Grumpy RPG Reviews
Explorer
No, recapturing the magic is not possible. But it does not have to fail either.
You wouldn't know it, for all the Realmslore Ed has been producing lately and the answers he's providing in response to Realmslore queries at Candlekeep.com.Too much has been mangled too thoroughly to ever make sense of the Realms again, and gee golly whillikers, Ed's getting old and probably pretty tired too.
Don't try to "recapture the magic". Make new magic. 1st Edition AD&D is a quarter century dead. It was good, but quite honestly, it had massive flaws. I'm sure some will disagree, but I personally believe that "late-model" AD&D 2nd Edition was the high watermark of the DnD brand. When the Players Option books were on the market but before the D20 system infested the game. I've said for years that D20 is the Windows of RPG Systems: Ubiquitous, Useless, and Developed in Washington.
Your opinion. I like 4e and its de-emphasis on high level NPCs, less save havens and getting away from the weave, that existed either only in the background or was annoying.For me, when they killed Mystra and destroyed the Weave, one of the VERY few things about the Realms that made it unique from all the other generic fantasy settings out there, and turned the setting into "Forgotten Realms: After The Bomb!" is when I completely lost interest. And the whole bringing in new continents on top of the old ones... well, let's just say that I absolutely despised everything about 4E, and especially 4E Forgotten Realms.
As said previously, there is bad precedence in the old official adventures and the Baldur's Game computer game, which had (of course) an Elminster appearance...So this news about Ed fills me with hope and excitement.
And for the people complaining about the place of Elminster and the other Chosen: the existence of Superman does not negate the need for Batman. Nor of Robin. Nor Animal Man nor even John Constantine. Superman deals with threats on levels that require his attention. The others deal with threats on their levels. And when PCs attain levels where they rival the Chosen? Well then step right up and take your place beside them!
But despite of your opinion, Adventure paths from 1st to at least 14th level are one of the main selling points for Pathfinder, which is quite successful.I for one get SICK of games that are constant "save the world" scenarios over and over and over and OVER again. What ever happened to people playing adventurers out for loot? And tackling small problems they run into? Most campaigns should NOT be one long quest from 1st thru 20th level with the goal of saving the world. That gets old real fast.
I hope not. I really like Kara-Tur, Maztica and Zakhara....
So now we'll be having Ed back in the saddle, without all the people who injected a that unwanted nonsense in the first place. I always imagined Ed's Forgotten Realms to be mainly set in the Dales and Myth Drannor, since the Knights of MD were his players, right? And some travel into Cormyr and over to Waterdeep occasionally.
I'm very cautious about where this will go...I am VERY excited to see where this will go!
I hope not. I really like Kara-Tur, Maztica and Zakhara.
I like them too, but they can exist independently of Forgotten Realms.
I'm very cautious about where this will go...
I am too old to be optimistic. I am... mostly indifferent.