D&D General Did you realize The Forgotten Realms is the most written fantasy world ever?

[haakon1]

I feel even Greyhawk (my favorite) has too many versions and starting dates.

I think the old Harn approach (not sure if it’s changed), of a single year for all setting and adventure products, is better. You can give ideas for future timelines, but leave room for each campaign’s events to lead to different outcomes.

FR tangentially exists in my Greyhawk campaigns, as a place a PC whose player wanted to take an indefinite pause went to, and a place some NPCs and monsters come from, and sages can tell you a little about.

On the advice of my player who knows/loves FR best, I’m sticking to our current year (589 CY) = the current year in the Gray Box AD&D 1e original setting (1356 DR). I thought about using the BG3 year, which I believe it might be the Year of Three Ships Sailing, AKA 1492 - yeah, I get it, FR authors - but my player knows best and I have no problem using out-of-print materials, of course.

I feel bad for FR fans that there’s overwhelming volume and changes like gods and continents changing, and less room to go rogue without contradicting “canon”. But good for them that there’s so much, including perhaps the best D&D wiki, for them. It pays to be the boss setting, perhaps.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think advancing the timeline when there's a big reset of the game, like when a new edition ships, is fine, as it keeps everyone on the same page.

Otherwise, 1990s metaplots from multiple game companies showed me the perils of the metaplot at the table and I much prefer GMs be given a blank slate of a single stationary starting point in time to work off of, rather than trying to outrun the publishing schedule.

 

[Voadam]

I think the old Harn approach (not sure if it’s changed), of a single year for all setting and adventure products, is better. You can give ideas for future timelines, but leave room for each campaign’s events to lead to different outcomes.

Eberron (and Kingdoms of Kalamar I believe) are similar, setting the year and everything supplemental and new editions flesh out the world more but does not advance the timeline.

FR, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk were the big ones for advancing timelines and metaplot that significantly changed the world.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

FR, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk were the big ones for advancing timelines and metaplot that significantly changed the world.

World of Darkness: Hold my beer champagne flute full of blood

 

[Swanosaurus]

FR, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk were the big ones for advancing timelines and metaplot that significantly changed the world.

Well, The Dark Eye has had a continous and constantly advancing timeline for 40 years, moving on with real-world history. In the beginning, it was 2 years in Aventuria for 1 year in our world, but they changed it to 1 to 1 relatively early ... so we are probably at something like 60 or 70 years of continuous official history, happening monthly in the official magazine, reflecting in the ever-changing sourcebooks of each new edition ...

Again, I think no one went quite as quietly, stubbornly crazy as The Dark Eye where it comes to advancing timelines.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Again, I think no one went quite as quietly, stubbornly crazy as The Dark Eye where it comes to advancing timelines.

I mean, White Wolf eventually decided that the timeline required an across the board apocalypse killing off all of the vampires, werewolves, mages, changelings, etc., in the oWoD, because that's where the metaplot was going with the end of the millennium.

It took the game line decades and multiple owners to recover and it's never been the same financially or in the public mindshare.

The Dark Eye clearly has gone hard, but it hasn't gone "drive your convertible into the Grand Canyon" hard.