D&D 4E Excited by 4E fluff, bored by FR changes

[Obergnom]

Well, the titel pretty much sums up my current feeling about the story changes that will come with the new game.

The changes to core fluff seem to be exciting, as if they would build a new D&D core world, strongly resembling the old one but not the same (I do not mean Greyhawk with Core World, rahter the general background stuff, like Demons and Devils or Mindflayers and Beholders etc.).
I get the impression that the Monsters in the MM will come with much more flavor.
I see myself flipping through the new MM and getting impatient to use certain monsters that are currently on my "done that"-list.
I might be wrong, of course, but that the impression I got from reading through the fluff they let us preview so far.

On the other hand, the changes to the Forgotten Realms bore me. Really, thats about it. I am a huge FR fan, and I allways came back to that setting, but this time I got the impression the realms will be left behind. I have the feeling that I will not be able to fully use the exiting new fluff that 4E might provide me, if I use the FR as my 4E setting.
I get that impression because... I do not really know, it might be because the FR have allready included most of the usual D&D stuff, and I do not see a sudden change to the way Mindflayers* act in this setting...
Maybe the reason is this: It seems like Core D&D is getting some strong background and flavor stuff (which it mostly lacked in previous editions, at least for me) and I see no way how the FR Designers would ever be able to convert or redo all of that for the realms.
If I look at MM5 and the Monsters "Core" flaver text would be better than the short "in the realms" entry, why bother playing a non core world?

So, whats your impression of 4E fluff? I myself strongly consider taking up a new setting (maybe the Necromancer Games one, 60 something pages, should not be that detailed) and mostly play homebrewed based upon the core fluff.

*(Mindflayers are used as an example, I know there is nothing released yet that shows they would be the same or change)

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'd love to be bored by the changes to the Realms. What I'd give to just be bored. Instead, I'm appalled by them.

Unless the new FR stuff is way beyond awesome, I don't see myself playing 4e FR, ever.


If you want a nice setting, consider Paizo's Pathfinder Chronicles. The nice thing about is that it gets a great new adventure every month, and 6 of those adventures (half a year's worth of books) line up as a big nice campaign.

And Paizo really knows how to make adventures.

Plus, I like what I read about the world the Pathfinder Chronicles play in.

 

[Obergnom]

Well, to me the FR changes (atm) seem like... okay, the setting I regularly played for the last 10 years has ended.

Actually, yeah, the Paizo setting seems nice, but it has a lot of (good) unconventional fluff.

I expect the Necromancer Setting to be very traditional (in a D&D sense) so it might work perfectly with the new core fluff.

 

[Driddle]

I live in fear of the day I'm exited by fluff.

 

[Obergnom]

I live in fear of the day I'm exited by fluff.

well, doh! ... sorry, I'm not a native speaker.

 

[Driddle]

No insult intended.
I DO live in fear of fluff exiting. People who know me can confirm that.

 

[grimslade]

I live in fear of the day I'm exited by fluff.

Fluff as life's bouncer?

The 4E hints in The Orc King were kind of bland. Other than Luskan, the rest were apparent in the way the novel lines were going. The Grand History of the Realms stuff was a mix for me. Killing Mystra again and losing the weave, no big deal. I think it will provide an interesting way for magic and the planes to be different in 4E.
The whole Tyr/Helm/Tymora thing is badly written. It is against type and a little hackneyed. The same results could have happened, Brightwater growing in numbers while House of the Triad wanes, with a truer-to-character tale. The snippets of text were a terrible way to handle it.