D&D 5E 5th edition Forgotten Realms: Why can't you just ignore the lore?

[transtemporal]

I want to run a game for friends, but when they ask to play in the realms it is literalry 100x the work.

The realms is full of superpowered munchkins but thats the realms. That's what you have to deal with. If you want it to be different then you have to say "Forget everything you know about the realms, my campaign is going to be different to the published continuity."

 

[Sailor Moon]

Here's the thing.

When most people ask to play in the Realms, it's because they want to play in the same world as Drizzt and Elminster. It's because they want to be actively involved in the current lore.

If they don't then it doesn't matter what you throw out or even if you play in that setting at all.

GMforpowergamers: You are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

 

[Sailor Moon]

Unless your players want to stick with canon, there is nothing stopping you from just ignoring what ever lore you want.

Don't like Elminster and the Chosen? Zap! They no longer exist and the world doesn't change. It continues to flow however you want it too.

Don't like Myth Drannor, Thay, Shade, or Cormyr? Zap! All gone and ready for you to insert what ever you like in it's place.

The only roadblock you face is the one you put before yourself.

 

[Hussar]

Hey Gm4PG. Do you feel the irony between this thread and the last one where several people claimed that a DM is always right in changing canon and players should never bitch about it?

 

[Sailor Moon]

Hey Gm4PG. Do you feel the irony between this thread and the last one where several people claimed that a DM is always right in changing canon and players should never bitch about it?

There is a difference between current, official, and active canon and what you do at your own table.

I enjoy following canon so I want the official stuff to be consistent.

 

[TheSleepyKing]

I've found it's easy enough to ignore canon - you just have to establish early on that that's the way you're going.

One of the conceits of much of the published Realms (particularly Ed Greenwood's work) is that it comes from an unreliable narrator. The Realms that we know is the the Realms as related to Ed Greenwood by Elminster (why is probably why Elminster is so awesome and gets laid, like, all the time). Heck, the Volo's guides all come with a foreword warning the reader that Volothamp is full of crap.

My suggestion would be to embrace that. Establish early on in the campaign that Elminster is, in fact, a Marco Polo-esque hack who big notes himself through stories and claims credit for other people's actions but is really a middling wizard who isn't even the first to use the name. The Seven Sisters are the offspring of of some fey lord who seduced their mother (who was later killed by their father in a jealous rage) -- the whole "children of Mystra" thing is just a legend that they didn't deny because it was useful. Essentially every thing the players might think they know about the realms could be a lie, the product of stories that may or may not be true.

The reason I like this approach is that it keeps canon useful without being bound by it. It aligns player knowledge with character knowledge - published canon is the "truth" of the realms as understood by the characters, but the actual truth might be quite different.

 

[Laeknir]

It's clearly obvious you don't know the Realms very well.

Oh, here we go.

This is the other massive problem with using the Realms. Despite the OP suggesting we should ignore the lore, or Greenwood using an unreliable narrator, the second you disagree with one of these so-called Realmslore enthusiasts you're either "doing it wrong" or having badwrongfun, or that you "clearly don't know the Realms." Almost uniformly, they're arrogant little tards that will completely disrupt the game in order to claim that you are wrong in some minor way. There's literally no way to win, because even though NO ONE EVER follows Realms canon 100% to a fault, they expect you to be Greenwood at the table.

And frankly, I DON'T want to use Realms canon perfectly because a giant proportion of it is pure cheese and stupidity.

But whatever. They can go do whatever they want if they think they know how to have fun better than others. I encourage it. Go have ridiculous lore fights at your own table or on dead Realms-only forums, then claim "just ignore what you dislike" and prove yourselves total hypocrites a second later when you insist there's a single right way to use the setting material.

 

[Laeknir]

I've found it's easy enough to ignore canon - you just have to establish early on that that's the way you're going.

One of the conceits of much of the published Realms (particularly Ed Greenwood's work) is that it comes from an unreliable narrator. The Realms that we know is the the Realms as related to Ed Greenwood by Elminster (why is probably why Elminster is so awesome and gets laid, like, all the time). Heck, the Volo's guides all come with a foreword warning the reader that Volothamp is full of crap.

My suggestion would be to embrace that. Establish early on in the campaign that Elminster is, in fact, a Marco Polo-esque hack who big notes himself through stories and claims credit for other people's actions but is really a middling wizard who isn't even the first to use the name. The Seven Sisters are the offspring of of some fey lord who seduced their mother (who was later killed by their father in a jealous rage) -- the whole "children of Mystra" thing is just a legend that they didn't deny because it was useful. Essentially every thing the players might think they know about the realms could be a lie, the product of stories that may or may not be true.

The reason I like this approach is that it keeps canon useful without being bound by it. It aligns player knowledge with character knowledge - published canon is the "truth" of the realms as understood by the characters, but the actual truth might be quite different.

Ah, but you see - the moment you actually do that, a Realmslore master will pout and grumble and complain they're not having fun. Because you're not doing it right, or because truthfully they wanted to go sit in on one of Lady Alustriel's naked hot tub sessions in Silverymoon and now they can't.

If you're using Realms material, they want it to BE the published Realms - at least, as close to the published Realms as possible. They want to brush shoulders with Volo and Storm and go hang out with Laeral. They want you as DM to have studied Greenwood's architecture articles for when they go visit the South, and if you don't have the right kind of stonemasonry for your root cellar they'll be disappointed. If you don't have the right list of foods and wines for the inns they visit in Waterdeep, or god forbid you close the Moonstone Mask in Neverwinter and create your own inn, they'll be disappointed. If they can't go have sex with the goddess Selune who likes to hang out as a tavern wench, they'll be disappointed.

They love all the varieties of Realms cheese, and they want it served on a platter. With Greenwood's names for each cheese. And a story of how the merchant imported each one, from where, and what type of rothe milk was used to make it.

 

[Sadras]

If they can't go have sex with the goddess Selune who likes to hang out as a tavern wench, they'll be disappointed.

Wouldn't you?

I mean seriously, how many times does one have sex with a goddess (in D&D)? She didn't become known as the Moonmaiden for nothing. Mind-blown!

 

[Laeknir]

Wouldn't you?

I mean seriously, how many times does one have sex with a goddess (in D&D)? She didn't become known as the Moonmaiden for nothing. Mind-blown!

What happens in the comics stays in the comics.