Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 brotherjgizmo Jan 16, 2009 14:08:07	Now I know about the one campaign setting a year policy WotC implemented for DnD. However it seems counter intuitive to publish a Campaign setting that is overly niche rather than adding support of their two main franchises. Now I suspect additional FR and Eberron books will be released. What do you think?
#2 aluman Jan 16, 2009 14:10:37	I hope not. Campaign setting glut was part of the underlying economic failure of 2E.
#3 Ramien Jan 16, 2009 14:15:51	What we'll probably see is more information on those settings coming through Dungeon and Dragon Magazines, as well as additional support for any new races and classes in the appropriate sourcebooks (I sure hope there'll be some swordmage stuff in the arcane power book). FR will be getting updates through the Living FR campaign, and I'm sure the RPGA will be doing something with Eberron once it comes out as well.
#4 GMforPowergamers Jan 16, 2009 16:23:19	I don't want a repeat of 2 or 3e...with the glut... on the other hand maybe 1 book every year on one of the biggies... like 2010 we get 3 darksun...and 1 fr 2011 we get 3 birthright* and 1 eb 2012 we get Kora tor...and 1 Fr 2013 we get mystara and 1 eb 2014 we get waterworld and 1 darksun 2015 we get a new setting and 1 fr... pluse evey couple of months in DDI an update to each... *and yes I realize odds of me every seeing birthright again rival me meeting elvis, jessus, and president lincon at the bank tommorro well I am cashing my check
#5 doctorhook Jan 16, 2009 16:23:37	What we'll probably see is more information on those settings coming through Dungeon and Dragon Magazines, as well as additional support for any new races and classes in the appropriate sourcebooks (I sure hope there'll be some swordmage stuff in the arcane power book). FR will be getting updates through the Living FR campaign, and I'm sure the RPGA will be doing something with Eberron once it comes out as well. Agreed, totally. Gizmo: WotC realizes that D&D is the main franchise, not its (admittedly popular) campaign settings. Rather than splitting the product line into competing sub-brands, they realized that what they wanna do is motivate fans to "Buy D&D" rather than "Only buy FR" or "Only buy Eberron". This is why the presentation of the campaign settings in 4E is such that anything can be poached/borrowed from a published campaign-specific book and used by fans in any other setting, official or otherwise, with little or no change to the source material. It's good for WotC because more folks will be willing to buy a wider range of their books, and it's good for us fans because we also get to see a lot more official campaign settings than we did during the 3E era. (Face it, even the level of detail during 3E sucked when it meant a crappy sourcebook about some boring area of a setting you didn't play.)
#6 brotherjgizmo Jan 16, 2009 16:30:16	I don't want a repeat of 2 or 3e...with the glut... on the other hand maybe 1 book every year on one of the biggies... like 2010 we get 3 darksun...and 1 fr 2011 we get 3 birthright* and 1 eb 2012 we get Kora tor...and 1 Fr 2013 we get mystara and 1 eb 2014 we get waterworld and 1 darksun 2015 we get a new setting and 1 fr... pluse evey couple of months in DDI an update to each... *and yes I realize odds of me every seeing birthright again rival me meeting elvis, jessus, and president lincon at the bank tommorro well I am cashing my check Just to clarify I've never actually bought a campaign-specific book but I wouldn't be upset nor be surprised if something like what GMforPowergamers wrote happens. Extra setting books isn't bad. Unnecessary ones are. Either way if I buy any I doubt I'll be more than just the ECG and EPHB
#7 Arcane_Guyver Jan 16, 2009 18:49:40	I actually would love to see WotC create a new line of books, a line devoted soley to fluff and description of their campaign settings. No rules in them whatsoever, just a breakdown of how something is in this setting and maybe a short story or two. Don't even need to make them hardcover, if it reduces the cost to publish. I don't think these would compete directly with the main lineup of D&D books at all. People who don't play D&D (or just the current version of D&D) will pick these books up, as long as their well-written.
#8 doctorhook Jan 16, 2009 19:56:55	I actually would love to see WotC create a new line of books, a line devoted soley to fluff and description of their campaign settings. No rules in them whatsoever, just a breakdown of how something is in this setting and maybe a short story or two. Don't even need to make them hardcover, if it reduces the cost to publish. I don't think these would compete directly with the main lineup of D&D books at all. People who don't play D&D (or just the current version of D&D) will pick these books up, as long as their well-written. Maybe, maybe not. There's no doubt that WotC's paperback publishing line is pretty successful, but I'm not sure I can agree that D&Ders of all stripes will buy such fluffy books in significant numbers. Fact is, lots of gamers only buy the Player's Guides for each setting strictly for the mechanics inside, rather than the setting material itself; that's one of the reasons WotC moved to this model, because it ensures that more players will be interested in buying a larger percentage of the books they publish. They're fully aware that while fluff is important, it's crunch that we as a whole tend to go nuts over.
#9 jedrious Jan 17, 2009 10:26:35	I actually would love to see WotC create a new line of books, a line devoted soley to fluff and description of their campaign settings. No rules in them whatsoever, just a breakdown of how something is in this setting and maybe a short story or two. Don't even need to make them hardcover, if it reduces the cost to publish. I don't think these would compete directly with the main lineup of D&D books at all. People who don't play D&D (or just the current version of D&D) will pick these books up, as long as their well-written. You must be refering to their Novel line
#10 thasis Jan 17, 2009 13:48:40	I agree with above posts, mechanics is the way to go. Fluff would be better filled through the magazines or even free support online. Chances are there isn't enough people to purchase fluff books. Though I was fond of the setting specific books that mixed fluff'n'crunch I didn't ever buy them cause they weren't universally useful. However, if there is enough support on the boards I'm sure WotC might listen as they seem to be listening to the onliners a lot more with 4e. Just my 2cents.
#11 Arcane_Guyver Jan 19, 2009 1:43:42	You must be refering to their Novel line Nope. Key example - the Eberron supplements for 3e, save for Dragonmarked and Magic of Eberron were *very* rules light, usually with only a few pages of rules per book.
#12 jedrious Jan 19, 2009 1:52:04	Nope. Key example - the Eberron supplements for 3e, save for Dragonmarked and Magic of Eberron were *very* rules light, usually with only a few pages of rules per book. you mean the books that most people hated because it was a PITA to find the information in them unless you had a digital copy NFW would I ever endorse such a monstrosity
#13 naxel Jan 19, 2009 10:08:26	Swordmages will be in Arcane Power, but Artificers will not (last I heard)
#14 doctorhook Jan 19, 2009 15:37:33	Nope. Key example - the Eberron supplements for 3e, save for Dragonmarked and Magic of Eberron were *very* rules light, usually with only a few pages of rules per book. Trouble is, then WotC is still paying to publish books which are only interesting to a fraction of their consumer base: those who like Eberron enough to buy fluff books about it. (I would, and do, but I have no reason to think that I'm typical.) Instead, WotC is wisely trying to focus on producing D&D products which are useful and appealing to the absolute majority of D&D players.