D&D General How to reboot the Forgotten Realms (+)

[Jolly Ruby]

Maybe it's an unpopular opinion lately, but I actually like the Forgotten Realms setting. However, every time I start a campaign set in the Realms I see myself going back to the Old Grey Box. The amount of lore current FR has is overwhelming, and I think it would benefit from a reboot (soft or not).

My idea for a FR reboot: Remake the Grey Box. Reset the calendar back to 1357 and publish a new campaign setting box set with information about the Sword Coast, the Heartlands and the Savage Frontier. Add some new stuff to it, like tieflings, to align with the lore of the new editions. Then fill it with interconnected plot hooks, like the old Grey Box.

So, how would you reboot the Forgotten Realms?

(Note this is a (+) thread, so assume that you're on board with rebooting the Forgotten Realms (even a "soft reboot") since the thread focus on how to reboot it, not whether it needs to be rebooted)

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

The Wall of the Faithless goes. This is not open to negotiation.

 

[The Glen]

Has anybody tried turning it off and turning it back on again?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I don't think it needs rebooting, per se. I think the people writing official materials just need to realize that most players don't care about their established NPCs and their histories, and that they should stop trying to make factions happen. The impossible amount of lore is great as stuff to pick and choose from, or to be able to fill in things a player asks about with a google search of the realms wiki. My issue is that published campaigns are overly enamored with it. As I've ranted about before the instigating event of Out of the Abyss is Drow Archmage Gromph Baenre letting loose Demon Princes, but he doesn't exist in the actual adventure, and some other random Drow Archmage does. Gromph is just in the narrative to reference Drizzt books or something, but the players never get to meet the guy who caused all their trouble because we don't want them to kill off a precious established NPC. The published campaigns tend to have convoluted enough plots and too many moving pieces even without needlessly shoehorning in big name npcs whom the writers then have to be careful how they use.

If I were rebooting I would be all in favor of a "soft reboot" in the sense of creating new official lore that in no way is beholden to or requires understanding of old official lore, but doesn't necessarily contradict it. I say just jump the setting 500 years in the future. Legacy lore elements can still be discovered in ancient crypts and the like, but a new, simpler setting can be constructed.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

The Wall of the Faithless goes. This is not open to negotiation.

Knowing very little about the Forgotten Realms, would it be in bad taste to be a curious and ask what The Wall of the Faithless is?

 

[The Glen]

Knowing very little about the Forgotten Realms, would it be in bad taste to be a curious and ask what The Wall of the Faithless is?

It's punishment by the gods. If you don't worship them or believe in them they weld you to a wall in the afterlife.

 

[Spellslinging Sellsword]

I would love to see them take the original box set and supplements and give them the 3rd Edition campaign hardback treatment.

 

[Scribe]

The Wall of the Faithless goes. This is not open to negotiation.

Its already been stealth errata removed, have no fear. It wont be coming back if Wizards ever gets back into making lore.

 

[bedir than]

Has anybody tried turning it off and turning it back on again?

about every six months

 

[humble minion]

I like FR.

If I was rebooting it, I'd probably go back to a time just before the 3e FRCS, which lets me pick and choose the bits i like most out of that generally excellent product. You really need to get rid of all the 4th ed Spellplague stuff because so much of it was nonsensical, poorly detailed, or rendered useless a whole swathe of perfectly good regional sourcebooks, and turned the whole pantheon upside down in a manner that would have had long-lasting repercussions that more modern FR products contrive to completely ignore.

Aglarond is more interesting with the Simbul still around, Thay is more interesting with the council of Zulkirs rather than Szass Tam ruling the place (even though he is the strongest of them), and the whole Thayan Enclave idea was interesting too. The Zhentarim were never interesting, do what you like with those. I prefer Cormyr ruled by Azoun rather than Alusair and the throne of Tethyr still vacant, so I'll take the pre-FRCS iterations of those places, but i don't mind the city of Shade still hanging around, and the Thunder Twin plotline that was introduced in FRCS had possibilities, if anyone had bothered doing anything with it. The Chosen etc were much less prominent in the setting way back in the Grey Box from memory, I'd wind them back to that sort of level. There was a one-line plot hook in FRCS that i always wanted to do something with, about the semi-divine pharoah of Mulhorand romancing a Cormyrian paladin of the Red Knight with potentially large political/religious implications, so that stays. Obould and the Kingdom of Many Arrows stays too, that was one of the better 3e ideas. I'd keep the very-LN realpolitik version of Khelben who's split off from the Harpers and is running his own network, more plot hooks that way. And while I don't think Zakhara has any place in FR, I think i would try to use an updated/modernised version of the Maztica/Amn situation in some way that bites Amn (and possibly Helm) on the bum a bit. And I'd retcon the whole thing how the entire Maztican society was destroyed in the novels and the responsible parties defeated by boring NPCs before PCs could even get there.

