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Let's Forget the Forgotten Realms
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Kaodi
Hero
This is why I think that if Greyhawk were to be utilized it would have to be rebooted. There is virtually no way to out-Greyhawk guys like Mona unless you give up on trying to beat him at the old game.
I am not quite so foolish as to say there is no possible way that Mona and Co. could be gotten to work on a new Greyhawk, but the odds are extremely long on that one. They already have their own highly succesful setting, one that I think evokes a feeling much closer to that of Greyhawk than the Forgotten Realms, even if it is in some ways structurally more similar to the latter.
Personally, I am an Eberron guy myself (and increasingly a Golarion guy too). But I can live with it not being a focus in the new edition. I have all of the books from the original v3.5 setting which is all I really need to keep going (and as long as Keith Baker is around the setting can never really die; I guess I do appreciate the comment about the connection between Greyhawk and Gygax).
Unfortunately, I do not think there is really anywhere to go for the Nentir Vale. It is a setting that was really tied to the conceits of 4E, and one that I think the potential of which may have been destroyed by designing its world map to work for a board game.
So I think it will come down to Forgotten Realms. Perhaps we were fooling ourselves to ever think it was not going to be the "winner" . Hell, after many years of hoping that Dungeons & Dragons Online would be expanded to include other locations, such as Sharn, we have now been treated to the revelation that the DDO expansion is going to be set in the Forgotten Realms! If that does not tell you something, I do not know what will.
I am not going to rule out the possibility that Greyhawk, rebooted or not, could be the basis for 5E. But I suspect the question in the minds of the folks of WotC is more likely to be " How are we going to present the Forgotten Realms? " rather than " Which setting are we going to favour? "
I remember in the days of 1st edition D&D reading Ed Greenwood's articles in Dragon Magazine that described interesting bits of lore, unique or mysterious artifacts, and creative new spells. Every time a new issue came out, I looked for his name.
Part of the mystique was that they came from a place called "The Forgotten Realms." The name evoked an image of a faraway place, lost in to the ages.
When the grey box came out, I bought it, as did everyone I knew. I bought some of the early Forgotten Realms novels. But as time went by, the more that we found out about the Forgotten Realms the more my interest waned. I never bought any of the 3rd or 4th edition FR sourcebooks. The Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy are the first FR novels I've bought since the Avatar trilogy. (I've somehow managed to miss reading anything with Drizzt Do'Urden in it, so I confess that I don't see the attraction...)
I don't have anything against the Forgotten Realms as a setting. I loved the FR video games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), and I've played in D&D Game Days and Encounters sessions set in the Realms. I just feel like that world is overdeveloped; there is so much backstory, and so many world-spanning/world-shaking events have gone on, that I don't see any interesting stories that I want to tell at my table.
I loved Eberron in 3.5, and I wish that it had gotten more attention in 4th edition. I really enjoy the articles and adventures from the Nentir Vale; it recaptures that feeling that I got from the early FR articles.
I don't know that I want any of the major campaign settings to be the D&D setting for the new edition. I hope they do what they did with 4th edition and keep a "light" campaign setting like the Nentir Vale as the examples used in the core rulebooks.
Part of the mystique was that they came from a place called "The Forgotten Realms." The name evoked an image of a faraway place, lost in to the ages.
When the grey box came out, I bought it, as did everyone I knew. I bought some of the early Forgotten Realms novels. But as time went by, the more that we found out about the Forgotten Realms the more my interest waned. I never bought any of the 3rd or 4th edition FR sourcebooks. The Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy are the first FR novels I've bought since the Avatar trilogy. (I've somehow managed to miss reading anything with Drizzt Do'Urden in it, so I confess that I don't see the attraction...)
I don't have anything against the Forgotten Realms as a setting. I loved the FR video games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), and I've played in D&D Game Days and Encounters sessions set in the Realms. I just feel like that world is overdeveloped; there is so much backstory, and so many world-spanning/world-shaking events have gone on, that I don't see any interesting stories that I want to tell at my table.
I loved Eberron in 3.5, and I wish that it had gotten more attention in 4th edition. I really enjoy the articles and adventures from the Nentir Vale; it recaptures that feeling that I got from the early FR articles.
