Have you been disillusioned by the Forgotten Realms?

[Brennin Magalus]

Even though I started out playing FR several years ago, I despise it as a setting. However, the 3E FR books tend to be quite good, IMO.

 

[Timeboxer]

That said, I've been buying the FR books released by WotC, and I'm always impressed with them - some really good stuff in there.

What made you change your mind, exactly?

 

[Turjan]

I'm fine with them . This may be due to the fact that I don't take them that seriously. I'm not interested in the metaplot, all those very powerful NPCs are more or less legends that never show up anywhere, and I go to those places that I think are fun, ignoring the rest. I liked the FRCS, and I very much liked the "Silver Marches" supplement, even if I might fall back on the older supplements that leave more space to the wide open, dangerous frontier feeling. Somehow, the FR are the ultimate standard homebrew setting to me, and they have been copied numerous times. In the end, I also treat them like a homebrew .

 

[I'm A Banana]

I don't like FR nearly as much as Eberron. It's Genero-Fantasy with Everyday Demigods. The most enjoyment I got out of FR was when I ran it as a hybrid FR/CoC game because I thought it would be interesting to combine one of the most powerful D&D worlds with the rediculous weakness of CoC characters. It went over well when the spells suddenly started to deal ability damage and all the powerful mages and ancient lore when absolutely effing crazy.

Eberron isn't as generic. Which is bonus.

I haven't become disillusioned because I wasn't that impressed to begin with and it has done nothing to change it.

 

[Jdvn1]

I'm not sure how to vote. What do you mean by "yes," "no," and "other"?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I put yes, but only because it was so long ago when I lost my enthusiasm for it. And I was certainly among the most enthusiastic. Man was I a raging fanboy, the first boxed set knocked my socks off. I signed up for that initial newsletter that never survived more than a single issue.

I know it's been so often said by others to have been their point of losing interest that it is nearly cliché, but the Time of Troubles and first hardcover book began my losing interest. But what did it most was the plethora of novels. They kept coming and coming, and so many of them did nothing improve the setting and so many of them just made new up instead of taking the extra effort to work with what has already been published. Every one was just another nail in the coffin for me. Why, oh why, was there such rotten coordination between the RPG group and the novels group in the company...

So for me it was long long ago when I turned away. If the novels ever got better with the treatment of the world, I wouldn't know.

Today, I would say that it has all turned to indifference. There is so much else out there to work with it is not worth my bother getting all riled up over the issues. Still, I have bought some of the 3e FR rulebooks of places I once was obsessed with. Not bad stuff. Not good IMO enough to divert my money from my other interests now though.

 

[The Human Target]

Not at all. Still find it to be as enganing a capmaign setting as any if I'm going to go store bought. I think most peop,e have hate because too many DMs used to run capmaigns that had the PCs carrying around Elminster's gear.

 

[Timeboxer]

I'm not sure how to vote. What do you mean by "yes," "no," and "other"?

Yes: "I formerly had high hopes about/liked/enjoyed/otherwise positive about the Realms, but have now been disillusioned."

No: "I have not been disillusioned and therefore still have the positiveness referred to previous."

Other: "Any opinion not radially derivative from the previous two."

What is this thing "Forgotten Realms" of which you speak?: "I don't really care about this setting enough to form an opinion."

But like I said in the other thread, polls are just bait for posts, which have actual substance.

 

[Bront]

I was never interested in the forgotten realms beyond the computer games that have come out. Too cluttered, too many uber-npcs, and I always felt like I never knew enough to run or play in it because others knew so much, and that took away from the mystery of the world that I like in a game.

 

[Jdvn1]

But like I said in the other thread, polls are just bait for posts, which have actual substance.

... Right. Since the answers can be taken a variety of ways, also as mentioned on the other thread, and since the poll answers don't relate directly to any of the questions you ask in the original post, I voted "Other."

Having had started D&D at the dawn of 3.0, I thought Forgotten Realms was pretty cool because the idea of an in-depth world that was consistent across games was compelling. Then I found more information on it, and more and more. Eventually, I felt flooded by the vast oceans of setting material, and annoyed at the balance problems some of the books created, and went sour to it.

Most of this was before ever playing a single game in FR. Now, I think of FR mostly as a tool for running a game and a source of possible gaming material. I'm not a fan of the setting, really, though.