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I am willing to give Pathfinder a chance, but I think this is sad news indeed.

Does WotC intend to make Dragon and Dungeon into online magazines ala Pyramid? Or are they just killing the brands? If the latter, I think that is an incredibly stupid and short-sighted decision - but this is WotC we're talking about, so who knows?


I can't take credit for it, but I borrow an idea from my friend's home campaign. He lets his players take an additional feat at first level in lieu of taking maximum hit points. Brings a little more excitement to character generation.;)


:Warning Spoiler:

Don't forget that after the PC's escape with Dragotha's phylactery they should be given enough time to rest, research, craft magic items, etc before they reach the Wormcrawl Fissure. The AoW is not on a strict schedule, after all. A delay of as much as a year seems reasonable at that point.


I have to break it down by game too:

Ars Magica - Jonathan Tweet
AD&D: Greyhawk - Gary Gygax
AD&D or D&D 3.X: Forgotten Realms - Ed Greenwood
Call of Cthulhu - John Tynes
Cyberpunk (any) - Walter John Williams
D&D 3.X or Rolemaster - Monte Cook
GURPS - Kenneth Hite
HERO System - Aaron Allston
Over the Edge or Feng Shui - Robin D. Laws
Runequest: Glorantha - Greg Stafford
World of Darkness or The Everlasting - Steven C. Brown


It was outstanding, despite some alterations to the original storyline. Terrific entertainment with an important message.


Dio fans might want to check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43TlKfLdNRo

I prefer classical and metal music with my D&D, especially power metal bands like Dragonforce and Symphony X.

But right now, I'm listening to a psychedelic mix I burned for my friend:

The Doors -- "Tell All the People"
The Apples in Stereo -- "Tidal Wave"
The Make-Up -- "Call Me Mommy"
Os Mutantes -- "Quem Tem Medo de Brincar"
Oysterhead -- "Oz Is Ever Floating"
Fenwyck -- "Mindrocker"
The Human Expression -- "Optical Sound"
Bruno Leys -- "Dans la galaxie"
Brigitte Bardot -- "Contact"
The Beta Band -- "Inner Meet Me"
Özdemir Erdogan Ve Orkestrasi -- "Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim"
(Cambodian Rocks) Various Artists -- Untitled
Kaleidoscope -- "A Dream for Julie"
Mogol -- "Sunset in Golden Horn"
Apaslar -- "Gilgamis"
Toncho Pilatos -- "Tommy Lyz"
Blur -- "Advert"
Midnight Movies -- "Mirage"
Third Rail -- "Run, Run, Run"
Of Montreal -- "Lysergic Bliss"
The Warlocks -- "Moving & Shaking"
Shocking Blue -- "Send Me a Postcard"
Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. -- "The 'India' Crowd"
Max Frost & The Troopers -- "Shape of Things to Come"


THERE IS NO KAISER SOSE!!!

Erm, sorry, reflexive response.

My all time favorite uber bad guy, at least where D&D is concerned, is actually a gal, or rather a demoness.

She tends to be overlooked these days because of over-exposure, but my vote goes to Lolth. Q1 was the first module where you could actually fight a god, or at least an avatar of her, if you prefer. She and the drow became iconic for a reason.


I'll say it again, I would love to see an "Age of Worms" or "Shackled City" style campaign of linked adventures set in the Forgotten Realms.

Ideally, this series would be tied to some of the plot elements introduced in Lost Empires of Faerun. I'm planning my next FR campaign around a secret society that worships a vestige of the dead god Myrkul. Their goal is to recover the Imaskarcana artifacts to slay the current god of death, Kelemvor. I hope to work in Magic of Incarnum and Weapons of Legacy as well as material from Tome of Magic, but I'm still in the early stages of design, so I'd be happy to see something come along before then. Let's hear some more ideas!


Takasi wrote:
You don't want to get into a debate over its merits or flaws, yet you present a flaw. I show you that this flaw doesn't exist (it's actually a merit) and you decide to completely ignore this point. You then go on to show another "flaw".

Whoah, put the torch down for a second. I accept that I violated my own rule, so your response is a fair cop, but allow me to explain. I expressed an opinion about why it didn't appeal to me. My flaw may be your merit, but this is an aesthetic and subjective choice, not objective fact.

