cbwjm
Seb-wejem
You just made the Raven Queen sound amazing!
Nentir Vale Coming to Dungeons and Dragons
You just made the Raven Queen sound amazing!
sunrisekid
Explorer
This might sound odd, but I actually enjoyed the board game tie-ins. For example, the "Conquest of Nerath" boardgame was occasionally played to describe political upheavals, which would be translated into background narrative for our usual sort of D&D games. As for points-of-light explicitly, that already coincided with a preference I had for grimdarker games that borrowed from S&S material. It somehow felt fresh as compared to FR, like it was more of a rough sketch that allowed for a lot of in-fill. The names were evocative, the racial backgrounds 4E were ambiguous enough to allow for customized locations, etc. That's off the top of my head.
Our game continued playing in Nerath and simply transposed official material into the campaign setting. To be honest, I don't think my players noticed or cared one way or the other if they played Nerath or FR. But as the DM, world building and campaign are always important and the Nerath setting, despite surface blandness, gave me just enough material to let my imagination get a great workout every weekend.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Luckily, this isn’t being helmed by such a person!
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
[MENTION=37579]Jester David[/MENTION] my point, again, is that it doesn’t matter if he is solely responsible for it. He could have turned it down, and he didn’t, thus my lack of surprise that he is doing a similar thing with this game.
I’m not even opposed to the game. I’m just saying it’s reasonable to voice mixed feelings about it.
I’m not even opposed to the game. I’m just saying it’s reasonable to voice mixed feelings about it.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
You don’t think they might consider releasing a “such-and-such’s guide to the Nentir Vale” book if this stream proves popular? The fact that the lead developer’s interpretation of my favorite setting is one I dislike does not exactly make me eager to see it officially supported. Which is a pretty
way to feel about one’s favorite setting.Of course he’s allowed to run his game any way he wants. And I’m allowed to not like it.
Which would be a bad thing to do because...?
I fail to see how this is relevant. We’re not talking about events that take place in the streamed campaign here. We’re talking about significant retcons to the setting’s lore being straightforwardly presented as a Nentir Vale campaign. That would be like Chris Perkins saying that all the Gods in the Forgotten Realms used to be Yugoloths or something on stream. I think a lot of Realms fans would be justifiably critical of such a thing.
Jester David
Hero
No. I don't think they'll consider it.You don’t think they might consider releasing a “such-and-such’s guide to the Nentir Vale” book if this stream proves popular? The fact that the lead developer’s interpretation of my favorite setting is one I dislike does not exactly make me eager to see it officially supported. Which is a pretty
Because that's several GIANT "ifs". IF the show is a hit. IF it attracts an audience larger than any of the other half-dozen D&D shows on the channel. IF there is fan demand for the product. IF Mearls find the time in his busy schedule to turn it into a full sellable PDF.
And IF they decide to do that version rather than the original.
But also keep in mind:
We haven’t seen any of Perkins’ homebrew setting. Perkins and Mearls also both did a Greyhawk campaign, and those documents didn't get released.
We didn’t get a Ravenloft campaign setting book despite Perkins' Dice, Camera, Action being set Barovia for a long time.
We haven't seen a Planescape book despite TWO streaming campaigns in that world.
We still haven’t seen a Realms Guide.
Also.. doing a big "Traveller's Guide to the Nentir Vale" is unnecessary for two big reasons.
1) That literally already exists in the 4e DMG. You can use that without issue. Unlike Eberron, there are no races and classes to update.
2) The whole point of that setting is that it's a simple skeleton DMs can use to make their own. An expanded guide is self defeating.
But even if they do... how does it affect you in the slightest? Your old books aren't going to explode. That content is still all there if you want it.
And if they do, they'll probably tag all the other adventures and locations set there in PDF products, allowing curious newcomers to pick up those books more easily and see the classic Vale. It will be easier to find that content, and more people will be interested in reading it.
Just like all my Ravenloft books are still available on my shelf and didn't vanish when Wizards of the Coast butchered that setting for Curse of Strahd.
And it's not like there was a huge swell of interest by everyone for that setting following the adventure's launch. Similarly, while the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron sold well, not many other Eberron books have sold on the Guild. People just don't use pre-published campaign settings all that often.
Yeah... so don't watch it and ignore it. Like a bad movie adaptation of a beloved book. Or a terrible cover of a favourite song.
You're allowed not to like it. But don't crap on the idea for people who do and move on with your life.
Because you don’t have to like it as you’re not involved and it doesn’t affect you or your game in any way. You can literally ignore it and it functionally goes away.
Find something else to think about. Do something that makes you happy. Don't watch the stream and the problem is solved.
We ARE talking about events in a stream campaign. Or rather, the world background for a streamed campaign. They're not retconning anything: they're changing things for HIS version of the world. Mearls is pretty repeatedly clear that he's making changes and that this is his conception of the world.
I doubt Realms fans would be upset at Perkins for a story point like that. Because him saying something on a stream doesn't make it canon.
I haven't edited it because it doesn't say returning like [MENTION=6670153]gyor[/MENTION] said.
It says "coming" and it is, to a D&D live stream and potentially (per discussion) other venues.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Let me rephrase that. I expect that if there ever was an official Nentir Vale product made for 5e, that Mike Mearls would have a lot of input into it given his role at WotC, and what I have seen of his treatment of Nentir Vale in his home campaign, I have no confidence in his ability to produce a Nentir Vale product that I would like. In fact, I would prefer they not make such a product. Which, again, is a frustrating way to feel about my favorite setting.
We hadn't seen any setting guides at all until Eberron and Ravnica. Now setting guides are a thing that's on the table, and they've been pretty publicly promoting the fact that they're making such products, since they've been so heavily requested.
Umm. Gnolls? Minotaurs? Shardminds? Wilden? Bladelings? Warlords? Invokers? Runepriests?
I disagree with your assessment that being a simple skeleton is the "whole point of the setting." There's actually a great deal of rich and detailed lore to the setting, and granted, that lore being largely implied rather than directly stated is a feature to many of the settings fans, myself included, but that doesn't mean a setting guide for it wouldn't be desirable or couldn't be done in a way that satisfied fans who prefer its more indirect approach.
But suddenly there will be 5e-ready material for (the butchered version of) the setting, that wouldn't require a bunch of additional work to convert to 5e, creating expectations in the minds of players interested in playing a 5e campaign set in Nentir Vale.
You may not care about setting books. Good for you. Not everyone feels the same way about them that you do.
Ok?
All I said was that I have mixed feelings about the idea of the stream. That I like the idea of a stream set in my favorite D&D setting, and dislike the changes Mearls has made to the setting for the campaign. I'm not crapping on the idea, I'm not shaming anyone who likes it, I'm not harrassing Mike Mearls, I'm not trying to stir up a hate mob. Literally, I just expressed that I don't like a thing, and I'm getting told I'm wrong for feeling that way and to shut up and keep my opinion to myself.
I intend to. I also intend to continue expressing my feelings about things I'm passionate about, of which this is one.
Azzy
ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ
The upside to this is that Mearls wouldn't be writing such a product and probably won't have a lot of direct input in it—that's not what he does anymore. So, if WotC were to produce a Nentir Vale setting guide it doesn't necessarily follow that it will run with Mike's take on the setting or that it will diverge terribly from how it was presented in 4e (game mechanics aside). However, I do understand your trepidation—I have the same reservations about WotC producing a Greyhawk setting guide. :/
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
That's a good point.
