D&D 5E Hope for Nerath? (On D&D Next Campaign Settings and a Plea to WotC)

[Remathilis]

This comment needs a link or at least a quote.

OK, I found it 'Already announced that FR is the default setting for 5e.' - Matt James, Twitter, 4th July 2012.

The problem is, Matt appears to be wrong as no such announcement has been made to my knowledge?

Also its worth noting that as far as I can see, Matt is not claiming insider knowledage here, its claiming it was reported on ENWorld.

I wonder if that means Amaunator replaces Pelor in the PHB. (or if there will even be a default pantheon).

 

[jadrax]

The 2nd Edition "Forgotten Realms Adventures" hardback claimed that it was the default setting of 2nd Edition. Of course, that was a supplement, not the core rules.

Mmm, do you mean where Jeff Grubb called it 'the Home for AD&D 2nd Edition' or have I missed something more concrete when skimming through it?

 

[delericho]

Mmm, do you mean where Jeff Grubb called it 'the Home for AD&D 2nd Edition' or have I missed something more concrete when skimming through it?

Nope, that's the one:

"The excitement is about a magical world that was a home for the AD&D game, and now, with publication of this text, is the home for AD&D 2nd Edition."

Jeff Grubb, from the Foreword (emphasis mine)

 

[jadrax]

Nope, that's the one:

"The excitement is about a magical world that was a home for the AD&D game, and now, with publication of this text, is the home for AD&D 2nd Edition."

Jeff Grubb, from the Foreword (emphasis mine)

I can see where your coming from, but...

I don't really give one line in the author's introduction that much weight. I think it was just expressing how much he loved the book/setting. If TSR really meant it to be the default setting, that's one hell of an obfuscated way they chose to tell people.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yet as someone who didn't know Greyhawk before, I don't know anything about Greyhawk after it either.
The Gods in the PHB and the names on Spells, and even the references to places in Fiendish Codex and other were just names. It was never mentioned anywhere, that those names had been used before in a setting called Greyhawk.

Actually, I was glad of this. One of the things I liked most about PoL-land was that it was left undefined, and so open for the DM to do what he liked with it. I always felt that the more WotC fleshed out the Nentir Vale, the less utility that setting had. (And for those who wanted a detailed setting, there were plenty of options out there...)

Seems like Matt James twitter post remains an unconfirmed statement, as he refers to an announcement that has not been made. But, he's probably right, of course. James does work for WotC, right?

If WotC chooses FR as the default setting, I can deal. It makes a lot of sense, as it IS their most popular setting and it IS so generic, why support FR AND another similar "core" setting? Plus, they've been dancing around it for decades, so might as well do it finally!

If they do it "right", IMO, FR might be the default setting, but get a very light treatment in the core books. Very similar to the treatment Greyhawk got in early 3E and Nerath/Nentir (whatever) got in 4E. All of the great volume of Realms lore itself would likely be delivered through DDI and in FR-branded books, just like it is today.

We'll see.

 

[delericho]

I can see where your coming from, but...

I don't really give one line in the author's introduction that much weight. I think it was just expressing how much he loved the book/setting. If TSR really meant it to be the default setting, that's one hell of an obfuscated way they chose to tell people.

Oh, don't get me wrong - it's hardly something I dwell on. Just a statement that I happen to remember (and had the book to look up). I don't exactly get bent out of shape about it.

As for not liking it at the time... of all the 2nd Ed settings, FR was actually the only one that didn't interest me (probably because I came to Dragonlance first, and because I was unimpressed with those FR novels I read). Oddly enough, as time has gone on, I've come to regard the Grey Box a whole lot more highly than I did at the time, to the extent that I consider it a much better setting for gaming than DL actually ever was.

Ironically, while I've been coming to this conclusion, TSR and then WotC have been busy moving FR forward... and although it's moved forward, I don't think it's actually progressed, at least as a setting for gaming.

 

[jadrax]

If WotC chooses FR as the default setting, I can deal. It makes a lot of sense, as it IS their most popular setting and it IS so generic, why support FR AND another similar "core" setting? Plus, they've been dancing around it for decades, so might as well do it finally!

Because as I understand it, WotC don't actually own the Forgotten Realms, they basically rent it from Ed Greenwood. Thus the contract allows him to reclaim all related Trademarks, Copyright and other content in certain circumstances.

I was pretty surprised when FR gods turned up in the 4th edition Core tbh.

 

[Gargoyle]

I am not a huge fan of FR, but if it becomes the core 5e campaign world, I would be ok with that. It's always annoyed me that the vast majority of Dragon and Dungeon articles and a good deal of sourcebooks supported FR but the core rulebooks reference different deities.

If WotC is going to make FR the defacto campaign setting anyway by supporting it more than other worlds, it might as well be the official one too.

 

[HoolMarshes Dweller]

I'm going to throw Greyhawk into the mix. It's the granddaddy of them all, has great source material without having been detailed to death a la FR (although FR definitely would be my 2nd choice), the timeline there ended during a war but you could easily rewind it a bit and ignore the war. It's generic enough in many ways too - the beginning DM will find more than enough material to support their needs and the pro DM wanting just a base world will find it more than flexible enough.


EDIT: wanted to add that minus any of the corporate meat grinding that happened during 3.0 to Greyhawk probably should be removed. Just start at either just before the Wars pre-CY 580s maybe mid CY 570s.

 

[Ratskinner]

I can see where your coming from, but...

I don't really give one line in the author's introduction that much weight. I think it was just expressing how much he loved the book/setting. If TSR really meant it to be the default setting, that's one hell of an obfuscated way they chose to tell people.

I seem to remember more than just that quote. It seemed to be the "party line" for a while. For whatever reason, TSR seemed to believe that FR was the bestest most popular campaign setting ever. I recall a GenCon Seminar....probably '93 or '94 where the TSR reps recounted that they stuck FR labels on things like Maztica and Horselords, believing that that would increase sales....then they experimented with Al-Qadim and were surprised at how well it sold, especially in comparison to Zakhara, its FR setting.


Oh, I should probably add that I think they gave up this FR-centered policy after Al-Qadim came out and did so well. The '90s saw them head in a lot of different directions.

To my recollection FR had some, but not overwhelming, influence in "generic" 2e books. I seem to recall the Underdark sneaking into a lot of them, though. It probably helped that TSR was emphasazing the "your own story" aspect of D&D. The real problem was adventures. It seemed like the vast majority of the adventures and boxed sets were set in the Realms, and a lot of them weren't very "transplantable", either. (Of course, that could have been a local retailer thing...there's plenty of stuff on the wikipedia list of modules that I never saw.)