FR Update at WotC-Year of the Ageless One

[humble minion]

That's not lazy. They specifically said, long ago, that the popular places that were working weren't going to get fixed.

It's, you know, doing what people wanted them to do with Waterdeep, etc.

Agree that Waterdeep etc remaining largely intact was inevitable. Commercial reality and all that. And to be honest, given all the other changes, if you significantly change Waterdeep and the like then there's basically nothing left of the familiar Realms at all.

The changes aren't lazy, but the explanation is. If there's been an editorial decision to massively change the entire world except the popular areas in the west and north, then good writing would come up with an event that would logically leave the west and north unaffected. Instead what we've got is:

OMG GLOBAL CATACLYSM!!!1! ENTIRE WORLD* WRACKED BY RANDOM MASSIVE DESTRUCTION!!
* - Entire world does not include areas where it would be commercially inconvenient for random massive destruction(tm) to occur. Don't ask why, it's magic.

If they really, really wanted to get rid of Mulhorand and Thay, why not just make them have a massive war of mutual annihilation? It's far enough away that Waterdeep and the like won't be in the firing line, it's been on the cards all the way through 3rd ed, and between the Mulhorandi gods and the Zulkirs backed up by the likes of Larloch, surely there's have been enough firepower floating around to spill over into Unther and other neighbouring lands to have whatever other setting-changing effects you'd like (dragonborn, for instance).

 

[Reaper Steve]

Interesting also that he stated the city-state of Shade went to the Plane of Shadow. Is that old language, and he really meant to state 'went to the Shadowfell?' Or maybe the Plane of Shadow merged with the Shadowfell, which allowed the city to regain contact with Toril (now Abier-Toril.) I kinda like that thought. Or maybe he really did mean Plane of Shadow, which is FR-unique and separate from the Shadowfell. Curious...

 

[Darrin Drader]

I agree that it's definitely an evocative piece. However, I liked my Realms the way they were, thank you. This thing is reminding me of Dragonlance 5th Age.... and we all know how that went over.

On the other hand, Realms history is full of sweeping changes that occurred suddenly, it's just hard to see it happen when I was happy with the setting more or less the way it was. Grrrrrr.

I also have to wonder how this will be represented in the novels. I haven't read the latest Salvatore books, but I was under the impression that he wasn't done with Drizzt by a long shot. Are they going to allow him to keep going a hundred years in the past, or are they going to kill one of their top selling novel lines? I'm guessing we'll see how the death of Mystra affects the world through Drizzt's eyes. After that though, I have no idea what they would do with him.

I'm intrigued.... and a little fearful.

 

[The Human Target]

That's not lazy. They specifically said, long ago, that the popular places that were working weren't going to get fixed.

It's, you know, doing what people wanted them to do with Waterdeep, etc.

Exactly.

The only thing I don't care for is the dragonborn kingdom.

Other than that it looks interesting.

Lets keep in mind people that this article focuses on familiar locations and organizations, and only a handful of them at that.

We have no idea if the Shades are the only uber-evil orginazation, or anything else really.

 

[Traycor]

I wonder if the shade/shadow-transformed Netherese are the other new PC race (besides Drow?)

Ahh! This seems likely. And with Artemis Entreri being a shade these days, they have an iconic character in FR to represent the race.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Orcs are the other popular guess for 2nd PC race, although they didn't get mentioned in this article.
(Just reminding myself...)

 

[Traycor]

I haven't read the latest Salvatore books, but I was under the impression that he wasn't done with Drizzt by a long shot. Are they going to allow him to keep going a hundred years in the past, or are they going to kill one of their top selling novel lines? I'm guessing we'll see how the death of Mystra affects the world through Drizzt's eyes. After that though, I have no idea what they would do with him.

Salvatore's latest novel, "The Orc King" placed Drizzt in this new future Forgotten Realms timeline during the prologue and epilogue of the book. So yes, he will still be around and kicking in the future.

Go pick up the novel if you want to know more!

 

[marune]

Meh.

I was waiting for this and I thought it would be a lot more exciting....

 

[Khairn]

That's not lazy. They specifically said, long ago, that the popular places that were working weren't going to get fixed.

It's, you know, doing what people wanted them to do with Waterdeep, etc.

Sorry Whiz, but even if they announced they weren't "fixing" Waterdeep, the North and Cormyr, the final story they put together is plain poor. The rationalization for why the epic and devastating Spellplague that could devastate gods and empires but failed to touch 3 locations is ... what again?

 

[Reynard]

I am not a Realms fan (I'll be playing the Realm for the first time in over 20 years of playing D&D shortly, in fact) so I don't have an investment one way or the other. however, the Realms has been a keystone D&D setting for as long as I have been aware of such things, and it strikes me as a little worrisome that in order to make a fundamental D&D setting work for the new edition they have to not only advance the timeline 100 years but enact a Crisis on infinite Earths level "event" to make it mesh with the new rules set.

If anything says "4E isn't D&D anymore", that's it.