Bane over Iyachtu Xvim (what bright spark decided one of the top 3 gods of evil in the setting should have an utterly unpronouncable name, I want to know...), and bring back all the little obscure minor godlings like Nobanion, Siamophe, Leira, Gilgeam, Sharess and so on that always got cut from later products because of page count. I don't particularly like Cyric, but winding him back impacts Kelemvor (who I do like) so I guess he can stay, though I probably wouldn't use him myself. Not sure about Myrkul, there's not really space for him with Kelemvor as the god of the dead, and he doesn't add much that someone like Velsharoon or Bhaal can't do. Also, I'd add more evil non-human deities (I mean, look at the dwarven pantheon - what a bunch of boring goody-goodies! Abbathor, you're weaksauce and you need to get eviler or make way for someone who will. And the halfling gods are even blander. At least the gnomes have ONE token evil god!). Asmodeus and the Raven Queen can feel free to leave, nobody asked for them in FR, and there's already several more interesting gods filling their portfolios. The Raven Queen is basically just gender-flipped Kelemvor anyway.

FR has always been high-magic and kitchen-sink (in a good way) so I don't think much extra explanation is needed about the origins of teiflings, dragonborn, or even owlin, warforged, or whatever else you want to add to the setting. They were either always there in some obscure locale, or they were created in one of the zillion lost civilisations or divine curses or magical accidents or bouts of archmage experimentation that happen in the Realms every Tuesday.

 

[Stormonu]

If they just made the Grey FR box set available in POD on DrivethruRPG, I'd take that.

I think that if all the main FR campaign settings (1E, 2E, 3E, 4E, 5E) were available as evergreen PODs on Drivethru, that should allow folks to use the setting version they want. Future adventures could either present boxed text for setting in the different version, or keep it loose enough it could be used in any of the five with minimal change.

 

[Clint_L]

I don't think we have to worry about the future of the Forgotten Realms setting, given that the upcoming film is set there. WotC clearly sees it as the default setting for the game, and a vehicle to build the IP around. And I think it is a good idea to have one generic setting for most of the adventures, and then include hooks if you want to use them in Eberron, Tal'Dorei, etc. I might update it to include specific locations from the film that aren't already in it.

 

[James Gasik]

It would be nice to time travel back to the Grey Box era. No Time of Troubles. No Returned Abeir.

2e was a crazy, gonzo era of D&D that I dearly love, but some of the things that happened after the Grey Box made the Realms a bit too crazy gonzo for me. It's hard to reconcile a story like The Crystal Shard with Elminster's plane bopping, the entire Cyrinishad debacle, Cadderly's wacky adventures (even though I like Cadderly!), an Elven space fleet dock at Evermeet, or a Spelljammer dropping in on Waterdeep to dispense wheel lock pistols (I mean, we know Ed loves him some firearms, but they could exist as part of the setting and not feel like this tacked on thing), or stapling on "like this real world region, but fantasy" areas like Zakhara, Kara-Tur, or Maztica.

I mean, I like Zakhara, but the Forgotten Realms already had Calimshan and Anauroch, so Zakhara really feels uneccessary.

Thanks to the novels, we're led to believe that there is some Realms-destroying catastrophe about to descend upon the land every week, between Gods killing Gods, dead Gods rising, powerful sentient artifacts from another reality, rampaging dragon flights, pseudo-Mongol hordes, super powerful liches (some of whom command entire nations of evil wizards), and, at any moment, a forgotten gate could pop open and dispense an entire hoard of orcs out of nowhere (sorry Blizzard, Forgotten Realms did it first!).

Let alone feeling like every major event is solved by the actions of S-Tier NPC's who overpopulate the setting, but (generally) don't try to take over (except when they do) because of a "magical cold war".

 

[Andvari]

I'm already running a game in 1340 DR.

 

[S'mon]

Maybe it's an unpopular opinion lately, but I actually like the Forgotten Realms setting. However, every time I start a campaign set in the Realms I see myself going back to the Old Grey Box.

This is what I did for my 5e FR campaign - 1e Grey Box + 1e/2e Bloodstone Lands, started in 1358 DR, up to late 1361 DR now.

 

[Alby87]

To me, they have already rebooted that. D&D General - Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide: Is it (stealthy) a reboot of the Forgotten Realms?

This is why the Sword Coast guide is so thin: you don't have to know every single thing happened to the realms in the past to enjoy it.

 

[Yora]

I think the AD&D Campaign Set and several of the FR series splatbooks are pretty great (Savage Frontier, Bloodstone Lands, Dreams of the Red Wizards).

