howandwhy99
Adventurer
How would you publish the Forgotten Realms Setting for D&D Next?
and...
What do you think about this way?
[sblock]I have been been giving some serious thought on how I would publish the Forgotten Realms, both for what I need from a campaign setting and taking into account all the changes FR has endured. It is one of my favorite settings, but in recent years it has lost some of the fan favoritism it enjoyed not long ago.
For me, the Forgotten Realms is a multitude of campaign settings combined into one. This is one of the key selling points that I believe has been lost over the years.
I believe settings should be published as small works, perhaps 32 pages including the basic elements at large for the setting with perhaps another 32 about specialty rules that help define it. So you get the map, the people, the places, the culture, history, and so on in one portion and unique subclasses, playable races, monsters, magic items, spells, equipment, buildings, clothes, etc. in the other. This helps from overwhelming DMs with the wealth of material the Realms (or any setting nowadays) has. It allows room for DMs and players to expand and define the setting themselves through play as well as present a setting where 1st level PCs have a place to cause relatively significant changes and not just the high level characters (all too often only NPCs).
This model is not enough to play the full Realms of course. Instead, I propose multiple ones be created, regional works each a campaign setting in and of themselves. The unique rules and character options could then be introduced to other areas of the Realms as exotic elements from foreigners who have traveled as strangers to strange and unknown lands.
The most important element is creating a "Known World" for each region and/or people. People of the same culture may know of other areas, but they might have different names and descriptions of them than those who reside there do. How each group defines themselves is even presented in an even more customized manner according to how they as a culture view the world. So there is no overarching definition they must fit into to relate who they are. They are as they view the world. This means some seriously custom appearance, layout, writing, and features specific to every work.
DMs could then purchase these individually unique settings for entire 1st thru (20?) highest level play campaigns. Of course the players could choose to travel elsewhere, but it's understood they are leaving to unknown parts of the world ~or perhaps only sketchily detailed areas given their points of view (both player and character).
Groups could also customize these published areas or create regions whole cloth for addition into the Forgotten Realms. The Realms would truly belong to them and their players as what regions, what elements of those regions, and what new areas are included into the whole Realms is up to them. DMs may be the default designer, but depending on how little "forgotten" their Realms are the Players may have more or less of design input too. The overarching Realms Map then becomes unique to each and every table and with miles of room for growth and the unknown to be explored. With greater freedom for publishers to design some areas may become more popular, even if not all do. Regardless, since any homebrew setting could incorporate any one of these settings into them this means many DMs would benefit from buying one not just Forgotten Realms DMs.
What?! Now hold on. While these regional campaign settings, each a "Realm" may be static defaults the entire setting can still enjoy a single, overarching work with a continuously advancing timeline. This is the Forgotten Realms of the novels, of the videogames, of the shared world played at conventions around the world. This is the default Forgotten Realms we've all come to know. It has all the famous characters fully fleshed out, the amazingly detailed nuances by Mr. Greenwood, the heroes from the novels with all their glorious deeds intact. But this would not be the Forgotten Realms as the DMs must use it. It would only be one configuration of them. The officially published version, the one we all best know.
Of course there could be other overarching setting books. For instance, an Arcane Age timeline could be published or one for the Spellplague or the Time of Troubles or any other major plot from the settings. And if those really sell well, heck, even never-published-before, brand new historical timelines could be published too. Each offers unique interpretations for gaming, while still defaulting to some or all of the individual settings bought piecemeal.
What this does is allow the setting to be mysterious, highly customizable and usable to DMs, but also offer the option of a default, by-the-novels and videogames campaign setting for those who desire to play their specifically. It also means potentially quite a few more products to publish, but I think smaller works could be bound and sold together if a certain page count / price point needed to be reached. Anyways, it's an idea. What do think?[/sblock]
and...
What do you think about this way?
[sblock]I have been been giving some serious thought on how I would publish the Forgotten Realms, both for what I need from a campaign setting and taking into account all the changes FR has endured. It is one of my favorite settings, but in recent years it has lost some of the fan favoritism it enjoyed not long ago.
For me, the Forgotten Realms is a multitude of campaign settings combined into one. This is one of the key selling points that I believe has been lost over the years.
I believe settings should be published as small works, perhaps 32 pages including the basic elements at large for the setting with perhaps another 32 about specialty rules that help define it. So you get the map, the people, the places, the culture, history, and so on in one portion and unique subclasses, playable races, monsters, magic items, spells, equipment, buildings, clothes, etc. in the other. This helps from overwhelming DMs with the wealth of material the Realms (or any setting nowadays) has. It allows room for DMs and players to expand and define the setting themselves through play as well as present a setting where 1st level PCs have a place to cause relatively significant changes and not just the high level characters (all too often only NPCs).
This model is not enough to play the full Realms of course. Instead, I propose multiple ones be created, regional works each a campaign setting in and of themselves. The unique rules and character options could then be introduced to other areas of the Realms as exotic elements from foreigners who have traveled as strangers to strange and unknown lands.
The most important element is creating a "Known World" for each region and/or people. People of the same culture may know of other areas, but they might have different names and descriptions of them than those who reside there do. How each group defines themselves is even presented in an even more customized manner according to how they as a culture view the world. So there is no overarching definition they must fit into to relate who they are. They are as they view the world. This means some seriously custom appearance, layout, writing, and features specific to every work.
DMs could then purchase these individually unique settings for entire 1st thru (20?) highest level play campaigns. Of course the players could choose to travel elsewhere, but it's understood they are leaving to unknown parts of the world ~or perhaps only sketchily detailed areas given their points of view (both player and character).
Groups could also customize these published areas or create regions whole cloth for addition into the Forgotten Realms. The Realms would truly belong to them and their players as what regions, what elements of those regions, and what new areas are included into the whole Realms is up to them. DMs may be the default designer, but depending on how little "forgotten" their Realms are the Players may have more or less of design input too. The overarching Realms Map then becomes unique to each and every table and with miles of room for growth and the unknown to be explored. With greater freedom for publishers to design some areas may become more popular, even if not all do. Regardless, since any homebrew setting could incorporate any one of these settings into them this means many DMs would benefit from buying one not just Forgotten Realms DMs.
What?! Now hold on. While these regional campaign settings, each a "Realm" may be static defaults the entire setting can still enjoy a single, overarching work with a continuously advancing timeline. This is the Forgotten Realms of the novels, of the videogames, of the shared world played at conventions around the world. This is the default Forgotten Realms we've all come to know. It has all the famous characters fully fleshed out, the amazingly detailed nuances by Mr. Greenwood, the heroes from the novels with all their glorious deeds intact. But this would not be the Forgotten Realms as the DMs must use it. It would only be one configuration of them. The officially published version, the one we all best know.
Of course there could be other overarching setting books. For instance, an Arcane Age timeline could be published or one for the Spellplague or the Time of Troubles or any other major plot from the settings. And if those really sell well, heck, even never-published-before, brand new historical timelines could be published too. Each offers unique interpretations for gaming, while still defaulting to some or all of the individual settings bought piecemeal.
What this does is allow the setting to be mysterious, highly customizable and usable to DMs, but also offer the option of a default, by-the-novels and videogames campaign setting for those who desire to play their specifically. It also means potentially quite a few more products to publish, but I think smaller works could be bound and sold together if a certain page count / price point needed to be reached. Anyways, it's an idea. What do think?[/sblock]
