D&D 5E What's up with the Realms?

[HobbitFan]

I'm a little confused. The Forgotten Realms are going to be the default setting for 5E and the setting for organizied play but the FR hasn't been updated?

That seems strange to me.

Any of you guys have any insight into what's going on?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm a little confused. The Forgotten Realms are going to be the default setting for 5E and the setting for organizied play but the FR hasn't been updated?

That seems strange to me.

Any of you guys have any insight into what's going on?

WotC didn't say FR wouldn't be updated. It would probably sell well. (FR was the 4th biggest-selling book in 3e, and that's in a market dominated by the core three.)

Just because FR 5e isn't on Amazon doesn't mean it will never be. FR 3e and 4e took their time to come out, so I don't see why FR 5e wouldn't take a long time either.

The "core setting" book need not come out early. 3e was officially set in Greyhawk (at least, it used Greyhawk's gods, and has been described as being close to Greyhawk, but not to the point of violating copyright) yet no setting book for Greyhawk actually came out. 4e's Points of Light was never given a setting book, and Nentir Vale was described mainly in adventures and monster manuals. Pathfinder's Golarion didn't come out immediately, and indeed the Inner Sea setting (the most important part of it) didn't come up until years afterward.

 

[Shiroiken]

AFAIK, Realms is not the default setting, but the focus at the start. This is a subtle difference. The adventures (including the one in the Starter Set) will be based in Realms for a while, and all Organized Play will be based in the Realms for a while too. It will most certainly be the first setting released (I'm guessing early 2015).

That being said, the PHB is (supposedly) going to have suggestions that fit for many settings (mostly Clerics, but I suspect Warlocks will need it too). The DMG will almost certainly have suggestions for creating your own setting. It's my understanding that the default setting will be your own.

Oh, and for people interested in the changes to the Realms, I suggest reading (or at least finding a summary of) the Sundering series of novels.

 

[Remathilis]

The "default" part is just that the modules will assume to be in the Realms (and use Realms proper nouns). The rule books will be setting agnostic.
I suspect a full setting guide early next year.

 

[GravyFingerz]

WotC didn't say FR wouldn't be updated. It would probably sell well. (FR was the 4th biggest-selling book in 3e, and that's in a market dominated by the core three.)

Just because FR 5e isn't on Amazon doesn't mean it will never be. FR 3e and 4e took their time to come out, so I don't see why FR 5e wouldn't take a long time either.

The "core setting" book need not come out early. 3e was officially set in Greyhawk (at least, it used Greyhawk's gods, and has been described as being close to Greyhawk, but not to the point of violating copyright) yet no setting book for Greyhawk actually came out. 4e's Points of Light was never given a setting book, and Nentir Vale was described mainly in adventures and monster manuals. Pathfinder's Golarion didn't come out immediately, and indeed the Inner Sea setting (the most important part of it) didn't come up until years afterward.

There wasn't a lot of official setting support, but Greyhawk got a Gazetteer (32 pages) and they also released the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (which was like a full campaign setting). They also did a regional feat article for Dragon magazine.

 

[HobbitFan]

Ah, ok. That makes more sense.
Thanks for the clarification guys!

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Don't forget, WotC has a massively reduced head count now - even compared to Paizo - so they have limited resources to throw at new projects. That's why, for example, the initial adventures were contracted out-of-house and the core books are having a staggered release. They just don't have the manpower to put out a new version of FR right now.

If you're interested in a summary of The Sundering novels I would suggest this thread on Candlekeep... although, if you're a fan of FR like me, you might want to pretend you never read it.

 

[HobbitFan]

Scrivener: I'll have to wait to check out that thread until Candlekeep is back up and running. They've been down the last couple of days.

Thanks for sharing though.

I've been a little leery of getting the Sundering novels because only half of them have gotten good reviews. And the overall summaries of the storyline in general have not sounded that great. There appears to be a disconnect between the way the story was hyped by and how it was actually plotted out and written.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Scrivener: I'll have to wait to check out that thread until Candlekeep is back up and running. They've been down the last couple of days.

Thanks for sharing though. (snip)

You're welcome. Yeah, sadly Candlekeep is not the most stable of sites. It also runs on some of the oldest forum software in existence so that may have something to do with it.

(snip) I've been a little leery of getting the Sundering novels because only half of them have gotten good reviews. And the overall summaries of the storyline in general have not sounded that great. There appears to be a disconnect between the way the story was hyped by and how it was actually plotted out and written.

Half is pretty good for FR novels: most FR series are nowhere near as well-reviewed as that.

The disconnect between the hype and the actual story seems to be standard operating procedure for FR series. They always finish with a whimper rather than a bang, and you also have to wade through a lot of bad writing to get there. I've all but given up on FR novels for this reason (although I would like to read Paul Kemp's books at some point - from what I've seen, he's a genuinely good writer - and I also want to give Erin Evans a shot) and have simply stuck to summaries and reviews to see if there is anything to salvage for my games (generally speaking, no there hasn't been).

Anyway, that link I posted to Candlekeep provides a fairly solid summary of the conclusion of The Sundering, enough so that 1. you know what is going on and 2. you will likely have no interest whatsoever in reading the books.

 

[DMZ2112]

The "default" part is just that the modules will assume to be in the Realms (and use Realms proper nouns). The rule books will be setting agnostic.
I suspect a full setting guide early next year.

It's actually even better than this -- the rule books will be /polygnostic/. Wizards has confirmed that the PHB, MM, and DMG make reference to multiple official D&D settings throughout.