D&D 5E Current state of the Forgotten Realms

[Ruin Explorer]

7. 4th edition brought another Realms-Shattering event, the Spellplague, that destroyed a good part of Faerun and transplanted parts of another world ("Abeir") into it. Along the way, Mystra was killed again, and so were several other gods. Then the timeline was advanced by a 100 years or so. People who didn't like 4E generally ignore this canon.

Just to be clear, people who don't like the 4E Realms and people who don't like 4E generally may have crossover, but are two distinct groups. I love 4E, hate the 4E FR, fr'ex.

 

[Dungeoneer]

At this point the Forgotten Realms timeline reminds me all too much of the parody fantasy setting The Elemenstor Saga.

Saga Timeline The Forlorn Era Of Pensive Twiddle: "Before time" (FEPT) Forgotten Age: ? to the Beginning of time (2) The Hierarchy: Beginning of time to 0 (TH) The Age of Whimpering-75,300 to -70,101) also known as The Time of the Encients The War of the Item Guilds: -30,425 to -28,872 The Great Breakening: -19,230 to -4,420 The Magic Sword Kings Period: 0 to 9,473 (TMSK) The Wandering Age: 1,003 to 3,512 (WA) The Longest Moment: 4:35:00pm to 4:35:13pm BUST, Medianary 26th, 9473 (TLM) The Spica Wars: 9,473 to 10,435 (TSW) The Sundered Era: 10,435 to 17,910 (TS) Sundered Timeline for The Shield Sundered Timeline for The Sickle Sundered Timeline for Inter-continental Events Century of Fire - The Savage Brutality Of The War Men: 17,910 to 18,009 (CoF) The Lost Factions of the Unknown Misgivings: 18,009 to 19,109 (TLFotUM) The Shortest Millennium: Dawn, Primanary 1st, 19,109 ElamenSTAR: 19,109 to 20,034 The Dreaming Feculence: 19,109 to 20,034 (TDF) Wizbits Extreme: 19,109 to 20,034 (WX) ElamenSTAR Shuffle: 19,109 to 20,034 The Four Underdogs: 19,109 to 20,034 (FU) The Four Underdogs: 19,109 to 20,034 The Rise Of The Elemenstors: 20,034 to 25,478 (TRotE) The Resundering: 25,478 to 26,780 (TRS) The Unlight Eonicles: 26,780 to 30,765 (TUE) The Ending Times: 30,765 to the end of time (TE)

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

[MENTION=91777]Dungeoneer[/MENTION], and sometimes parody becomes inspiration.

As a long-time FR fan, I am really envious of:

1. Eberron fans, because WotC mandated that the timeline would not advance no matter what the novel authors wrote.
2. Dark Sun fans, because WotC realised the novels ruined the setting so they reset it with the 4E relaunch.

Fortunately I am a fan of both settings so I can enjoy the fact that they are well-handled.

 

[Mercurius]

Since when were the Realms taken over by Marvel Comics?! All the deaths and rebirths, etc. I'm ready for the Dark Elminster Saga.

The problem is that when you get to that state there's not a single obvious way to proceed. Pretty much whatever you do (reset, reboot, Realms-shaking event) will upset some chunk of your fans.

If I were WotC, I think I would detail the events of The Sundering then spin on the clock a decade or more, and then do a new "Grey Box" version of the Realms that presents the world as it is now, with the events of the Sundering tucked away in the History section as something that happened, but not tightly wound into the whole setting.

What that gives is a sort of "soft reset" - new people can just jump in without worrying too much about canon; fans of the ongoing story can just carry on from there; and people who hate the various RSEs can just ignore them and get on with their games. Plus, each group can use as much or as little of the lore as they wish, and can probably adjust it to suit themselves as well. That's probably about as good as they're going to get.

Good thoughts. They would be wise to follow your advice.

 

[Jer]

Get the turgid dreck of the RSEs out of the way - both The Sundering and the Tyranny of Dragons - and then have a short break in the timeline, et voila, we now have the new campaign setting. WotC has been on record as saying there will be no more RSEs but I suspect that will last until 1 January 2015....

Is Tyranny of Dragons actually a Realms Shattering Event (tm)? I'd think it would only be one if the PCs fail miserably. Doesn't an RSE have to be the kind of thing where things get shattered, not just threatened, and nobody can actually do anything to stop it because of the dreaded power of the Editorial Mandate? (Like the Time of Troubles, or the Spellplague).

I don't think that Wizards is saying that there won't be anymore large scale events, just that they're putting a moratorium on the "apocalyptic event changes the landscape of the Realms forever!!!!" kind of events. I would in fact find it hard to figure out how they're going to do large scale Organized Play stuff like they seem to be gearing up towards without periodic major threat events. Its just that the assumption should be that the PCs (or in the case of storylines in novels, the protagonists) will actually win and stop things from shattering.

 

[seregil]

My 0,02$ CDN:

They should reprint the Old Grey box adjusting only the 5E stats/Gods and start from there. They should also swear off any more meta plots.

Edit: added precision to my idea.

 

[the Jester]

WotC has been on record as saying there will be no more RSEs but I suspect that will last until 1 January 2015....

Immediately after promising the Sundering would be the LAST!!! RSE!!!! EVER!!!!, WotC pulled Tyranny of Dragons out of its collective pocket. So yeah.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Immediately after promising the Sundering would be the LAST!!! RSE!!!! EVER!!!!, WotC pulled Tyranny of Dragons out of its collective pocket. So yeah.

Novels sell better than tabletop RPGs. It's a sad fact.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Immediately after promising the Sundering would be the LAST!!! RSE!!!! EVER!!!!, WotC pulled Tyranny of Dragons out of its collective pocket. So yeah.

Considering most of the plot of Tyranny is coming out of the Adventurers League modules, of which the myriad of players and PCs playing it are probably going to be successful in putting the Cult of the Dragon down (and thus not have much far-reaching effect on Faerun on the whole)... I don't know if we can really consider this a "Realm-Shaking Event".

Is it a pretty big plotline for those in The North and around the Moonsea? Sure. But for everyone else across Faerun... it doesn't sound like there's going to be much of anything Tyranny (and Cult of the Dragon) related. So it appears the Realms might be rather unshooken once the plotline finishes up come February.

 

[delericho]

Novels sell better than tabletop RPGs. It's a sad fact.

True enough. That said, do the needs of the novels really mandate a Realms Shaking Event every few years? If anything, I would have expected the opposite to be true, as the constant changes make it ever-harder to stay current on the canon. It's not at comic-book levels of insanity just yet, but doesn't it get hard trying to remember if Mystra is alive or dead this week?