Listened to latest "Lore you should know" and...... It was an absolute cop out. It was suppose to be about the current timeline in FR what was happening and where the adventures fitted in. Chris Perkins spent the whole time wobbelling on about that cannon is what you want it to be rather than giving any information. Not a single fact was put out to events since the Sundering. There are many people who wish to know what the hell is going on in the Realms such as which gods are back (and how) who is ruling what, what are the current relationships between powers, who are the new important people, what has happened with old issues, etc. I know many will say just use old supp;ements but that does nothing for those who want up to date info for many a different reason. To be honest it sounded a lot like Perkins was saying that they did not want to create anymore cannon and that cannon simply does not matter. For some that holds true but for others that is a kick in the balls.
D&D 5E Listened to latest "Lore you should know" and......
- Thread starter Eubani
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MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
As someone who quite playing DnD before The Forgotten Realms campaign material was published and who didn't start up again until 5e, my whole take on the Realms is that they would make these huge cataclysmic events to wipe the slate clean for each edition. In the Lore you should know segment, Chris Perkins basically admits that is what they did for 5e and didn't seem to be overly concerned in fleshing out the details.
I love the Lore You Should Know segments of the D&D podcast, especially those that focus on races, factions, monsters and they discuss the history of it through the editions. But whenever it touches on FR history, I tune out. The whole FR time line and history doesn't appeal much to me. If I ever run an FR campaign instead of my home brew, I would try to ignore most of the history, but worry that would be hard or impossible to do.
I think that what bothers me most of FR is that there are so many works of fiction written about it that your characters really are never the great heroes they should be.
I'm interested in looking at Midgard (Kobold Press) and other campaigns that are hopefully less weighed down with so much canon material.
I love the Lore You Should Know segments of the D&D podcast, especially those that focus on races, factions, monsters and they discuss the history of it through the editions. But whenever it touches on FR history, I tune out. The whole FR time line and history doesn't appeal much to me. If I ever run an FR campaign instead of my home brew, I would try to ignore most of the history, but worry that would be hard or impossible to do.
I think that what bothers me most of FR is that there are so many works of fiction written about it that your characters really are never the great heroes they should be.
I'm interested in looking at Midgard (Kobold Press) and other campaigns that are hopefully less weighed down with so much canon material.
Did you know there is a Forgotten Realms wiki? It seems to be updated pretty often and has a lot of links to cross reference to. In addition, there are two authors that I can think of releasing novels on the realms, Ed Greenwood and R.A. Salvatore. Finally, there is The EdVerse, which has Ed Greenwoods history and knowledge of the FR. I don't check out The EdVerse personally but I read that it has a lot of good information. There is a lot available online with out purchasing a book. If you feel like purchasing a book then take a look at Sword Coast Adventures Guide, Storm Kings Thunder, and Princes of the Apocalypse for information on the Savage North of Faerun.
MrHotter
Explorer
I felt the same way after reading a few Forgotten Realms books. They were filled with people much more powerful and interesting than the players' characters.
In my world, a level 10 person would have stories sung about them because they are so rare. To get challenged past level 10 it's time for my players to explore different planes that most people in my world would consider fairy tales or superstitions.
I did steal the sword coast map for my western coast of my homebrew and I changed the lore to be whatever I want. That way I can run any 5E WotC published adventure without too much of a change.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I bought the SCAG and enjoyed reading it. I may take inspiration from it for my own game, but not sure I'll run my game there. Well, actually, if I run Storm King's Thunder, I guess I will be. But I'm not going to spend a great deal of time learning all the history and lore of the Realms. Any FR fan would probably be annoyed playing in my Storm King's Thunder game.
But that is a long way off, my first 5e adventure path after my Home Brew campaign completes will be Curse of Straud. By the time that's done, I may run a game in the Midguard setting by Kobold press.
They might have done it in a stupid way, but the realms is better off this way. It needed a disconnect from the novels. It needed to be a campaign world where the players are the important ones. Not drizzle or eliminster or some other op jerk off hack writers make up. If I where to use an adventure these marysues would not even exist. Like I said they did it in a really bad way , but brought the realms back to generic dnd where it needs to be.
I think this is their way of saying "We're sick of having to keep coming up with and keep track of an official 'timeline' of stuff happening over every single inch of Faerun. It's irritating to us, and rather useless for most players. So we'll put out the occasion bit of info like you'll find in SCAG or Storm King's Thunder... but we aren't going to spend any more money or time filling out or detailing the rest. We'll leave that to the individual players who actually have that OCD in them to know everything. Let them keep filling up the Forgotten Realms wiki with every bit and bob that gets dropped in every point of media... or let them create it, write it up, and then publish it on DMsGuild. Cause we don't want to do it anymore, and we want the players to finally realize and accept we aren't going to do it anymore."
The easiest way to get players to finally stop worrying about the "canon" of the Forgotten Realms is to stop actually making books focused on "canon" in the first place.
The easiest way to get players to finally stop worrying about the "canon" of the Forgotten Realms is to stop actually making books focused on "canon" in the first place.
Corpsetaker
First Post
And that eliminates basically 95% of what actually makes the Realms unique as a setting and not just another high fantasy one.
Corpsetaker
First Post
The problem with Perkins is FR is not his thing, never has been. There are plenty of authors with years of experience on the Realms who would gladly take up the torch. The Realms is basically just being used as a corporate marketing tool because of it's popularity and it's notoriety. It's fast becoming like today's music business.
What they don't seem to realize is that what made the Realms so popular is the attention to canon and history as how it tries to stay constant.
What they don't seem to realize is that what made the Realms so popular is the attention to canon and history as how it tries to stay constant.
Cap'n Kobold
Hero
I seem to recall that a lot of what made the Realms so . . . problematic in terms of timelines and powerful non-PC heroes wandering around is that they had a rule that anything that happened in a FR novel was canon.
Do you think that Chris Perkins was making the point that they were dropping this guideline?
Do you think that Chris Perkins was making the point that they were dropping this guideline?
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