If I were a WOTC peep, and I were trying to decide which older setting would be the safest bet for a 4e update, I would ook at THIS jumbled mess to see which came out on top; Which setting had the most threads, posts, and views. With all the settings jumbled in here together they are FORCED to compete. Jumping ship to a new forum is NOT going to do DS any favours. I ASSURE you.
I want desperately to see teh rebirth of Dark Sun. and I think that this is the right time to get really serious about stirring it up.
So, let's see those ( DARK SUN ) thread titles, let's see lots of posts and views. Let's see more of what had the old forum jumping everyday of the week! Don't let the confusion diffuse your interest in seeing DS reborn! Post! POST MY BRETHREN!! and er......... sistren.... is that a word?
Ok I am done now.
At the most optimistic, you're looking at a minimum of three years before you see any published material specifically geared toward Dark Sun, and I can tell you now that Dark Sun wasn't the most popular of the many worlds that got merged into this dumping ground forum.
If you want 4E conversions of material for your campaign world in any sensible timescale, it's going to be a community-led project, not a WotC-led one. At best, high forum activity will bump you up from year 7 to year 3 on WotC's to-do list.
Rhialto: Would not a three year wait be far better than a seven year wait?
for many years, the fans of psionics on the psionic forums had many a discussion about psionics: what kind of stuff they'd like to see published, house rules, ideas for new classes, races, psionic items, questions about how certain rules worked, etc.
eventually, WotC finally decided to provide a new psionics sourcebook, known as complete psionic. it doesn't address any of the rules questions that had been repeatedly asked in the psionics forums for years. it nerfs powers that nobody thought were problems, and made confusing and unbalanced powers just as confusing and unbalancing in different ways. the majority of psionics fans on the boards have stated that of all the material in the book, approximately 1/10th of it even remotely decent.
understand that this was not because there was no available information on what the fans wanted. in point of fact, some of the most awesome psionic material has been published based on what fans had been saying they wanted for years (look up dreamscarred press for more, and untapped potential in particular if you're interested in 3rd party stuff). so certainly, it wasn't a lack of ability to find out what the psionics fans wanted. it was just a simple lack of taking information from the boards, wherein years of in-depth market research had basically been performed, and instead producing a book that nobody really wanted. it was a terrible disappointment.
my point? just because you may be the most active, most popular setting, doesn't necessarily mean WotC is paying the slightest bit of attention to what you want to happen in that setting.
and besides, do you really want WotC to do to athas what they did to faerun? i mean, i don't like FR to begin with, so i could care less what happens to the setting, but it certainly doesn't seem that forgotten realms fans are terribly happy with the treatment their setting received. are you sure you really want wizards to revamp your setting? i personally would rather just adapt any needed rules to fit dark sun. it's much less likely to be painful that way.
I mean, there were only about 7 cities. Villages popped up and disappeared.
I love the Dark Sun Setting. I think, there will just be a need for some DS specific powers to be created. And maybe, some General DCs for certain skills, particularly Nature.
I am not saying to put any DS games on hold until WOTC decides to publish new source material...... I am just saying that jumping ship all together to a new forum will not do DS any favours, that is all....
But, as others have pointed out, how will not jumping ship do favors for DS? What is the concern with moving to a new community when WotC isn't paying attention here/doesn't care anyways?
However, based on what I know about the old 2e settings, I would be more apt to buy Dark Sun material than pretty much any of the other stuff.
For what it is worth...
I did not start playing D&D until about 3e.
However, based on what I know about the old 2e settings, I would be more apt to buy Dark Sun material than pretty much any of the other stuff.
For what it is worth...
Going by active forums and what the most popular out of print gameworlds are Darksun is one of the more popular ones along with Dragonlance and Planescape. I would like to see Darksun and Planescape done before Dragopnlance and Greyhawk because there isnb't that much difference really between Dragonlance, Greyhawk, FR, Mystara- they're all quasi medievil european influenced campagn worlds. Minimum 2 years until DS 4th ed (2008 FR, 2009 Eberron, 2010???)
I am not that thrilled at the idea of Wotc tinkering with either Krynn or Athas because who knows what they might do. That is the fear of the unknown though so who knows.
But since I already have a nice sized 3.5 collection of Dragonlance I wont buy 4e to upgrade if they release dragonlance, I may buy 4e IF their is new Darksun material released and its not a complete flop. Even then honestly I doubt I would spend more money on a new edition when i am more than happen with the 3.5 and 2e material already out for Athas.
Also posting on another forum will make no difference at all. I am sure Wotc has people who search around online to the different fansites to see how activly discussed and popular older settings are. So Posting on another site wont hurt the chances of a 4e release of a setting.
Dragonlance is barely discussed on Wotc boards, people often Opt to post on the Dragonlance Nexus where all the DL experts can be found and everything dealing with Dragonlance gaming, novels and news can be found. Yet it has never hurt Dragonlances sales or wotcs publishing of the setting in the newer editions like 3.5.