Many questions or curiosity hit my mind currently, here what they are :

1- I’ve been in the athas.org staff section. Many are written there, are they still active and up to something?

2- If yes, what are they working on and do they need help?

3- If no, have you think in updating the list and seek new blood to complete 3.5e project and start 4e project?

4- Did wotc contacted you or did you contacted them in regard to the athas.org status versus continuing 3.5e material and/or 4e material and the limits they would give you?

5- What’s the state of completion of the actual projects and with the speed you have seen in the last years, how long do you think it could take to conclude these with the staff you currently have?

6- At this point, if you dont think project arent enough fast, did you thought finding new members to the staff? I suppose that at one point or another in your life, you probably are less interested in producing stuff and would be more than happy to let other peoples do the dirty work while you concentrate on the guiding them. What’s your thoughts?

7- While speaking of fresh flesh, what type of help would you need? Do you need help to update the site (which is vvvveeerrrryyyyy slow on the update)? We don’t doubt on the current organizer ability, just that like I said many time, if you want to have more peoples coming to your site, you have to have something to show them, even if it’s only just small news to write on the front page.

As for myself, I am not a good example of all this, not having update my web site for a loooooooooooooong time now. I basically keeping it alive. I will have to whip myself this summer. Or maybe someone doesnt have the money to keep a site online and would like to have one? Maybe I should find someone to help me with that? I have the cash, but not much time. Should I seek someone?

I have begin to wonder about that myself, maybe the athas.org team should too. I mean finding new exited members!

I’m pretty sure many of us, old timer, are stuck in the 2ed, 3ed or 3.5ed and having yet done a single game in 4e (which is the case for me). In that case, we need new peoples that urge for more (in 4e)!

If we are stuck with only fluff (in 4e), this is great! Let’s do fan submission and produce quality documents with the fan material!?

Do a contest?! athas.org have the visibility and the credibility to host that kind of event!

We must be proactive, not dormant!

Grummore the preacher and believer

This post makes me weep tears of happiness.There are still people out there that actually still think optimistically like that.

I ‘m afraid though that the glorious athas.org is by the end of its life (I would love to thing not but I can’t help it) .
By the release of the fourth edition of the campaign the site will be dealt the coup de grace it is written (in the books of fourth edition).
What a pity really… no more new athas for us.

I don’t think this is the death of Dark Sun 3.5, a hindered yes, but not dead. There are still fan based 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition forums, sites and resources about. I for one prefer 3/3.5 to 4th, yes I’ve played 4th just not my cup of tea (I’m a skill point monger, the one thing I liked the most about the system is what every other system removed).

With Fourth Edition, I’m sure Athas.org is one of the few web locations set up to host fan designed adventures or resources, the other (sorry for putting you on the spot here Grummore) is Silt Skimmers.

Come on, I dont want to throw any rocks. We all know the huge job you made with maintaining alive Darksun. You did a incredible work with darksun 3.0 and 3.5.

I sure, like many other here, would like to know what’s up with Athas.org.

Thanks.

Even I hope that 4th edition Dark Sun won’t be the death kneel for athas.org.

Dark Sun 3 managed to keep the old flavour with the new rules, keeping out crap like “goliath as half giant”, or “athasian paladins”. It was better than the Paizo version in Dragon Magazine, and I’m pretty sure that it will be better than the upcoming 4th edition version.

Seriously, looking at the 4th edition of Forgotten Realms (i.e. Azeroth meets Faerun, with the Plaguelands, the Earth motes, etc.) I think that we risk to have blood elves, or the Dead Lands ruled by a ruthless Lich King in a fortess called ObsidianCrown Citadel ^^’

Come on, I dont want to throw any rocks. We all know the huge job you made with maintaining alive Darksun. You did a incredible work with darksun 3.0 and 3.5.

Grummore, who are you addressing? I don’t think and of the Templars are in the room yet.

And yes, it would be great to hear from someone in the know.

