Is Forgotten Realms the Default Campaign Setting for 5e?

[Maxperson]

IIRC quite a few non-human FR deities were taken from Greyhawk.

And Norse mythology, Egyptian mythology and Finnish mythology. And probably more. That's just what I remember off the top of my head. The Realms is a borrower.

 

[Parmandur]

Just for reference:

THE ADVENTURES IN FORGOTTEN REALMS

Lost Mines of Phandelver (Forgotten Realms)

Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Forgotten Realms)

Rise of Tiamat (Forgotten Realms)

Princes of the Apocalypse (Forgotten Realms)

Out of the Abyss (Forgotten Realms)

Storm King's Thunder (Forgotten Realms)

Tales from the Yawning Portal (Forgotten Realms ... oh, the irony)

Tomb of Annihlilation (Forgotten Realms)

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (Forgotten Realms)

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (Forgotten Realms)

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (Forgotten Realms)

Dragon of Icespire Peak (Forgotten Realms)

....

Curse of Strahd (Demiplane, but hook is Forgotten Realms)


THE ADVENTURES NOT IN FORGOTTEN REALMS (not including adventures in campaign setting books)

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (Greyhawk)


Now, I admit this kind of unfair. After all, it is relatively easy to set the various APs somewhere else, just as it is relatively easy to set GoS in Forgotten Realms. I'm just saying that it's not ... that close ... as to the amount of material.

To be fair, their stated reason for this is that the Realms achieved the neat hat trick of providing oodles of detail to work with, while remaining something that can be utterly divorced from that context and be useful to most Homebrewers (the primary audience).

 

[lowkey13]

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[Maxperson]

To be fair, their stated reason for this is that the Realms achieved the neat hat trick of providing oodles of detail to work with, while remaining something that can be utterly divorced from that context and be useful to most Homebrewers (the primary audience).

I can't think of anything ever put out for D&D can't be divorced from context if the DM really wants to use it in a home brew campaign. That doesn't mean that a thing wasn't put out for a specific setting. Regardless of why, those adventures are intended for the Realms first.

 

[R_J_K75]

That's actually kind of exciting, in an odd way. It'll be interesting to see what the default is in 6E if CR goes huge book-wise. That said I know several people who are buying Wildemount who don't actually run D&D and one who doesn't even play so it may be indicative of a generally awesome product for fans rather than one in direct use as a setting (still a smart move for WotC!).

I can see them just laying off the brakes on FR being the default setting and incorporating more CR material into future products, and then by osmosis other settings as well. As far as 6E when it comes whether they'll have a default setting and which setting that will be is anybody's guess.

If people are buying the book that don't play D&D or run games might be a good indication that there's a market for novels and comics in the setting too. Amazons putting together a live action series correct? Why not milk the cow to death?

I’m pretty sure that Hasbro doesn’t own Wildemount and that they’d rather support their IP than someone else’s.

If that was true why put out a CR Wildemount book in the first place? If they came to some kind of agreement in the first place I don't see any reason why they couldn't moving forward. And the same can be said for CR, they don't own the D&D as well, sure they can put it out as a 3PP, but I'm going to guess that it'd sell better as an official WotC product.

 

[aco175]

A lot feels like FR since the playtest and the opening box set was set in FR. It certainly pushed me to come back to playing in that world. We played LMoP and just kept expanding there. Could I have taken that adventure and placed in any homebrew- certainly, but I do not find the need to. I could change the Harpers to another group from my world or Greyhawk for that matter, but I choose to focus on other parts of design. All the other adventure books help keeping people coming back to their payday, so why would they change.

Not sure they would even change things for 6e, but there is not a lot of 'cannon' for 5e FR to force them to stay over focusing on another world. I don't see them changing to one of the more extreme worlds like Dark Sun, but maybe Greyhawk can work.

 

[Parmandur]

I can't think of anything ever put out for D&D can't be divorced from context if the DM really wants to use it in a home brew campaign. That doesn't mean that a thing wasn't put out for a specific setting. Regardless of why, those adventures are intended for the Realms first.

That's why it's a neat tricks, and why it has worked so well: the APs are both designed to work with the Realms, and to be painlessly removed from the Realms. Homebrewers who buy the APs are the larger audience that Perkins says he writes for, and the books have specific advice on not using the Realms.

 

[the Jester]

5e will sometimes call for D&D and chill, but is more of a casual dating type; at the same time, she's urging FR to dress a bit more generic and drop his eccentric hobbies, so he doesn't stick out so much among her other friends.

I... I am honestly not sure how FR could be any more generic. No offense to the Realms, but it's the most amazingly kitchen-sink-anything-goes-just-stick-it-in-here-it'll-fit-somewhere setting I have ever seen.

 

[the Jester]

• The Seldarine from Mordenkainen's is a FR specific concept/name for the elven gods

Like so much of the material on the demihuman gods, the term comes from a 1e series of articles on the points of view of the various races. (Or maybe from the 1e Deities and Demigods book?) It predates the Forgotten Realms as a published setting, and the pantheon started in other settings as well.

So... no, it's not (originally) a FR thing.

 

[lowkey13]

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