Takasi wrote:
WoW is much more like Eberron than Greyhawk and it's arguably a much more popular world today than Greyhawk ever was. Also remember that there are a lot of die hard Tolkien fans who turn their noses at Greyhawk for what they perceive to be "alternative fantasy" and genre bending.

Well, I guess I opened this particular can of worms, so I'll try to clean up.

As far as I know, you may be right on all counts, I have no way of knowing for sure, but assertions are not proof. It wouldn't make a difference either way. There *is* genre bending in GH. But let's be honest, it's pretty subdued. An apparatus here, one module with a crashed spaceship and Blackmoor do not amount to a genre buster.

As for the Tolkienistas, they've never had the final say in D&D. This has been stressed from day one. So they can all count the hair on the foot of a hobbit, as far as I'm concerned. Greyhawk, whether you like it or not, is the template of what D&D, traditional, good old D&D, is.

Takasi wrote:
Eberron has so many interesting world building ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with robots, skyscrapers or trains. You should be careful not to accidentally spot a flaw when there may not be one.

In case it wasn't clear, I wasn't denigrating Eberron - far from it.

I'm sure there is tons of great material you could mine from it (I certainly plan to), but are there not pseudo-robot characters, trains and other pulp touches also? Whether these facts are flaws or merits are for individuals to decide, but can you honestly argue they're not modern elements? In GH these things were in the background. In Eberron they're up front.

Why is it so terrible to point out that Eberron is not traditional high fantasy/swords & sorcery? After all, that may be a good thing. You seem to think so, and suggest that more and more people agree with you. I say, perhaps.

But I do find it ironic that D&D online felt the need to incorporate distinctly modern elements. Perhaps the tastes of computer gamers demanded something along those lines, I have no idea. When it comes to what I call fantasy and especially D&D, however, I draw the genre line at industrial technology, even in the guise of magic. Period. That is an aesthetic choice, I realize, but it is an absolute one.

I can see your point about not rushing to pre-judgements, and I agree. But can you not appreciate the reasons why some people might not consider Eberron the most definitive style of D&D?


Put that way, it makes more sense, and is basically the model for Greyhawk. One of the curious things about Greyhawk is that the fans never felt any pressure to acknowledge the novels as "canon," except for maybe the first two Gord books. Yet FR and obviously Dragonlance fans, the novels weigh much more heavily. I would have no trouble killing off a major NPC from either world if the situation called for it, but I gather that's not the case with most.

As for Eberron, I don't want to get into a debate over its merits or flaws. It didn't draw my dollar, but it obviously has its fans and that's good enough for me. I even own Races of Eberron - really keen book.

I'll just make one more point about Eberron. It's the genre bending that I have a problem with. It just seems odd to me that D&D is offering "alternative" fantasy while squatters like WoW and Evercrack milk the golden goose online, but that's a whole other can of worms, and I'm not talking Kyuss.

As it stands now, as long as WotC at least keeps supporting FR, and Paizo makes with the Greyhawk love, I'll deal. Personally, I would like to see some FR adventures using material from Lost Empires of Faerun. That is one seriously cool book.


Gwydion? Gwydion?! Hey, that's my character's name, and he's not even a D&D character!

I demand satisfaction! A roll off, at twenty paces, for the honor of bearing such a distinguished appellation. Choose your die, sir!


Takasi wrote:


One of the goals Keith Baker has had in writing adventures is an intentional lack of consequence. If the adventurers succeed there's no huge change in the world. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect example of this type of story. Eberron has no ongoing epic history in development like FR and Greyhawk have.

Ugh, if this is true then it only reinforces my opinion that Eberron was desgined from the ground up to be a MMORPG setting - sterile and ultimately pointless. FR might be dominated by epic NPC's, but at least you can interact with them and perhaps steer the course of major events. Heck, in FR you can even challenge the gods, although those that tried don't have a very good track record.

Anyway, if I want to feel powerless to change the world, I can just watch the nightly propa . . . er, I mean news. If I'm playing a 16th level character, I no longer expect to be led by the nose to find my adventures. High level PC's should have the power to change the campaign. If they don't, then they're just props for the DM.


I would LOVE to see some Incarnum support in Dragon, perhaps even a special issue. There is definite room for more soulmelds and spells that tap essentia, and an Incarnum creature catalog would be super sweet too.

