While serving i gave up a storage unit back in 98...I had approx 95% of everything printed for ad&d 2nd ed...whole looking thru the 5th ed books etc, i noticed a lot of the old words are gone...my 2 favorites were al-qadim and dark sun...are they going to bring them back?...and I see there isn't much for monstrous compendiums...I had all 16 of the ones you had to put in binders...do the new compendiums compare?...
It’s frustrating when you find yourself having to rebuild a collection you already had, I’m going through a similar thing with my collection of Doctor Who novels.
As for those two particular settings Wizards of the Coast seem hesitant to revisit some of the older settings that could be considered problematic to more modern readers, Dark Sun being one of the ones that comes up most often. However if you go to DM’s Guild you can buy pdf copies of most of the older books pretty cheaply
The lore or fluff of al-Qadim can be recycled for 5e, and if you want you can elements from Disney's Aladin TV show. The crunch may be a different thing. Al-Qadim, Maztica and Kara-Tur are Forgotten Realms spin-off and then they are technically unlocked in DM Guild.
Dark Sun is a special case. I can't be introduced like a family-friendly franchise, and if you can find NsfW content with characters of Baldurs Gate 3 with DS somebody could be create a "Saga of Gor" with superpowers. And WotC has to choose a lot of things about possible retcons or to start from zero with a spiritual succesor. For the 5e standars is not enoughly "modular" or flexible to add new crunch. What if players don't agree about new PC species, subclasses or classes? Would you allow shardminds, elans, maenads, dromites and xephs in your DS game? Or a crusader (martial adept class) like a member of the templars? Or a totemist shaman (incarnum soulmelder). The risk of possible controversy could reach the level of an edition war.
Any option? My suggestion is to create a "wildspace next to Athaspace" whose natives could visit or explore the Athasian Tablelands/region of Tyr.
The monsters from Athas can be updated to 5e, and some subclass, or even the defiler magic is possible, but in the best case a DS 5e would need a lot of work for possible redesigns.
To condense a lot of conversations i have had on this topic, because, yes, i miss some of the other worlds too, but i get why that are left out:
There is a lot of "Yikes bro" content that would have to be reworked, and for some settings like Dark-sun, they won't touch it because of some of the heavy subject matter, even if it its to turn the grim world into a "You can fix this, bit by bit, you can make this world a better place" kind of Hope-punk adventure. I could speculate all day on why, but that seems to be the sentiment, that it is a 'hands off that box' situation.
Al-Qadim, which takes place in Zakara, which is part of Toril where Faerun is, might be getting mentions and inclusion in the upcoming Faerun source-book. I believe Arabic and Farsi cultural consultants were mentioned, so they might be cleaning up some of the "yikes bro" content that some say were in Al-Qadim ( i never had it so i can't say what specifics ) and if that goes well, we might be seeing some of those other settings reintroduced into D&D in their respective worlds they are connected to. Or we might not, since Ravenloft as a setting is much bigger than just Barovia, and in Curse of Strahd, it takes place almost exclusively in Barovia, ( unless i missed something, been forever since i ran it. )
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
As mentioned, some of the older settings and setting areas (unique areas within settings) haven't aged well in a world trying to better itself through political correctness, but at the same time, I do think these things can be seen as opportunities by WOTC rather than something to fear. Many of the older settings were based on unique and interesting crosses between historical human cultures and fantasy cultures, and I think that is something to celebrate and explore, not ignore out of fear of offending someone.
Some of my favorites include Maztica, Birthright, Kara-Tur and the already mentioned Dark Sun. Yes, these settings had some real-world "problematic content" and in some cases, adult content. I understand that D&D is for kids, so they are careful about these things, but I was a kid when we explored these worlds and we dealt and dove into this content, and I haven't become demon-worshiping psychopath... yet..
Wotc is overthinking it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
While serving i gave up a storage unit back in 98...I had approx 95% of everything printed for ad&d 2nd ed...whole looking thru the 5th ed books etc, i noticed a lot of the old words are gone...my 2 favorites were al-qadim and dark sun...are they going to bring them back?...and I see there isn't much for monstrous compendiums...I had all 16 of the ones you had to put in binders...do the new compendiums compare?...
It’s frustrating when you find yourself having to rebuild a collection you already had, I’m going through a similar thing with my collection of Doctor Who novels.
As for those two particular settings Wizards of the Coast seem hesitant to revisit some of the older settings that could be considered problematic to more modern readers, Dark Sun being one of the ones that comes up most often. However if you go to DM’s Guild you can buy pdf copies of most of the older books pretty cheaply
The lore or fluff of al-Qadim can be recycled for 5e, and if you want you can elements from Disney's Aladin TV show. The crunch may be a different thing. Al-Qadim, Maztica and Kara-Tur are Forgotten Realms spin-off and then they are technically unlocked in DM Guild.
Dark Sun is a special case. I can't be introduced like a family-friendly franchise, and if you can find NsfW content with characters of Baldurs Gate 3 with DS somebody could be create a "Saga of Gor" with superpowers. And WotC has to choose a lot of things about possible retcons or to start from zero with a spiritual succesor. For the 5e standars is not enoughly "modular" or flexible to add new crunch. What if players don't agree about new PC species, subclasses or classes? Would you allow shardminds, elans, maenads, dromites and xephs in your DS game? Or a crusader (martial adept class) like a member of the templars? Or a totemist shaman (incarnum soulmelder). The risk of possible controversy could reach the level of an edition war.
Any option? My suggestion is to create a "wildspace next to Athaspace" whose natives could visit or explore the Athasian Tablelands/region of Tyr.
The monsters from Athas can be updated to 5e, and some subclass, or even the defiler magic is possible, but in the best case a DS 5e would need a lot of work for possible redesigns.
To condense a lot of conversations i have had on this topic, because, yes, i miss some of the other worlds too, but i get why that are left out:
There is a lot of "Yikes bro" content that would have to be reworked, and for some settings like Dark-sun, they won't touch it because of some of the heavy subject matter, even if it its to turn the grim world into a "You can fix this, bit by bit, you can make this world a better place" kind of Hope-punk adventure. I could speculate all day on why, but that seems to be the sentiment, that it is a 'hands off that box' situation.
Al-Qadim, which takes place in Zakara, which is part of Toril where Faerun is, might be getting mentions and inclusion in the upcoming Faerun source-book. I believe Arabic and Farsi cultural consultants were mentioned, so they might be cleaning up some of the "yikes bro" content that some say were in Al-Qadim ( i never had it so i can't say what specifics ) and if that goes well, we might be seeing some of those other settings reintroduced into D&D in their respective worlds they are connected to.
Or we might not, since Ravenloft as a setting is much bigger than just Barovia, and in Curse of Strahd, it takes place almost exclusively in Barovia, ( unless i missed something, been forever since i ran it. )
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
As mentioned, some of the older settings and setting areas (unique areas within settings) haven't aged well in a world trying to better itself through political correctness, but at the same time, I do think these things can be seen as opportunities by WOTC rather than something to fear. Many of the older settings were based on unique and interesting crosses between historical human cultures and fantasy cultures, and I think that is something to celebrate and explore, not ignore out of fear of offending someone.
Some of my favorites include Maztica, Birthright, Kara-Tur and the already mentioned Dark Sun. Yes, these settings had some real-world "problematic content" and in some cases, adult content. I understand that D&D is for kids, so they are careful about these things, but I was a kid when we explored these worlds and we dealt and dove into this content, and I haven't become demon-worshiping psychopath... yet..
Wotc is overthinking it.