D&D 3E/3.5 5e Forgotten Realms - should it be closer to 3e or 4e?

[Li Shenron]

Being butchered already, at this point I say it too... rewind to Grey Box and write a new alternate history where there are no Times of Troubles. Then continue the new timeline for the next 2-3 editions. Then rewind again and start a new alternate branch... Nothing from other branches has ever existed or even makes sense in your branch.

Or maybe just let Shar win and erase FR from existence, to end its suffering

 

[Hassassin]

I'd love to see it as an alternate timeline (because utterly ignoring that it ever happened probably won't happen), with either a novel or adventure being presented to allow for rewinding the clock and preventing it all from happening.

I would prefer no alternative timelines. The FRCS could detail three main points of time: before ToT, after ToT but before SP, and after SP. Concentrate description on locations relatively unchanged by the events and clearly mark changes.

There is still a lot of freedom to develop the timeline in between the three points without causing significant contradictions. Every play group or DM can decide whether the main events that will have happened in the published future are going to happen in the campaign, and to what degree the PCs' actions may change them.

The gods require some compromise. I would suggest doing the same as with locations, namely concentrate on describing the deities common to all eras. Give us at least a table of main deities that die/vanish/morth/appear/ascend, then a paragraph to the tune of: There are hundreds of other deities worshiped all over Faerûn; many of these are actually aspects or demigod servants of other deities, others are planar beings pretending to be gods, but some are actual deities that only lack wide recognition.

 

[Grimstaff]

Didn't WotC already announce that the next FR will be Ed Greenwood's own version?

You should add 1E FR to your poll, OP. I still like that set.

 

[Yora]

No, they announced a book that is somehow about Ed Greenwoods FR campaigns, but it's not the 5th Edition FRCS.

 

[talok55]

It should be retconned to be more like 3E FR or even the 1E gray box. Either way the spellplague and the abomination that was the 4E FRCS should be forgotten like a bad dream.

 

[Yora]

What is actually so great about the Grey Box? I started with the 2nd Edition box and it seems much superior to me. And also happens to be the best version of the realms in my oppinion.

Was the Grey Box really that much better, or is just pure nostalgia speaking?
I am currently working on figuring out how to compile my setting material for a free pdf release and knowing why people thought the Grey Box was so great would be quite helpful.

I would further suggest it is better to go back before 1e Forgotten Realms and do a pre-history period. The 1e, 2e, 3e, and 4e systems have done the 'present' and 'future' to death.

My own setting actually started as this, but I very soon dropped the direct connection to the realms to have more freedom. But in spirit, it still is.
However seeing an actual official version of it would be great as well.

 

[talok55]

I think the people that like the gray box version are the ones that don't like all the detail and lore that came later. They want something that is pretty bare to do with as they please. They were some of the ones WotC was catering too when they decided to obliterate the Realms for 4E. I personally like all the detail. It's what made the Realms seem like a living, breathing world instead of just another campaign setting. I like the 3E FRCS the best, but I would take the gray box or the 2nd edition setting over the awful 4E one. What they did to the Realms with 4E was a travesty, and they should strive to support a version of the Realms untainted by the sepllplague if they want to win back fans that bailed with the awful 4E retcon of the setting.

 

[Yora]

I can subscribe to that. The reason I lost interest into the realms as my favorite setting was that there were no white spots on the map and every mystery has already been solved. And that wasn't just for me as a DM, but also went for lots of players I knew.
Even in the most remote and isolated corners of the realms, you always knew where you were and were to go to for any problem you might have. The setting was severely lacking in "Exploration", because everything was already mapped and catalogued.

 

[Hassassin]

I can subscribe to that. The reason I lost interest into the realms as my favorite setting was that there were no white spots on the map and every mystery has already been solved. And that wasn't just for me as a DM, but also went for lots of players I knew.
Even in the most remote and isolated corners of the realms, you always knew where you were and were to go to for any problem you might have. The setting was severely lacking in "Exploration", because everything was already mapped and catalogued.

In which edition was this the case? Depending on edition at least Sembia and the Border Kingdoms were intentionally left there as white spots. There were also several "grey" areas of which there were few details. The 3e FRCS had a couple of mysteries for every region specifically as plot hooks.

 

[Glade Riven]

Yeah, but 3e FR got a bit textbooky trying to work in everything. It's fine if you are already a FR fan, but 13-14 setting/splat books on FR (let's face it - Drow of the Underdark was practically FR) gets more than a little intimidating if you are a n00b. Oddly enough, even though there is more stuff for 2e, the way it is presented is more friendly to new players - more modular and less mapped

In some ways, I'd prefer that Wizards do what they did with Drow of the Underdark to a sizable chunk of the setting, and use that as the Default 5e. There's a lot of good stuff in the setting that shouldn't just be locked up in the setting, but rather be part of D&D as a whole. Champions of Valor/Ruin were better books than Exalted Deeds/Vile Darkness. Serpent Kingdoms could easily be a stand-alone book like Drow of the Underdark. Maztica, Zakara, and Kara-Tur could easily be branched off as their own settings (much like Neverwinter was).

I guess I would like to see the modularity of 2e with the production quality of 3e and the not-textbookishness of 4e.