D&D 5E Does it seem like Nerath was dropped like a bad habit?

[Uller]

I very much liked the Nentir Vale as a starting setting. I've never been a fan of FR...just a bit too high fantasy for me. I also hate DMing in established settings that likely my players know more about than I do. I hate trying to hew to established cannon. My son has a bunch of FR campaign books and has read all the Drizzt books (I have as well...just not in the last 15 years!). So when I'm running a game in FR it's not uncommon for him to correct me...annoying.

I liked that 4e had a default setting that was not so well filled in so you could easily drop anything into it that you needed...I ran to campaigns in it, both covered the Heroic Tier. The PCs from the first were NPCs in the second. It was fun making it our own. FR will never feel like we own it....in fact, once my group finishes up Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle I am thinking about starting a sandbox campaign in Nerath...

 

[Raith5]

I doubt it. They might be letting it lie low for a while so they can try to reattract lapsed D&D customers by focusing on the classics, but if they liked it when they were working on it in the 4e timeframe, it will make its reappearance.

Yeah I am still hoping that there will be more 4e elements and options later in 5e cycle once the earlier edition elements are out - that is, I want modularity will be more than a buzzword. While I like 4e cosmology and thought that netir vale was interesting, I really care more about the good mechanics that 4e introduced to the game. My interest in 5e is going to largely judged by this.

 

[Henry]

My apologies to any and all fans of the Nerath setting, but it just had that kind of "generic white label" vibe to me, starting with the DMG and on through the shadowfell/thunderspire/etc series. With no prominent NPCs, unique locations, or world themes to make it stand out, I don't really miss it in the way I would say, Faerun, Athas, Eberron, or Greyhawk.

 

[Dungeoneer]

My apologies to any and all fans of the Nerath setting, but it just had that kind of "generic white label" vibe to me, starting with the DMG and on through the shadowfell/thunderspire/etc series. With no prominent NPCs, unique locations, or world themes to make it stand out, I don't really miss it in the way I would say, Faerun, Athas, Eberron, or Greyhawk.

You played Thunderspire and you don't think that a mountain housing an underground kingdom of vanished minotaurs that is now ruled by mages is 'unique'?

Again, Nentir Vale had all kinds of local flavor. The world themes and major NPCs were intentionally 'this space left blank' so that it could fit wherever your table wanted it.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Between 4e fans necessarily including all those D&D-loyalists who adopt each new edition with enthusiasm, and there being no legal possibility of a Pathfinder-like alternative for any 4e holdouts, it was probably a no-brainer for WotC to decide to cater heavily to those feelings.

There's no possibility of a Pathfinder-like alternative, but there's certainly the possibility of an OSRIC-like alternative.

That was SUCH a good comic. I'd rather have a one hundred more issues of Fell's Five than the pathfinder comic. The only thing that comes close is Rate Queens, from Image.

Agreed. Any D&D fans who like comics IMO should track down both (Rat Queens is an excellent current ongoing).

 

[Henry]

You played Thunderspire and you don't think that a mountain housing an underground kingdom of vanished minotaurs that is now ruled by mages is 'unique'?

Module I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, only using Yuan-Ti and bullywugs. No, I didn't play Thunderspire, but I did read through it back when it came out, so my memory of it may be faulty, but my impression at the time was that it was the same sort of premise.

Again, Nentir Vale had all kinds of local flavor. The world themes and major NPCs were intentionally 'this space left blank' so that it could fit wherever your table wanted it.

This reason is exactly why it didn't make an impression with me. My games of 4e used either Eberron or forgotten realms because of that lack of distinctive character to me.

 

[pemerton]

I'm a big fan of the default 4e setting, but I've never used the Nentir Vale itself. (And the chapter on Fallcrest is the only part of the DMG that I've never read.)

For me the default 4e setting is first and foremost (i) all the descriptions in Worlds & Monsters, plus (ii) the cosmology and mythic history that emerges from the god, race and class descriptions in the PHB, from the discussions of gods, the world and languages in the DMG, and from all the sidebars in the various "Power" books. The actual planar books - MoP, HotFW, Plane Above/Below, Underdark etc - I then see as elaborations on this default. I pick and choose from them what suits me, but don't treat it all as canon.

For me, this post is still the best expression of what the 4e default world is about:

4e Classic (4eC) sings with the right group, but requires a high degree of player buy-in to get the results that I want out of it. I tend to view 4eC as a visceral game about violently capable individuals who set out willingly or not to irrevocably enact change in their worlds who end up becoming mythic figures in their own right. This is highly reinforced in the assumed setting of the game with the backdrop of the Dawn War, tales of the fall of civilizations, and highly active Gods, Demon Princes, Primordials, etc. 4eC presents a world on fire in desperate need of heroes. Thematically it strikes the same currents that Greek Myth, the Diablo games, and Exalted does though tied to a more mortal perspective.

My sense of the 5e cosmology is that it is oriented more towards "cosmology as an object of exploration" rather than "cosmology as a source of crisis that drives the game".

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

That was SUCH a good comic. I'd rather have a one hundred more issues of Fell's Five than the pathfinder comic. The only thing that comes close is Rate Queens, from Image.

These are the only comics I have ever bought.

Love 'em.

If the D&D movie rights are ever under the control of a non-nebbish, I really hope [MENTION=189]jonrog1[/MENTION] is the screenwriter.

 

[jimmyjimjam]

Right now, I suspect the WotC team are trying to pretend 4E never happened and Nerath is a casualty of that.

On a similar note, the recommended reading for the D&D Adventurers League includes the 3E version of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting but not the 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.

Music to my ears.