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

[gyor]

As a new FR DM, I really have to ask why?

I mean, good grief, I've got, what 4 complete campaigns, nope, 5 in print set in the Sword Coast. I have enough material for YEARS if I want to use it. As a new FR DM, I don't even know what a Turmish is. Never heard of it and don't care. I know what a Kara Tur is, because I've been around for a while, but, again, don't care. The Sword Coast is ENORMOUS. It's about the same size as Greyhawk, I think. Why would I care in the slightest about other parts of the setting?

Just no, Greyhawk is a setting (and the name of the city in it), the world being called Oerth, which is much, much bigger then Swordcoast.

The Swordcoast is big, but there isn't much in it, and outside of a couple cities and islands, it's not that interesting.

Turmish is the only large democracy in FR, and one of the few black human majority populations in Faerun. They are the homeland of one of the major factions, the Emerald Enclave.

And the fact that you don't understand why you should care about their other regions of FR, is exact WHY you need a book like this.

 

[gyor]

Wow. Look at all those proper nouns. Of all of them, I know what a Wemic, and a gnoll is. The other stuff? Never heard of it before.

Again, you are looking at this from the perspective of a long time FR fan. I'm a new FR fan. Got into it in 5e. Other than a few bits and bobs I've picked up over the years, I have little background in the setting. Yet, I have now played in two very successful FR campaigns, ran a third one and am now in the middle of a fourth.

I can honestly say, as a newcomer to the setting, no thank you. Keep giving me what they have been giving me. I'm perfectly happy.

This might surprise you, but you aren't the only person in the world and it might interest people who AREN'T you. I don't care that you are perfectly happy, because there are those of us who are not.

 

[Coroc]

Canon is the enemy of good D&D.

Not really, in Ravenloft you need it sometimes.

The problem child canon wise is quite clearly the FR, due to its canon having so much influence on game mechanics, well ok new editions partially changed mechanics and said this is because of spell plague sundering etc. which is quite ridiculous in another context, namely in that the game world does not know about game mechanics.

My recommendation on DMs (who want to be true to canon for what reason ever), old or new on FR is:

take any state in timeline and stay true around it. E.g. I prefer the grey box. That means for a campaign I make using that old fluff it is e.g.:" .. sorry no Dragonborn and no Shadar Kai either"

If you like the spell plague stuff then cut out the realm times around that and use the products which cover that.

If you are a newbie, maybe mostly only know the new 5e products, then I am afraid you have to stick with what is contained within those.

To retcon new stuff and stay true to official canon e.g. take some of the new fluff and convert it back e.g. to meet grey box fluff and still make sense somehow and have no logical flaws in it is a thing of impossibility, especially for FR. So if you do that, then accept that it is a very homebrewy FR and official canon can contradict your stuff anytime.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This might surprise you, but you aren't the only person in the world and it might interest people who AREN'T you. I don't care that you are perfectly happy, because there are those of us who are not.

I'm sure there are some people who are more interested in reading about the fictional history and geography of a setting than in actually playing a game of D&D there.

But I don't think there are anything like enough such people for it to be worth WotC aiming products at them.

Turmish is the only large democracy in FR, and one of the few black human majority populations in Faerun. They are the homeland of one of the major factions, the Emerald Enclave.

This falls more into the category of social commentary along the lines of Thomas More's Utopia than something useful for a DM.

"Does it have holes in the ground full of monsters?" is really all that matters.

 

[Hussar]

This might surprise you, but you aren't the only person in the world and it might interest people who AREN'T you. I don't care that you are perfectly happy, because there are those of us who are not.

You're missing the point though @gyor. I'm the one that WotC is catering to. I know that's rather blunt, but, it's true. They're catering to the casual fan of the setting who isn't massively steeped in the setting. If I want to learn about Turmish, for example, I'll go to Candlekeep or Wikipedia. Why would I need a setting guide? Virtually everything is online anyway.

