The Realms WILL Be Updated!

WotC's Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls both mentioned the possibility of Forgotten Realms updates on Twitter today. A chap called Montgomery Headstrom tweeted at both of them - to Perkins he said "I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?" and the Mearls he said "if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?" Both replied to his his comments, confirming that they do, in fact, intend to update the Realms. Thanks to Adrian for the scoop.

Montgomery: if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?
Mike Mearls: who sez we aren't interested in updating it?

Montgomery: I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?
Chris Perkins: The Sundering allowed us to bring back things that the setting had lost over the years. We ARE updating the Realms.

 

[MechaPilot]

I find it odd that someone thought the realms weren't getting an update. They have for each of the past two editions (and I'd be surprised if they hadn't done it for 2e as well).

 

[Ashran]

They just did not tell the form this update will take. I don't remember which article or news I saw on site, but I kinda remember reading the y were not interested in publishing setting books and were looking into new ways to present settings. The future will one day tell us what that means....

 

[Dausuul]

I find it odd that someone thought the realms weren't getting an update. They have for each of the past two editions (and I'd be surprised if they hadn't done it for 2e as well).

Yeah, they did it for 2E. That was the whole "Time of Troubles" thing, where the god of assassins died and took all the assassins with him. (Apparently telling people "Convert your 1E assassin to a 2E rogue" didn't involve enough gratuitous PC death. But then, it was AD&D...)

 

[MechaPilot]

Yeah, they did it for 2E. That was the whole "Time of Troubles" thing, where the god of assassins died and took all the assassins with him. (Apparently telling people "Convert your 1E assassin to a 2E rogue" didn't have quite the right level of gratuitous PC death.)

Thanks for the info. Then that means the realms were updated in 2e, 3e, and 4e. With a record like that I'd be quite surprised if it didn't get an update for the next edition (that is to say the current edition, 5e).

 

[doctorhook]

Typically vague though; they've made no commitments here whatsoever. "We ARE updating the Realms," is such a broad statement that it would technically remain true even if the only FR plans are for Sword Coast Legends (a CRPG) and few more adventures. Anything set post-Sundering could technically be considered an "update" to some area of the Realms.

I'm sorta frustrated with how few bones they're throwing us lately. I'm enjoying the hell out of 5E and own all of the books so far--I'm practically standing here with my wallet open--and currently I don't even have an specific future releases to be excited about. They have nothing announced on the horizon...and honestly, it's allowing other systems to creep into my bookshelf and erode my brand loyalty.

I don't blame Mearls or Perkins, because I'm quite sure that if they could be producing more content, they would. I suspect this is a development drought: all of the allotted resources to develop and launch 5E have been spent doing just that, and now we get to wait for WotC and Hasbro's budget cycle to assess 5E's success before any money for new development gets doled out. All the talk about "expanding the D&D brand" is just fine, but even there there isn't an inherent commitment to any tabletop format outside of what we've already got.

/rant

 

[HobbitFan]

It's kinda surreal reading forum posts about your own tweets.

 

[Guyanthalas]

I was at University Bookstore when R.A. Salvatore was doing a book signing, and I asked him a question about how changes to the D&D rules change his content. (I was inspired because they killed off almost the entire Drow pantheon in preparation for 4e).

Apparently the interview made YouTube. (Its nice to be on a channel other than my own). If anyone wants to listen to the answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qmtUgZ_Wwk

 

[Mirtek]

You can view the page here.

ToD and PotA are technically updating the realms, just so very, very little

 

[lkj]

I suspect they are actively developing a number of things. But they won't announce anything until it's relatively imminent. Couple months for a book. Day of release for something like an electronic tool. In the first case, they can cancel something without much public hullaballoo (sp?). In the second, they avoid the problem (ala Morningstar or Mastertools, etc.) where relatively small scale software crashes and burns (which I suspect is a frequent event).

The exception is a large software release (ala Sword Coast Legends) where the level of investment and the partnership is so high that the chances of complete failure are very small. Then they can market it for months. But I also don't think it's any accident that they were apparently developing SCL for upwards of two years prior to announcing anything. By the time they announced it, it was well past any cancellation stage.

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