Grand History of the Realm 4th edition?

[BoneMonkey80]

I'm trying to collect all things 4th edition and today when i was in my barnes and noble i see a book called

Grand History of the Realm

i was wondering if this is considered a 4th edition book?

i remember eading somwhere months ago it was but i can't find out

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Nope it's the last valiant spark of the Old Forgotten Realms before the 4e retcon.

It's essentially edition neutral and could be used in any edition since it's a giant timeline rather than a splatbook. It covers the history of the realms in In-Game time from the beginning of the world to right up before the 4e retcon.

 

[TheSleepyKing]

Nope it's the last valiant spark of the Old Forgotten Realms before the 4e retcon.

I think calling it a retcon is rather misleading. Nothing (or very little) is being retconned. Instead the timeline is being advanced 100 years. GHoTR (yet another ENWorld acronym) is, as HeavenShallBurn noted, an edition-neutral (ie. totally fluff) history of the Forgotten Realms, covering the time up to the end of the 3E era.

EDIT: fixed typo...

 

[Henry]

Yeah, "retcon" implies they rewrote history, but they're adamantly claiming nothing's rewriting established stuff. Perhaps the RSE4 would be a better term (Realms Shaking Event #4)? Or "The 4E Reset Button"? Both are more accurate than "retcon."

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I think calling it a retcom is rather misleading. Nothing (or very little) is being retconned. Instead the timeline is being advanced 100 years.

No they just blew the realms up, replaced many parts with totally different stuff and re-arranged the entire setting. For me at least the retcon is that they stuck the title Forgotten Realms on it, when it bears no resemblance to the Forgotten Realms. But it is edition neutral so if it looks interesting to you go for it. You could use it just as easily in 4e or 1e as 3e.

 

[rounser]

Look on the bright side: You'd be complaining more if Eberron were the spotlight campaign setting for 4E instead of FR. And the older books didn't self-immolate.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Look on the bright side: You'd be complaining more if Eberron were the spotlight campaign setting for 4E instead of FR. And the older books didn't self-immolate.

No I don't really mind Eberron, it's got its own place. I'd rather see focus shift than an entire setting get torn up and replaced with something completely different while keeping the old name.

 

[rounser]

I'd rather see focus shift than an entire setting get torn up and replaced with something completely different while keeping the old name.

There is that. Time will tell how much flavour blood has been spilt on WOTC's sacrificial altar of crunch.

There's always the possibility it could be better than the old Realms, you know.

Actually, no, I take that back. I don't want an FR full of warlords and dragonborn, and don't care what corner eladrin popped out of. I just remembered what's on the cards.

 

[caudor]

I'm confused about what is going on with 4e Forgotten Realms. Did I miss a novel or something? Where are folks finding information about FR getting massively changed.

Did Elminster die? Did Cormyr blow up? Where can I go read about what happened?

 

[Staffan]

They had some preview articles on the website. Basically, Shar kills Mystra in an attempt to become godess of all magic, not just the Shadow Weave. This causes magic to go boom, in some cases literally (Halruaa is pretty much a crater). FR 4e moves the timeline about a century forward, and will focus on the relatively normal NW Faerun area (Cormyr, Dalelands, Western Heartlands, the North). Other parts of the world have varying degrees of weirdness around. A whole country of Dragonborn apparently got gated in somewhere near the Old Empires area, and Maztica merged with a continent from the parallell world of Abeir.

AFAIK, Elminster is still alive, but crazy and a bit afraid to use magic.