but I'm resented by the fact that wizards discontinued a lot of good products to follow the mainstream (more profitable) will...I am 34 and still remember the days when some of us, here in Italy, used a new game called Dungeons and Dragons...
I were fond, as many of my friends were, of the Planescape setting, the Dark Sun setting and the Skill and Tactics rulebooks they were good.
I hope that this bunch of expansions will be incorporated in a future setting.
It's not gone. It's back, and it's core, baby! :D
Ravenloft-Core (continue jubilating!)
Dark Sun-unlikely to be converted. Has a cult following, but I don't think it has the same earning potential of FR or Eberron. Also, because of the way magic works there, the class system would need a lot of adjustment.
In fact, getting the psionic power source in the PH3 would be the perfect setup for Dark Sun in the following summer. Arcane classes just probably won't be standard player-character fare in it, with the "general assumption" being that instead of a wizard, most parties would have an invoker or psionic controller.
and the Skill and Tactics rulebooks.
If you mean the Player's Option series, I would rather stick needles in my eyes than see the return of those books…still getting over the emotional scars.
A lot of the appeal of Planescape/Dark Sun/Ravenloft, to me, was the weird systems/rules that made them really different from core D&D. If they're all core, using all the same rules, they'll rely on pure fluff to make them different, and personally, I find that's generally not enough. They end up feeling like regular ol' D&D to me. Which is still fun, but why bother to play a different setting if it doesn't feel really different to me? Just put out a novel, re-fluff an old setting, call it good.
Of course, it's all my own tastes, others will differ.
there's more to the Forgotten Realms than Waterdeep.
Lies!
I'm kind of disappointed that Planescape is core. I feel that when they make things "core", it has a tendency to destroy some of the excitement of playing that particular thing, as well as limiting the amount of attention paid to it in any one product. Dragonborn as a basic, common PC race destroyed my desire to play half-dragons or 'dragonborn'. Tieflings, same thing. If they're not rare, they don't feel special to me, and much of the desire to play a human-looking lizard, for me, comes from the fact that there aren't 80 million of them walking around. Tieflings used to be unique, each one was a bit different. Now, they're all the same, basically just an angsty elf, or whatever. A lot of the flavor they had in Planescape was lost when they went and made them into a regular race.
A lot of the appeal of Planescape/Dark Sun/Ravenloft, to me, was the weird systems/rules that made them really different from core D&D. If they're all core, using all the same rules, they'll rely on pure fluff to make them different, and personally, I find that's generally not enough. They end up feeling like regular ol' D&D to me. Which is still fun, but why bother to play a different setting if it doesn't feel really different to me? Just put out a novel, re-fluff an old setting, call it good.
Of course, it's all my own tastes, others will differ.
To me Planescape was never enough to stand on its own as a unique setting. It was simply adding flavor to the planes that already existed as very lightly detailed areas.
I didn't ever play Dark Sun so I have limited experience with it but if they do Dark Sun I really hope that it is as unique as it was in the past.
What I would like is to see them actually say this class or race or whatever doesn't exist in this setting. The best example I can come up with is Dragonlance. I would love to see them say Dragonborn and Teiflings don't exist in this setting without changing the default presumptions. Unfortunately I don't see them precluding anything they have published for any setting even if that changes the flavor of the setting from the past.
I'm kind of disappointed that Planescape is core. I feel that when they make things "core", it has a tendency to destroy some of the excitement of playing that particular thing, as well as limiting the amount of attention paid to it in any one product. Dragonborn as a basic, common PC race destroyed my desire to play half-dragons or 'dragonborn'. Tieflings, same thing. If they're not rare, they don't feel special to me, and much of the desire to play a human-looking lizard, for me, comes from the fact that there aren't 80 million of them walking around. Tieflings used to be unique, each one was a bit different. Now, they're all the same, basically just an angsty elf, or whatever. A lot of the flavor they had in Planescape was lost when they went and made them into a regular race.
Why not ignore the fluff and change things to your own tastes in your own campaign? Sure in the default setting Tieflings are fairly common but maybe in your word they're not. Why not do that? I don't understand it.
Why not ignore the fluff and change things to your own tastes in your own campaign? Sure in the default setting Tieflings are fairly common but maybe in your word they're not. Why not do that? I don't understand it.
I do that. Tieflings and Dragonborn as complete societies do not exist IMC. I don't like the fluff, so I don't use it. Dragonborn are Half-Dragons, and they're extremely rare due to the reaction they tend to get when walking around in normal society, Tieflings are refugees from the Planes, and are rare for the same reason. If I don't feel like using something, I just don't use it. I don't buy books I don't need, and since I write my own fluff, that means I really have all the books I need - I'm a DDI subscriber, so I don't have to buy books for monsters, races, classes, powers, feats, items, etc. I get to pick and choose.
Just saying that I no longer want to play either one of those, generally because everyone plays them now. It's a common enough reason to like or not like something. Drizz't is cool when he's the only good Drow. When every freaking drow you meet is a chaotic good rebel? Not so much. Half-Dragons are neat if you see one every once in a great while. They're special. When Bob the Baker and Marv the Miller and Tom the Toilet-Cleaner is a Half-Dragon, meeeh, not so appealing anymore. They're humans with a blast power and scales.
Thinking about it a little more, the whole "outcast, exile, wandering dude looking for a place to fit in" was a huge part of wanting to play the tiefling or the dragonborn. When you're born into a society, and looking around every other person is exactly like you, the whole "outcast" thing doesn't really work. It's no longer built into the tiefling or dragonborn, because they have entire societies of perfectly normal people like themselves who will accept them. Drow, for instance, if you allow them as PCs, they're generally outcasts. If they're not... they're just re-colored elves with a couple racial powers.
Like, tieflings are for players who want to "Have a dark side to overcome". Yet, they don't. They live in normal cities, have normal families, neighbors, all exactly like themselves. They're not outcasts or loners. They live in pretty much normal societies. They're called Billy. They live with their mom, who cooks them pancakes. Not really that exciting.