D&D 5E Forgotten Realms: Rising from the Last Realms Shaking Event

[Urriak Uruk]

The FR being the most popular pre-dates 5E, that was why they made the decision. Ed Greenwood's relentless support of the Setting for several decades is probably to blame: most other Setting creators moved on.

Fair. But the 5e content focus on FR isn't exactly diverging people to other setting either.

This attitude infuriates me. The type of casual fan you describe infuriates me. It reminds me of somebody describing the virtues of Budweiser while repeatedly refusing offers to go get a beer that is of even slightly better quality. That guy would probably like Granville Island if he knew what it was, but he's refusing to find out. Likewise, these "casuals" lack of interest for new horizons makes the game stale and bland. Like Budweiser. Stop drinking garbage macrobrews.

To change tracks for a few moments, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the third setting guide for 5e (or fourth, depending on how you want to view the Wayfinder's Guide, which is a total fracas in and of itself and my heart goes out to Keith Baker for making it in the first place despite the controversy it would inevitably cause), just officially released today, and I am loving it. There's a lot of detailed material, both fluff and mechanics, that it offers for my use, and the Gazetteer of Khorvaire, detailing all the major nations of the continent is nothing to scoff at either. And yet, there's a twinge of pain, as I know that future support for Eberron from WotC is unlikely; there won't be any books detailing Xen'drik and Sarlona, and even the Khorvaire Gazetteer misses a few things, and the book yet again zeroes in on Sharn, City of Towers that is in need of exploring for the 13th time apparently. Baker's releasing Exploring Eberron in December, which will fill in some of the unexplored corners of the setting, which is awesome. And Eberron has the advantage of a lack of an advancing metaplot, which means all the sources from 3.5e and 4e are still relevant, just in need of a mechanics conversion.

Not so for Forgotten Realms, at least on the second point; on the first, I'm not sure where to look for community engagement. There's this Crown of Eaerlann thing coming out some time soon, which is... something? Anyways, there is even less support for players and DMs wanting to go beyond the Sword Coast, Mulmaster, the Heartlands, and Chult in 5e, and trawling through the wikia and through old books isn't even taht helpful as all the information in there is in-setting outdated by 13 to 135 years and two cataclysms that rewrote the face of the continent. I want to run a game in Thesk. Maybe go east into Yaïmunnahar, or even further and into Tabot. Ok, where do I even start? And I can't just go and open the equivalent of "Secrets of Sarlona" for Forgotten Realms because all the info in there is outdated in-setting!

I mean, for goodness sakes, no setting (FR ironically excepted) is going to get much material beyond it's core area, which with D&D's largely Anglo-American origins are all very European inspired.

FR has the Sword Coast, Greyhawk has the Flaeness, Eberron has Khorvaire. Sure I want more material for the other areas, but I also understand that books can also be so long, and a few pages more for Xen'drik means a few less pages for Khorvaire. And most people do play in the "core area," so it makes sense they get the most material.

What frustrates me here is that FR has by far the most material in 5e. It's almost certainly going to get more material too. Now considering we are likely only going to get only one setting book per year, can we instead get ones for actually different worlds?

I mean, if some of the rumors are true, you're likely going to see upcoming adventures cover places like Lantan and some-far off area like Kara-tur or Al-Qadim. Isn't that better, to get a full Adventure book that actually covers an area deeply, instead of getting another setting book that will cover the non-core area with a handful of pages?

Tomb of Annihilation is an AMAZING guide to Chult, and from what I've heard Out of the Abyss is a good guide to the Underdark. Don't you prefer more books like that, instead of a Rising from the Last War, which you mostly already have?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[PsyzhranV2]

You need to find a better quality of things that infuriate you.

Oh I'm plenty furious about lots of things, but most of them would fall afoul of the no politics rule of this forum.

 

[Beleriphon]

Additionally, while the Dalelands might be a good sandbox set-up, they might be better suited to this sort of location than in an Adventure.

I still have the 2nd Edition Grey Box (I think that's the one, it has the intro adventure where Elminster deus ex machinas a failing party back to health by trying to teach a puppy to "heel").

The size of the Sword Coast is what it is: the place is massive.

Its kind of crazy. Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate is supposed to be around 500 miles. Waterdeep to Neverwinter is 330 miles north of Waterdeep. That's roughly the distance from San Franciso to Seattle.

Athkatla to Baldur's gate is 400ish miles. So from Athkatla to Neverwiner we're looking at 1200ish miles. So the distance from Los Angeles, which suits Amn's climate, all the way up to Seattle if not still north into the BC mainland.

