FR to look like a Roger Dean painting

[Athenon]

Right on the Money!

Ruin Explorer is right on the money. I would separate some complaints about the new Realms before proceeding. 1) I love the tone of the new rules 2) I have no problem with advancing the timeline. But...

Why do we need to radically alter the feel and very look of the world? I mean, the old Realms as Darrin and others have pointed out was/is beautiful. Exactly what do we accomplish by placing earthmotes and Yes album covers everywhere? How does this enhance my campaign? It seems it will make it more difficult for me to make my players suspend disbelief. I understand the arguments for the new Realms eliminating the barrier to entry for new players and designers without the time to read. I get the need to explain the change in magic by cataclysm, but how does alien landscape (in place of beautiful, pristine, FR4/Savage Frontier-like territory) enhance my game?

Well, here's the thing, and maybe this makes me a nerd and/or proves I was barely born in the 1970s, let alone old enough to think that sort of band was cool. To me, yeah, the FR was, as the quoted person implies "The Renaissence with Magic in quasi-Euro-Middle-Asia", and you know what? That's how I liked it! I liked the fact that the FR was slightly down to Earth, that it was just whoooo-whaaaaa and bong hits.

Whereas the 4E FR seems to be all about the bong hits and LSD and trippy "visions of another weeeeeeeerld maaaaaaaan", which I admit IS kind of awesome, but it's not he kind of setting I'm interested in running.

I mean, compare to books and stuff maybe. I want to run something that's like Locke Lamora with more monsters and magic (or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser with more non-humans, or something). My players like their vague quasi-real world. What I don't want to run is a trippy-hippy world full of floating islands, inexplicable twisted giant columns of stone, flying fortresses, and so on. Some of that is cool, but lots? Everywhere? It's just so far from our reality that it starts to lose the fun, for us.

I'm reminded of The Colour of Magic, when Rincewind and that barbarian type are dealing with the Pern rip-off, and how the Pern rip-off's dragons and floating castle can only exist within an extremely strong magical field - it seems like all of 4E FR takes place inside that field, and it's... bleh... not my style.

Still, 4E as a whole? No reason I can't use that for a less "Woooo floating islands" setting.

 

[Arnwyn]

The art is interesting for a brand new setting, I guess... at least, for those who like that kind of thing (weird phallic rocks and pastel islands).

Weird that they've used the same name as an older setting, though.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Not a new setting - it's the Realms.

But then, who I am to talk? i am mentaly ill!

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

(humor)

Are you absolutely sure the 4E FR designers didn't take the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd IRs in mind when they created the new setting? ...

 

[The Ubbergeek]

(ir?)

 

[hong]

(ir?)

Gnomish Industrial Revolution, a series of incredibly long play-by-post/alt.history threads where the gnomes blow up the Realms.

 

[Coldspell]

prog rock D&D, here we come!

I agree that it ain't FR, but it sounds refreshing to me..

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I didn't like that much either at the time, but considering it from another angle, if they could file off the post-modern guilt and obligatory social commentary along with Cortez's name, the conquest of the new world would be one heck of a D&D campaign.

Land with a small group of adventurers in the middle of a points of light setting, negotiate with the various tribes, kill your enemies using a mix of swords and (what is at least initially interpreted as) magic, convert them to your religion, and set up an empire that will endure for generations after you've gone? What could be more D&D than that? You can even have hidden jungle temples (fill them with snake-men if you want) and ruined jungle temples and you might have to scale the side of a volcano to gather the reagents to craft your magic items.

In short, the problem with the file off Cortez's name was that the authors during the 1e/2e transition decided to cast the characters and the PCs in the role of conscienscious 20th century observers of someone else's conquest of the new world instead of growing a pair and letting the PCs actually play Cortez.

And I'm glad they got away from the horrible "File off Cortez's name and slap it in the Realms" crap that permeated the previous editions of the game. It shows an utterly lack of creativity and it was the same crap a lot of other RPGs were doing (Warhammer, as a perfect example). It's good they're actually trying something distinct, instead of the same ol' lukewarm "It's Europe... but not... <goofy mystery music>" setting.

 

[Hussar]

For me, it's this:

Oh god. Not more static Elmore crap. I had enough of this in the 80's. Whoo hoo, look at me! I'm a guy on a pony. Yay, this screams fantasy. Grrrr. I'm a toughie. Gimme a break.

For me, Franzetta speaks much more to Greyhawk than to FR. FR has always been, IMO, a high fantasy setting. Epic story lines, huge backdrops, that sort of thing. Grim and gritty it's never been. So, if it's a high fantasy setting, why not actually use high fantasy art? Why shy away from what it really is? It's not Middle Earth with the serial numbers filed off. It's Myth Dranor and Evermeet and whatnot. It's about bloody time it starts to look it too.

 

[Rabelais]

Oh dear. I guess this confirms that, despite my plaintive bleatings to the contrary, I am now officially "out" of the 4E FR. Album covers of terrible '70s bands are precisely what I feared the new FR was like, and apparently my fears were spot-on with laser-like precision. Damn I'm good at cynicism/paranoia. I should probably ditch optimism altogether, eh?

Wow... hate on FR as much as you want, but don't Dis my prog rock heroes!!!

Seriously though, Yes was one of the greats in the 70s.