Fans and players of the 1E Forgotten Realms Grey Box have seen their campaign setting destroyed dozens of times over by every single new FR product that has been released over the last 30 years. Are any of you pouring one out for those poor people?
Okay let's look at how this realistically plays out. Unless these hypothetical new players are both watching the stream and taking copious notes in order to run their game there (highly unlikely) they are going to turn to google to get information on the Nentir Vale once their interest has been piqued by the show. And since Mearl's version of the Nentir Vale isn't published anywhere guess where that google search leads them... to the 4e version.
Now if they get invested in the Vale as a setting, they may realize some of the changes Mearls has implemented... this does in fact give them an example of homebrewing a setting which again since it's official form (as well as nearly all information on the internet) only exists as the Nentir Vale released for 4e isn't showing them anything has been changed officially. At this point it's up to them to decide whether they want to keep their Vale canon, integrate some/all of Mearl's changes or implement their own changes (actually they could do a combination of the last two as well). I think you are vastly underestimating the accessibility of information on the setting as well as the practical value to someone of a homebrewed stream, who is actually interested in setting a game in the Nentir Vale. If anything fans of the Nentir Vale should be happy this show is throwing the setting into the spotlight and generating buzz/interest around it instead of complaining that it's not being ran exactly as presented in 4e.
EDIT: There's also the fact that research on the internet into the Nentir Vale is going to lead them to DM's Guild... which has the original 4e books with that version of the Nentir Vale. this seems more about people being mad Mearls changed some things in their precious setting and using a flimsy justification for why it shouldn't happen.
If it's not official it's not the 5e version. I find it strange that people expect/want Mearls to run a strictly by the book campaign, and sorry, but I'm glad he didn't. I think it's better to show new players who may be watching the stream that they don't necessarily have to be beholden to what's printed in a book... it's your game and any DM should feel like they have the freedom to make any campaign world their own.
Fans and players of the 1E Forgotten Realms Grey Box have seen their campaign setting destroyed dozens of times over by every single new FR product that has been released over the last 30 years. Are any of you pouring one out for those poor people?
I don't have any problem with Mearls doing whatever he wants for his campaign, as long as those changes don't affect something outside his campaign. That we know is not the case seeing what they did to the Raven Queen.
There was a recent change made to the Raven Queen in an official 5e book? If so, what book? Because the stream has only been running for about 2-3 weeks at this point...
He was re-tooling many of the Dawn War gods for his campaign. You can download his take on Erathis, Lolth, Melora and Torog on his Twitter account. He has been working on his Nentir Vale campaign since (at least) the last year.
And suddenly, they changed the lore of the Raven Queen in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. I don't see this as a coincidence.
Honestly changing a single god is pretty insignificant when looking at the usual changes an edition ushers in...
That's not true though, is it?An edition changes rules, not lore.