D&D 5E Ed Greenwood to write 5E's Forgotten Realms

[Janaxstrus]

I'm curious. For those who say that we should go back to the Grey box Realms, which, IIRC, is a couple of hundred pages long, at best, why is the three 4e FR material viewed as "ripping apart the tapestry" of Realmslore?

I mean, if you want to go back to a much more open Realms, isn't that exactly what 4e gave you?

There were no Dragonborn hooters, shades, tieflings, or other shoehorned in races in the Grey Box.
Elves were elves in the Grey Box and they couldn't teleport when people shot arrows at them (but not any other time!)

In every way, the grey box (and ever the 3rd edition post Time of Troubles) was a superior product for me, my current gaming circle and the vast majority of gamers I've played with over the last 4 years.

 

[Mournblade94]

They blew the Realms up because so many people were sick & tired of teh bloated mess it had become and they wanted to open design space back up. Some fanboys were going to get upset but they didn't need to advance their personal timelines if they didn't want to. One of my 4E games is still in the pre-ToT Realms.

No they needlessly blew up the realms to appeal to those who were intellectually lazy. It would be the exact same thing as if I DEMANDED eberron to cut out Warforged and Mage tech because I feel left out because I like a more medieval setting.

The realms did not require those changes. The whiners were intellectually lazy. WOTC appealed to them, and look where it left them. Less popularity than it used to have.

There was nothing about the FR that was a bloated mess. It was resource material. Granted, there was reading involved. All the whiners that didn't want to use those resources were free to ignore them.

Hopefully the realms will be back to its proper pre 4e state.

Mod Note: It is incredibly easy to take all the folks who like something you don't, lump them in one group, and slap a nasty label on them and insult them. But Rule #1 of EN World is, "Keep it civil." And insulting people and calling them names is definitely not civil. Don't do this, or you get booted from the thread like Mournblade here. Questions? Take 'em to e-mail or PM. Thanks! ~Umbran

 

[Steely_Dan]

and have freakishly good luck on the rolls. Effectively, you have to cheat.)

Nope, my buddy did not cheat when he rolled 18, 15, 15, 14, 14, 12 for his character in front of everybody.

But then again, he's sort of like Longshot from the Marvel Universe, some weird probability control (never seems to roll under a 3 on a d4).

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'm going to go on record as saying I prefer the 4e Realms to the 3e as somewhere to adventure and to run a game.

But.

You'd have to pay me to run a game in the 3e Realms and I'm not likely to in the 4e one. The Realms might well not be to my taste. But they were what they were - and other settings do what the 4e Realms do. The 3e Realms were something. Not something I like. But something some people like. And so they should have stayed that way rather than being turned into PoLand Mk II.

 

[Fenes]

I'm going to go on record as saying I prefer the 4e Realms to the 3e as somewhere to adventure and to run a game.

But.

You'd have to pay me to run a game in the 3e Realms and I'm not likely to in the 4e one. The Realms might well not be to my taste. But they were what they were - and other settings do what the 4e Realms do. The 3e Realms were something. Not something I like. But something some people like. And so they should have stayed that way rather than being turned into PoLand Mk II.

Yeah, it made no sense - in order to sell a few copies of 3 books, they destroyed an entire setting to turn it into something its old (and numerous) fans hated. Could have simply made a enw setting for those who hated the realms.

 

[Morrus]

My apologies, everyone. I promoted this to a news item and attempted to change the date of the the posts to ensure it would appear near the top of the news (unfortunately it took a few days before anybody pointed the thread out to me!). Unfortunately, I screwed it up and all the posts are now showing in the wrong order.

They should be OK from now on. Sorry about that. Hopefully you can continue the conversation OK.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I'm remarkably eloquent in my OP.

Anyway, how would people feel if, rather than a rollback or a "saga edition," the 5e Realms is a full reboot based on Ed's original vision? Does the upcoming "Elminster's Forgotten Realms" already fill that gap? Do you want to be able to play in the eras we've seen before, or would you prefer a reboot?

 

[thzero]

I fail to see what all the hub-bub is about. I mean it is just a setting; its not the best, certainly not the worst (personally I dislike Eberron more). Don't like it? Don't play in it. Otherwise use what you want and ignore the rest.

Personally my group uses FR because we've all read something about it, played Baldur's Gate, etc. so its a fairly 'common ground'. But as a DM I just ignore all the books, mainly because I haven't read most of them, and if I don't particularly like something I ignore that too or change it to suit my needs.

 

[Rogue Agent]

If the game's about nuclear brinksmanship, and the PCs get to courier documents while James Bond deals with the real menaces - and the book makes it clear that this is what's going on, then you're damn right I'd be annoyed.

It's difficult to take you seriously when you keep saying stuff that's directly contradicted by the quote you're attempting to villify.

But, by all means, continue stretching you analogies. Maybe you'll eventually make people forget what you actually quoted so that you can freely attack the made-up fantasy strawman you're beating the crap out of in your imagination.

 

[an_idol_mind]

I'm remarkably eloquent in my OP.

Anyway, how would people feel if, rather than a rollback or a "saga edition," the 5e Realms is a full reboot based on Ed's original vision? Does the upcoming "Elminster's Forgotten Realms" already fill that gap? Do you want to be able to play in the eras we've seen before, or would you prefer a reboot?

I don't think this would work. While talking about how great the original boxed set is in vogue, a lot of what makes the Realms what it is to many fans is the material that came afterwards. Speaking for myself, while the actual novels/modules for the Time of Troubles were terrible, the event as background to the setting is pretty cool and has led to a lot of good flavor for the Realms.

Really, I think WotC is going to have to pick an audience and play to them. Everybody has their own favorite part of the Realms or vision of what the setting should be. Trying to please everybody is more likely to please nobody.