And, while you are correct that Greyhawk is a city, and yes, Oerth is the planet, the setting is specfically the Flanaess and isn't actually a whole lot bigger than the Sword Coast. Yes, there are some supplements for outside of the Flanaess, but, very few of those are canon and none of them are needed to run the setting.

As far as the Sword Coast goes, what more do I need? I've got a couple of major cities - Waterdeep for one. I've got elf lands and dwarf lands and various dangerous places here and there. I've got Zentarim and Cult of the Dragon. Meh, that's more than enough to run campaigns.

The reason you are not going to get what you are asking for is twofold. 1. They aren't interested in catering to the hardcore FR fan anymore. They are far more interested in the casual like me and the homebrewer, both of which can use the FR material being published without any real difficulty AND, 2. nearly everything you could possibly want to know about FR is online in wikis and on various other places where it is 1000 times more accessible than some dead tree book.

I'm sorry, but, that's why you aren't going to get what you want.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

OK, though, if we were going to expect a FR Setting book beyond the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide and the Gazetteer material in the Adventures, what would that look like?

It would look like Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica and Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the new standards for Setting books. Six chapters, arranged as such:

• Chapter 1: Player options. Somewhat problematic due to the amount of FR specific material already used this edition, but doable
• Chapter 2: Big Picture Gazetteer going over the larger part of the Setting in low detail, but with enough material to build off of, particularly in Chapter 4...this would cover Faerun in general (let's assume Al'Qadim and Kara-Tur are worth their own genre booster set books)
• Chapter 3: Zoomed in Gazetteer of an important adventure region that really is a microcosm of the Setting as a whole. For the sake of argument, and to avoid crossing over with SCAG or the Adventures, let's go with the Dalelands.
• Chapter 4: Adventure building and generation material. So many tables, maps and such.
• Chapter 5: Treasure. More magic is more better,and FR has material to use here.
• Chapter 6: Monsters and NPCs, easily filled.

Sure, there is book to be had there. Might be a while.

Well, if I was running the Realms I definitely would not buy that. Especially not the Dalelands, a place almost more generic and unmemorable than the Sword Coast, which is saying something!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

"Does it have holes in the ground full of monsters?" is really all that matters.

Attitudes like this are why D&D has only had one good setting book post-2E. And no, it's not all that matters. In fact it doesn't matter because literally every setting is full of places to fight monsters. That's literally never the issue.

We'll likely never seen another Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Planescape or Eberron because of this kind of thing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, if I was running the Realms I definitely would not buy that. Especially not the Dalelands, a place almost more generic and unmemorable than the Sword Coast, which is saying something!

I'm sure the product being suggested would choose a less generic and boring region.

The whole point of using the Sword Coast is it's genericness, and therefore it's portability.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Attitudes like this are why D&D has only had one good setting book post-2E. And no, it's not all that matters. In fact it doesn't matter because literally every setting is full of places to fight monsters. That's literally never the issue.

We'll likely never seen another Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Planescape or Eberron because of this kind of thing.

D&D is a game about going into holes and fighting monsters (there is a clue in the name). There is a whole genre of literature about fictional history and geography.

As it happens, I'm not a fan of the 4e ruleset, but I thought Netir Vale was rather good: modest in scale, rich in danger and atmosphere.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

D&D is a game about going into holes and fighting monsters (there is a clue in the name). There is a whole genre of literature about fictional history and geography.

As it happens, I'm not a fan of the 4e ruleset, but I thought Netir Vale was rather good: modest in scale, rich in danger and atmosphere.

That's such a laughably narrow conception of what D&D is, and so thoroughly disproven by D&D's own history that it's just a real Picard face-palm moment here. If D&D was just or largely that, it would be a largely forgotten thing, superseded by CRPGs and MMORPGs. That you appear to rate the Nentir Vale (rich in atmosphere? Is this a joke?) above the great settings D&D has really says it all. You appear unaware of the deep and two-way connection between TT RPGs and fantasy writing, too, which is rather stunning.