How is FR changing with 4E?

[Vocenoctum]

Or they can just leave the Realms alone and no longer support it, and create a new setting for 4e. But then they wouldn't be working to monetize a known property. And the fans would REALLY be up in arms.

I think there was plenty of ways to scale back the Realms, with it feeling more like "the realms" progression. Sure advance the storyline 50-100 years, have a war or five, maybe the gods have a war too or maybe some god finds a way to break Ao and the planes are thrown into chaos. (Though, I personally detest Cyric and his presence is part of what drove me from The Realms...)

So, you have to seperate out whether "good change" vs "bad change" is part of the problem here. There's also the question of (for me at least), if they're going to smash the realms into Points of Light, why not just smash it, then make it the default setting and use the (remaining) realms gods for it? Why bother coming up with the mishmash of ideas for PoL, then alter the realms as well?

 

[Scribble]

From what I'm seeing from the exerpts the new realms books seems kind of neat. I doubt I'll set my games there, but I might buy it to steal ideas from.

(Of course, my scarred lands campaign started with me just wanting to use the map in the gazeteer in my homebrew... )

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I agree with Set. It's people.

And, to prove it: I don't think they are blowing up the Realms at all, not any more or less than the Realms have been blown up in the entire time they've owned the property.

I've been lucky enough to never have played with someone that was obsessed with a particular world, so I've never experienced "that guy". I feel bad for anyone that has.

Got to the WotC FR boards and ask a question like "what do you think about the 4e realms?" It´s like a simulation of having "that guy" in your group.

 

[Zaukrie]

I've done that, and the Paizo boards. That's why I'm happy I've never had "that guy" in my groups.

I can't remember if i've said this in this thread, but I had no interest in the book, until they started doing the excerpts. The excerpts are filled with great stuff.

 

[Scribble]

I've done that, and the Paizo boards. That's why I'm happy I've never had "that guy" in my groups.

I can't remember if i've said this in this thread, but I had no interest in the book, until they started doing the excerpts. The excerpts are filled with great stuff.

Say what you want about the changes to the setting, but the changes to the book layout seems great. In particular the knowledge check info.

Such a simple thing that seems insanely useful.

As a DM I don't really need to know, or have memorized a lot about the city or country the players arrive at... It's neatly organized for me in a way useful DURRING the game.

Good stuff.

Then again, I haven't bought a WoTC setting in a long time so maybe this isn't new?

 

[Nymrohd]

I supported the FR changes when they were announced and up until recently. I have a small bookcase worth of novels on realms and every single book on the realms since AD&D apart from modules either in print or electronic form. I felt confident that the designers could pull off something great with the edition change however extreme the plot devise might sound.

And then came the excerpts. Every single excerpt from the FRCG is in my opinion a prime example of mediocre, uninspired writing. While the dragon articles on FR are good and even great (as all dragon articles seem to be lately), the excerpts from the actual book are just tacky, lazy, unimaginative, taking no advantage of the massive lore of the realms, completely disregarding plot lines that had been building since the grey box. The first excerpt I was inclined to be forgiving, the second got me reasonably worried. By the third one I decided not to buy the FRCG at all. And since the swordmage will make it to the PHBII I ain't getting the FRPG as well (maybe having a look through to check the format of multi-class only classes from the spellscars so I can get ideas for dragonmarks).

 

[The Little Raven]

And since the swordmage will make it to the PHBII

No, it won't. That was a mistake.

 

[catsclaw227]

And then came the excerpts. Every single excerpt from the FRCG is in my opinion a prime example of mediocre, uninspired writing. While the dragon articles on FR are good and even great (as all dragon articles seem to be lately), the excerpts from the actual book are just tacky, lazy, unimaginative, taking no advantage of the massive lore of the realms, completely disregarding plot lines that had been building since the grey box. The first excerpt I was inclined to be forgiving, the second got me reasonably worried. By the third one I decided not to buy the FRCG at all.

Since I am not very schooled on the Realms, what plot lines did they disregard and what parts specifically seems to irk you?

This kind of information is interesting to me, because it may help to understand the different things that people dislike about the 4e Realms.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

It's people.

Amen.

4E just feels like throwing out the baby with the bathwater in an effort to deal with "that guy." It won't work. Now "that guy" will kvatch bitterly about how things used to be, rather than about how the DM is wrong.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The 4E Realms are a Post-Holocaust World.
Think of Krynn after the Cataclysm, right after the Cataclysm when Raistlin, Crysania, Caramon, and Tasslehoff were involved in the Dwarfgate Wars.

This is not the Age of Reason or the Age of Enlightenment.
This is the Age of Monsters, the Age of Smoke, the Age of Tyranny, the Dark Age Manifest.

Stricken people huddle in refuge camps or cities, wondering why the Gods let them down, or even if there are any Gods anymore. Strange monsters and peoples never before seen roam the continent. The geography is strange, the waters are strange, even the weather is different.
Nobody knows what befell the people or nation beyond the mountains yonder. Fewer care to find out. Fewer yet, come back from such sojourns, mostly with tales too fantastic to be believed ... or are they actually the truth?
Whither Waterdeep, that mightiest of Port Cities? Whither ancient Calimshan? Whither divided Thay and it's ancient enemy Mulhorand? Whither the Zhentarim and their Harper foes? Whither Mulmaster and Luruar, Westgate and Amn, Sembia and Cormyr? Whither the Dales? Wither the ancient realms of the South? The elves? The dwarves? The gnomes? The halflings? Nobody knows. If Candlekeep yet stands, perhaps they might know (as Astinus of Palanthus knew) but could one make the journey there, and if one did, would they be received?
The world is different. One feels it in the air, the soil, the water. Things, are not what they were.