Grand History of the Realm 4th edition?

[Fobok]

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.

Retcon means retroactive continuity. In other words, continuity that had been previously established is changed retroactively. No continuity changed with 4e Realms. The landscape changed, but if you have a character travel back in time 100 years, the Realms in the 3e books is what they'd find.

A true retcon is, for example, when they suddenly said Sorcerers had been in the Realms all along, at the beginning of 3e. Or that suddenly dark elves and other such races couldn't see infrared but just could see clearly in the dark. In fact, 3e added a number of retcons because they were trying to avoid a RSE at the time.

 

[rounser]

. A whole country of Dragonborn apparently got gated in somewhere near the Old Empires area

Nup. Just....nup. That won't ever happen in my FR. They can gate straight to the Nine Hells, into an ocean of lava (no save) so far as I'm concerned. Or maybe go on a Magical Mystery Tour to the Far Realm.

Circa 1E Moonshaes and Korinn Archipelago is looking mighty fine now, as is the lovely 3E FRCS in general. Stuff that future for a joke. The Eberronization of FR has begun.

 

[Fenes]

My FR stopped following canon somewhere past the time of troubles, and some of the changes from ToT never went into effect. Since then it has been "pick and choose" for me.

Needless to say that 4E Realms are not in the "pick" category. Rules aside, a time jump of 100 years would wreck far too much of the work I put in the campaign customisation, kill off most of my NPCs, and generally add nothing, nothing at all to my enjoyment of the game.

I can always retcon in what rules or fluff I like, but 100 years? That's a no-no.

(Oh, and of coruse, Dragonborn are already in my FR - they are called lizardmen, look and act like lizardmen, have been lizardmen for eons, and are not used as PCs.)

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Grand History is systemless, it has no new rules or stats for anything. It can be used with any edition of the game.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

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."

How about "The Singularity"?

 

[Sonny]

My FR stopped following canon somewhere past the time of troubles, and some of the changes from ToT never went into effect. Since then it has been "pick and choose" for me.

Needless to say that 4E Realms are not in the "pick" category. Rules aside, a time jump of 100 years would wreck far too much of the work I put in the campaign customisation, kill off most of my NPCs, and generally add nothing, nothing at all to my enjoyment of the game.

I can always retcon in what rules or fluff I like, but 100 years? That's a no-no.

(Oh, and of coruse, Dragonborn are already in my FR - they are called lizardmen, look and act like lizardmen, have been lizardmen for eons, and are not used as PCs.)

I've actually decided to use the Old Grey Box as a base for my first 4E campaign. There will be a few changes of course. Mostly using the new 4E planes setup, which not only do I prefer, but won't have that much of an impact on the how the Realms were originally described.

Like you Fenes, I'm picking and choosing from the best that the Realms has to offer. No to the ToT, but yes to the human ethnicity's found in the 3rd edition. Finder Wyvernspur? BAD. Moander? GOOD.

I'm finding that going through all the old books and choosing the best or adding my own stuff, to be very fun and rewarding.

I really don't understand why some people are so afraid to deviate from cannon, and really make the Realms their own. But who cares as long as everyone is having fun running the realms as they want to.

 

[EATherrian]

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.

It's not a retcon, it's a Crisis of Two Worlds!!! Abeir and Toril collide in the ring this Friday, come one, come all!

 

[Wormwood]

The Eberronization of FR has begun.

Really?

Hmm. Suddenly interested in the Realms again.

 

[DandD]

It's not a retcon, it's a Crisis of Two Worlds!!! Abeir and Toril collide in the ring this Friday, come one, come all!

The Forgotten Realms are a comic-setting, and always will be.
Heck, there was even an old Marvel-comic series about the Forgotten Realms, as far as I remember... It even depicted those lame Times of Troubles...