FR Podcast is up

[Primal]

Hmmm.

Hmmm.

Alright, Hong, I'll spell it out to you: my phrase ("And I do not know how those Deities lost their Divine Ranks") means that "I do not know how those Deities lost *ALL* of their Divine Ranks during the Spellplague and yet have not died. I haven't seen any reference to their power level, i.e. Divine Ranks, being linked to their home planes, and therefore I see this particular point as being contradictory to the current canon Realmslore." Did that clarify my point?

 

[hamishspence]

Exarchs

Maybe now, a long as someone revere an exarch enough to serve it, that counts as sustaining it, if you are using the statement in Waterdeep novel that gods without worshippers can wither and die:

" a ranger humbly serving Gwaeron Windstrom, hero of the Goddess Mielikki" So Drizzt worships Mielikki, but serves The Tracker Who Never Goes Astray.

Or maybe exarchs still have semiliving bodies with immortality. Basically. they are really like 30th level PCs, but a bit more widely known, with more people emulating them and "serving" them.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Maybe the gods that lost their worshippers found a way to retain their life, maybe thanks to their allies with the gods still worshipped?
Or there are actually still some worshippers, but none of them are public, nor do they have churches.

Think of Terry Prattchetts "Small Gods" - the Great God Om found out that there was only one worshipper remaining, a simple, young boy, barely noticeable except for his strong faith (and his great memory). The rest of his followers no longer worshipped him, but only the institution of his Church.
He used him worked together with him to reincite the faith his people had for him.
Imagine he had failed, but Brutha survived...

 

[D.Shaffer]

...Reading this thread, I'm slightly amused by how much it resembles people arguing about what's 'canon' in Marvel or DC and various Star Trek vs. Star Wars threads.

I think people are missing the big picture here. The world is there for people to adventure in and have fun. The vast majority dont CARE that in the year of the Burning Armadillo, Mystra said such and such and so all Gnomes have always feared Pangolins from that point. The fact that people can go on for hours, quoting 'Lore' turns off a lot of people. You may not like it, but consider that the new Realms is designed for a people who dont want, and really dont care all that much for what went on before. I'm sure someone's going to bring up 'Lowest Common Denominator' at some point, but majority rules when it comes to marketing.

Any changes to the Realms need to be judged on how it effects people playing in it FOR 4th EDITION. Not whether it matches whatever nebulous definition of 'canon' personally applies for yourself.

 

[hong]

Alright, Hong, I'll spell it out to you: my phrase ("And I do not know how those Deities lost their Divine Ranks") means that "I do not know how those Deities lost *ALL* of their Divine Ranks during the Spellplague and yet have not died. I haven't seen any reference to their power level, i.e. Divine Ranks, being linked to their home planes, and therefore I see this particular point as being contradictory to the current canon Realmslore." Did that clarify my point?

Yes. Of course, your point doesn't make any sense, but it is now very clear.

 

[Desdichado]

And, I'm probably just as "experienced" as a DM as most of the guys working at WoTC. The only "real" difference between me and, say, James Wyatt, is that his work has been published, while mine has not (and you cannot claim that my stuff would be inferior in comparison as you haven't actually played in my campaigns or seen my stuff, right?). If you were referring to being "qualified" in the sense of formal *education*, I can pretty much say that I'm *perfectly* qualified to write anything (since I haven't heard of any TT RPG Designer courses anywhere).

 

[Crosswind]

Just to chuck it in there: It's a good thing whoever was defending against the army of 30,000 orcs was...errr, silly. Or didn't have access to a level 15 druid armed with only core spells.

'cause, well, a Control Winds tornado would pretty much kill that entire army. 6d6 damage per round, for 2 and a half hours, to anybody in a 200-meter-radius circle. Aside from the fact that you could fit 45,000 medium or small-sized creatures in the -original- circle, this being a relatively low-level spell (a mere 5th level), I'd imagine the druid could pretty easily cast enough of them to wipe out the entire army in...oh, a minute?

