D&D 3E/3.5 Behind the Scenes of the making of the 3rd Ed Forgotten Realms from Sean K. Reynolds. Update part 2.

[darjr]

Sean K. Reynolds has begun a series of blog posts about the 3rd edition Forgotten Reams Campaign Setting and I'm hooked.

I love the idea that they didn't want a Realms Shaking Event to justify changes but instead tried a subtle retcon style, it's interesting that WotC would return to that style after.

...changing the rules didnt mean the setting was changing, it was our understanding of the rules that changed our understanding of the setting. For example, with 3E adding the sorcerer class, that didnt mean that the Realms all of a sudden had sorcerers–the realms has always had sorcerers... nothing like “several main gods have died or changed identities” or “this country no longer exists” or “hello a new continent has joined the chat.”

I wonder if the retconning wasn't well received? I know the actual book as a huge success and I love it myself.



I love the little blurbs about the creators involved. Did Skip Williams really work on every edition of D&D? Wow!

Trivia & Anecdotes: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3E

(Trivia & Anecdotes is a series of blog posts about weird and sometimes funny behind-the-scenes facts about various books I worked on, in chronological order of when they were published. If you…

seankreynolds.wordpress.com

And now part 2!

Trivia & Anecdotes: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3E (Part 2)

(Trivia & Anecdotes is a series of blog posts about weird and sometimes funny behind-the-scenes facts about various books I worked on, in chronological order of when they were published. If you…

seankreynolds.wordpress.com

 

[Staffan]

I wonder if the retconning wasn't well received? I know the actual book as a huge success and I love it myself.

My memory of it is that it was appreciated at the time. But I think the 4e changes were too big to handle that way, plus apparently the novel department wanted a fresh slate since they killed off all the interesting conflicts in the setting (eyeing Tethyr sideways here).

 

[darjr]

 

[Staffan]

One of the more ridiculous things about the 3e changes to FR was how the return of Bane was leaked.

So, back in the 1e to 2e transition, Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul were killed off and replaced with the ascended mortal Cyric. In late 2e, via various shenanigans, some of Bane's portfolio was transferred to Bane's offspring, Iyachtu Xvim. So that was the pre-3e status quo.

Before the release of the FRCS, Wizards wanted to keep the Living City RPGA campaign going in 3e, so they released a document detailing a bunch of mechanical stuff from the upcoming book: races, deities, domains, and stuff like that. Unfortunately I don't still have the original document, but it had a number of cleric domains that offered the 1st level spell "Xvim". This was, of course, the result of someone wanting to keep Bane's return a secret, so they search/replaced Bane with Xvim, and in the process caught the spell bane.

 

[darjr]

 

[TerraDave]

A great 3e book and one of the best FR ones...and/though I say that as someone who is not a huge FR fan.

Plus, he is going to cover Festhalls.

 

[Parmandur]

Even with a fair bit of 3E crunch scattered throughout, still a good resource for 5E, particularly for those of us who don't mind remixing eras as desired.

 

[Staffan]

A great 3e book and one of the best FR ones...and/though I say that as someone who is not a huge FR fan.

I'm actually not a huge fan of the 3e FRCS. I recognize that it is very good at what it does, and the production values are outstanding. However, I think it is far too crunchy – particularly regarding the NPC stats scattered throughout. I sort of get the feeling that they wanted to use the book to show off the flexibility of 3e compared to older editions.

 

[darjr]

Looks like Sean will have a lot more to say. Nice.

 

[Orius]

The subtle retcons we're certainly a better way of handling things than the Time of Troubles or worse, the Spellplague.