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[Not April Fool's]
Recently someone was tweeting about the opinion that D&D shouldn't revisit its older settings, and that doing so would just crowd out new designs. I'm going to take the other side of this position. +
#Dnd @Wizards_DnD
Recently someone was tweeting about the opinion that D&D shouldn't revisit its older settings, and that doing so would just crowd out new designs. I'm going to take the other side of this position. +
#Dnd @Wizards_DnD
Back in the late '80s and early '90s, TSR was producing new D&D settings at the height of its creative power. Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright, Ravenloft (as a whole campaign setting), and more came out of this era. +
Of course, TSR crashed due to a multitude of factors. One cited problem was player base fragmentation - with so many great settings, players would pick favorites, but then find it difficult to find a whole group of people with the same favorite. +
Some sourcebooks would be produced for settings in very specialized niches; others would be very generally useful but marketed as part of a specific setting. This caused brand confusion. +
"Do I buy this book for my game, even though it's the wrong setting, because it might have useful rules? Or do I skip it because it's just going to reprint rules from a different book?"
If you liked Ravenloft, your buddy liked Dark Sun, and your other chum liked Planescape... +
If you liked Ravenloft, your buddy liked Dark Sun, and your other chum liked Planescape... +
What do you buy? What do you play?
(The number of players who bought everything is a pretty small part of the market.) +
(The number of players who bought everything is a pretty small part of the market.) +
But this isn't the market of today - now, people find their gaming pals online (moreso during this pandemic than ever). You can target your searches for exactly the kind of game you want to play, and you can buy exactly the products you want for it... +
... through digital distribution, print-on-demand, print-to-order, and internet fulfillment shipments. So setting fragmentation isn't... as big of a problem as it was. You can now find groups to play almost any setting, if it's popular enough. And sellers can target sales. +
So let's fast forward to today - 2020. WotC's been selling nostalgia with D&D. The "Princes of the Apocalypse" adventure is a sequel to "Temple of Elemental Evil." The "Giant King's Thunder" is themed as big giant fights - like the old "Against the Giants." +
"Tales from the Yawning Portal" and "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" are both redresses of earlier-edition adventures, the latter softly re-introducing the world of Greyhawk, while the Ravenloft sourcebook similarly retreads and reintroduces the original Ravenloft module and setting. +
While D&D is definitely built for making your own game world, it does have its own well-known elements, pieces that have been recycled and reinvented with every edition and story bites or in-jokes that have persisted for decades, that are idiosyncratic to D&D. +
The Keep on the Borderlands. The Village of Hommlet. The sword Blackrazor. 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘭. Vecna, and the hand, eye, and head thereof. The Apparatus of Kwalish. Mordenkainen, Drawmij, Melf, Tenser, Otiluke. (Even Robilar, sometimes.) +
There's value in this IP, in its own incarnation that isn't just aping fantasy movies or lifting from fantasy novels. Creating and continuing that exposure creates a generational link - passing on these epic or humorous stories from generation to generation. +
By the same token, re-introducing settings like Dark Sun and Planescape gives an opportunity for new players, younger folks who weren't around 20 years ago when they first arrived on the scene, a chance to connect with those settings - and to reboot them. +
Would having these old settings rebooted crowd out new development? Well, it hasn't so far. Ravenloft, Tales from the Yawning Portal, and Ghosts of Saltmarsh didn't crowd out Acquisitions Inc., Ravnica, or Wildemount (Critical Role). +
So it's a great time to make D&D and a great time to play D&D - old or new, novel or familiar, dramatic or funny, in Oerth, in Toril, in Mystara, in Athas or Aebrynis or Sigil or beyond.
Play 'em all. Print 'em all. Enjoy 'em all.
/fin
Play 'em all. Print 'em all. Enjoy 'em all.
/fin
