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No love for other campaign worlds?

Laker_RangerLaker_Ranger Member Posts: 11
in Off-Topic
It seems like TSR (or WOTC or Hasbro or whoever) has no love for other game worlds other than the Forgotten Realms. I'm out of the loop in the PnP world... is there still a viable Dragonlance game world (outside of my boxed set from 1992)? What about the granddaddy, World of Greyhawk? How about Mystara (other than the arcade game port)?

I do love the Realms, and it may be the most-well rounded campaign world, but how about a little variety? Seems to me the last Dragonlance games were made by SSI, and I played them on my buddy's 286 (All I remember is that the draconians did horrible stuff when they died, like blew up, shot acid, or turned to stone and captured your sword), and they ran crazy (unplayably) fast when we installed them on his 386. I admit I may have the computer processor speed wrong... this was like 25 years ago...

Comments

  • Night_WatchNight_Watch Member Posts: 514
    edited December 2013
    Aside from Temple of Elemental Evil (Greyhawk), nothing really comes to mind. I suppose Forgotten Realms more or less monopolized it. This is in regards to video games. Don't know how PnP is doing.

    A quick search on Wikipedia shows that Greyhawk is more or less gone now what with 4e taking over. It looks like something similar happened to Dragonlance.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhawk#2008_to_present
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance

    Wouldn't mind going through a Greyhawk campaign one day. I'd like the opportunity to run into some of the big name wizards in that world (Tenser, Bigby, Otiluke, etc.)

    Come to think of it, @atcDave might be to shed some light on the matter. He seems to be a bit of guru when it comes to this sort of stuff.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    There exist also a couple of less known D&D computer games that take place within the other campaign setting as well:

    Birthright Campaign Setting:
    - Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance (Turn-Based Strategy)

    Eberron Campaign Setting:
    - Dungeons & Dragon Online (MMORPG)
    - Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard (Real-Time Strategy, RPG)

    Mystara Campaign Setting:
    - Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (Beat 'em Up, RPG)

  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    If you want CRPGs, I can't help much, but Eberron, Planescape, and Dark Sun were alive and well in 4E PnP.
  • ErinneErinne Member Posts: 151
    I'd like to see more Ravenloft stuff... even though I'd probably be too chicken to play any game based on it :P.
  • RyofuRyofu Member Posts: 268
    The old gold box games had some games set on Dragonlance and Buck Rogers

    not sure where Al-Qadim was set in. Might still be the realms. Unfortunately i don't remember any games set in Ravenloft.

    that being said, the old gold box games like pool of radiance would be awesome if they could update them to modern graphics, they are all abandonware now so i assume anyone can remake them without having to pay royalties etc?
  • Aozgolo108Aozgolo108 Member Posts: 79
    I think Forgotten Realms has just become so immensely popular because it codifies a perfect medieval European high fantasy world and contains just about every single reference imaginable of the kind of monsters, mythology, and classic swords & sorcery style tales to keep us interested. I think it's still a very valuable resource because so much of it is untapped, I can't even think of any Forgotten Realms games that didn't predominantly occur along the Sword Coast (or Icewind Dale which may or may not count), which is only a minor part of the overall worldspace involved.
  • DrugarDrugar Member Posts: 1,566
    As Aozgolo said, Forgotten Realms is immensely popular because it has *everything*. Alien abberations lurk beneath the surface, piraty adventures around the Moonshae Islands, Arthurian legends are daily business in Cormyrs, Chult has jungles filled with dinosaurs, there are dragons of every kind and more evil cults than you can shake a Holy Avenger at.

    Hence, the rest has kind of fallen by the wayside. When introducing people to D&D, it's easier to step into Lord of the Rings Light than it is to step into the post apocalyptic desert drama that is Dark Sun or the planar insanity that is Planescape.
    However, with the advent of 5th Ed, Wizards has promised that these settings are not forgotten and will return. Their reprinting of almost every older D&D book so far seems to lend them some credit, as during the 4th Edition reign, they actively fought against their past publications. Seems like they've learned from their mistake.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Ryofu Yes, Al-Quadim is part off the Forgotten Realms. So is Kara-Tur/Oriental Adventures. 3e Oriental Adventures was set in Rokugan (world of Legend of the Five Rings CCG), but Wa, Kozkura, T'u Lung, Shou Lung, Koryo and Tabot still exist, as far as we know.
  • Laker_RangerLaker_Ranger Member Posts: 11
    Schneidend said:

    If you want CRPGs, I can't help much, but Eberron, Planescape, and Dark Sun were alive and well in 4E PnP.