Two minutes?

Face it - 3.5, it was all about who had more levels. Not who had more numbers. The "Oh nos, hordes of low-level orcs!" approach should work a lot better in 4.0.

-Cross (There are lots of other spells like this. This is just the lowest-level one in the PHB to my knowledge.)

 

[vagabundo]

Face it - 3.5, it was all about who had more levels. Not who had more numbers. The "Oh nos, hordes of low-level orcs!" approach should work a lot better in 4.0.

-Cross (There are lots of other spells like this. This is just the lowest-level one in the PHB to my knowledge.)

I'm looking forward to letting my guys go up a few levels, nice and smug like. Then introduce them to a riot and a mob .....

 

[The Historian]

Ed Greenwood Lore IS "Canon"

A number of posters in this thread have advanced their own opinions on whether or not Ed Greenwood's postings on Candlekeep and elsewhere are "canon" or not.
The truth is this: as a former TSR legal eagle, I can attest that in the original Realms purchase agreement, it is stipulated (I'm paraphrasing the legalese here) that anything Ed Greenwood "publishes" about the Realms, in any media that exists now or in the future IS "official" (canon) as anything printed in any TSR (now WotC, but only because they own TSR) product, UNTIL they contradict something specific that Ed has said, in a future product. In other words, anything Ed says at a con, writes in a published article or product, or posts on the Web IS canon. Until contradicted.
To reiterate: until specifically contradicted, any Realms material Ed Greenwood posts IS canon. Rich Baker's opinion or postings are immaterial; if the original Realms agreement is broken, the Realms revert to Ed and he regains full control of the Realms, and "canon" is whatever he says it is.
I'm not taking sides on anything said in this thread, mind you. Just setting posters straight on what's canon and what's not. These are the facts, regardless of anyone's opinions. (I've even heard WotC staffers deny this, but it doesn't change the applicable law or the original agreement.)
I find it odd, frankly, that this is ever argued over. There have been many, many adaptations, game and film and otherwise, of Tolkien's LOTR, but no one questions that what Tolkien wrote was "canon" or not. (And to spare us all a lot of catty posts, I'm NOT equating the Realms and Middle-Earth in terms of quality. That's purely a matter of personal taste. I'm using an illustration of the creator of a popular creation that became an intellectual property rather than remaining only a printed-fiction series.)

 

[Desdichado]

Let’s get back to “feel” and “spirit” and knowledge of the details. I’m amazed how much blind faith you have in people who may be professional game designers but have very little (or even no) experience with the Realms at all. Unless they have actually read the FR novels and accessories, how *could* they have any sense of FR “spirit” or “feel”? It just isn’t enough that you quickly pour through the latest supplements and memorize some places and names.

As a matter of fact, that's one of the things that attracts me most about the endeavor. I want to see a fresh take on FR. I'm not interested in a flat update; the FR wasn't an interesting enough setting to tempt me heavily before, and it certainly won't now.

You seem to be operating under the fallacy that those posting in this thread, and those who are the potential customers of the new FR book, have the same priorities for FR as you do.

I can assure you; that's not the case. You can say all you like what you want FR to be, but arguing with someone else's tastes? Waste of time, pal.

Yes, they may be professionals, but unlike you, I don’t think that professional designers are necessarily or automatically better DMs or authors than your average “Joe DM”.

Nobody said that they couldn't be; although I personally believe very strongly that the chances of "Joe Blow DM" writing better RPG material than professional game designers is... not high. To put it charitably.

We are, however, talking about “feel” and “spirit”, and to elaborate this even further with a concrete example: Robert Jordan has, for years, been one of my favourite authors, whose ‘Wheel of Time’-series is a true masterpiece in fantasy fiction.

Ah, I see the problem already. You think Robert Jordan is a talented writer and Wheel of time is something other than a bloated, interminable fantasy soap opera.

No wonder you're so invested in the current iteration of Forgotten Realms.