Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
No, mostly it's a reset to how magic works in the setting. Unless your character actually is a god, there's not a huge amount of impact on the lives of most residents of the FR.Grimstaff said:
D&D 4E FR 4E SPOILER - Grand Histoy of the Realms info
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grimslade
Krampus ate my d20s
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Other than the thousands of wizards going insane or worse as the Weave unravels. I knew those Thayan conclaves spelled trouble. ;P
The biggest change is what happens to all the lesser gods in FR? Only the Greater gods can withstand the planar realignment, so what about the other hundred or so? Booted to the Astral with Azuth and Velsharoon? Killed? Walking the prime? That is the biggest change the rest is piddling. Unless you adventure in Luskan, or have a cleric of Helm or Mystra.
I like what I see so far, but I am an FR dabbler not a hardcore fan-atic. The Realms will still be the Realms just another bump in an already bumpy road. Or did the GHotR have alot of entries of 'Not much happened this year'?
Irda Ranger
First Post
My guess is that the Gods are getting rearranged into "Courts" (I don't know if that's the term they'll use, but that's the idea). Sune's Court of Worldly Concerns; Tyr's Court of Higher Ideals; Bane's Court of Rat Bastards; etc. The Greater Gods will take in the lesser Gods who have lost their realms, in exchange for service and loyalty. Courts and courtiers.grimslade said:
I expect that most of the Drow and Elven pantheons will be "offed" and then combined into "the Fey Court", with Oberon (... I mean "Correllon") and Lloth (the Unseelie Queen) standing at opposite poles. Obad Hai will be a member, and the "greater Eladrins" (both good and evil versions) their servants. Mask will be reinvented as Robin Goodfellow.*
I think the racial Pantheons are being gotten rid of to create more coherent, and less racist, groupings of Gods. This way there can be one god of "Honorable Battle" that all LN and LG warriors can worship, regardless of being human, dwarf, half-orc, etc. Temples to Torm at Mithril Hall.
Some of the lesser Gods may remain in the Astral, though.
*A bit of a joke, but not impossible, actually.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Given how many FR wizards are absolutely bug-fu ... funny to start with, I doubt most commoners would notice a difference.grimslade said:
The_Warlock
Explorer
So, I need to go get this book, I've enjoyed the PDFs the gentleman who compiled it made before it was picked up by WotC.
I'm a long time Realmser - fell in love with the setting with the first Grey Box, and I did really enjoy a number of the sandbox supplements that they put out through 2E - things that gave a sourcebook or boxed set of detail on an area, and several plot hooks and nice "possible" adventures.
But originally, it didn't come off as demanding (not that it really can, since in the end, you as the DM have final veto power on adding anything to your world) that you follow it's many possibilities. But it did add more and more links to their progression of the timeline making it more work for a DM to add things from new supplements.
While occasionally irksome, I took what I liked and needed, and ignored the rest.
When the FRCS 3e came out, I really enjoyed the layout, and the encapsulated detail - but I found myself disliking a lot of the new situations that the timeline advanced, especially since I've never tried to "kept pace" with the timeline. I also found myself at odds with how many of the core villains and NPC patrons goals seemed to have shifted from their PoV/purpose without adequate reasons (or perhaps adequate if you'd read the novels, I don't know, it's been a long time since I've had the time to read a novel, FR or otherwise), or had weird catastrophes happen to them which didn't fundamentally stop them and then the spell/item/organization that had turned on them went back to supporting them on some level (I'm looking at you, Manshoon Clone Wars).
As I followed the 3E progression of the Realms, I basically saw them, with each supplement, dragging down and destroying the structure/bastions/safe places that are the Realms' hallmarks, while saying that the PCs were the stars, while not providing any real good resources, in my opinion, for the PCs to be heroic in defending or strengthening those areas of respite, or just doing heroic things on any scale from small/local to world/plane spanning - barring adding a massive plot which was a campaign driver with such broad ramifications that it couldn't easily be added to an exisitng campaign without derailing it (Dragonsfall War, I'm looking at you).
But it's always been a high fantasy setting, where there's weird stuff in the wings.
I can honestly say, I understand the marketing reasoning for wanting to make a "fresh start" for new players, or removing NPCs/tropes which some people believe are too abusable in the game to retrieve players who gave up on the Realms farther back, while retaining a branding that is known (good or bad) throughout the gaming community, because, well, it's known throughout the gaming community. Brand recognition is what it's all about when it comes to marketing, after all.
And I haven't liked the direction it's been heading since about mid 2E, but there's usually been enough tidbits to glean from the sourcebooks to add stuff that I wanted that had easy ties to existing material.
But this is less a horrible surprise, and more a last nail in the coffin for me. If I wanted post-apocalyptic fantasy, or grim and gritty low fantasy, or what have you, I would've run a different setting, likely with a different system. What little spoilers and speculation are out, do seem to suggest a setting which has had it's overall genre and several of it's tropes changed, to the point that it's not the setting-type that I want to run/play in.
I do hope that it does what they hope, and brings new players to the table and the community, I just can't see myself buying the material. I have all the material I need for the Realms as I see them, and as they've progressed in my 13 year campaign along their own, now quite variant, timeline.
So, I guess this New Realms just isn't for me, and that's kinda fine by me. If it works for the hobby, good for them; I'll be playing in my personal home variant, probably in an alternate system to 3.5, which even I think made some things in the Realms too wacky for different mechanical reasons.