    Dark Sun is still around? I was so frickin' gaga over that setting when it first came out. How does it hold up?

    Lots of stuff I liked in the same era (1992-1993) don't hold up so well for me (examples: early X-Force comics with Rob Liefield art and ballads sung by Axl Rose)

    Seriously, I remember the magic system being kooky, but cool, and testosterone. Lots of testosterone. Bruising combat, but that might have been my DM. My buddy and I had a crazy theory that the Dark Sun world was Krynn after another, greater cataclysm. It had something to do with kender...
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    Actually Darksun was a world with very advanced biotech and psionics until the first dragon-king discovered defiler magic...
  • rexregrexreg Member Posts: 292
    edited December 2013
    There was an attempt to make Greyhawk more central during 3.0. The default deity list was Greyhawk-centric & the Living Greyhawk campaign was around, as well.
    There's a fair amount of 2nd ed. stuff that is based around Greyhawk.
    I use Greyhawk as my default setting fairly regularly.
  • lordkimlordkim Member Posts: 1,063
    edited December 2013
    Well there could be a lot of fun in this world ;)
    image


    Big pic: http://dragonlancesopar.byethost22.com/maps/ansalon_full2.jpg
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    Laker_Ranger said:



    Dark Sun is still around? I was so frickin' gaga over that setting when it first came out. How does it hold up?

    Lots of stuff I liked in the same era (1992-1993) don't hold up so well for me (examples: early X-Force comics with Rob Liefield art and ballads sung by Axl Rose)

    Seriously, I remember the magic system being kooky, but cool, and testosterone. Lots of testosterone. Bruising combat, but that might have been my DM. My buddy and I had a crazy theory that the Dark Sun world was Krynn after another, greater cataclysm. It had something to do with kender...

    Dark Sun is REALLY cool. 4E and the halflings from the planar sphere in BG2 were my only experience with Dark Sun up until my friend ran the 4E Dark Sun adventure "Marauders of the Dune Sea." From what I can tell, based on what I have researched and learned second hand, about the only thing 4E does extremely differently from the original Dark Sun is that the races don't get extra bonuses, there are genasi and dragonmen, and the Elemental Priest is not a class but a Theme (essentially a background trait that provides some bonuses as you level) because 4E has so many more healing classes than previous editions. The monsters tend to be a bit more brutal in Dark Sun than the average 4E monster. The difficulty in "Marauders of the Dune Sea" was definitely tuned up a bit.

    As for kender, halflings are supposedly the most ancient race on Athas, so that might have something to do with it. And, yeah, as @mlnevese kinda mentioned, Athas had little in the way of arcane magic before some jerks discovered Defiling and messed everything up. I don't have much experience with Krynn/Dragonlance, but didn't they have plenty of wizards?
  • KaltzorKaltzor Member Posts: 1,050
    Forgotten Realms became the main setting for D&D I guess... It just became more popular than the other ones...

    Maybe a certain game developer could try to get made some BG/IWD styled games in the other settings of D&D as well...
  • Laker_RangerLaker_Ranger Member Posts: 11
    As people comment about Dark Sun, I remember more about it, and I think that my memories of it are colored by my being a pubescent kid when I played it (a Mul gladiator who is proficient in every weapon? Let's go kick some ass; my DM may have let me dual-wield two handed swords, with a major penalty, but who the hell cares? I am a Badass mul with 18+ strength let's kick some more ass! Blood on the sand!!!) I was about 14 last time I was involved in that setting (after our short-lived Dark Sun campaign, we played a Dragonlance group until the end of high school (1995)), and then played Shadowrun, and Werewolf/Vampire/Mage in college. I haven't legitimately played PnP D&D since 1995 or 1996, or any PnP RPGs since 1999. I can't remember our theory exactly, but I'm sure that it had more to do with us being 14, and having had drank too much Mello Yello, 5 am, and we were feeling full of ourselves after sneaking a couple of his Old Man's beers to calm ourselves down.

    It would be nice for certain software developers to create more new games in the style of Baldur's in other campaign settings (I just scored IWD, IWD2, PS:T, and TOEE on GoG, BTW). It seems there may be a market for them, since people keep buying and re-buying them, and then there are people like me who missed them the first time around because we had other priorities and/or were gaming on consoles... I love the idea of a Ravenloft game also, but I might be too chicken to play it...

    Informative commentary from the Baldur's Gate community once again! Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful responses!
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    A 4E (gotta have my genasi!) Dark Sun game in a similar vein to Icewind Dale would probably be the ultimate D&D game for me.
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