Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Updated politics, world events, local events, wars, unusual sites, and the list goes on and on. Names are the least of it.
WotC Can we salvage Toril?
TheSword
Legend
The mistake was advancing the meta by 100 years. I just ignore that.
We can set any adventure at any time in Forgotten Realms History. In fact I like the fact that events the PCs are familiar with can be occurring around them. It makes it feel like the Forgotten Realms.
There are enough Realms Shaking events in the last 30 years to keep me busy for several lifetimes.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
As I said, I like to pick and choose. The spell plague and sundering never happened in my Realms. Nor did the death of king Azoun. The invasion of Many Arrows and the Avatar Crisis did happen.
An updated campaign book for 5e would be nice for new and older players. The Sword Coast fails to be sufficient for a campaign book, because it's only a relatively tiny section of the Realms and I'd have to railroad my players in order to keep them penned up in it.
TheSword
Legend
I get the penning up point of view. I just think the Vilhon Reach is fair game or the Dale Lands, or the Moonsea, or Rashaman or god knows where else. If you’ve used the plots in those books already, fair enough. If you have, you’re probably an outlier though.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
I'm not saying that there isn't still a lot of value in the older books. I'm saying that a new edition warrants new updates to the entire setting, for both new players who don't have the older books and the older players who want updated information. There's a lot of value in that as well.
Examine them yes I guess. But it would be a bit like using Gladiator as the touchstone for your ancient Rome rpg.
Crimson Longinus
Legend
Gladiator indeed is way too highbrow and grounded for D&D Rome.
Remathilis
Legend
I actually don't think it's possible anymore.
There was discussion elsewhere that settings that lack certain cultural representation shouldn't use monsters as stand-ins for that culture (IE. If your setting lacks an Arabia analog, you shouldn't use genies or at least don't use them as the stand-in for that culture). In short, D&D settings good and proper cultural representation to avoid issues of appropriation or stereotyping.
Faerun is a notable example of a world with analogues to many different Earth cultures: Asia, Arabia, South American, African, Egyptian, Greek, Celtic, Norse, etc. All of it a stone's throw from their current Cash-Cow, the Sword Coast. They have a setting where they could release regional sourcebooks, done by cultural experts with proper sensitivity reading, they could be doing a regional sourcebook/MM/mini-adventure annually, filling out Faerun, adding new cultural representation, and making it all interchangeable so that a Kara-Tur Samurai and a Zakharan Sha'ir could go wander over to Baldur's Gate and fight Zariel in the latest AP module. It's a structure that serves Golarion and Pathfinder well.
But they did Tomb of Annihilation. Badly. And they got raked over the coals for having done it badly. And after that, they pretty much retreated from going beyond the Sword Coast, and increasingly seem more interested in doing "one book settings" than doing anything from Forgotten Realms. (Last year was the first year none of the hardback books featured Faerun in any meaningful way). They seem to have gained a lot of interest into settings that stand in for one particular genre (such as Ravenloft = horror, Theros = Greek myth, or Strixhaven = magical school) rather than large all-encompassing monosettings.
So right now, I wager WotC feels it's safer and more profitable for them to either leverage MTG properties (such as Kamigawa), or other properties (such as Rokugan) or even create something totally new rather than attempt to fix Kara-Tur and dredge up ghosts of OAs past. I just don't see WotC having the appetite to fix old problems if they can create something new instead.
There was discussion elsewhere that settings that lack certain cultural representation shouldn't use monsters as stand-ins for that culture (IE. If your setting lacks an Arabia analog, you shouldn't use genies or at least don't use them as the stand-in for that culture). In short, D&D settings good and proper cultural representation to avoid issues of appropriation or stereotyping.
Faerun is a notable example of a world with analogues to many different Earth cultures: Asia, Arabia, South American, African, Egyptian, Greek, Celtic, Norse, etc. All of it a stone's throw from their current Cash-Cow, the Sword Coast. They have a setting where they could release regional sourcebooks, done by cultural experts with proper sensitivity reading, they could be doing a regional sourcebook/MM/mini-adventure annually, filling out Faerun, adding new cultural representation, and making it all interchangeable so that a Kara-Tur Samurai and a Zakharan Sha'ir could go wander over to Baldur's Gate and fight Zariel in the latest AP module. It's a structure that serves Golarion and Pathfinder well.
But they did Tomb of Annihilation. Badly. And they got raked over the coals for having done it badly. And after that, they pretty much retreated from going beyond the Sword Coast, and increasingly seem more interested in doing "one book settings" than doing anything from Forgotten Realms. (Last year was the first year none of the hardback books featured Faerun in any meaningful way). They seem to have gained a lot of interest into settings that stand in for one particular genre (such as Ravenloft = horror, Theros = Greek myth, or Strixhaven = magical school) rather than large all-encompassing monosettings.
So right now, I wager WotC feels it's safer and more profitable for them to either leverage MTG properties (such as Kamigawa), or other properties (such as Rokugan) or even create something totally new rather than attempt to fix Kara-Tur and dredge up ghosts of OAs past. I just don't see WotC having the appetite to fix old problems if they can create something new instead.
Voadam
Legend
In my experience the criticisms come from multiple directions, sometimes ones that contradict each other.Really? IME more people complain about the treatment of the cultures, classes, etc. even though TSR had people who were there to help with that sort of thing.
The word Oriental in the title.
It is Japan focused and not all East Asia.
It applies Japanese stuff to other East Asian fantasy analogues.
It is not historically and culturally accurate enough.
It is too historically and culturally focused and not fantasy enough.
It focuses on tropes from old samurai and kung fu movies.
It feeds into tropes about East Asians.
It exoticizes Asians.
It is not integrated into normal D&D but is a separate elsewhere/other in both setting and mechanics.
It shoehorns D&Disms onto Asian fantasy concepts.
It is not a broad toolkit but has specific assumptions.
It is cultural appropriation.
It does not provide enough cultural representation.
It is cultural misrepresentation.
Among others.
Henadic Theologian
Legend
Another reason that 2024 will have a new Forgotten Realms campaign setting book is that it's the 50th anniversary of D&D and I think they will want to do something special for itself flagship setting.
I mean we found out they were working on a revisit back in 2020, so by 2024 that's 4.5 to 5 years development time. By comparison Strixhaven: Cirrculum of Chaos was done in less then a year, the classic settings I think roughly 2 to 2.5 years to do. The FR revisit will havd twice the development time of other classic settings. That tells me whatever they are planning for the revisit is really big and major whatever it is, as befits the 50th Anniversary of D&D.
I mean we found out they were working on a revisit back in 2020, so by 2024 that's 4.5 to 5 years development time. By comparison Strixhaven: Cirrculum of Chaos was done in less then a year, the classic settings I think roughly 2 to 2.5 years to do. The FR revisit will havd twice the development time of other classic settings. That tells me whatever they are planning for the revisit is really big and major whatever it is, as befits the 50th Anniversary of D&D.
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