Elminster's Forgotten Realms

[Wormwood]

I'm very uncertain as to what form the mechanics will take (presuming that it has mechanics at all).

Edition neutral seems to be the thing going forward. In this case, I can only hope.

 

[ferratus]

I think it is largely going to be edition neutral, wrapping up 4e stuff (Compendiums and what not) and possibly some reprints like the 1e books.

I think we'll probably see our last new 4e products peter out by fall.

 

[Knightfall]

This sounds cool, but while I think Ed can put his home version of the Realms into an organized, readable format, I'm very uncertain as to what form the mechanics will take (presuming that it has mechanics at all).

My understanding is that Ed doesn't play 4E, and I'm not at all sure he ever used 3.X either. So if this book does have stats, someone else will be brought on board to convert things over (which will pollute the idea that this is Ed's own Realms), or this will be another "legacy" product (a la the 1E reprintings).

Edition neutral seems to be the thing going forward. In this case, I can only hope.

One of tweets I read, I forget which one, mentioned that Ed might refer to older mechanics in the text, but it has been formatted to be relatively system-neutral.

 

[Mercurius]

Yeah, this should be good.

I'm wondering if it is a hint of what is to come for the Forgotten Realms - that 5E FR will be 100% Greenwoodian.

On the other hand, Mearls seemed to say that they want to support all timelines of settings; don't know how they'll do that.

 

[grimslade]

I agree with Mercurius we are seeing a reboot for the Realms.
Future releases will be Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms and follow a more focused splat format. Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms: Waterdeep; Ed Greenwood's FR: Shadowdale etc.
Other timelines will be supported by rerelease of older edition material in pdf or in some subscription archive.

 

[ferratus]

On the other hand, Mearls seemed to say that they want to support all timelines of settings; don't know how they'll do that.

My theory is that it will be Ed Greenwood's problem to fix, and that he will take the changes of the 4e realms and put his own spin on it.

When Dragonlance was handed over to Margaret Weis and some ascended fans turned designers, that seemed to work very well. Not always the best mechanics mind you, but it felt like Dragonlance again even though they kept a lot of elements from the 5th Age. There was even support for multiple timelines.

Of course the WotL era book was the best seller, but enough people were interested in the post-5A setting that it seems to have been successful.

 

[DMKastmaria]

This sounds cool, but while I think Ed can put his home version of the Realms into an organized, readable format, I'm very uncertain as to what form the mechanics will take (presuming that it has mechanics at all).

My understanding is that Ed doesn't play 4E, and I'm not at all sure he ever used 3.X either. So if this book does have stats, someone else will be brought on board to convert things over (which will pollute the idea that this is Ed's own Realms), or this will be another "legacy" product (a la the 1E reprintings).

As I understand it, his home Realms campaign remained 2e.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

My understanding is that Ed doesn't play 4E, and I'm not at all sure he ever used 3.X either. So if this book does have stats, someone else will be brought on board to convert things over (which will pollute the idea that this is Ed's own Realms), or this will be another "legacy" product (a la the 1E reprintings).

To be fair, several of Ed's contributions for Realmslore in the form of free (at the time) Forgotten Realms articles on the WotC website were accompanied by 3.5 game rules that did a pretty good job of mating up mechanics with his material.

Wyrms of the North and stuff like that.

 

[Sammael]

To be fair, several of Ed's contributions for Realmslore in the form of free (at the time) Forgotten Realms articles on the WotC website were accompanied by 3.5 game rules that did a pretty good job of mating up mechanics with his material.

Wyrms of the North and stuff like that.

That's because SKR did the rules updates, and SKR has a very good understanding of both the Realms and 3.x mechanics.

He's not available this time, though.

 

[SPECTRE666]

Color me excited! I cannot wait for this book.