Covers Preview for Elemental Evil Adventurer's Handbook and Princes of the Apocalypse!

So, it's official now. The Elder Elemental Eye has been somehow released from The World of Greyhawk to unleash havoc in the Realms. No fantasy world was described in more detail than the Forgotten Realms, and they still manage to produce not one, but two storylines in a row with themes and antagonists that have nothing to do with the Realms. Good job, Wizards.

 

[gyor]

What would you rather an RPG company sell, if not tabletop RPG books? They're hardly in a position to move into an alternate business of interpretive mime!

You can't know that! ;p

 

[Dire Bare]

Cite, please.

Or are you just assuming?

Cite? Heh, no. That was just me being realistic, not having any special insight into WotC's future plans. I won't be holding my breath waiting for a Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or better yet, Mystara release. Would love to be proved wrong though.

 

[Dire Bare]

From this statement, I'm going to assume your knowledge of The Realms is limited. As well as what exactly generic fantasy is.

The Forgotten Realms is high fantasy that covers many areas such as european, asian, middle eastern, egyptian, and south american influences. It has a fully established set of lore that dates back thousands of years. Greyhawk has it's own lore but it is considered to be generic fantasy. The Forgotten Realms is not something you can just drop something like this into because you run the risk of it not making sense. You can actually go back and follow the lore and timelines and see why something would not fit.

From your statement, I'm going to assume you like belittle others who disagree with you. I won't try to argue or compare our respective "realmslore" skill modifiers, but suffice to say, I disagree.

I'm not saying that there is no difference at all between the settings, there most certainly is. And it is more than just the shape of the maps and the names on them. But the Realms, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Mystara, Nentir Vale, and probably some others I am missing are all different flavors of generic fantasy that are not hugely different from one another. If you have a favorite, that's cool. My favorite is Mystara. It's got some differences from the Realms and other settings that I like, but I'm not under the illusion that it is significantly different.

While I would love WotC to produce an adventure path with accompanying sourcebook for each and every one of their classic settings, it's just not realistic and it just isn't going to happen. In the meantime, if WotC publishes some books set in the Realms that borrow themes from Mystara, I will be excited rather than joining the incessant chorus of wailing and gnashing of teeth that occurs everytime WotC makes a decision.

 

[pukunui]

Cite? Heh, no. That was just me being realistic, not having any special insight into WotC's future plans. I won't be holding my breath waiting for a Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or better yet, Mystara release. Would love to be proved wrong though.

I think most people are assuming that Dragonlance and the like have been put on the back burner based on what Chris Perkins said in that less than illuminating interview he did late last year:

"Anything is possible, but I can’t offer any predictions at this time. We’ll visit Krynn again when the stars align and we have the perfect Dragonlance story to tell."

 

[gweinel]

"Anything is possible, but I can’t offer any predictions at this time. We’ll visit Krynn again when the stars align and we have the perfect Dragonlance story to tell."

He didn't even said "when the moons align"...

 

[Henry]

In case someone hasn't already pointed this out, Tiamat existed in AD&D long before Dragonlance was a thing. She was in the original Monster Manual along with Bahamut. Tiamat is not "Krynnish", but her aspect, Takhisis certainly is.

True, but I've rarely known gamers who didn't associate Tiamat with one of two things: the D&D cartoon, and Dragonlance. A story called "war of the Dragon Queen" evokes Dragonlance to many people before it evokes "Forgotten Realms".

 

[steeldragons]

True, but I've rarely known gamers who didn't associate Tiamat with one of two things: the D&D cartoon, and Dragonlance. A story called "war of the Dragon Queen" evokes Dragonlance to many people before it evokes "Forgotten Realms".

This is very true.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

True, but I've rarely known gamers who didn't associate Tiamat with one of two things: the D&D cartoon, and Dragonlance. A story called "war of the Dragon Queen" evokes Dragonlance to many people before it evokes "Forgotten Realms".

I don't see many people associating Tiamat with Dragonlance as she is called Takhisis there. Tiamat has been a Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk god since the start and is considered to be a classic D&D villain. (She is even around in Ebberon.)

She is not really associated with any setting really she is associated with D&D as a whole. And while a story called War of the Dragon Queen may invoke Dragonlance. Last I checked the adventures we just had featuring Tiamat were not called that. It was called Tyranny of Dragons which does not bring any setting to mind in my opinion.

 

[Staffan]

True, but I've rarely known gamers who didn't associate Tiamat with one of two things: the D&D cartoon, and Dragonlance. A story called "war of the Dragon Queen" evokes Dragonlance to many people before it evokes "Forgotten Realms".

I'm not a Dragonlance fan, but I've never associated Tiamat with Dragonlance. Dragonlance doesn't even have Tiamat, they have a lookalike called Takhisis.

I don't particularly associate Tiamat with Forgotten Realms either - she's just part of the generic draconic pantheon, which exists both in the Realms, Greyhawk, and even Eberron (which is otherwise pretty non-standard when it comes to divinity).

 

[Staffan]

From this statement, I'm going to assume your knowledge of The Realms is limited. As well as what exactly generic fantasy is.

The Forgotten Realms is high fantasy that covers many areas such as european, asian, middle eastern, egyptian, and south american influences. It has a fully established set of lore that dates back thousands of years. Greyhawk has it's own lore but it is considered to be generic fantasy. The Forgotten Realms is not something you can just drop something like this into because you run the risk of it not making sense. You can actually go back and follow the lore and timelines and see why something would not fit.

Here's the thing: Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Mystara, Dragonlance, and to some degree Eberron are like different brands of vanilla ice cream. They can be made slightly different due to proportion and quality of ingredients, but they're fundamentally similar. Dark Sun, Planescape, and Ravenloft are like chocolate, strawberry, and peach ice cream - fundamentally different.

Now, an ice cream connoisseur can probably tell the difference between different brands of vanilla ice cream. But if you're selling ice cream cones, would you rather be selling three different brands of vanilla ice cream, or would you have a selection of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate?

That's why the chances of Greyhawk, Mystara, and Dragonlance making a comeback any time soon are very low - Wizards already has a setting for swords & horses fantasy, so if they're going to expand to another they'll make it more different.