D&D 5E 5th edition Forgotten Realms: Why can't you just ignore the lore?

[GMforPowergamers]

You end up with settings like Dark Sun, where many players long for the original boxed set.

the 4e darksun, and ebberon books is how I wish all campaign setting were, no novels are canon at all, just suggestions

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

You end up with settings like Dark Sun, where many players long for the original boxed set. Planescape and BirthRight may be the only settings to escape this trend.

A massive steaming dump was taken on Planescape with the Faction War, which resulted in the factions being kicked out of Sigil. Given that the faction intrigue was large part of the appeal of the setting, I can't fathom how this was seen as a good idea.

Neither is widely played, but both have a loyal fanbase. I don't know much about Al-Qadim and SpellJammer, or Eberron, but it strikes me as really odd that the authors have felt so many times they needed to blow up their worlds in order to continue to use them in later products.

There weren't any campaign shattering events of Al-Quadim, or really any status quo altering published adventures. I think its only major NPC is Kazerabet, and since she's a neutral reclusive necromancer, it's not like she's going to be called on to save the day.

 

[SirAntoine]

the 4e darksun, and ebberon books is how I wish all campaign setting were, no novels are canon at all, just suggestions

I know what you mean.

 

[SirAntoine]

A massive steaming dump was taken on Planescape with the Faction War, which resulted in the factions being kicked out of Sigil. Given that the faction intrigue was large part of the appeal of the setting, I can't fathom how this was seen as a good idea.



There weren't any campaign shattering events of Al-Quadim, or really any status quo altering published adventures. I think its only major NPC is Kazerabet, and since she's a neutral reclusive necromancer, it's not like she's going to be called on to save the day.

I didn't know that about Planescape. Thank you for the information and about Al-Qadim.

 

[Sailor Moon]

Well, nothing really. Isn't that kinda the point? That if I ignore canon, I'm not going to have any players?

But, let me turn that around. What's stopping you from ignoring canon?

I do when running my homebrew Realms and not when running my canon one.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I didn't know that about Planescape. Thank you for the information and about Al-Qadim.

Amusingly, Al-Quadim (technically the country is called Zhakara) is part of the Forgotten Realms, to the Southeast of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Apparently the munchkin craziness of Toril is a localized phenomenon to the north.

 

[Parmandur]

Thing is, for the Realms WOTC has a lot of restrictions: there is not a lot of money in going back to Grey Box, and the novel fans would riot. They can and did blow up the setting to separate the novels from the RPG, but the novel fans did and would again riot. Moving forwards to keep the novels in tact is their only financially sound decision.

 

[HobbitFan]

Thing is, for the Realms WOTC has a lot of restrictions: there is not a lot of money in going back to Grey Box, and the novel fans would riot. They can and did blow up the setting to separate the novels from the RPG, but the novel fans did and would again riot. Moving forwards to keep the novels in tact is their only financially sound decision.

Parmandur, how did you arrive at the conclusion that they blew up the setting to seperate the novels from the RPG? I've heard lots of theories and justifcations for the 4E fiasco but that's a new one on me...

 

[Parmandur]

Parmandur, how did you arrive at the conclusion that they blew up the setting to seperate the novels from the RPG? I've heard lots of theories and justifcations for the 4E fiasco but that's a new one on me...

Well, one of the main effects, and I recall reading somewhere that this was one of their primary goals, is that between the Spellplague (high level character holocaust by itself) and the hundred year time jump is that there is a near-zero chance of going into a town in the 4E setting and having to think about side characters from a twenty year old novel. They are all dead, if everyone is in the know there can be fun with grandkids or great-grandkids, but nobody has to consider the NPC population from prior publications when running the game. "100 years from now, all new people" as the Buddha said.



I think that is why the time jump, but also the Spellplague to take out the high level characters. From what I've seen, it is very thoroughly a clean slate, cutting the strings effectively. Then the question becomes, was it a desirable effect? And as somebody who has never read a FR novel at all, it seems the novel readership was the most miffed, given the focus on bringing back the Salvatore characters they went out of their way yo annihilate.

 

[Parmandur]

Just as a bit of background, while I knew of the Realms, I only got into ot recently, between Lost Mines and Tyranny of Dragons I went and got a second hand copy of the 3E FRCS, which is awesome. Don't care for what I've seen of the 4E Realms (blew up the best parts!), but liked the default PoL setting for 4E. I can see why they thought the overall shape of the 4E changes might make sense, but also that they failed to adequately consider what people wanted in fact, but that it might be difficult for them to properly monetize what people properly want.

A dilemma overall, really; very interested to see how they approach it!