Alzrius
The EN World kitten
What I don't understand is Greyhawk is cleaning up while FR is getting beaten, yet they're essentially the same thing.
I strongly disagree.
What I don't understand is Greyhawk is cleaning up while FR is getting beaten, yet they're essentially the same thing.
Well, and Greyhawk is against Mystara while Forgotten Realms is against Planescape. That probably makes as much, if not more difference.What I don't understand is Greyhawk is cleaning up while FR is getting beaten, yet they're essentially the same thing. When I first saw this playoff setup I fully expected these two to meet in the finals having mowed everything else down like grass on the way there. Elminster and Drizz't can't make that much difference to the perception of these two setting, can they?
Lan-"that said, the poll should have had 1e FR, 3e FR and 4e FR as separate options as they are so different"-efan
I don't get the FR hate. I get (even though I don't necessarily share to a strong extent) the Drizzt hate and the Elminster hate and the Spellplague hate, but to me, FR is a setting, not a plot or a group of characters. When I think of FR, I think of a lot of beautiful, well-written campaign setting books, and I think of the Baldur's Gate games.
Oddly enough, when I think Dragonlance I do think of Raistlin and Caramon, because other than stories about those two and the kender, nothing ever really stuck in my head about that setting.
I do, however, tend to agree that Greyhawk is just a map to most people. There's a bit more than that, but not much from my perspective.
I think you hit the nail right on the head here. When it comes to the importance of narrative to setting in a "traditional" fantasy world, Forgotten Realms is the middle child, between Dragonlance and Greyhawk. To people who actually play in FR, I think it looks more like GH than DL, because the games and novels and characters and world events probably don't substantially impact your individualized play experience. But to people looking at it from outside, FR looks more like DL than GH, because the stories are such a pervasive presence in the hobby at large. And it is really easy to let your opinion of the metaplot color your opinion of FR.
Greyhawk, on the other hand, just looks like a map to the outside world. It's hard to hate a map.
So you're going to see skewing in one direction irrespective of actual setting content.