But just based on the response to this thread and other Incarnum threads on the WotC boards, I wouldn't hold my breath. It seems Incarnum fans are even more marginalized than Psionic fans. Perhaps time will change this. An issue supporting the Tome of Magic would also be very welcome; at least the ToM seems to have some groundswell of interest.

Chapter 8 of the MoI was very helpful to me in integrating Incarnum into my campaign. I was able to incorporate the Pentifex Order without too much trouble, as well as the Bastion of Souls and other locations by making it a lost magic art from a distant age. But it does take some thought to unveil Incarnum in a campaign. Personally, I think it works best if you introduce it as part of the campaign's story arc, slowly and incrementally. Otherwise, you have to retroactively incorporate how this magic balances and interacts with the forces and powers already at play in your setting.

A great article would be an alternate way of portraying soulmeld effects. Many people complained about the neon video game aesthetics of the MoI. Word of mouth just seems to be killing this book, and that's a shame. People don't seem to want to give it a chance (with the exception of the people posting on this thread, obviously). I think it's great, but something has to be done to make people take another look.

Unless WotC gets around to producing Complete Incarnum or Expanded Magic of Incarnum, Dragon is the best hope Incarnum fans have of seeing anything expand on this interesting magic system.


Back in the days of first and second edition, I wasn't much of a Realms fan. Oh, I loved all the Dragon articles by Ed Greenwood, but for some reason the original boxed set left me asking, so what?

It just seemed like the Realms had to one-up GH by being bigger and having more of everything - more gods, more magic, more nations, but little cohesion or continuity. It came off like someone's home campaign expanded by a committee. As we all know, more does not necessarily mean better.

And where were the string of classic supporting modules? It didn't help that you had to read scores of novels to keep abreast of official campaign developments. Then there were all those annoying scimitar wielding drow that started to pop up everywhere. In short, Realms stock was falling - fast.

But then came 3rd edition and the FRCS. The world was rewritten, collated and scaled to a more manageable size - and the production value! What a difference. I immediately "got it."

Now the Lost Empires of Faerun has made a great campaign setting even better. I so wish Greyhawk had a book like this - written by purists, and covering the Suloise and Baklunish civilizations in detail. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Primarily as a result of the FRCS and the Lost Empires of Faerun, I now consider myself a Forgotten Realms fan. I personally would welcome more FR material, but not at the expense of Greyhawk material. Eberron I can take or leave - not a bad setting, just not good old traditional D&D.


Devilfish wrote:
Not even Sicily has that kind of aridness.

Aridity, rather. My eeenglish, it not so goood.;)


Right, just to follow up on the actual thread!

I am an American, born and raised, but my family is Spanish; Galician, actually.

Growing up I spent many summers with my relatives in the port city of A Coruna. Every visit, I made it a point to climb the ancient Roman lighthouse there, nearly 2000 years old and still in operation. That made an impression on me, the idea of walking the same steps Roman soldiers would climb to keep watch over the ships of their empire, ships weighed down with gold mined by conquered slaves...

It helped spark my interest in history and mythology which then carried over to my gaming. That was how I learned of the first mythical king of the area, (O)Bregon (Breoghus or Brigus), and Galicia's connection to the myths of Bile and the Milesians. Our family were good Catholics, but belief in fairies, witchcraft and gypsy curses were clearly part of the local landscape, and I took it all in. In our neighborhood there was even a village crone who I was advised was best avoided lest she give you her "evil eye."

Having lived in both a relatively young society like that of the US and an old one like Spain, I can tell you that although the preponderance of pop fantasy culture is American, or at least in English, the cultural roots, as others have pointed out, are Western or Pan-European. I'm glad that gamers are now branching out to explore other societies, but they can be hard to sustain if the GM doesn't have an interest in learning about that culture. The standard D&D campaign takes less work precisely because it is based on the common knowledge of being raised in a western country.

I too have noted that role-players as a rule are curious about other cultures, and I think this stems from the generally creative and inquisitive nature gaming encourages. Although Star Wars probably did more than anything else to kindle my interest in the fantastic, being raised on the stories of Roland and El Cid were also very formative. It's in the sense of history and place that Europeans might be at an advantage. Thankfully, this can be overcome with a little exposure to other cultures, especially travel.


farewell2kings wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
And Rush rocks!!!

