D&D 5E Any Realms news?

[Irennan]

Have you heard of Tyranny of Dragons? Or Elemental Evil? And each storyline comes with an adventure path and AL adventures that show cast different regions of the realms.

Warder

Except that they are lore-light, they don't even come close to be regional sourcebooks. Also, AFAIK, Tyranny of Dragons mostly stays in the Sword Coast, just like the Elemental Evil is going to (according to what I've read, at least).

Also, that format for FR lore is very restrictive, it's pricy (and it's not even the focus or a big part of the books, more like a side bar), it comes off in a very rigid mega-campaign structure, is quite railroady, doesn't give tool to create one's own story in any desired part of FR and scatters the little new info about the setting among many books/articles (making the process of gathering lore much more tedious and harder).

And before ''use your old sources!!'', if WotC doesn't want to put out a FRCS, they should at least do a broad update for the various aspect of the setting (regions/organizations/pantheons) and then refer to the 3e FRCS for more details (since they've said that they're making the FR look much more it was in 3e). A unified ''source'' that all people can refer to is only logical, after they had the FR go through so many huge cataclysms. Also, Ed has been writing tons of lore on the post Sundering FR, it would be nice to have it published in some form -and the module format simply doesn't cut it

 

[Wolfskin]

WotC has been laying low regarding announcements (for instance, nobody was expecting Sword Coast Legends) so the fact that they haven't announced a FR setting book doesn't mean we won't get one. Ed has been talking stuff on the Candlekeep forum, so maybe he is working on it (or maybe doing prep work in anticipation).

My guess is we'll see a FRCS either for Q4 2015 or Q1 2016.

 

[Irennan]

WotC has been laying low regarding announcements (for instance, nobody was expecting Sword Coast Legends) so the fact that they haven't announced a FR setting book doesn't mean we won't get one. Ed has been talking stuff on the Candlekeep forum, so maybe he is working on it (or maybe doing prep work in anticipation).

My guess is we'll see a FRCS either for Q4 2015 or Q1 2016.

Yeah, Ed has written -and is still writing- a lot of stuff for the post-Sundering FR. I just hope that all his work won't be left collecting dust on a shelf. With this ''brand'' focus on WotC's side, with all their talk about not releasing sourcebooks (or releasing very few of them) because they ''are not the kind of support that a RPG needs'' (??), I'm quite worried about that.

 

[Wolfskin]

With this ''brand'' focus on WotC's side, with all their talk about not releasing sourcebooks (or releasing very few of them) because they ''are not the kind of support that a RPG needs'' (??), I'm quite worried about that.

If there's a demand for them, I'm pretty sure setting books will eventually be published. The silence from WotC worries me from time to time, but I don't think the only valid interpretation for it is "there won't be any setting books". Since the 'default' world for DnD is now officially Toril, I have faith the first setting book we'll see will be FR.

 

[Irennan]

I know, and logic suggests that a setting book should be published at some point, but I can't get over this bad vibe that their silence gives me.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Well, here's the thing. The 5E FR takes place something like 10 years after the 4E FR campaign book (1479 DR). And just by taking a look at the Timeline on the Forgotten Realms Wiki for each of those ten years (1479-1489), not a whole varied amount of stuff has happened that has already been documented (via novels and such.) Which means that while the Sundering has occurred and from what we understand the Tablets of Fate have been remade (bringing some dead gods back)... we don't really know how much *new* story has really occurred for the entirety of Faerun.

Has enough of Faerun changed in these past 10 years to warrant requiring a new re-write of the 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide? That's the question. It seems to me... the one advantage they have to waiting on a new guide until *after* these smaller-scale events like Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil occur (both in the hardcover adventure paths plus all the AL modules and such), and for more of the novels, comic book, and video games to get released... is that perhaps then enough locations across the continent will have seen changes enough to warrant being re-written over whatever we could get from the 4E guide.

Instead... if only pockets of the Realms have seen major changes over these past 10 years... meaning that like 75% of the Realms fluff has not actually changed all that much over what we have in the 4E book... then it turns into a kind of rip-off product to just copy-paste large sections of that book and put it into the 5E one (just so the small sections that HAVE seen changes, like the Shadovar, can get detailed). I suspect we'd see quite a bit of complaints from people if that new campaign guide really ended up being more of a 4.5, rather than a true 5E.

Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe they do have enough changes to warrant a new guide at this point. But at least by waiting until 2016 they'll have several more products and novels out that could help make the 5E Realms campaign book truly different than its predecessor.

 

[TerraDave]

Yep, Sword Coast Legends, thats the news. Elemental Evil was the news before that.

They are sticking to their strategy, no matter how many threads like this people start.

