Interesting Ravenloft seems to keep following this pattern. Sorry but was the licence taken back by Wizards of the Coast due to the products being so popular and Wizards thinking they could make money on making these products themselvs? Just wondering why they are stopping very sucessful and well made products from being made.
I really like the Gazetters and wish for them to continue, hopefuly someone continues to make the books so we can keep traveling thru Ravenloft. I know this is a bit of a rant as much as a question, just wondering what everyone thinks or is hoping will happen with this.
Ravenloft was licensed to Arthaus Games, which publishes its material through White Wolf Game Studio. Arthaus reverted that license back to Wizards of the Coast on August 15, 2005, however Arthaus has retained rights to continue to sell its backstock under White Wolf's "Sword & Sorcery" umbrella brand until June of 2006. This reversion means that the RAVENLOFT supplement Van Richten's Guide to the Mists will not see print. The free download was released late September 2005. Currently Ravenloft's future is unknown, though most people speculate that it will likely be shelved until another gaming company pursues a license from Wizards.
And I agree with you, the Gazetteer was a so wonderful serie, it is a great lost that they we will not see the others ones :/ I was waiting for some clusters domain.
Sorry but was the licence taken back by Wizards of the Coast due to the products being so popular and Wizards thinking they could make money on making these products themselvs? Just wondering why they are stopping very sucessful and well made products from being made.
No, everything out now says explicitly that White Wolf decided not to renew the licence.
Possibly, that could have been influenced by some secret actions on the part of Wizards, but I doubt it.
It really seemed that White Wolf never committed itself to making the Ravenloft line a success. They made a lot of strange decisions (such as alienating the Kargatane) and gave Ravenloft few resources (for example, the obvious lack of editing staff).
It could just be a matter of money - that Ravenloft appeals to only a small portion of the market and therefore just never brought in the bucks needed to justify the attention that the line needed. But, the grapevine has it that Ravenloft was a best-seller for Arthus.
In any case, like the Kargatne before us, the Fraternity of Shadows will be carrying the torch, presevering our beloved setting until someone decides to buy the rights again.
It really seemed that White Wolf never committed itself to making the Ravenloft line a success.
Especially given six out of ten of their "10 best-selling accessories" were from the RL line for months
Especially given six out of ten of their "10 best-selling accessories" were from the RL line for months
Which does not disprove my point, Mort.
It is important to define what constitutes a success.
Is it a success because a high percentage of WW revenues were generated by the line?
Or is it a success because of the net profit from the line in of itself?
I would argue the latter, rather than the former. After all, if, hypothetically, all white wolf sales plummetedn in that period, the statistic would remains true - even if Ravenloft sales had likewise plummeted.
I think we need to judge success by the absolute numbers - things like units sold and net-profit. And regardless of how successful we might judge the Rl line, it is clear that WhiteWolf did not judge the line to be a success (hence their abandonment of the licence).
I think we can be safe in saying that if, by their own standards WhiteWolf judged the line to be unsuccessful, then it is clear that they weren't committed to making that line successful.
No, everything out now says explicitly that White Wolf decided not to renew the licence.
The requirements for renewal may have been too steep. Also, with Heroes of Horror out, maybe WoTC wanted to tie up the Horror loose end? Just saying, there are many reasons aside from profit margins. Also, in general, WW has been doing really funky things as of late (they killed and re-tooled World of Darkness, and frankly the change wasn't very good).
I have #1, 4 & 5 and was hoping to get #2 & 3 when I had extra cash, now im going to have a heck of a time getting them.
This blows big time.
And yes, I hope I can get my hand on the Gaz 2 and VrA, they seem to be out of stock
.Joël
I'm praying hard that someone else will pick up the rights to Ravenloft soon. I don't mean to sound completely childish, but this sucks!!! :headexplo I've been waiting forever for them to release more Gazeteers so we could finally get some juicy details about the more exotic islands of dread!!
*Pouts* So not fair.... 
But at the same time I'm very hopeful. With the release of WoTC's Heros of Horror, I'm hoping that they are trying to warm people up to horror-based campaigns, then re-introduce Ravenloft!
A girl can dream, right?
"Dreams are tenacious things, little scholar, but eventually even them must die"
*Pout* I was especially looking forward to learning all about the Darklords of each realm.... The Ravenloft DM's Guide just isn't enough!! :raincloud
But at the same time I'm very hopeful. With the release of WoTC's Heros of Horror, I'm hoping that they are trying to warm people up to horror-based campaigns, then re-introduce Ravenloft!
A girl can dream, right?
I hope this never happens, *see above reasons why* (cringes at the thought). God the last thing we would need is for this to change hands again, get more paws in the honey pot.
I thought the attempt by wizards of the coast to dump this accessory down our throats was absurd. Its not about 'horror' its about the brand, Ravenloft is what we like and why we are here we do not need another accessory about how to play horror in Greyhawk.
I'm just trying to get my hands on whatever is left and hope one day the people who worked on the project can get back to working on it and not some new staff with radical ideas (cringes at the monte cook version again)
Part of me is sorry that Ravenloft has slipped, once more, below the waves as a commercial product. It's sad such a rich game-world is concidered commercially unviable. Also a full-time (paid) developer has much more time to develop elements of the setting that I could afford to spend. And the WW products were generally good.
However the more the setting is developed the less mysterious it becomes, which is both a blessing and a curse to the DM -- the vagaries stoke the imagination and allow greater DM flexibility, while requiring much more work to run it. While the old 'Black-box' Realms of Terror may have lacked many stat-blocks and comprehensive domain write-ups, but their very omissions added to the mystery and fear inherent to the setting. Forlorn seemed much more terrifying as a shunned, haunted, and mostly uninhabited land than it is when filled with waring pseudo-Scottish humanoids and ginger druids. Not that I think that Castles Forlorn is a bad product in fact parts of it are excellent, and any detail is a blessing when the PC’s decide to head unexpectedly somewhere mid-session.