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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 2866908" data-attributes="member: 1757">I must provide correction on two points, James.The design notebook articles in Dragon leading up to the release of 2e make it rather clear that the decision to design 2e the way it was (including the elimination of the assassin, cavalier, barbarian, etc.) was a decision of the 2e design team, who (with the exception of Jeff Grubb) had nothing to do with FR. Moreover, the decision to redesign 2e was made before the creation of the Avatar trilogy. Finally, although the Avatar modules were released before the 2e PHB (actually, contemporaneously with the 2e PHB, since we played through those modules using the 2e PHB and DMG), the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardback, which introduced the setting changes following the Time of Troubles, was released substantially after the 2e books had come out. The introductory section of the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardback states that the narrative changes to FR (mass slaying of the assassins, changes to magic) were specifically intended to bring the setting into line with 2e rules, not the other way around.  Also, while I agree that setting support for Greyhawk was largely abandoned come 2e, I don't think that FR was really the default setting; 2e was a setting bonanza, with no specific setting really being preferred.  We had Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Hollow World, and finally Planescape, each of which had almost as much support material as FR. True, with the near-abandonment of Greyhawk, FR became the most "standard" of these settings, but I don't think one can really point to a default 2e setting.</blockquote>

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