Oh yeah, another D&D playing Rush fan....there's quite a few of us here on these boards, I've noticed.

Rush does, indeed, rock.

Sign the petition to get them in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! http://www.petitiononline.com/xanstar/petition.html


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Heathansson wrote:
Reminds me of the Clint Eastwood westerns shot in Italy... they were so bizarre, but the absurdity of it all gives you a peek into another realm entirely.

It was an Italian production, but it was shot in southern Spain. Not even Sicily has that kind of aridness.


magdalena thiriet wrote:
Folk songs and dances, troubadour songs, Palestrina, Byrd and so on, there's a lot more than just gregorian chants.

If you like that kind of stuff, check out: ATRIUM MUSICAE DE MADRID Musique de la Grece Antique (Harmonia Mundi).

From the AQ Records website (http://www.aquariusrecords.org/) "...it's a partially-imaginary reconstruction by an unusual Spanish world-music ensemble of what the music of ancient Greece MIGHT have sounded like, based on what little historical documentation is available regarding musical practices of the period. Each track references some papyrii or other (so the spoken and sung texts are supposedly historically accurate) and the music is played on what are assumed to be authentic types of instrumentation (including a reproduction of an hydraulic organ!). As we said, much of the music is ritual-sounding, with chanting and bells. It has quite an occult vibe. There's also tracks of beautiful, folky female vocals backed by plucks of the lyre. Add to that stirring horns, droning flutes, percussive crashes, eccentric vocal flourishes, and much more. Liner notes explain the Atrium Musicae's intentions and procedure in trying to recreate this lost music. There's a definite sense of drama, and of the weight of the ages upon those trying to bring the fragments of Greek music back to life. This disc is sometimes creepy, often lovely, always fascinating."

magdalena thiriet wrote:
Playing soundtracks has a danger of creating too specific connections to the actual movies (unless you actually want to scare the bejeezus out of your gamers by putting on Psycho theme unexpectedly...)

This is very true. I like to edit out the tracks on soundtracks that contain the main theme.


Well, we game on Sundays, so the ritual now is: I pick up one of our players and we have breakfast at the local IHOP, where we talk about the game. Then on the ride over, if we're not running late, I like to stop at my FLGS and usually end up buying at least a mini or some dice. On the long ride over we listen to an eclectic mix of soundtracks, power metal, cool stuff like Darkest of the Hillside Thickets and Bill Hicks out-takes, and other sundrie oddities.


Humans hands down.

I do like the Goliaths and the Illumians, 'though.


Fake Healer wrote:
Jonathan Drain wrote:
Daigle wrote:
I too think a new D&D cartoon would be an interesting way to introduce a new wave of players, but I just shuddered thinking how annoying Lidda's voice would be.
And they would probably set it in Eberron, no matter whether or not the tone was fitting for a cartoon...
Too much anime influence. I wouldn't watch an anime-style D&D cartoon. D&D should be dark and gritty, not 8' long swords and 13 year olds slaying demons. IMO

From what I understand, either the Blume brothers or Lorraine Williams pulled the plug on the D&D Entertainment group, for reasons as bogus as you would expect. The cartoon had reasonable ratings and was trending up. It was also moving away from the kitsch and corniness of the first two seasons into straighter adventure territory, as evidenced by the characters they introduced at the end of the series. The idea was that there was going to be a spin off that would attract the teen audience. Unfortunately, when the new T$R regime sought to eradicate all ties to Gygax, the movie deal fell apart and the cartoon show's fate was sealed. This remains one of the great "what if's?" in gaming history.

Any cartoon show produced today would have to be anime or mimic anime. It's sad, but the producers and executives who make these decisions are monolithically convinced that only an anime style cartoon can succeed in today's market. Film and TV people are notoriously risk-averse and conformist in their thinking, so it's unlikely this conventional wisdom will falter until anime and manga sales begin to go down, which may not happen anytime soon, although I fervently, passionately hope it does as I am developing an intese dislike of the style and the legions of annoying brats it leaves in its wake; including some who are old enough to know how awful most of it is.


ericthecleric wrote:


I would also be interested in hearing from other posters to my original questions.
I'd also like to ask (DMs) for their opinions on whether they would ever consider any of the incarnum classes to be nonassociated- and for which races?

