Look What ED GREENWOOOD Is Doing! Forgotten Realms: The Unofficial, Non-Canon, Unlicensed, Utterly U

There's no news of an official Forgotten Realms book for D&D (at least not yet), but Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood is forging ahead with his own! Greenwood is writing Forgotten Realms: The Unofficial, Non-Canon, Unlicensed, Utterly Unapproved 50-Year History under the auspices of The Ed Greenwood Group and plans to release it at Gen Con in August this year, and once a week there will be updates on the web where he'll "peek behind the curtain and let you know something else about the untold history of the Realms, things you’ve never known".
Here's the full announcement:

"Welcome to the unofficial history of the Forgotten Realms.® Have you ever wondered why I, the guy who created the Realms in the first place, decided to share it with the wider world? Do you want to hear behind-the-scenes stories, some of those that can now be told, about why things are the way they are? Why, for instance, that from the beginning the Forgotten Realms® maps didn’t have hexes all over them, so the rivers didn’t run in little diagonal lines along the edges of hexes, but rather the maps looked like maps of real places, rather than game maps? Ever wondered about things like that?

Well, for the answers to those questions and many others, just keep visiting our site throughout the year because once a week we’ll peek behind the curtain and let you know something else about the untold history of the Realms, things you’ve never known. Things you may not even have thought to ask about, things that are deep dark secrets of the Realms.

See you every week, throughout the year!

The Ed Greenwood Group will launch its first projects in August at GenCon 2015 in Indianapolis—Forgotten Realms: The Unofficial, Non-Canon, Unlicensed, Utterly Unapproved 50-Year History by Ed Greenwood, curated by Brian Cortijo and All is Lust: Letters With a Hooded Lady by Ed Greenwood and The Hooded One.

Join us at RealmsSecretariat.com each week as Ed Greenwood continues the tale of how the Forgotten Realms went from a short story to becoming one of the world’s most beloved shared settings. All stories are totally unofficial—100% unapproved—not authorized, sanctioned, censored, or redacted in any way. Herewith we present the unvarnished Ed Greenwood and his take on the past fifty years."
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[video=youtube;XFdU3fUeBSI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XFdU3fUeBSI[/video]
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[Maggan]

I have now counted the details of some D&D settings. In order of most details:

Forgotten Realms has 351 632 details.
Greyhawk has 289 774 details.
Ravenloft has 245 113 details.
Eberron has 121 782 details.
Planescape has 99 999 details (I double checked that).

So unless anyone else want to do a count, I say we'll go with these numbers. Take it from me, they are very correct. As correct as any mortal can count them, at least.

/M

 

[Reynard]

I have now counted the details of some D&D settings. In order of most details:

Forgotten Realms has 351 632 details.
Greyhawk has 289 774 details.
Ravenloft has 245 113 details.
Eberron has 121 782 details.
Planescape has 99 999 details (I double checked that).

So unless anyone else want to do a count, I say we'll go with these numbers. Take it from me, they are very correct. As correct as any mortal can count them, at least.

/M

Point oforder: you counted 3 Eberron details twice. It is understandable -- they were typos that seemed like additional details -- but frankly I expected more care, [MENTION=6616]Maggan[/MENTION]. Tsk.

 

[Henry]

Planescape has 99 999 details...

Who gave that count -- Jay Z?

"And a b***** ain't one!"

 

[graves3141]

What interests me the most about this is what it says about the future of a 5E Realms setting (an official one). If Ed is doing his own thing, which might turn out to be pretty cool (Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms was very nice) then I see that as a sign that there probably won't be an official 5E Realms setting.

If there was going to be an official 5E FRCS, then this current project of Ed's probably wouldn't be happening. It almost feels like WotC told Ed there wasn't going to be a 5E FRCS so he's decided to go ahead with this project instead.

I hope I'm wrong. It's possible that Ed and WotC might be working on the 5E FRCS at the same time as this project but that doesn't feel right. Either way, at least we'll be getting a new book on the Realms later this year, that's something I'll be looking forward to no matter how it all plays out.

 

[HobbitFan]

That's what I was thinking too Graves3141.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Why is that every time a thread brings up the Realms people post a bunch a crud about how much they dislike the setting?

Not cool...in any way.

Everyone, like what you like and by all means, share the love. Just don't pee in anyone's wheeties, please.
There's stuff that should be shared and talked about and then other stuff that should just be left well enough alone.

So bloody true. I thought the bad blood had gone away with 5E being quite popular but it's not the case. Anyway, my ignore list is now longer than it was before I started this thread.

What interests me the most about this is what it says about the future of a 5E Realms setting (an official one). If Ed is doing his own thing, which might turn out to be pretty cool (Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms was very nice) then I see that as a sign that there probably won't be an official 5E Realms setting.

If there was going to be an official 5E FRCS, then this current project of Ed's probably wouldn't be happening. It almost feels like WotC told Ed there wasn't going to be a 5E FRCS so he's decided to go ahead with this project instead.

I hope I'm wrong. It's possible that Ed and WotC might be working on the 5E FRCS at the same time as this project but that doesn't feel right. Either way, at least we'll be getting a new book on the Realms later this year, that's something I'll be looking forward to no matter how it all plays out.

That was my gut feeling as well. Frankly, the fact that Ed felt it necessary to provide an unofficial background for the Tiamat-based plotline of Tyranny of Dragons while also noting that he couldn't get an answer from WotC suggests that he may be a tad frustrated but, of course, it too polite to say anything publicly.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I am not worried. Ed is always busy with several projects at once, and WotC has stated the Realms is where they will be focusing their attention for as far out as they're currently planning.

For me, all this means is we're getting double the Realms goodness we otherwise would have.

 

[Shasarak]

What interests me the most about this is what it says about the future of a 5E Realms setting (an official one). If Ed is doing his own thing, which might turn out to be pretty cool (Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms was very nice) then I see that as a sign that there probably won't be an official 5E Realms setting.

I would say that it just means that Ed had to get this produced in time for the 50th anniversary.

 

[Irennan]

In his presentation of the FR secretariat, Ed mentions this:

'' Wizards of the Coast will be presenting you with new products of their own and licensed products—computer games, perhaps television and movies, certainly more novels. Of course, new adventures and tournament Organized Play adventures.''

Ed even presents a movie as something possible, and yet says nothing about sourcebooks of any kind, or about a Campaign Setting. This is quite telling to me. Unless there's something secret that he just can't talk about (and if it were the case, I guess that he would have said that a surprise or something was in the works), my gut feeling is that WotC will just be using the FR for novels and as a light background for their adventures and some non-D&D material.

 

[Kramodlog]

Maybe the sourcebook and campaign setting are dead. The splatbook sure seems to be.