I don't know that I want any of the major campaign settings to be the D&D setting for the new edition. I hope they do what they did with 4th edition and keep a "light" campaign setting like the Nentir Vale as the examples used in the core rulebooks.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
Huh. There is a one-true-plot? All along I've missed it.
All these decades of playing in it and . . . I feel like such a rube to have never caught the plot.
I did catch this though:
The Savant-Sage and Pluffet Smedger the Elder are part of the past. The WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy Setting is yours now, to do with as you wish. You can mold new states from old, or inflame ancient rivalries into open warfare, as you tailor the world to suit the needs of your players. The time has come for new legends to be created, new battles to be fought, new songs to be sung. It is your world—welcome to it!
Written by Steve Winter, editor and Allen Hammack, product planning manager in the '83 Glossography
JeffB
Legend
Figure of Speech, much?
Aeolius
Adventurer
Oerth as the default campaign world once again? Yes, please. In fact I would take a three-tiered approach.
As was done with 3e, the proper names for the World of Greyhawk should flavor spells, deities, and the like. The World of Greyhawk begins as the "assumed" default setting.
Then I would release the World Builder’s Guide. This book would not only encourage DMs to build their own settings, but allow them to do so in a manner that is consistent and structured. The creation of new races, classes, spells, magic systems, and pantheons would be presented in a way that could be used to flesh out an undersea world, desert realm, spiraling Necropolis, or whatever the DM can dream up.
The World of Greyhawk would be fleshed out, throughout the WBG, to provide examples. Other campaign settings would follow, using the WBG format.
After that, a proper fluff-heavy Greyhawk Gazetteer would follow; detailing locales, NPCs, and the rich history of Oerth.
As was done with 3e, the proper names for the World of Greyhawk should flavor spells, deities, and the like. The World of Greyhawk begins as the "assumed" default setting.
Then I would release the World Builder’s Guide. This book would not only encourage DMs to build their own settings, but allow them to do so in a manner that is consistent and structured. The creation of new races, classes, spells, magic systems, and pantheons would be presented in a way that could be used to flesh out an undersea world, desert realm, spiraling Necropolis, or whatever the DM can dream up.
The World of Greyhawk would be fleshed out, throughout the WBG, to provide examples. Other campaign settings would follow, using the WBG format.
After that, a proper fluff-heavy Greyhawk Gazetteer would follow; detailing locales, NPCs, and the rich history of Oerth.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
For what? For "all post-Gygax Greyhawk was a false-bad-wrong-Greyhawk"? Yeah, I think my quote from the '83 Glossography fits fine.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
I'd endorse that plan.
RedSquirrel
Explorer
Drizzt - I feel the same way about drow. Stop the madness, people!
Ok Ive got no dogs in this race,I will not buy any supported worlds in 5,so my opinion on this matters very little.This being the internet and all I might as well put my 2 cents in.
I dont want ANY default setting.I want the rules as setting nuetral
as possible as I have my own very developed world and dont use any of the published stuff.
Having said that,I think FR is the 800 lb monkey in the room.Its the setting that caught on the most w/ the players,prob because of the thin vaneer it paints over real world history.Greyhawk to me was always a little amature hour for me.It came from very early in the hobby and it showed.
I hate Dragonlance as much as you do FR.
5th is about inclusion of the greatest number of gamers,so Im afraid your not going to get your way on this mighty Guv_Ill make a prediction-we'll see FR long befor Greyhawk and niether will be in the phb
I dont want ANY default setting.I want the rules as setting nuetral
as possible as I have my own very developed world and dont use any of the published stuff.
Having said that,I think FR is the 800 lb monkey in the room.Its the setting that caught on the most w/ the players,prob because of the thin vaneer it paints over real world history.Greyhawk to me was always a little amature hour for me.It came from very early in the hobby and it showed.
I hate Dragonlance as much as you do FR.
5th is about inclusion of the greatest number of gamers,so Im afraid your not going to get your way on this mighty Guv_Ill make a prediction-we'll see FR long befor Greyhawk and niether will be in the phb