 

[Irennan]

Well, here's the thing. The 5E FR takes place something like 10 years after the 4E FR campaign book (1479 DR). And just by taking a look at the Timeline on the Forgotten Realms Wiki for each of those ten years (1479-1489), not a whole varied amount of stuff has happened that has already been documented (via novels and such.) Which means that while the Sundering has occurred and from what we understand the Tablets of Fate have been remade (bringing some dead gods back)... we don't really know how much *new* story has really occurred for the entirety of Faerun.

Has enough of Faerun changed in these past 10 years to warrant requiring a new re-write of the 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide? That's the question. It seems to me... the one advantage they have to waiting on a new guide until *after* these smaller-scale events like Tyranny of Dragons and Elemental Evil occur (both in the hardcover adventure paths plus all the AL modules and such), and for more of the novels, comic book, and video games to get released... is that perhaps then enough locations across the continent will have seen changes enough to warrant being re-written over whatever we could get from the 4E guide.

Instead... if only pockets of the Realms have seen major changes over these past 10 years... meaning that like 75% of the Realms fluff has not actually changed all that much over what we have in the 4E book... then it turns into a kind of rip-off product to just copy-paste large sections of that book and put it into the 5E one (just so the small sections that HAVE seen changes, like the Shadovar, can get detailed). I suspect we'd see quite a bit of complaints from people if that new campaign guide really ended up being more of a 4.5, rather than a true 5E.

Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe they do have enough changes to warrant a new guide at this point. But at least by waiting until 2016 they'll have several more products and novels out that could help make the 5E Realms campaign book truly different than its predecessor.

The Sundering has been described as a HUGE WORLD CHANGING event, with not only the tablets of fate being restored (and thus previously lost gods returning and shifting in power. You can see that in the PHB list and -per Mearls- even that is incomplete, as more gods have resurfaced), but also with Abeir and Toril separating again and regions drastically changing. Perkins has even said that they added 10 more years in the timeline to allow old/new organizations to consolidate/gain power and churces of returned gods to do something similar (and the situation to stabilize in general). The novels are -per their authors- a narrow perspective on the event, containing only a very small part of the changes. The purpose of the Sundering basically was to return the Realms to their old status, that's why I suggested that -if they really don't want to do a FRCS- it is only logical to at least put up a broad update with major changes in the various regions/organizations/pantheons and then refer to older books for more details. Considering the mole of lore that Ed is producing/has produced, you'd expect to see some kind of update, sooner or later...

 

[DEFCON 1]

The Sundering has been described as a HUGE WORLD CHANGING event, with not only the tablets of fate being restored (and thus previously lost gods returning and shifting in power. You can see that in the PHB list and -per Mearls- even that is incomplete, as more gods have resurfaced), but also with Abeir and Toril separating again and regions drastically changing. Perkins has even said that they added 10 more years in the timeline to allow old/new organizations to consolidate/gain power and churces of returned gods to do something similar (and the situation to stabilize in general). The novels are -per their authors- a narrow perspective on the event, containing only a very small part of the changes. The purpose of the Sundering basically was to return the Realms to their old status, that's why I suggested that -if they really don't want to do a FRCS- it is only logical to at least put up a broad update with major changes in the various regions/organizations/pantheons and then refer to older books for more details. Considering the mole of lore that Ed is producing/has produced, you'd expect to see some kind of update, sooner or later...

Sure, I don't disagree with you... my only thought is that it'll tend towards later just so that the stuff they currently have on the docket for the Realms gets published so as to give more stuff to truly change entire book sections. Because while things like the pantheon has seen a HUGE shake up and which impacts the entirety of Faerun in huge ways... the "Deities" section of the campaign guide is but a small section of the book. The re-split of Abeir and Toril will produce huge changes for those half-dozen sections of the map that overlapped in 4E... but in the actual Geography section, that's only six sections out of how many areas to be detailed? And those sections constitute only just how many paragraphs/pages of information? And as far as Organizations are concerned... even in the 3E guide that only encompassed 10 pages of material in a 300 page book. So despite what could have huge ramifications on Faerun as a whole... in the actual book, it would probably only result in a small percentage change as far as page space is concerned.

That's really my only thought. How much of the book sections themselves have seen enough change from the 4E book to warrant the book being produced again? That I couldn't really say. And for the stuff that has changed... what is the best, most efficient, or financially viable way to get that stuff out there? Web enhancement articles? Soft cover small area campaign books that will see changes every year? A full campaign guide? Or relying on those DMs that truly care about "up-to-date" info to actually purchase the products that has seen the changes take place? I don't know what is the right answer... all I know is that WotC does not seem to want to just release "product" for the sake of having product out there. Yeah it sucks for those DMs who want all the official lore combined into a singular form, but I have to imagine that they just don't think it's financially or creatively worthwhile to do at this point in time. Maybe there just isn't enough people out there who would buy the book to warrant spending all that time and resources to put it together?

 

[DMZ2112]

Oh my gods, we've heard nothing /but/ Realms news. What the actual $@&%.