D&D (2024) Should Forgotten Realms remain the default setting?

[payn]

Birthright.

 

[Minigiant]

@Haplo781
Pretty much.

3e was molded into the best assumptions of FR.

Nentir Vale runs on the base assumptions of 4e play.

So 5.5e default setting would have to be new as no past setting uses the base assumptions of 5e.

 

[Andvari]

Besides name recognition, Forgotten Realms has everything you'd expect from a standard fantasy setting. I think Dark Sun is cool, but it's a risky pick as a default setting. 3E was fairly subtle about Greyhawk being the default setting. I think the only real hint to it in the PHB were the listed deities. That works with FR as well.

 

[Shiroiken]

Especially considering how much they're trying to detach lore from the base game, I think homebrew should become the default once again.

 

[Corinnguard]

This should belong on a different thread, but, if the Forgotten Realms is not going to be default setting for 5.5e/1D&D and a new setting is created in it's place, what would you like to see in the new setting?

 

[Haplo781]

This should belong on a different thread, but, if the Forgotten Realms is not going to be default setting for 5.5e/1D&D and a new setting is created in it's place, what would you like to see in the new setting?

Mystara. Especially since WorC is trying to woo Japan (which loves Basic D&D but hasn't gotten on board with anything since.)

Edit: misread your post.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm pretty sure 50th Anniversary D&D will use "the Multiverse" as its "official setting".

FR will just remain the prime example setting.

 

[R_J_K75]

Especially considering how much they're trying to detach lore from the base game, I think homebrew should become the default once again.

Me too. I'm not much of a homebrew guy in the sense that I dont create my own worlds much. Not to say that I havent but they were few and far between and short lived. Although I almost never run pre-made adventures anymore and write my own almost exclusively. Theres plenty of how-to books from previous editions I can use such as the Dungeon Builders Guidebook, the World Builders Guidebook, and Stronghold Builders Guidebook but I'd like to see these updated and expanded for the next edition. I'm running a 5E Midnight campaign now and its pretty light on particulars so something to help flesh things out would help. In the end I can always just make this stuff up and do as I need. I have said this in other threads that my opinion is that WotC should rethink the core rulebook format, in addition to the PHB, DMG & MM maybe they should add a campaign design book and/or the default campaign setting book for this new edition.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I like having a default setting when the lore is distant and unobtrusive, like the way Forgotten Realms is used in Lost Mines of Phandelver or a Tales from the Yawning Portal entry; something I don't have to grapple with to run the module, but a vast pool of inspiration when a player wants more background on something, or the party decides to visit a place on the map I haven't prepared. And I think the disposable genericness and extensively developed lore of the Forgotten Realms and the Sword Coast in particular make it perfect for this.

But I don't like the use of the setting in the big 5e campaign books which are often pretty hyper-plugged in to Forgotten Realms lore, feeling the need to namecheck this, that, and the other thing that probably matters to someone who read some novel but that isn't important to anyone I play with. You basically have to continually check the Forgotten Realms Wiki to fully wrap your head around what they are presenting, and frankly in the campaign books I've read I'm not convinced the entire writing staff working on the campaign could keep the lore, and whatever changes the book was making to it, straight.

So my answer is yes, I want to keep the Forgotten Realms as the default setting. It gives people exactly what they expect out of D&D, accommodates all player options, and has an endless bounty of lore that I can take or leave for my version of a campaign. But I think, as it is used in 5e-era full official campaign books, it has been a detriment rather than a boon.

 

[R_J_K75]

You basically have to continually check the Forgotten Realms Wiki to fully wrap your head around what they are presenting, and frankly in the campaign books I've read I'm not convinced the entire writing staff working on the campaign could keep the lore, and whatever changes the book was making to it, straight.

I don't remember when the Forgotten Reams Atlas CD came out, but I think it was 1999 or 2000. Around that same time, I remember there being talk about a Forgotten Reams Encyclopedia CD planned that never materialized. With D&D Beyond, and other available electronic formats these days I can't for the life of me fathom why this hasn't happened yet. I don't think the FR Wiki is officially sanctioned by WotC, but hell they've already done the lion's share of the work, just buy that, clean it up and port it over to whatever format they want and sell it as a monthly subscription.