Well regarding the first question, the White Toymaker is correct on both counts.

The Incarnate is analogous to the Cleric, the Soulborn to the Paladin and the Totemist to the Druid.


Mattel's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for the Intellivision - accept no substitute!

Taipan on the Aplle IIe. Well, I role-played with it...

Planescape: Torment fer dem new fangled gadgets.


Aubrey the Malformed wrote:


I'm not saying that is what Hasbro are doing, but I don't really see them marketing D&D that actively. And that is why, in a sense, I am a bit worried. If you look at the demographic, we are mostly in our thirties to forties and took up the game years ago (with notable exceptions, sure, but look at the threads where this was discussed). It's not a growth proposition for Hasbro, though they have done a good job over the last few years. The status quo is never an option in business, and something may have to give.

This is what bothers me most. I'm not sure if Hasbro controls WotC's marketing, but a few adverts during the D&D2 movie does not cut it. It's like preaching to the choir, to borrow the cliche. Why the hell aren't they trying to reach the new generation? Do they just think that they have no hope of competing against Playstations?

I can tell you for a fact that when young kids see a group of gamers having fun around a table with painted miniature figures, they take an immediate interest. WizKids should be proof enough of that. That lure can get people to the table. Then it's up to the DM to make permanent converts - that's why it's so important to groom new DM's in any way possible.

One of the worst mistakes that TSR made was to kill the old animated D&D show, especially considering the direction it was starting to go. For the life of me, I can't understand why WotC/Hasbro refuses to advertise D&D where it can reach new fans, like Cartoon Network or during Saturday morning programming. It's like the leader of the hobby has a death wish or something.


Tequila Sunrise wrote:
The thing about D&D that gets under my skin more than any book or rule or marketing technique is the people who play D&D. Why is it that 90% of gamers in general are flighty or flaky or antisocial or irritating or airheads or inconsiderate or dysfunctional in some other way?! What is it about human psychology that links the gaming trait with all of these negative traits?

I've wondered about this sometimes myself, then I remember that most people in general are jerks. Does that make me antisocial?

I'm tired and I'm going to go to bed now, but this is a great thread. I'll save the rant for tomorrow.


Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:


No, not really - there my be kinks in my idea that need to be worked out but it wasn't a joke.

Sorry, it seemed funny to me;)

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:


I guess we could argue that they ought to be altruists and be willing to make less money but create nothing but good content but I think that this really is just not likely to happen.

I hardly think I was arguing that. Of course they need to make money. I just think the nature of pen&paper gaming consigns it to a relatively small market. The market can be grown, but I don't think there is a magic bullet format that will make that happen. You may disagree with me, and perhaps you're right, but I think what gaming needs are more game masters - they are the people who really buy books, and they are the people who give players an incentive to buy gaming products. That means supporting a much bigger effort to run demos and sponsor conventions. School and library programs could help too.

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:


Hence I'm looking to 'channel' there efforts into making the game as good as it possibly can be instead of encouraging them to actually damage the product with endless supplements...
I think your missing what I'm arguing for. There is no real new product to review in FLGS, you own all the product via your subscription fee, all of it is integrated together into one very large rule set thats constantly being tinkered with to improve it and squash the problems.

I fail to see how the .pdf model would stop the supplement bloat. In fact, it might exacerbate it. People will still demand more options, only now they're *forced* to pay for them under a subscription system. Under this model I can't cherry pick. Months may go by where I've paid for content I don't want. Not a formula for success.

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:


Still computers are pretty much everywhere. There are a number of ways of getting access to one even if you personally don't happen to have one in your house. Really we are getting to the point were probably some extremely high percentage of the players, in the western world anyway, have a computer or have access to a computer.

I think you're under the impression that everyone who plays can afford a computer and regular internet service. They don't. Say the percentage of gamers with access to a computer is 90%. You've just lost 10% of your potential sales - and the proportion is nowhere near 90%. We tend to forget that since we interact with so many gamers online.

Moreover, this proposed model still doesn't address the fundamental problem for me. I want nice full color hardbound books I can put on my bookshelf. I don't want to have to burn through an ink cartridge every time a new update comes out. This is very important to me - printed .pdf's are not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as hardbound color books. If WotC went exclusively to a .pdf system, I would not sign up. Perhaps when print on demand machines become cheap enough and comparable in quality to a printed hardbound, but not before.

