Actually, that's a good point, and I say that as someone who actually likes the 4E Realms as well as the earlier editions.
The current campaign I am DMing is very much the PCs vs The Elemental Chaos/Far Realm/Aboleth Sovereignty and, aside from the inclusion of The Elemental Chaos is essentially an update of the first FR campaign I ran in 3E which in turn was a loose conversion of
Night Below.
The heroic tier starts in Akakul, goes to Aglarond then to the Sea of Fallen Stars then Chult. It certainly doesn't need FR to succeed.
My second campaign is about a civil war within the Zhentarim between Cyricists (who are now in the ascendant) and Banites (whose influence within the organisation has certainly waned).
It feels like it is going to be a lot more FRish as well as geographically wide-ranging and might be the sort of campaign where you would feel like the world itself is, as it were, adding value (if you will pardon my use of management-speak).
My biggest struggle remains the maps included with the FRCG. I still believe that the world map is one of the worst maps I have ever seen with any product in the nearly 30 years I have been involved with D&D. I think a good map with more details (and fewer "blotches" of indistinct terrain) would have been something to make people want to explore the world.
I also think smaller type should have been used so that there could be details added about the Plaguelands. In fact, the starting adventure should have involved an earth mote and a plagueland just to highlight the new features! Instead we have a generic adventure about goblins which, although enjoyable, was as generic as an adventure can be. (And, once again, the map sucked. You cannot compare the map of Loudwater in the
FRCG with the map of Fallcrest in the
DMG. Loudwater looks like one of those squarish maps from the 1970s/80s but given a nice colour treatment via Photoshop. Fallcrest is a functional work of art that make you want to explore the details.)
(snip)Finally when I wanted to run FR, it was really uninspiring. I also think people buy the player's guide just for the swordmage class and drow race.
I actually give WotC props for the
Player's Guide. I love the fact that you can actually give it to a player so that they can read up on the regions and get a spoiler-free overview. I would have loved to have seen a larger book with more regions... and maps that did not suck!
