FR Update at WotC-Year of the Ageless One

[Faraer]

By the way, who will replace her ? Shar ? I mean, if magic has been stabilzed, it means that there is a new god(ess) of magic ?

There won't be one.

Has it been stated if Elminster is alive in the 4E Realms?

He will be.

 

[Corinth]

Not liking what I'm seeing. Not that I can't work with it...and I know just what I'd like to do with it: put it in the path of the Burning Crusade. Then we can have literal WOW vs. D&D combat. ;-)

 

[Orius]

Yeah, they're actually not undead at all. They're humans from an ancient kingdom of mages called Netheril who happened to have their floating city on a trip to the Plane of Shadow when magic went haywire and Netheril fell thousands of years ago.

Now they have cool shadow powers and are led by Telamont Tanthul, a guy who could quite probably take Elminster in a knock-down-drag-out fight, and they're finally back on Faerun. (And apparently, as of 4e, taking it over.)

Huh, so they're the guys I was beating on at the end of Shadows of Undrentide. And I thought thought they were unimportant.

Though I was beginning to suspect as much as I read this thread.

 

[kennew142]

In many ways, it looks to me as if 4e FR will be getting back to its roots. Sword Coast, Cormyr and Cormanthyr will be fully fleshed out areas, while many of the other regions of the realms will be left to be developed later, or purposefully left blank for individual GMs to use in their own campaigns.

The new FR seems to have a lot in common with the Gray Box.

I have a lot of sympathy for those GMs who are running long-lived campaigns in FR. I suspect that this is the source of much rancor with the new FR. My own style has been somewhat different since 3e came out. I tend to run campaigns that last for a few years. The characters begin as novices, and as they grow in level and their stories affect the region they live in (hopefully for the better). Each story eventually comes to an end, and I begin a new campaign in a different region. I am lucky that the new edition will coincide with the natural stopping point of my current Sembia campaign. The massive changes won't affect my enjoyment of the FR.

The same thing is happening with my brother in law's Waterdeep campaign (and his FR Age of Worms campaign). We are currently playing our last adventure before our characters retire (should they survive). I am looking forward to his next (4e) Waterdeep campaign, in which some of us will be playing the descendants of our current 3e characters.

The changes to FR do not affect our campaigns. The changes seem new and exciting, even to old FR fans such as ourselves. All in all, we are very happy at the timing of these changes.

 

[Dire Bare]

Erm, not to burst your bubble, but Sammaster's been dead since late 2e. The Cult of the Dragon is okay as a villain group, but shouldn't really be one of the head-line villain groups of the setting.

Actually, the Rage of Dragons RSE had Sammaster return . . . . only to get iced again by the end of the story (of course). Good shared-world fantasy villians are like comic book characters, you can always bring'em back if you want!!!

 

[Orius]

I've always though the CotD was stupid myself. I'd have no problem at all with the Spellplague wiping them all out.

 

[Le Noir Faineant]

Oh boy.

And me thought there could be nothing worse than Dragonlance's War of Souls.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Out of curiosity, what wouldn't be lazy?

I meant lazy in context for FR. Killing off Mystra and having a people transported onto the world has already been done numerous times in FR history. Surely they have enough talented folks working on it to be able to come up with a new twist.

 

[Hussar]

So anything that doesn't reach of a 'threshold of X number of campaigns actually use this' gets the Giant Not-Making-Enough-Money Eraser? Thats a poor way to handle a setting.

Is there any better way? Sorry, but, if a given region isn't getting a whole lot of loving, and not much interest, then, why not trash it and get something different?

This whole attitude of "Gee they're changing crap that I never actually used" seems pervasive. Whether it's stuff like dumping bards and gnomes or now FR baggage, why do people get so protective of stuff that isn't actually seeing play?

 

[hexgrid]

I meant lazy in context for FR. Killing off Mystra and having a people transported onto the world has already been done numerous times in FR history. Surely they have enough talented folks working on it to be able to come up with a new twist.

History does have a tendency to repeat itself. The fact that it's happened before just establishes the likelihood of it happening again.