Forgotten Realms "Canon Lawyers"

[JoeGKushner]

I'm reading the Twilight War by Paul S. Kepm. I'm onto book II, Shadowstorm. It's a story about Sembia, Shadovar, Shades of different sorts and other worldly entities.

I never read one of the characters wondering, "Why isn't X taking care of this." From the point of view of the character, they are the stars of the book. If asked a question about, "Hey Cale, why don't we just get El and the 7 to handle this. This isn't thieves work." to which Cale would reply, "Perhaps not but IT'S MY STORY."

A GM who is unwilling to make the Realms his is doing his players a disservice. Every edition of the game notes that the GM should make changes as his campaign needs. No one from the WoTC police is going to come to your house and show you how to play.

Like some others mentioned here, I'm using the pre 4e setting in the year 137X (and I pick X because I know it's after the Rage of Dragons but haven't decided where I'll actually start it.)

The player's don't care. They're too busy enjoying the game. They've travelled to Ardeep, the High Forest, Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Luskan, and the great desert of Anauroch. They're too busy playing and having fun as opposed to worrying about how its supposed to be.

 

[S'mon]

Good point. Though I have no idea what my FR "canon lawyer" friend is doing to address this issue. Most likely he will just move this sort of stuff up to a "post-epic" level, such as over level 40 or 50.

Since he's using 4e, a very different game system than older D&D, he could just stat the Big Good Nice Guys/Gals like Elminster as, say, Paragon Tier Solos with a high Ritual Caster level. That way if the PCs reach Epic level they could be more powerful than the NPCs...

 

[Nymrohd]

Cale is a chosen of a deity as well as a shade?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Cale is a chosen of a deity as well as a shade?

Not quite the thread for this but yes; Mask.

It's an interesting take on Mask in Shadowbreed.

 

[Nymrohd]

No I meant is as Cale is a powerful Epic character who does not need someone to upstage him, he upstages others.

Note: Erevis Cale is not a Mary Sue or other type of badly written super character. I personally consider him one of the best written characters in the realms (and Kemp one of the few FR novel writers who can actually, you know, write!).

 

[JoeGKushner]

No I meant is as Cale is a powerful Epic character who does not need someone to upstage him, he upstages others.

Note: Erevis Cale is not a Mary Sue or other type of badly written super character. I personally consider him one of the best written characters in the realms (and Kemp one of the few FR novel writers who can actually, you know, write!).

And yet in every other series, like the Year of Rogue Draogns... E and the Seven Sisters are not stepping in and going, "Hey, we got this. Relax."

Cale was one example. It'd be easy to pull dozens of others with the numerous books behind the series.

Hell, one of the things nice about Cale as an example, is that he's "First of Five", showcasing that the gods often have multiple favorites. Even if there are super NPCs and the players want to have similiar roles, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to.

The second the players make characters, the cannon of the setting is broken.

 

[Nymrohd]

Well they are novels. Mind you the Rage of Dragons incident made absolutely no sense up until Dragons of Faerun explained it as Tiamat and Xymor moving in the realms. Why on toril did none of the archmages notice that the doomsday device was triggered? Surely there could be no bigger plot at that moment on Faerun than what Sammaster was doing it.

Badly written RSEs are alas another bane of the Realms.

 

[Uzzy]

Not really. It is not fun to be the king of some piss poor track of land in the middle of nowhere. The border kingdoms are a bandaid.

Well, I don't find raising an army and conquering an area boring myself. If you wanted to try to take over a place like Cormyr though, you best have one heck of an army. And maybe Sembia working with you. It's doable, just a lot harder.

I'm reading the Twilight War by Paul S. Kepm. I'm onto book II, Shadowstorm. It's a story about Sembia, Shadovar, Shades of different sorts and other worldly entities.

I never read one of the characters wondering, "Why isn't X taking care of this." From the point of view of the character, they are the stars of the book. If asked a question about, "Hey Cale, why don't we just get El and the 7 to handle this. This isn't thieves work." to which Cale would reply, "Perhaps not but IT'S MY STORY."

A GM who is unwilling to make the Realms his is doing his players a disservice. Every edition of the game notes that the GM should make changes as his campaign needs. No one from the WoTC police is going to come to your house and show you how to play.

Like some others mentioned here, I'm using the pre 4e setting in the year 137X (and I pick X because I know it's after the Rage of Dragons but haven't decided where I'll actually start it.)

The player's don't care. They're too busy enjoying the game. They've travelled to Ardeep, the High Forest, Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Luskan, and the great desert of Anauroch. They're too busy playing and having fun as opposed to worrying about how its supposed to be.

I think I love you. Thank you for bringing up the fact that every edition does have notes that the GM should firstly, change the game to his needs, and secondly, that they should make the PC's the stars. The 3rd Edition FRCS even has an in universe explanation, from Elminster himself, as to why they don't meddle in everything (and just to counter the inevitable response, his explanation doesn't contain 'I'm busy doing more interesting things')

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well they are novels. Mind you the Rage of Dragons incident made absolutely no sense up until Dragons of Faerun explained it as Tiamat and Xymor moving in the realms. Why on toril did none of the archmages notice that the doomsday device was triggered? Surely there could be no bigger plot at that moment on Faerun than what Sammaster was doing it.

Badly written RSEs are alas another bane of the Realms.

But from the point of view of the characters, it doesn't need to make sense.

And as far as 'Sammaster' being the big, the great thing is, the Forgotten Relams IS big enough that other things could have been going on. After all, in the Cale triology, the Sojournor was doing his thing with the ole Ring of Fire. In the Archwizards Return, El has a hand in there I believe? In Thay, things are always going on.

The Realms are too big to sit back and go, "Yeah, these guys will take care of it."

Not that the players should ever be thinking that in the first place. If players are thinking that, it's because a bad GM trained them to think that.

 

[DaveMage]

The problem with this is that FR got too heavy by pandering to this base who wanted more detail heaped upon more detail, which raised the bar for entry into FR beyond what a new/casual player could stand. This puts the owners of FR in the lose-lose situation of continuing to pander to the base and turn away new customers or nuke the setting to open it up to new players and cheese off all the stalwarts.

From what I hear, the writers were campaigning for a reset to ease their burdens, and that settled it, if it wasn't settled already.

Frankly, though, that's not the consumer's problem - that's the owner's problem. And if it's gotten too big, then sunset the setting and start something new. Leave it alone for those that enjoy it. Alternatively, leave it alone for a few years, and then return to it.

The problem is, IMO, TSR and WotC overmilked the FR cash cow. So, they got a new cow and put the FR name on it. No now there are those that like the new cow, and those that don't. Split fan base.