I know they didnt answered yet, but they surely (at least one) have seen the post.

From Flip on he WotC board : _At the moment, Grummore, I’m doing some behind-the-scenes work on the site, just trying to get it upgraded to the latest version of Rails (the framework in which the site is written) …

Once that’s done, there are a couple of areas I’m planning on tinkering in, but I’ve got to get the groundwork in place. And beyond tinkering, I’ve got to get the wiki back up. I’m still trying to find the database backups for that, but I’m almost afraid that it might have died in a hard drive crash a couple years back….

It’s not going away, but I think that, as an organization, we’ll have to scale back to smaller-sized bits, rather than the large — and far between — products we’ve done in the past._

From myself :

Thank you very much for the reply Flip. I’m glad you arent dead somewhere between the deadlands and the black…!

I understand very well that there is a need to get smaller because you will probably no longer have any right to produce official things.

ALTHOUGH, I think it more than important to let know the fans that you arent gone. You’re the only one that appointed over here! There are many staff on the site list, where are they!?

Shouldnt we start to produce fan stuff with athas.org staff behind us to support us?
Could you get new blood to help you with the new 4th ed or to finish us some 3.5 stuff?

There are many questions in my starting post that we’d all be glad to have the answer!

1- I’ve been in the athas.org staff section. Many are written there, are they still active and up to something?

There are some more or less active people, like Daniel and Fabricio. I am currently not really active, just stopping by these forums once in a while.

2- If yes, what are they working on and do they need help?

City-State of Balic and Secrets of the Dead Lands. If they need help, they will probably announce it.

3- If no, have you think in updating the list and seek new blood to complete 3.5e project and start 4e project?

3.5 Core Rules were completed in r7. We do not have a license for 4E, so no plans for that. Never have been.

4- Did wotc contacted you or did you contacted them in regard to the athas.org status versus continuing 3.5e material and/or 4e material and the limits they would give you?

This is Flip’s area.

5- What’s the state of completion of the actual projects and with the speed you have seen in the last years, how long do you think it could take to conclude these with the staff you currently have?

This would be the individual project managers’ area.

6- At this point, if you dont think project arent enough fast, did you thought finding new members to the staff? I suppose that at one point or another in your life, you probably are less interested in producing stuff and would be more than happy to let other peoples do the dirty work while you concentrate on the guiding them. What’s your thoughts?

We did a recruitment campaign one-two years ago, but most people pull out when they realize we actually demand something in return for their affiliation with us (i.e. work). Even getting a regular playtester environment up proved difficult.

7- While speaking of fresh flesh, what type of help would you need? Do you need help to update the site (which is vvvveeerrrryyyyy slow on the update)? We don’t doubt on the current organizer ability, just that like I said many time, if you want to have more peoples coming to your site, you have to have something to show them, even if it’s only just small news to write on the front page.

There hasn’t been that much to report. It’s been a quiet period. And like Flip said, us “old timers” are busy with other aspects of life than game design these days.

Hey Jon! Sorry I’ve come over here a lot and I missed your post! I’m feeling stupid right now!

1- I think we’d need some information on the athas.org front page just to let us know nobody is dead!
2- It would be nice to see them actually manifest themselves!
3- Forgot an “s” to projects. And by 4e projects I mean fan made stuff.
4- Waiting on Flip then!
5- Isnt there a global projects manager?
6- Well, we are 2 years away from your previous manifestation for recruitment, do another! You’ll find someone that stick and want to work. There are still peoples that will commit.
7- Find someone you can trust that have the guts to take the relay on the “old-timer” while you are inactive!
7-

Funny you should mention volunteers. I seem to recall just over a year ago, you volutneered to do some work on City-State of Balic, and well I am still waiting…

I volunteered when the call first went out, alas my hard drive died a week later taking the material with it so I haven’t made much progress. I still haven’t fixed my computer, instead I’ve been using my wife’s laptop.