On this blog some new information has been found out:
Forgotten Realms 4e is three books, period, done, end of line: Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, Player’s Guide to FR, and DM’s Guide to FR. All settings will be done like that, one per year, until they run out of settings. They mentioned Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, and Spelljammer as settings on their list! Eberron, of course, is the ‘09 setting release (same three books), but it will also get DDI updates starting in June.
Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.
Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya)
Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)
Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back,
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
For example, the Products Page lists no "Forgotten Realms GMs Guide" and we've already been told that the Campaign Setting is for DM's.
It would be redundant to make the Campaign Setting DM-primary, then release another book for DM's.
As for that being the end of the line for a campaign, we can only speculate until we hear from WotC directly, but with FR and Eberron there's *so much* content to explore that it seems WotC would be shooting themselves in the foot to not release more books.
Regions of those settings have room to be fleshed out. As do assorted factions and/or races.
Is it possible they'll have a "three and done" policy on Campaigns? Sure. Is it likely? I'd say no.
Travis
Pity the Known World of Mystara (including Red Steel/Savage Coast and Hollow World) wasn't mentioned.
Not sure how sorry I am about it, but as I have pointed out in other forums, this shows how ignorant WotC are about Mystara. As opposed to most of the other settings mentioned, Mystara was not cancelled because it didn't sell. Quite the opposite Mystara was killed off because it, and the game it was made for, classic D&D sold so much that it was seen as a threat to the AD&D game market. The clumsy attempt at bringing Mystara over to AD&D was just an elaborate way of killing off a popular setting.
The number of posts at the Mystara forum on these boards shows that Mystara is still a very popuar setting. I see no reason why, if treated right, it should not appeal to new generations of gamers as well as the old.
Havard
Quite the opposite Mystara was killed off because it, and the game it was made for, classic D&D sold so much that it was seen as a threat to the AD&D game market. The clumsy attempt at bringing Mystara over to AD&D was just an elaborate way of killing off a popular setting.
Okay, either this is right, and shows exactly what happened to TSR since they cancel more popular games rather than less popular games, or there is a slight disconnect from reality here.
Do you have sales figures to back up that claim?
Anyway, yay for older settings.
For example, the Products Page lists no "Forgotten Realms GMs Guide" and we've already been told that the Campaign Setting is for DM's.
It would be redundant to make the Campaign Setting DM-primary, then release another book for DM's.
My understanding is that there will be a "Player's Guide to...", a "... Campaign Setting" (the DM's book), and an adventures book (Greyhawk Adventures, for example), which I would suppose is a DM's book as well offering ideas for adventure hooks and possibly an adventure or three.
Okay, either this is right, and shows exactly what happened to TSR since they cancel more popular games rather than less popular games, or there is a slight disconnect from reality here.
Do you have sales figures to back up that claim?
No sales figures, but consider this:
Rather than just chuck the whole Classic D&D and Mystara line, it was decided to launch an AD&D Mystara line to try to phase over the Classic D&D fans into playing AD&D. This is understandable, as TSR viewed its consumer base to be divided into too many different camps. In particular it must have bothered them that so many people who got into the hobby with the Classic D&D game did not move on to play AD&D, but stayed with the Classic line. Mystara being the only official setting for the Classic line meant most of those players were using that setting (though homebrew also seems to have been widespread).
Now the fact Mystara (and later also Red Steel) was launched for AD&D clearly suggest that TSR believed there was a marked for this setting. OTOH, the products they published for the AD&D Mystara line was doomed to failure due to mismanagement. If the main idea is to bring over existing Mystara fans to playing AD&D, why would you release supplements that are almost identical to the books they already have? Sure, the setting was moved 10-12 years ahead in time, but they started out with books covering countries like Karameikos and Glantri which only had seen minor changes over the last decade. The rules specific material related to AD&D was also only IMO of mediocre quality (Except for the Red Steel stuff). Also, instead of emphasizing on the features that made Mystara different from GH and FR, they went with shoehorning Mystara into the AD&D cosmology turning Immortals into Gods with another name, Dimensions into Demiplanes etc.
Anyway, yay for older settings.
Definately! Lots of older settings is one of the things that could convince me into buying 4E. I'd love to see Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Spelljammer and others. Mystara 4e might even get me to play it. ;)
Havard
None of that means that OD&D was threatening to sink AD&D, it just means that Mystara was a resource that wasn't yet introduced to the AD&D market.
And my understanding of adventures was off, I think, and three books may be a bit of a misunderstanding.
There is an adventure for the FR already solicited. This may be the "adventures". They make a player's guide, a DM's guide, and then a number of adventures to support the setting.
I suppose as long as the adventures sell, then they will continue to make adventures for the setting, or they will make one, then tell people to sign up for D&DI to find more adventures in Dungeon magazine for the setting of their choice (which makes sense from a moneymaking perspective, I suppose, but I am still not sold on D&DI).
But that could just as easily be translated into not enough people playing OD&D to keep it afloat, but people around the office liked Mystara/TSR didn't see why they shouldn't try to sell the setting to the AD&D crowd/they figured that if they could sell the OD&D crowd on AD&D they would make a little more money.
None of that means that OD&D was threatening to sink AD&D, it just means that Mystara was a resource that wasn't yet introduced to the AD&D market.
The fact that Classic D&D and Mystara was doing well untill its conversion also comes directly from Bruce Heard who was product manager for the Classic D&D line and later promoted to Product manager for all of TSR untill the WotC takeover. Ofcourse he may have had other motives for saying so, but I don't really see them. He kept believing there was a market for Mystara long after he left the industry.
I wouldnt go as far as saying Classic D&D was threatening to sink AD&D the way TSR viewed the situation (and also WotC) was that the market was too fragmented, meaning that each camp would only buy product type X ending up with a small market for each type of product whether that would be people buying Classic rather than Advanced or Dragonlance rather than the FR. TSR's attempted sollution was to force people into the same camp. In the case of the Classic D&D/Mystara customers, this was done by slowly turning the Classic line more and more kid oriented (post RC boxed sets and Thunder Rift) and creating an AD&D Mystara line which failed to appeal to large groups of either Mystara fans (who already owned the material) or AD&D fans (since they failed to front the elements that made Mystara different from the FR).
With 3E, WotC continued to consider having multiple games/settings problematic. In some ways I guess they were right, but IMO this new approach is also interesting since as most settings wont be given much specific support, there is more incentive to buy several settings and also to buy more generic products.
Havard