As I’ve been getting further along with my work on the 4th Era of Shadow World, I thought it worthwhile to step back for a moment and examine the merits of this work. Certainly as I spend more time and energy on this, I’m more convinced that this is a executable path for I.C.E. that addresses many issues raised by the community and the needs of the company moving forward.
Some issues or challenges:
- ICE and RMU has no realistic strategy to create a new setting for the RMU rule set. World building takes work, creative input and resources. I don’t see any realistic model for the company to create a brand new world or game setting.
- ICE principals and users are not young. How many more years does the current experienced user base and thought contributors have left? I’m sure the IP will eventually fall to a new generation, but what will that look like?
- User demand and product expectations are even higher now. The market demands quality products with appealing layout and artwork and consistent new product output. The handwritten published products of the late 70’s and early 80’s are gone.
The great news is that building a 4th Era for Shadow World accelerates a publishing effort because it is a work of extrapolation. Unlike a new setting, we already have a large collection of canonical work product from Terry including a deep history, geography, maps, groups of politics and power and a thematic style that can be built upon. It’s a fresh start with a deeply established foundation. Terry’s work becomes a starting point and a reference source. This reminds me of the RPG Twilight 2000. While the idea is fun on it’s own, it’s notable that using a near future in our world avoids a tremendous amount of setting work. A simple world Atlas can be a DM’s best asset in that game!
Equally important, by having a significant event horizon between the 3rd & 4th Era we can tweak the setting a bit to move it more towards the RMU ruleset. Thus SW: 4th Era setting mirrors the same mission as RMU: a new product built on the collective past. I’ve written often about the rule gap between RM and SW. The reality is that Terry didn’t let RAW get in the way of his world building or story telling. We were left fiddling with rules to bridge the differences. I realize that the seemingly easier path is just to create conversion guides or convert existing products for RMU. That strategy still leaves us without new Shadow World products or stories.
As I’ve argued before, a 4th Era allows the Shadow World story to continue, preserves and respects Terrys work but creates a framework for new content, new writers and new adventures. Clear editorial and content guidelines can be created. Product editors can maintain setting continuity, help place adventure concepts and supply direction. But the setting is now opened up and not constrained by the active timeline found in the Master Atlas’s and SW books.
I’ve got a pretty hefty list of product ideas already in the queue, but you know what? Many of them won’t take as much work since I’m using established material and SW DNA. Much of the heavy listing is done. Of course the first book needs to be a new “Master Atlas”: Adventuring in the 4th Era plus a map gazetteer. This would tie up the loose ends of the 3rd Era and anchor the new age for other writers. Similar to the original publishing of Shadow World in 1988, a half a dozen products could be published in short order to officially launch the “new/old” setting for RMU.