Here's an interactive map. It doesn't have an automated way to directly gauge distance, so you have to free hand with the scale, but it gives an idea of most major towns and cities up the Sword Coast. I was actually surprised by how many there are, especially north of Waterdeep.

Sword Coast Interactive Map

Sword Coast Interactive Map : We have zoom, distance calculator, display of area/regions, marks selection, and more !

www.aidedd.org

 

[Hussar]

This attitude infuriates me. The type of casual fan you describe infuriates me. It reminds me of somebody describing the virtues of Budweiser while repeatedly refusing offers to go get a beer that is of even slightly better quality. That guy would probably like Granville Island if he knew what it was, but he's refusing to find out. Likewise, these "casuals" lack of interest for new horizons makes the game stale and bland. Like Budweiser. Stop drinking garbage macrobrews.

But, I'm perfectly happy drinking Bud. (I'm not, but, that's another story) As in, sure, are there better beers out there? I'm quite sure there are. I simply do not care. It's beer. It's slightly bitter yellow fizzy water. The label on the bottle doesn't mean anything to me. And, well, Bud makes about a thousand times more sales than any single microbrew, so, why would Bud cater to you and not me?

/snip
Not so for Forgotten Realms, at least on the second point; on the first, I'm not sure where to look for community engagement. There's this Crown of Eaerlann thing coming out some time soon, which is... something? Anyways, there is even less support for players and DMs wanting to go beyond the Sword Coast, Mulmaster, the Heartlands, and Chult in 5e, and trawling through the wikia and through old books isn't even taht helpful as all the information in there is in-setting outdated by 13 to 135 years and two cataclysms that rewrote the face of the continent. I want to run a game in Thesk. Maybe go east into Yaïmunnahar, or even further and into Tabot. Ok, where do I even start? And I can't just go and open the equivalent of "Secrets of Sarlona" for Forgotten Realms because all the info in there is outdated in-setting!

Again, you are forgetting that for a casual like me, who is just getting into the setting, I DO NOT CARE. Why should I? Those are a bunch of proper nouns that mean nothing to me. "Thresk" "Sarlona"? Why would I care about that? Why would I want to buy a bunch of setting material on areas that aren't set in the main area (from my point of view, which is the Sword Coast) that I then have to spend hours developing my own adventures and whatnot for? If I'm going to do that, I might as well home-brew. And, again, why would I care if the information is "out of date"? It's all new to me. If I look at, say, Thresk and look it up in a wiki, then I can just go from there and develop my own setting stuff. Is having three paragraphs of "official" material actually going to make any difference here?

There were cataclysms that rewrote the continent? News to me. Those aren't really talked about in the 5e material for Forgotten Realms. And, well, since they don't really matter to the adventures on hand, they don't matter to me at all.

 

[gyor]

I'm not suggesting that they would solely focus on the Dalelands, but let me throw a comparison out there:

- Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica Chapter 2 on the Guilds (really a Gazeetter): ~70 pages, compared to Chapter 3 on the Tenth District: ~23 pages

- Rising from the Last War Chapter 2 Gazeeter on Eberron as a whole: ~47 pages, compared with Chapter 3 zoomign in on Sharn: ~31 pages

- Not as exact a comparison, but... 3E FRCS had 30 pages on the Dalelands, and 103 pages on everything in Faerun outside the Dalelands. So, about a quarter of the Gazeeter information was just the Dalelands.

Additionally, while the Dalelands might be a good sandbox set-up, they might be better suited to this sort of location than in an Adventure.

I am speculating based on historical and economic factors, not prescribing what they ought to do...

The size of the Sword Coast is what it is: the place is massive.

The thing is is that the Dalelands change very little from edition to edition. The Spellplague and Sundering barely effected them, there are regions in far, far more need of such attention then the Dalelands. I mean what was mentioned in the SCAG is actual more then enough honestly for such a minor relatively unchanging region. And compared to other regions it's not just generic, it's actually dull now that Elminister doesn't live there anymore.

If they are going to do a zoom in on a particular region, I would suggest Chessenta instead. It's exotic, without being too far out. It's FRs Greece thematically (Fantasy Greece is always popular) it's also the cultural meeting point between the Old Empires Religion and Faerun and Demihuman human religions. It's familiar enough to folks, without being too exotic.

 

[gyor]

sigh Perhaps the reason FR has the most fans is because more than half of all the published 5e adventures are set in FR? Because it was made the default setting for 5e? This is a chicken-or-the-egg debate.

