Countdown to the Realms: Magic in the Forgotten Realms

[The Little Raven]

My brain obssesses over stuff like that.

So, it's their fault that you obsess to the point of complete irrationality?

My point about ridiculousness still stands.

 

[catsclaw227]

<snip>everything before this</snip>
Congratulations Wizards, you've managed to make my almost twenty years of games and FR history totally worthless.

I can't not know what is the official canon of the realms and not have it taint my memories and my campagain. Maybe I should be able to, but I can't. I can't read the novel Silverfall, and not be horrified at the fates of my girls, the seven sisters. I can't know that vast patches of the realms have been replaced and possibly destroyed and know that my group's characters were on those pieces of land and are now dead. I can't ignore the fact that the trials and tribulations and happily ever afters of my characters are essentially gone and most of the characters of my players are eighty years dead.

I can't imagine what it must be like to feel this way. Personally, I don't let my love of D&D affect my mood and my game this much. In my eyes, and the eyes of my friends and family, it wouldn't be healthy. I hope you can see this as just time to move on into the next part of your gaming life, and know that your FR years are good and everyone had fun.

if you have this much outrage over it, then it's not WOTC's fault. You should look into the mirror and try to discover why it's like that.

 

[humble minion]

It looks to me that WotC is redesigning FR to be a game setting rather than a world. Distilling it, if you like. They seem to have decided that the FR experience is exemplified by a Western-medieval party of adventurers from Cormyr/Shadowdale/Waterdeep questing off into the evil-haunted wilderness that surrounds Cormyr/Shadowdale/Waterdeep, and they've tweaked the realms to cater to that game style. However, this is at the cost of largely redefining everywhere OTHER than the core regions of Cormyr/Shadowdale/Waterdeep as 'wilderness/ruin adventure territory' rather than 'regions of a living and plausible world'. Double-edged sword. It's going to be great for some playing groups and terrible for others.

Have to wonder though - when will we see the Abeir campaign setting? Cos you know - the homeworld of the tieflings and dragonborn (who are locked in an ages-long war against true dragons) with the addition of Maztica, Mulhorand, and Unther sounds like a really intriguing and flavourful sort of place...

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Have to wonder though - when will we see the Abeir campaign setting? Cos you know - the homeworld of the tieflings and dragonborn (who are locked in an ages-long war against true dragons) with the addition of Maztica, Mulhorand, and Unther sounds like a really intriguing and flavourful sort of place...

Well, that would be more like a 'regional' book - or mini setting, derivative.


Seriously, that could be interesting - if specialy you can worldshift between the two.

 

[The Little Raven]

Have to wonder though - when will we see the Abeir campaign setting? Cos you know - the homeworld of the tieflings and dragonborn (who are locked in an ages-long war against true dragons) with the addition of Maztica, Mulhorand, and Unther sounds like a really intriguing and flavourful sort of place...

Well, as the world is now (once again) Abeir-Toril, I think Abeir went bye-bye. I think the newly merged Abeir-Toril is the extent of what remains of both worlds.

Another good sign is that their "non-Faerun" material is being written by Greenwood himself, so Returned Abeir appears to be a big chunk of what he's writing.

 

[Ahglock]

That was Lord Manshoon, the most powerful mage in the Zhentarim. And I do like that plot, I think it may have started at the tail end of 2e. I'm hoping that the rules for rituals allow for this sort of plot-device magic that encourages dramatic, interesting magic with more fantastic requirements. For example, perhaps Stasis Clone requires a wicked sacrifice to create a clone. This reinforces Manshoon's evil, keeps Stasis Clone out of goodly heroes' hands and presents the theme about shortcuts to power and evil deeds.

Manshoon thanks!!

I loved the story, I had plot hooks a plenty from just its core concept. 3e came what seemed like months later and the story didn't work under the new magic system. We restarted so everyone was way too weak anyways but it was a disappointment that magic of that kind was gone and magic just seemed like a game mechanic to me.

The first things I heard about the 4e system made me think they were going further in the sterile non-magical feeling magic, but the more I hear about there magic the more i like it. I hope rituals pan out like you suggest, that would on its own make the magic system, for me.

 

[Ahglock]

I liked the idea of Mazteca. However, never had the urge to do much with it if Abier or whatever adds too it and the old world. I could have a revised interest in that part of the realms.

I mainly dug Maztecca for what it added to auroras whole realms catalog. I liked the story behind how merchants were securing trade routes and clamped down on magical methods of transit cutting into there trade. That and I just like having chocolate, coffee, and cigars in my game.

Still its a kind of cool setting, a bit of a disappointment to see it go in that settings or heck characters in almost any media rarely come from that region. In comics there are only two minority groups, ok 3 if you add in native Americans which are mysteriously more numerous than Hispanics, and in RPGs there is just one Oriental adventures. So to me it was refreshing to see a setting in a major RPG world that took ideas from a different culture. And yes I am exaggerating though not by much.

 

[Stogoe]

no, its not totally ridiculous. It's totally irrational. There is a difference.

It's both, actually.

 

[phoenixgod2000]

Well my obessive tendencies are balanced out by my love of virtually everything so I rarely trigger off of something. A few books, all things Harry Potter, and a few other things.

I think what makes me the most angry about the whole thing isn't the fact that they are adding to the FR, its the fact that they are replacing things in it. If they wanted the spellplague to add a new continent or two thats fine, not great writing but whatever. But the fact they had to go and replace already existing land to do it, irrespective of what players and DM's might have been doing with it is just plain disrespectful. Disrespectful of the hard work and potentially awesome stories that might have taken place there.

It's just rude and thoughtless and in the interviews that I've read, they seem awfully flipant about the changes they're making.

There was a whole lot unused space in the FR. Why did they have to take up already used real estate?

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

If nothing else, this realms shaking event is good for bringing in >quote< Great motes of free-hanging earth balance on nothing but air, amazing all those who chance upon these mighty demonstrations of nature’s glory. >unquote<

Nothing, and I mean nothing says "Welcome to a fantasy world" like having a castle sized piece of rock float lazily by. See Escaflowne for visuals.