What's the future of the Forgotten Realms?

[CapnZapp]

With the Eberron PDF and the Ravnica hardcover, WotC has declared that they are no longer setting-shy. It seems that the likely course of action is that they will release other "classics" in PDF form first, with possible hardcover treatments down the road if that setting proves popular (and profitable).

But what about the Forgotten Realms? It is the default for most of the story arcs so far, and already has one sorta setting product. On one hand, it is the most likely to receive a full hardcover, on the other it may be that WotC wants to leave it vague and undefined so that they have freedom to explore and expand through story arcs.

I could see several routes:

*The Eberron Treatment: They do a PDF, probably sooner than later, and possibly (hopefully) written by Ed Greenwood. One thing that makes this likely is that it is relatively easy to do, both because there's tons of lore out there already--and I'm sure Ed could write it up over a weekend--and also because it is pretty much 5e RAW, so no playtesting needed.

*Hardcover book: In some ways it is kind of crazy that WotC hasn't published a 5e setting book for the Forgotten Realms. There are so many great hardcover setting books out there, from Paizo's Golarion to Kobold's Midgard to Critical Role's Tal'Dorei. Why not WotC? Furthermore, I have heard fans of the setting complain that it is still unclear what the 5e looks like: did the geographic changes from 4e's Spellplague hold or are we back to "Realms classic?" Or something else?

*Nothing: This leaves things flexible, and the Realms as the undefined default setting for future story arcs, which will flesh out regions like they did with Chult, the Sword Coast, soon Waterdeep, etc. We might see a Moonshaes story arc, or Anauroch, Dale Lands, Thay, Raurin, Al-Qadim, etc.

So what do you think? What path will WotC take?

One final note. They may not know themselves, and will wait to see how Eberron and Ravnica do. Of course the success (or lack thereof) of a Realms product is probably not connected to either, but maybe they simply want to see numbers sold first.

Huh?

They've explored FR through several supplements: Princes of the Apocalypse and Storm King's Thunder together form an excellent gazetteer on the Dessarin Valley area, just to pick one example.

Publishing a pure campaign guide is apparently not gonna happen: the format so far is to make every book sellable to every player: the DM and the group.

 

[gyor]

Until last week, I might have agreed with you. Now we need to wait and see how the Ravnica and (possibly) Eberron hardcovers do. If they prove wildly popular, they may revisit the Realms with a more comprehensive setting guide...

That is my hope as well.

 

[Bitbrain]

I personally prefer the idea that Athas is Toril in the far future.

Me too. It works quite well in my opinion.

 

[gyor]

And we might not have even gotten that if the Sword Coast Legends video game had not come out at the same time, seeing as the SCAG was advertised to be as much a primer for that game as it was for 5E.

Then I hope someone comes out with a video game involving the rest of the Forgotten Realms even more

 

[Zardnaar]

Huh?

They've explored FR through several supplements: Princes of the Apocalypse and Storm King's Thunder together form an excellent gazetteer on the Dessarin Valley area, just to pick one example.

Publishing a pure campaign guide is apparently not gonna happen: the format so far is to make every book sellable to every player: the DM and the group.

Thats not ahrd to do the 3.0 one had heaps of good player stuff.