Also, your saying that FR deserves a new setting book because FR is the most popular setting. But I almost guarantee that a majority of people who play FR play in the Sword Coast, which already has a setting book.

So there is really no argument saying areas like Kara-Tur somehow deserves content more than Dark Sun when I highly doubt that more people set adventures in the former.

And let's be clear, you said you want FR to get a book like Eberron's Rising from the Last War, so that you can see areas that aren't the Sword Coast covered. But from the table of contents I've seen, Khorvaire gets almost all the attention and other lands in the world get only 8 pages. You've already gotten most of what Eberron has gotten, you just want an additional magazine article of content.

Shifting away from that to the "canon debate." It doesn't matter. Cut what you don't want, use what you like. D&D isn't Star Wars or Marvel, the only thing that matters in the end is your table, everything else is just recommendations.

The Forgotten Realms has been the most popular setting for decades, since it came out back in the early 1980's. They tried other settings they couldn't complete, even Ravnica, the most popular Setting in MtG going D&D couldn't compete with FR. FR is the most popular setting in every edition since it was released.

And Kara Tur and Al Qadim are extremely popular subsettings of FR, more popular then most independent settings like Darksun.

And unlike Darksun and most of other D&D Settings they are living settings, Eberron doesn't change or stopped changing along time ago, Birthright doesn't change, ect, Council of Wyrms doesn't change, Mystara doesn't change, ect..., but Faerun changes all the time!

And huge areas of FR have under gone major changes compared to most other settings. All settings like Darksun, Birthright, Mystara, ect need is a hand full of mechanics update and you can use your previous books. You can't say that about the Forgotten Realms and it's subsetting like Kara Tur, Al Qadim, and Maztica.

 

[Coroc]

I still have the 2nd Edition Grey Box (I think that's the one, it has the intro adventure where Elminster deus ex machinas a failing party back to health by trying to teach a puppy to "heel").



Its kind of crazy. Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate is supposed to be around 500 miles. Waterdeep to Neverwinter is 330 miles north of Waterdeep. That's roughly the distance from San Franciso to Seattle.

Athkatla to Baldur's gate is 400ish miles. So from Athkatla to Neverwiner we're looking at 1200ish miles. So the distance from Los Angeles, which suits Amn's climate, all the way up to Seattle if not still north into the BC mainland.

Here's an interactive map. It doesn't have an automated way to directly gauge distance, so you have to free hand with the scale, but it gives an idea of most major towns and cities up the Sword Coast. I was actually surprised by how many there are, especially north of Waterdeep.

Sword Coast Interactive Map

Sword Coast Interactive Map : We have zoom, distance calculator, display of area/regions, marks selection, and more !

www.aidedd.org

Afaik, i could be wrong so please do not flame me if i am, FRs coastline is somehow made from Americas coastline and uses similar scaling.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The Forgotten Realms has been the most popular setting for decades, since it came out back in the early 1980's. They tried other settings they couldn't complete, even Ravnica, the most popular Setting in MtG going D&D couldn't compete with FR. FR is the most popular setting in every edition since it was released.

No, the Sword Coast is the most popular setting. And you've already gotten that book.

You're asking for another book about everything else (Kara-tur, Maztica, Al-Qadim whatever), which I'm doubtful are nearly as popular.

Side-note, I don't know what you are citing that FR is more popular than Ravnica. It's probably true (FR has almost every 5e adventure about it while Ravnica only has a setting book), but there's no concrete evidence of that. Especially since the Guildmaster's Guide is higher on Amazon's bestseller's list compared to the Sword Coast Guide.

 

[gyor]

No, the Sword Coast is the most popular setting. And you've already gotten that book.

You're asking for another book about everything else (Kara-tur, Maztica, Al-Qadim whatever), which I'm doubtful are nearly as popular.

Side-note, I don't know what you are citing that FR is more popular than Ravnica. It's probably true (FR has almost every 5e adventure about it while Ravnica only has a setting book), but there's no concrete evidence of that. Especially since the Guildmaster's Guide is higher on Amazon's bestseller's list compared to the Sword Coast Guide.

No the Forgotten Realms is the most popular setting, the Swordcoast is not a setting, it's a region of a setting, and the rest of Faerun is as popular or more then the Swordcoast.

And the SCAG has been out for a lot longer then Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica, Ravnica is fresher, and the SCAG one of the least interesting part of the Faerun (still interesting, but over done).