D&D 4E FR 4E SPOILER - Grand Histoy of the Realms info

[Banshee16]

1427 the Shalarins Surfacing - I bet this is

Spoiler

the coming of the aboleths mentioned in the new Drizzt novel.

The Shalarin are a neutral or good race of underwater dwelling humanoids. They were one of the main races detailed in Sea of Fallen Stars, and really aren't a villain race...

They're pretty much unknown to those on the surface however, as they dwell pretty deep within Seros.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Well, the Spellplague should take care of the Red Wizards.

Well, I don't know if anyone wants to get *rid* of the Red Wizards. A lot of complaints leveled against the realms were how moronic many villains and villainous organizations act, given their potential.

I felt that FR 3E did a pretty good job of making the villains more capable. Maybe that's just my opinion though.

I just wanted the setting to have villains that the PCs would fear, and it felt like that was accomplished.

Banshee

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Wow. If they're bad enough to bother someone who enjoys Alias novels, I may have to revise my opinion. Though in fairness, I should point out Tolkien was merely a handy example of an author whose reception could be mixed; it could as easily have been Stephen King.

Maybe, but liking/disliking Stephen King's novels is more a matter of subject-matter and whether you like novels written whilst high on cocaine (looking at you, Tommyknockers), as his actual writing and characterization could rarely be described in particularly negative terms, unlike Tolkien, whose characterization can, frankly, be best described as either "laughable" or "non-existent", and whose grasp on plot, dialogue, any many other elements of novels is very much open to discussion.

So I think Stephen King would have been an even worse choice. If he'd written the FR books, we wouldn't be complaining about them being mastubatory nonsense, or just plain nonsense, I can assure you. Similarly, if Tolkien had written them, they'd be dull as ditchwater, but at least not actively idiotic.

Still I get your point - they sold a zillion copies yet tonnes of people dislike them for whatever reason.

And yeah, seriously, I liked the Alias stuff when I was 14, y'know, but even when I was 14, I could tell the ToT stuff, the later Drizzt stuff and so on was pretty horribly written (and full of this creepy "you can feel the author getting their rocks off" vibe, which I've always found spectacularly off-putting), so it's pretty spectacularly awful. Nothing, from a literary perspective, is good about it - not plot, not dialogue, not pacing, not characterization. Yet they must have had a kind of "wish-fulfillment" appeal (and certainly played to '80s stereotypes), and a simplicity/low reading age that some people find very appealling.

 

[Banshee16]

Sounds awesome to me. What the realms needed more than anything was some sort of reboot that wiped away decades of overblown detail.

Now if Elminster and 99.9% of the drow died in the catastrophe, I'll be a happy camper.

And it sounds like, by killing "thousands of wizards", they are taking the level of magic down a notch. That's an improvement too in my opinion.

As much as anything, I think the whole idea of wizards going insane is to try and explain the changes to magic in the new edition.

It's probably mentioned, rather than "fighters going insane", because magic will change significantly, in very immediate, and visible ways, with the new edition. Even if they start adding maneouvers and "fighter spells", because they're rules allowing special "moves" in combat, they can be more easily glossed over. I figure fighters in 3E will have maneouvers they can use in combat, like "dance of the crane", or "reaping blow" and stuff like that....and it's really going to be just fancy words for some kind of attack that does something special....be it extra damage, disarming a foe, or whatever. This can easily by retconned, whereas the changes to magic might not be able to be.

That's what I suspect we'll see...

I don't like the idea of the elimination of most nonhuman racial dieties. It sounds like someone in game design said "it's too confusing to have a dwarven god of battle, and a dwarven god of forging, and a dwarven god of hearths. Let's just have one dwarven god. The others are kind of unnecessary". I find that a little simplistic, and I'm not a big fan of the approach (*if* that's what they do). The end result would be that demihumans share the human dieties.......maybe having their own names for them. Something similar was done in Dragonlance....where different gods had completely different names and identities, depending upon which race was worshipping them....ie. Paladine was worshipped by humans, and is considered the leader of the good pantheon, but he's known as E'li to the elves, and to the elves, the god Astarin (Branchala??) was actually considered more important. That kind of thing..

Banshee

 

[Badkarmaboy]

You KNOW this makes an Eberron fan VERY, VERY nervous right?

Not really. Eberron is no where near as involved as FR in terms of NPC/storyline bloat. I think they'll advance the Inspired invasion of Khorvair myself

 

[Li Shenron]

Honestly, I believe that a RPG setting with a metaplot is a morbidly horrible idea.

Even if each "version" of the setting is great, having to move from one to another isn't. A group of gamers who have really played the setting a lot and in depth, has very likely created its own events on a large scale and storyline... comes the new edition, and they have to forcely adapt to dramatic events conceived by a designer that obviously has nothing to do with the group. The gaming groups who have least problems, are the gaming groups that played the setting casually, with their PC never affecting the world seriously.

Furthermore the idea of using in-game events to justify a rule change is an insult to imagination and to all the efforts in suspension of disbelief. :\

 

[Fobok]

Honestly, I believe that a RPG setting with a metaplot is a morbidly horrible idea.

But... Forgotten Realms has been like this from the beginning. If you've never liked it, fine, but it's not like this is new.

 

[Sammael]

But... Forgotten Realms has been like this from the beginning. If you've never liked it, fine, but it's not like this is new.

I fail to recall any sort of metaplot in the original Gray Box AD&D (1e) campaign set.

 

[Darkness]

Hey all!

It would be cool if Elminster became a villain.

Indeed. Of course, some of us have considered Elmonster a villain for years.

 

[The Little Raven]

I fail to recall any sort of metaplot in the original Gray Box AD&D (1e) campaign set.

Because metaplot is what occurs AFTER the setting begins. Thus, the core book has all backstory (everything that has happened up until the setting's "year zero"). The next supplement that progresses the timeline past the "year zero" point that the core book establishes, that is metaplot. The only time a "core book" has metaplot advancement is between editions (like 3rd moving the timeline forward to 1372).