Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6682924" data-attributes="member: 37579">Which is a real meta-complaint, as Earth will never be invaded and the heroes won't fail.  But, really, it could be said about any genre where a few plucky heroes stand against seeming impossible odds. How come the Enterprise doesn't call in half of Starfleet to come help? How come Riggs and Murtaugh never call for back-up? Why doesn't Angel call an entire army of slayers for assistance? Why doesn't MI:6 dispatch an entire squad of double-ohs to handle a problem? Or why Harry Potter didn't go right to Dumbledore with half his problems. Or even, why doesn't the plucky band of adventurers recruit every member of the town guard and local militia to come into the dungeon and zerg rush the cultists?Sometime the plot manages to handwave an explanation. Calls are being jammed. There's a time limit and back-up won't come fast enough. The hero went rogue and help won't come. The villain distracted the other forces. But most times it's just suspension of disbelief. Because, if the hero runs off for help there's no story and things are anticlimactic. How about Dragonlance? The Heroes of the Lance pretty much stole the thunder for everyone following the War of the Lance. A good half-dozen survived and one had the magical clout to attempt godhood. Plus, that entire setting was about the combined size of Cormyr, Sembia, and the Dales. So there's not even the excuse of events being too far away. Heck, there's even the question of why the entire club of united wizards didn't just try and solve all the world's problems, since every wizard above 5th level was allied and working to defend magic. To say nothing of the knighthood mounted on good dragons and aided by good clerics who all follow the same gods. The Realms developed a lot of high level NPCs. Because there's a bajillion books written there. But not every NPC really has a place in the campaign setting. The novel line is its own entity, and you're not bound to include someone's novel protagonist any more than you're forced to include their plot.Many of the high level characters were retired. Or had their own problems and goals. Or were uninterested in travelling elsewhere in the continent. It's not like Elminster is just sitting around waiting for trouble to happen so he can teleport in and save the day: he has his own life and agenda and adventures. Drizzt is well known to gamers, but in the Realms he's probably unknown beyond Neverwinter. Waterdhavians likely have no idea who he is, because he hasn't adventured there for prolonged periods.And, really, the characters are half the fun of the setting. Without them the Realms is a little less interesting. As seen by the 4e Realms where they jumped ahead 100 years to kill off all the human NPCs and then made Elminster unable to cast magic. It was just lacking personality.</blockquote>

Verification