Look at how many different settings TSR was supporting/pushing in '92! Lack of focus much? The should have used SpellJammer / portals to link up all their settings into one connected mega setting with support for transferring characters between them. But, I suppose the "epic" scale, "serious" campaigns Dragonlance and later-day Forgotten Realms couldn't handle anything that awesome.Dark Sun
Ravenloft, Al-Qadim
Dragonlance
Forgotten Realms
SpellJammer, Greyhawk
But, I suppose the "epic" scale, "serious" campaigns Dragonlance and later-day Forgotten Realms couldn't handle anything that awesome.
ReplyDeleteIronic, then, that Krynn and Faerun were the two featured canon settings in the Spelljammer novels.
@Tyler
ReplyDeleteI like it better when my stereotyped assumptions aren't proved wrong ;)
Well, poop. Why the hell didn't they link everything together? Or did they? Maybe gamers did without them?
I'm holding a copy of the same catalog. I have a bunch of them lying around here because... ah, nostalgia ;)
ReplyDelete@Norman
ReplyDeleteI think gamers linked everything together long before TSR. There was an article linked to on RPG.net that described how in the early days of the hobby, campaign worlds were much more permeable. Characters and parties would pass from one to another by whatever convenience necessary as players dropped in on another GM's game or their regular game night had a guest GM.
I don't think Spelljammer explicitly covered every setting, but it was certainly implicit there was a crystal sphere for every world TSR published. And then they did it again with Planescape.
@Tyler
ReplyDeleteOh, I know linked together everything and esp cross DM/campaign history. It's something that seems to have been largely lost/abandoned.
I wonder why. Some gamers have and still do it. Curious why TSR with it's many settings didn't push it more?
Early TSR, DMG encouraged cross game/genre with boothill and GW conversions. I don't remember seeing those kinds of rules/encouragement continue as TSR grew into setting/supplement spewing monster of 2ed.
I didn't play TSR's "buy all our books (again)" scam. So, admittedly, only cursorily know details of spelljammer / planescape (and those seem more of settings onto themselves rather than portals connecting all(in that you play spelljammer to be a space pirate not to get to Oearth from Faerun). From my perspective the settings TSR pumped out seemed isolated, distinct. (Which you're pointing out and I'm admitting was an incorrect assumption on my part)
Perhaps things such as RPGA, Living Greyhawk supplied the demand for cross campaign gaming?
By the way, I've never met anybody IRL that liked Spelljammer: personally I think it's awesome, but even a small ship can be too much for railroad-prone, marysue-wielding GMs.
ReplyDeleteI always liked the avalanche of options for 2e. There was always something new and nifty for me to read at my FLGS. :)
ReplyDeleteHi everyone! I'm searching a Dragonlance catalogue with the image of "Saving solace" apearing inside. I think that catalogue bust be of January 2006 aprox. Anyone could help me? Thanks!
ReplyDelete