian]

re

They're using the Eberron setting for online D&D? Oh man, I would have preferred Greyhawk, Dragonlance, or the Realms. Eberron is not a traditional fantasy setting, and I much prefer a traditional fantasy setting. I am greatly disappointed.

 

[Ranger REG]

You still have Dark Age of Camelot, although since I'm anti-MMORPG, I don't know if that is traditional. Besides, we have had so many traditional CRPGs ... back in the 90's.

 

[Khayman]

Just treat those campaigns like Planescape already had treated them for years: confused.

Clueless sods rattle on like bubbers about how this plane and that plane work, but they never really understand what's going on. Makes a berk almost feel pity for them.

Almost.

Leatherheads.