Empyrea is gone?

[sam]

I mean, after the Kickstarter project is over, I still pay attention to http://worldofempyrea.com/; But this site has not been updated for a long time. I still think it has great potential,and for many new players, this old-school style is very fresh.

[Sock Puppet]

My understanding is that frank has but that setting on the back burner while he works on his fairy tale game.

[NPCDave]

I found a comment Frank posted on someone else's blog that Empyrea has been "destroyed" in the sense that there is no hope of it seeing the light of day, and he has moved on to FTG.

[Yaztromo]

[Big Mac]

I found a comment Frank posted on someone else's blog that Empyrea has been "destroyed" in the sense that there is no hope of it seeing the light of day, and he has moved on to FTG.

I didn't see that.

I guess it makes sense to get FTG finished and out there, but I was kind of hoping that Empyrea would be scaled back.

Frank went way past the modest initial goals of some of the 3rd Party Publishers run by other ex-D&D designers. We could have been given some sort of element that would have been a building block for later products. I think the main problem with the Empyrea Kickstarter was that it was an attempt to fund every single part of a product line in one go.

If you compare the pledges that Frank did get with less ambitious Kickstarters that had lower funding levels, you can get an idea of some of the things that might have been paid for and already out there.

Getting Darlene to make the map would probably be a good way to get going with things, although I'm not sure there are good options for international sales of Print on Demand maps. If DriveThru or Paizo ever sorts this out, it would create a situation where publishers could fund the R&D work and then shunt PoD delivery over to a third party.

A fairly generic sourcebook (without any rules) would probably be the next most logical step.

[Jayce]

I guess it makes sense to get FTG finished and out there, but I was kind of hoping that Empyrea would be scaled back.

Frank went way past the modest initial goals of some of the 3rd Party Publishers run by other ex-D&D designers. We could have been given some sort of element that would have been a building block for later products. I think the main problem with the Empyrea Kickstarter was that it was an attempt to fund every single part of a product line in one go.

If you compare the pledges that Frank did get with less ambitious Kickstarters that had lower funding levels, you can get an idea of some of the things that might have been paid for and already out there.

Getting Darlene to make the map would probably be a good way to get going with things, although I'm not sure there are good options for international sales of Print on Demand maps. If DriveThru or Paizo ever sorts this out, it would create a situation where publishers could fund the R&D work and then shunt PoD delivery over to a third party.

A fairly generic sourcebook (without any rules) would probably be the next most logical step.

Yes, the level of ambition had me worry a bit too. It's a real shame. Empyria was, together with the weekly additions to the classic D&D print-on-demand section, the only thing D&D related I was excited about. :/

I think you're right on the money. There is a lot to be said for Frank Mentzer's perfectionism, and wanting the setting to have both high production values and a good level of support. However, supporters of a kickstarter need to have some assurance that something will see the light of day, or they will be too scared to invest anything at all. If this project is ever revived, I hope Frank Mentzer sets some lower funding levels to reassure any potential investors and create the foundation for the Empyria setting, and uses stretch goals and subsequent crowdfunding campaigns to maybe fill some additional parts of the line.

I really do hope Empyrea is revived at some point down the line, though. A well crafted, classic D&D setting, created by the people who helped build the hobby? I think it's just what the RPG industry needs at this time, when what D&D itself brings to the table has become so stale and...well....boring, in terms of settings.

As for Fairy Tale Games, I'm sorry, but as much as I enjoy a focus on roleplaying, collaborative storytelling games just aren't my thing. I wish Frank the best of luck with the project, though.