C'est la vie
I'm a long time Realmser - fell in love with the setting with the first Grey Box, and I did really enjoy a number of the sandbox supplements that they put out through 2E - things that gave a sourcebook or boxed set of detail on an area, and several plot hooks and nice "possible" adventures.
But originally, it didn't come off as demanding (not that it really can, since in the end, you as the DM have final veto power on adding anything to your world) that you follow it's many possibilities. But it did add more and more links to their progression of the timeline making it more work for a DM to add things from new supplements.
While occasionally irksome, I took what I liked and needed, and ignored the rest.
When the FRCS 3e came out, I really enjoyed the layout, and the encapsulated detail - but I found myself disliking a lot of the new situations that the timeline advanced, especially since I've never tried to "kept pace" with the timeline. I also found myself at odds with how many of the core villains and NPC patrons goals seemed to have shifted from their PoV/purpose without adequate reasons (or perhaps adequate if you'd read the novels, I don't know, it's been a long time since I've had the time to read a novel, FR or otherwise), or had weird catastrophes happen to them which didn't fundamentally stop them and then the spell/item/organization that had turned on them went back to supporting them on some level (I'm looking at you, Manshoon Clone Wars).
As I followed the 3E progression of the Realms, I basically saw them, with each supplement, dragging down and destroying the structure/bastions/safe places that are the Realms' hallmarks, while saying that the PCs were the stars, while not providing any real good resources, in my opinion, for the PCs to be heroic in defending or strengthening those areas of respite, or just doing heroic things on any scale from small/local to world/plane spanning - barring adding a massive plot which was a campaign driver with such broad ramifications that it couldn't easily be added to an exisitng campaign without derailing it (Dragonsfall War, I'm looking at you).
But it's always been a high fantasy setting, where there's weird stuff in the wings.
I can honestly say, I understand the marketing reasoning for wanting to make a "fresh start" for new players, or removing NPCs/tropes which some people believe are too abusable in the game to retrieve players who gave up on the Realms farther back, while retaining a branding that is known (good or bad) throughout the gaming community, because, well, it's known throughout the gaming community. Brand recognition is what it's all about when it comes to marketing, after all.
And I haven't liked the direction it's been heading since about mid 2E, but there's usually been enough tidbits to glean from the sourcebooks to add stuff that I wanted that had easy ties to existing material.
But this is less a horrible surprise, and more a last nail in the coffin for me. If I wanted post-apocalyptic fantasy, or grim and gritty low fantasy, or what have you, I would've run a different setting, likely with a different system. What little spoilers and speculation are out, do seem to suggest a setting which has had it's overall genre and several of it's tropes changed, to the point that it's not the setting-type that I want to run/play in.
I do hope that it does what they hope, and brings new players to the table and the community, I just can't see myself buying the material. I have all the material I need for the Realms as I see them, and as they've progressed in my 13 year campaign along their own, now quite variant, timeline.
So, I guess this New Realms just isn't for me, and that's kinda fine by me. If it works for the hobby, good for them; I'll be playing in my personal home variant, probably in an alternate system to 3.5, which even I think made some things in the Realms too wacky for different mechanical reasons.
C'est la vie
ivocaliban
Explorer
Fobok said:
Yes. Hey, even I liked one of them!
Kae'Yoss
First Post
grimslade said:
The last time the Weave went out of order, countless lives were lost, especially in High Netheril. Something like this is bound to happen, too: All those impossible creations that were held aloft by magic will fall down - Halruaa is in for interesting times. Other protections and healings and all that will fail, often at the worst possible moment, I'd say. It might not be as bad as last time, when there were dozens of flying cities, but it will still mean lots and lots of deaths.
I wouldn't call that something that doesn't affect your average character's everyday life.
And all the other gods that were killed off before all this. There was talk about 4 or so dwarven deities, and about half the drow pantheon (though those things are already in motion in "present-day" Faerûn as the novels describe it)
There's a big difference between "Civil War in Cormyr/Thay" and "High Moor cleansed of magical fallout" and "Half the world is tossed into the trash".
IMO, too many things that made the Realms unique are torn down. It seems that it will become just another vanilla Fantasy world with nothing much to distinguish itself.
Kae'Yoss
First Post
Irda Ranger said:
Translation: Just like every other setting out there. The Realms are losing their identity.
Might as well move over to Varisia full-time.
Another thing about changing the whole world to accomodate the rules changes instead of retconning it is that you can't play a historical FR campaign in 4e, since all that stuff didn't work back then. You'll have to break out the 3e books. (And if anyone suggests that we can look this over: Of course! In fact: That's what they should have done in the first place.)
They could have made the 4e FRCS as a final product and then introduced a new Vanilla Fantasy World (or taken up GreyHawk again) where they can go crazy with all new shiny classes and started writing novels for it.
All those people who complain about the Realms being not to their liking with too much going on and too many powerful NPCs and all that stuff and liking how the "new Realms" change all that: It's not really the Realms any more, it's another setting.
Which really sucks if you do like the Realms for what they are: If you like cookie-cutter settings without the Weave and the Seven Sisters, there's dozens of settings for you to explore without asking Wizards to make the Realms as bland as the rest, but now that the Realms will no longer have their unique features like several Pantheons with lots of deities, the Weave, and all that, those who did like it have no officially supported Setting any more.
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
Become?Kae'Yoss said:
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