Aubrey the Malformed wrote:

I don't personally see anything especially interesting about Greyhawk. It seems a fairly bog standard sort of world which pretty much anybody could come up with these days.

Sure, it is the motherlode in terms of being the original setting that St Gary of Lake Geneva came up with. But so what? It embodies all of the cliches that "standard" D&D worlds possess (the basic level Tolkien rip-off, with it's fantasy version of West Europe/the Midwest, all of the Norse races, a general sort of cosiness, and so on). It really only has the benefit that, being fairly undeveloped, you can do what you like in it. But you can do that in any world you dream up.

Well, you are of course entitled to your opinion, different strokes and all, but I think the things you disparage about Greyhawk are the very things that attract people to it; the cliches you cite are what makes WoG a classic setting.


Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:


I think we should move over to some kind of subscription fee system and what we get for our subscriptions are continuously updated PDFs (that we download) so that rules are revised constantly while monsters, treasures, classes, prestige classes, feats and anything else I've missed are endlessly added and in potentially always revisable to make sure that they remain play balanced.

I can only assume you are joking.

Look, I understand the pen & paper rpg "industry" is desperate to produce a regular cash cow along the model of card games or WizKid minis, but if they did that exclusively, that would probably mark the end of my gaming purchases.

While the idea sounds tempting, it has several fatal flaws. For one thing, whether anyone believes it or not, there are still plenty of gamers who don't have the cash to shell out for a computer, but might get their parents to spring for a few D&D books. For another, it would be entirely reliant on your printer - not everyone games near a computer.

Last, but certainly not least, I'm only going to get to see a small, select preview of the product now, rather than being able to observe the whole thing at my FLGS to decide whether it's worth the full price or not. You can't always rely on word of mouth, as is evident to anybody who frequents an Internet forum. I mostly run for my group, which means more often than not, I'm the first one to consider a new game product.

I think miniatures are one way to generate regular revenue for game companies, but going completely to .PDF's would be a cruel blow to bibliophiles like me, and I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one who would howl at such a move.


Well, Greyhawk was the first campaign setting I ever bought, waaaay back in the day, and it's still my favorite setting. Of course, I ignore everything that came out after Gary left, with a few exceptions like Maure Castle. I'm glad to see Paizo breathing life into the old warhorse with Age of Worms, however, and I hope they'll continue to publish adventures set in Greyhawk.

It's always been a little baffling to me why WotC didn't give Greyhawk a proper hardcover edition when 3.0 was released. That was galling.

My suspicion is that their market research told them that the younger demographic needed a more "anime" type world to sink their teeth into (and buy a ton of supplements for). Aesthetics have changed, as evidenced by the "punk" direction the art of D&D took. Putting the beloved WoG through that process would have ruined it, and the Realms were suffering from the same fatigue that Greyhawk did back in the late 80's. It's probable that WotC calculated an extensive line of new WoG material wouldn't draw enough new fans and would alienate old holdouts like me (they're probably right about that); hence Eberron.

Now, I am not an Eberron basher. I think there are a lot of good ideas in there, and Keith Baker is a talented writer, but for my tastes, Eberron suffers from the marketing meta-design injected into it. The whole video-game, psuedo-tech approach leaves me cold.

I don't think they'll kill Greyhawk, exactly. They may decide to let it languish in print limbo along with all the other TSR worlds, which is basically the situation since the revision was released.

But here's the most important thing - Greyhawk WILL NEVER DIE. It has too many fans who will resurrect it. The thing about Greyhawk is that it was never meant to be a highly developed and detailed setting. The real flavor of Greyhawk was mostly in the modules - the setting itself was just designed to serve as a base that anyone could use to then develop to their own tastes - which is exactly what I have done. What was I susposed to do, retrofit all my campaign events to accomodate something like "From the Ashes"? No, thanks.

In short, whether Greyhawk survives depends on us, the gaming community, not some suits in Seattle or New York. Let them continue churning out the setting flavor of the week. When Eberron has gone the way of Dark Sun and Planescape, Greyhawk will still be around, because it's not based on passing fads or styles. That's why it's a CLASSIC.