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Have you been disillusioned by the Forgotten Realms?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lord Rasputin" data-source="post: 2418247" data-attributes="member: 8410"><p>I liked the original boxed set. By 1991, I couldn't take the world any more.</p><p></p><p>My issues are:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Everything but the kitchen sink goes into this world. (Actually, I think there is a kitchen sink somewhere in Sembia ...) I appreciate the attention to detail, but rather than have a distinctive character like Krynn does or Eberron tries to have (it suffers from the same problem -- "everything in core D&D is in Eberron" is a really horrid idea, and the world would have been strengthened had WotC not done that). Right now, it tries to be a simulation of medieval Europe and a bazillion other cultures, when it would have been more interesting to either focus on one or two such cultures or styles of adventuring.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Oh, yeah, styles of adventuring. Elmunchkin irritates me to no end. He knows all and is super powerful, not because he's actually interesting or cool or something, but because he's the pet of Ed Greenwood. The old party played by his original players (Storm Silverhand and others) are boring as well -- they're characters in a roleplaying game, useful for slaying monsters. That's all fine and dandy, but they're not compelling enough as characters to use other than to kill monsters. It claims to be all roleplaying intrigue, but when it shows off its examples of roleplaying, we get a bunch of "kill the monsters and steal their stuff" characters. Nothing wrong with those types of characters, but I would never want to interact with them. Eberron's Indiana Jones-meets-D&D style was fresh, by contrast. Dragonlance's romantic fantasy was compelling. My long delayed point is that there is nothing style-wise that is in Krynn that wasn't already in Oerth, which is the more accessable setting due to having less "stuff" in it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">My goodness, that fight between the gods between 1e and 2e is the most contrived thing ever. I actually felt sorry for Ed Greenwood for once when I picked up the 2e FR book and read this stuff. FWIW, the gods are pretty bland as well, and also an unfocused mishmash. For all slamming the Greyhawk pantheon gets in some circles, these guys are no better. (As a side note, I'm still astonished that the Greyhawk deity detailing in <em>Complete Divine</em> is so unpopular ... that was the best part of the book, a bunch of roleplaying information presented in a suitably crunchy way.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">OTOH, the individual crunch and detail books themselves are often quite good, often far better than the generic WotC D&D books of the same function. While I just whined about the FR's lack of focus, at least it adds some little detail to things like spell names and regional characteristics. I like Oerth better as a world because it doesn't try to be all things to all folks, but it would be nice if WotC were to actually let its generic books use Greyhawk as a focus. Having a famous wizard name a series of spells adds character -- we can't imagine those hand spells without Bigby's name attached to them, regardless of what's in the SRD. It gives us a grouping we might not otherwise make so strongly.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">On that note, regional feats rule. The monk/paladin multiclass rules are a interesting but overly complex fix to an unpopular rule in the PHB. Shadow weave magic is grafted on, as was wild magic.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lord Rasputin, post: 2418247, member: 8410"] I liked the original boxed set. By 1991, I couldn't take the world any more. My issues are: [list] [*]Everything but the kitchen sink goes into this world. (Actually, I think there is a kitchen sink somewhere in Sembia ...) I appreciate the attention to detail, but rather than have a distinctive character like Krynn does or Eberron tries to have (it suffers from the same problem -- "everything in core D&D is in Eberron" is a really horrid idea, and the world would have been strengthened had WotC not done that). Right now, it tries to be a simulation of medieval Europe and a bazillion other cultures, when it would have been more interesting to either focus on one or two such cultures or styles of adventuring. [*]Oh, yeah, styles of adventuring. Elmunchkin irritates me to no end. He knows all and is super powerful, not because he's actually interesting or cool or something, but because he's the pet of Ed Greenwood. The old party played by his original players (Storm Silverhand and others) are boring as well -- they're characters in a roleplaying game, useful for slaying monsters. That's all fine and dandy, but they're not compelling enough as characters to use other than to kill monsters. It claims to be all roleplaying intrigue, but when it shows off its examples of roleplaying, we get a bunch of "kill the monsters and steal their stuff" characters. Nothing wrong with those types of characters, but I would never want to interact with them. Eberron's Indiana Jones-meets-D&D style was fresh, by contrast. Dragonlance's romantic fantasy was compelling. My long delayed point is that there is nothing style-wise that is in Krynn that wasn't already in Oerth, which is the more accessable setting due to having less "stuff" in it. [*]My goodness, that fight between the gods between 1e and 2e is the most contrived thing ever. I actually felt sorry for Ed Greenwood for once when I picked up the 2e FR book and read this stuff. FWIW, the gods are pretty bland as well, and also an unfocused mishmash. For all slamming the Greyhawk pantheon gets in some circles, these guys are no better. (As a side note, I'm still astonished that the Greyhawk deity detailing in [I]Complete Divine[/I] is so unpopular ... that was the best part of the book, a bunch of roleplaying information presented in a suitably crunchy way.) [*]OTOH, the individual crunch and detail books themselves are often quite good, often far better than the generic WotC D&D books of the same function. While I just whined about the FR's lack of focus, at least it adds some little detail to things like spell names and regional characteristics. I like Oerth better as a world because it doesn't try to be all things to all folks, but it would be nice if WotC were to actually let its generic books use Greyhawk as a focus. Having a famous wizard name a series of spells adds character -- we can't imagine those hand spells without Bigby's name attached to them, regardless of what's in the SRD. It gives us a grouping we might not otherwise make so strongly. [*]On that note, regional feats rule. The monk/paladin multiclass rules are a interesting but overly complex fix to an unpopular rule in the PHB. Shadow weave magic is grafted on, as was wild magic. [/list] [/QUOTE]
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