I Want the Old Realms Back

[josha]

With 5th Edition on the horizon, WotC needs to ask themselves some serious questions. Including how they will handle the Forgotten Realms.

The Realms are one of the things that have kept me playing D&D instead of Basic Fantasy or Pathfinder, but 4th Edition screwed them up to the point of barley being better than the core world. This makes me mad.

They really had no reason to introduce the Spellplegue other than to justify the 4e system, which really isn't a good reason. They have killed off interesting characters, removed deities for no reason, castrated the cosmology, and squeezed the last bit of interesting-ness of the characters they decided to keep alive. The only thing I like better about the 4e realms to the extra fluff they gave to Menzoberranzan, which to me is the best part of the setting.

I think it would be best if they went back to the pre-Spellplegue Realms. They could fix some mistakes they made and perhaps shift emphasis on some things, but the core concept would be very close to what they had in 3e. This would make the GOOD content relevant again, and reverse most of the damage they did to the beloved setting.

 

[keterys]

The Realms is known for its frequent changes, and for catastrophes happening as the goddess of magic du jour dies. What you call ruin, another might consider standard operation of the realms.

There have been many books from leading up to and after the spellplague, so that ship has sailed.

That said, if you enjoy the old Realms... nothing stops you from playing in them. There are literally hundreds of books to support that choice, and more power to you.

 

[Mirtek]

This thread won't end well

 

[drothgery]

This thread won't end well

True, but having said that, I suspect the Neverwinter boxed set is something of a reboot of the 4e Realms, even if they aren't going to pretend the Spellplague never happened.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I think it would be best if they went back to the pre-Spellplegue Realms. They could fix some mistakes they made and perhaps shift emphasis on some things, but the core concept would be very close to what they had in 3e. This would make the GOOD content relevant again, and reverse most of the damage they did to the beloved setting.

You're fighting an uphill battle, friend. Like Keterys says, cataclysmic change is standard operating procedure for most published settings every time a new edition rolls around, despite all the rage over the Spell Prague and whatnot. And the rage over what 3e changed, and the rage over 2e's Time of Troubles, and the changes that happened before.

I've heard that Ed Greenwood doesn't like any of the changes made to his setting, and that he still plays the original FR that he wrote. And that's probably the best solution: pick the FR version you like best and ignore the rest.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Well, 4E's idea of a couple books plus a bit of dragon support has not been kind to any campaign world, IMHO. On the other hand, at least we do not get a total rehash of older settings in twenty books, like before.

I am not an FR fan, but there is certainly enough material out there for anyone to play.

 

[blalien]

Can we just get a separate message board titled "They changed it now it sucks" and transfer like half the threads over there?

We have no evidence that 5th edition is on the horizon, by the way. I would like to believe that 4th edition has more than three years of life in it.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I do not see why, if they have changed a setting in a way that is not to ones liking that one is in anyway obliged to follow then in the change.

The info in the older books is largely system independant and can still be used.

 

[herrozerro]

As I said on the WotC forums, your first line with "5th edition on the horizon" that is unfounded and is just forum rumors propagated by forum trolls.

 

[Obryn]

Do you really need any new mechanics to run the grey box realms? Just use the old grey box for fluff, and you're done.

-O