D&D 5E Forgotten Realms and The Realms Forgotten.... sundering

[Argyle King]

I know very little about the Sundering. I wanted to start with that statement. Of what I gather, it is intended to split apart Forgotten Realms of the past from the regions ("The Realms Forgotten") added by 4th Edition.

First, can someone explain to me how those added regions have impacted the Realms novels? I'm not someone who reads many of them, so I'm rather clueless on how events have evolved. To some extent, I feel that lack of knowledge impacts my ability to follow what's going on with D&D right now.

Second, a thought struck me today. Just because the two pieces are being pulled apart, that doesn't mean one or the other will cease to exist. It seems to me that it may be possible to create a new setting out of The Realms Forgotten (as they are called in 4E products) for fans of 4E who want their own setting with 4E elements. How likely do you think it is that this might happen? That the two sundered pieces might evolve into their own settings: The Forgotten Realms going back to something that makes pre-4E fans happy by looking like a pre-4E Realms again, and The Realms Forgotten keeping 4E influences.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

1. A couple of novels were set in the new areas from The Wilds series, IIRC. I would suggest Wikipedia for more information as I prefer reading synopses rather than the full novels.

To the best of my knowledge, there are two novels that have been published relating to The Sundering, The Companions by R A Salvatore and The Adversary by Erin Evans. You're not really missing out on the metaplot right now: most of it is still to come.

2. I don't think WotC has the resources to devote to publishing material for the 4E version of the Realms particularly considering that it seems to be so unpopular. (I personally like it but I'm clearly in a very small minority.)

 

[DEFCON 1]

To the best of my knowledge, there are two novels that have been published relating to The Sundering, The Companions by R A Salvatore and The Adversary by Erin Evans. You're not really missing out on the metaplot right now: most of it is still to come.)

I believe Paul Kemp's The Godborn was released between the two you mentioned. So I think there's been 3 novels thus far.

 

[Madmage]

There's also the Murder in Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Ghosts of Dragonspear castle that are precursors to the Sundering.

 

[Argyle King]

1. A couple of novels were set in the new areas from The Wilds series, IIRC. I would suggest Wikipedia for more information as I prefer reading synopses rather than the full novels.

To the best of my knowledge, there are two novels that have been published relating to The Sundering, The Companions by R A Salvatore and The Adversary by Erin Evans. You're not really missing out on the metaplot right now: most of it is still to come.

2. I don't think WotC has the resources to devote to publishing material for the 4E version of the Realms particularly considering that it seems to be so unpopular. (I personally like it but I'm clearly in a very small minority.)

I'm actually part of that minority as well. While I have nothing against the Realms which came before, I actually felt that the changes made by 4E were fairly interesting. I think just ripping it out of there and completely throwing it away is a waste of good material; even if that material isn't deemed "good" for the setting by the majority. In contrast, even though the changes were more minor, I didn't like how Eberron changed in going from 3rd to 4th.

I could see the Realms Forgotten at least getting a small one shot gazetteer and possibly a sidebar mention; later given a little bit more detail in a Dragon article. Perhaps a handful of Dragon articles which -if the demand was great enough- could be published in a compendium that collects the material

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

There's also the Murder in Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Ghosts of Dragonspear castle that are precursors to the Sundering.

That's true, but he did ask about the novels.

Also, these adventures add nothing to our knowledge of The Sundering except maybe that the deities are slapping "chosen" on low-level NPCs for a reason that has yet to be explained.

I'm actually part of that minority as well. While I have nothing against the Realms which came before, I actually felt that the changes made by 4E were fairly interesting. I think just ripping it out of there and completely throwing it away is a waste of good material; even if that material isn't deemed "good" for the setting by the majority. In contrast, even though the changes were more minor, I didn't like how Eberron changed in going from 3rd to 4th.

I could see the Realms Forgotten at least getting a small one shot gazetteer and possibly a sidebar mention; later given a little bit more detail in a Dragon article. Perhaps a handful of Dragon articles which -if the demand was great enough- could be published in a compendium that collects the material

I think this is really the province of fan-based creations now.

Anyway, I have 6+ 4E campaigns I still want to run. Until I exhaust those ideas I am planning to stick with the 4E version of the Realms... and, after that, I may have run out of ideas for D&D so I will probably call it quits!

 

[Argyle King]

I participated in Murder In Baldur's Gate. Somehow, even after playing through the adventure, I still felt as though I didn't know what was going on.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I participated in Murder In Baldur's Gate. Somehow, even after playing through the adventure, I still felt as though I didn't know what was going on.

Frankly, I just think it's a terrible adventure. I still cannot believe the rave reviews it seems to receive. To me it's just a disorganised, jumbled mess.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard? This one is very different. I think it has tremendous potential both "as is" and also if expanded with your own ideas or ideas from the History Check: Dark Arrow Keep article in the latest issue of Dragon. Like Murder, there's still some work to do but I think Legacy would be much easier to DM on the fly than Murder was, which also makes Legacy much better suited to the Encounters format.

But neither reveal anything about The Sundering other than the logo.

 

[Argyle King]

Frankly, I just think it's a terrible adventure. I still cannot believe the rave reviews it seems to receive. To me it's just a disorganised, jumbled mess.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard? This one is very different. I think it has tremendous potential both "as is" and also if expanded with your own ideas or ideas from the History Check: Dark Arrow Keep article in the latest issue of Dragon. Like Murder, there's still some work to do but I think Legacy would be much easier to DM on the fly than Murder was, which also makes Legacy much better suited to the Encounters format.

But neither reveal anything about The Sundering other than the logo.

I don't think Murder was bad per se. I applaud the effort to try something different than a string of combat encounters as an adventure. I just don't think the execution was very good. There were too many points where (to me and the others who participated at the local store) it seemed as though our choices made little difference in what was going to happen. While I understand that was, to some extent, necessary for the encounters format, it still made it (at least for me) unfun and dry. To be quiet honest, at the end of the module, I felt as though I had little motivation to try to save the town. One of the players actually attempted to side with the antagonist during the battle in the light house.

Upon further conversation with one of the guys who ran the module, he had a similar opinion, and he commented that he thought Murder would have been something cool to splice into a home game and a different adventure. His idea was that the PCs should be doing other things, and then the events of Murder would slowly unfold as the PCs returned to town. It just seemed really forced as-is.

Is Legacy of The Crystal shard the current adventure? The one that starts out with the Yeti attack?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Murder is definitely a home game and not Essentials. It needs more time to brew that a rushed set of encounters over 15 or so weeks. It also needs more material to make it seem less forced.

I do like parts of the campaign guide: I just don't/didn't like the adventure. (IMO. YMMV.)

(snip) Is Legacy of The Crystal shard the current adventure? The one that starts out with the Yeti attack?

Yes.

I really like it plus there's lots of space to really make the region your own.