Premium Modules in Original Settings

[Crimson Paladin]

Back in the earlier days of Neverwinter Nights, the first few big premium modules- Shadowguard, Kingmaker, and Witch's Wake- did not take place in Forgotten Realms, and instead took place in original settings created by the module developers. Shadowguard and Witch's Wake both ended on cliffhangers to be resolved in sequel modules, sequel modules that never came. New modules arrived such as Infinite Dungeons, Darkness over Daggerford, and The Wyvern Crown of Cormyr, but the sequels to the old modules never arrived.

According to an interview by a Witch's Wake developer, this was because around this time Wizards of the Coast underwent a staff change and evidently decided to implement a change or clarification in their policy, that from this point onward they would only allow content taking place within Forgotten Realms.

Does anyone know if this policy is still in effect? Do premium modules still have to take place or be otherwise tied in to Forgotten Realms? I suppose it's silly to hope that the old premium modules will ever be concluded, but I still enjoyed playing in original settings.

[DrLoboto]

Hm, good question. Now that you mention it, the latest Premium Module seemed suspiciously designed around promoting a Wizards of the Coast product, the "official D&D tabletop campaign, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus". So maybe they still have some kind of arrangement in place?

But if you enjoy modules like Shadowguard, Kingmaker and Witch's Wake, did you ever try any of the dozens of free high quality community modules? Most of them are just as good or even much much better, and the only difference to Premium modules I see is that they don't feature voiceovers (but Premium modules also have a lot of text that's not voiced).

[Tesseract]

WotC would still have to approve any releases that make use of their stuff, but clearly they're not restricting it to FR only since Furiae is in the Outlands which is part of the Planescape setting. I'd hope they are no longer restricting original settings from being used, but there's really no way for us to know unless such a premium module is released.

[R-TEAM]

imho its for the actual 5.x ruleset of D&D 2 lizenzes ...
one "full" lizenze where you are bound to the "official" D&D locations/lore ....
and one where you use the ruleset - but have your own settings ... but cant use any official location/lore/asset
Solasta: Crown of the Magister used the second lizenze (SRD 5.1 Ruleset)