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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Primal" data-source="post: 4858945" data-attributes="member: 30678">   And for a new guy, that’s still over 2000 pages, right? Yet just like in Eberron, most of the stuff published in the Realms is very area-specific, so it does not matter so much; if you want to get the most out of your FR campaign, get the Volo’s Guide and the book from the FR1-16 series for the area you’re running in, plus possibly FR Adventures  (lots of city maps in it), Faiths & Avatars, GHoTR, Lords of Darkness, Magic of Faerun and the campaign setting. If you’re running in an area that was covered by a 3E book, you could purchase that, too (you won’t even need ‘Faiths and Pantheons’, because 90% of the contents is just republished lore from ‘Faiths & Avatars’). And that’s pretty much my list for the “best” sources for a detailed campaign set in the Realms (you could probably drop Lords of Darkness from that list, if you want to).      Where and who are these canon lawyers? In your group? I haven’t even read most of the novels, and I’m pretty sure I could hold my own against these ardent fanatics you talk about – or, at least offer logical reasons why things X, Y and Z are different from the canon books in my campaign. You don’t need a hundred books to run a game, because not even the worst fanatics would remember *everything* they’ve read.   If your group has players (canon lawyers) who distract play with their smart remarks, try to discuss their behavior with them. If nothing seems to help use a canon NPC as a BBEG in your campaign… and then tell these players that he’s untouchable, because killing him would make your campaign non-canonical. You could also offer them the DM’s chair, since they’re so knowledgeable… then start asking very specific question about local affairs (gossip/rumours, architecture, geography, NPC names and looks and so on) and keep doing it for a while and see if the new DM can stay consistent with all that. I’m pretty sure that will drive the point home sooner or later, i.e. that it’s about the game and having fun, and not getting every detail 100% right all the time as they were presented in some post/article/novel that nobody else has read.     Of course, if you don’t read the books (the campaign setting plus maybe the sources that have info on the area you selected), or set a game into an area which the players have previous exposure to and knowledge about (but you don’t), then it’s a different thing. For example, if you start a campaign in Silverymoon and don’t know who Alustriel is or I just plug Hollowfaust into Sharn’s place and call it ‘Sharn – The City of Vampires’, most fans (regardless of whether they’re actual canon lawyers or not) would probably do more than just raise their eyebrows. And can you blame anyone for that?    The game? You mean 4E? Oh, you meant the setting… (alright, enough sarcasm already). You have to remember that FR was TSR’s flagship product… of course they wanted to milk it for what it was worth, and put out products at an alarming rate (without any quality control, it seems). That, however, does not mean FR is a bad setting. Nor does it mean that the amount and depth of lore is automatically bad for the setting (I’m personally of the mind that more is always the merrier, because it means that I have more stuff to choose from and less to write). Wherever you wish to run your campaigns, it’s quite easy to identify the necessary sources for a “bare-bones” campaign… if you *want* to add more details (such as about archiculture, customs, festival or clothing) it’s there. I’m not sure how many players *actually* expect you to know or remember specific details, such as local festivals and delicacies in Marsember, by heart. Or the resident noble families.      I haven’t seen this “spike of canon lawyers” you talk about… I’m fairly sure (and this is, naturally, based on anecdotal evidence shown on Candlekeep.com and the WoTC boards) that 4E FR books didn’t sell nearly as well as WoTC anticipated, and I would be very surprised if 3E FRCS didn’t sell more copies. Of course, I cannot confirm it, but it’s a strong gut feeling that tells me so. And by getting rid of the depth of lore and details WoTC didn’t just (apparently) fail to garner a new customer base… I think they also lost the “old guard”, who thought these aspect of the setting was the reason to *love* it and buy the product.      And who has said that “if your group doesn’t do this well, play in another setting”? I don’t think anyone has said it so far.   </blockquote>

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