The problem is that to reboot the setting in a way that captures the qualities of the original, we would first have to reboot AD&D. Having only the original 7 character races and the orignal 10 character classes and the limitations of magic seems crucial to creating the feel of the setting. It also needs an oldschool exploration system in which nonmagical resources matter and a combat system and monster stats simple enough to handle random encounters on the fly. I don't see WotC being in a position where they could produce such a game, unless they would make it a completely separate brand from their D&D.
Releasing it as a campaign setting for Old-School Essentials Advanced Rules could work.

I would limit the published setting to the northern half of Faerun. Western Heartlands, Cormyr, Sembia, Aglarond, Thay, and everything north of that. The Southern half was pretty much not covered at all in the 1st edition sources. These are places where foreign merchants come from and the occasional mysterious wizard. But they are places that are only occasionally heard of, but not seen.

Obviously this setting would exist in an alternate continuity in which the Time of Troubles never happens. Otherwise there would be no point to the entire exercise.

Where the greateat potential lies is in making the setting actually look and feel based on 13th and 14th century Europe, as is stated in the introduction to the campaign set. None of the Rennaisance style of 2nd edition and the Dungeon Punk that followed. 100 Years War armor styles, woodblock printing, Hanseatic League style merchant guilds, and things like that.

Also, keep and reinforce the notion that "civilization is something of a novelty" in the northern half of Faerun. Cormyr is the exception as a unified kingdom under a single king. Impiltur, Damara, and Aglarond are more confedrations pledging allegiance to a king than centralized states.

And keep the human focus. The elves are pretty much gone. Other than Evereska, there are no elven settlements in Faerun at all. Only a few individuals or small bands who still roam around on their own. Dwarven civilzation has been shattered. King Harbrom of Adbar is the last true dwarven king deserving that title. There are some old dwarven strongholds in the Spine of the World and the Earthspur Mountains that still have some dwarves living in them, but most dwarves that other people will ever encounter are minorities in human cities.

Orcs, goblins, and giants are rare, with orcs playing a prominent role only in the Spine of the World and the lands immediate to its south. And of course a whole can of worms on their own. To recapture the original setting they need to regularly clash violently with human settlements, but they also should be more than an entire race of green-skinned marauders.

In the end, just return back to the original material from the first 2 years before the renfairigpfication of AD&D, and take its statements about the world as fact and follow through with them.

 

[Firwood]

Foreword: I am a player of AD&D 2ed and am very fond of the material published for this system.
I would keep the setting as it was before the publication of the Campaign Setting for the 3ed (still a truly extraordinary manual!!).
I would use 1369 DR as the starting year, immediately after Time of Troubles.
Of the 3ed material, which I think is excellent, I would keep the details of the races, languages, prestige classes (turned into kits) etc. while I would completely ignore anything published after 3ed.
On the level of events, I would always stop at 1369 or 1370 DR, avoiding the introduction of events such as the reappearance of the city of Shade and others.

 

[James Gasik]

Foreword: I am a player of AD&D 2ed and am very fond of the material published for this system.
I would keep the setting as it was before the publication of the Campaign Setting for the 3ed (still a truly extraordinary manual!!).
I would use 1369 AD as the starting year, immediately after Time of Troubles.
Of the 3ed material, which I think is excellent, I would keep the details of the races, languages, prestige classes (turned into kits) etc. while I would completely ignore anything published after 3ed.
On the level of events, I would always stop at 1369 or 1370 AD, avoiding the introduction of events such as the reappearance of the city of Shade and others.

Yeah, the Shades are something I could do without. During the 4e era, I played in some excellent Living Forgotten Realms adventures that used Returned Netheril as the bad guys, so I won't say I didn't care for the metaplot development, but if there's one thing I can attest to, is that Toril has no shortage of BBEG's to choose from, so adding more seems kind of messed up. I mean think about it, you got:

*Megalomaniacal spellcasters.
*Thay (or is that the same thing?)
*The Zhentarim (these guys refuse to die!)
*Gods.
*The Cult of the Dragon.
*Drow.
*Interlopers from other planes/outer space (I see you, Acererak!)
*Monsters (like, normal monsters, Trolls, Or...Owlbears, that sort of thing)
*Dragons
*Ancient Evils (Phaerimm)
*Demons and Devils (let's put the Fey'ri and the Tanarukk here)
*Corrupt Nobles (is there any other kind?)
*Jumped-up Thieves' Guilds (Fire Knives, for example)

And most of this was before we also had the Horde, Returned Netheril, the Abolethic Sovereignty, the Cult of Moander, and anything else I'm forgetting at the moment.

 

[schneeland]

I would limit the published setting to the northern half of Faerun. Western Heartlands, Cormyr, Sembia, Aglarond, Thay, and everything north of that. The Southern half was pretty much not covered at all in the 1st edition sources. These are places where foreign merchants come from and the occasional mysterious wizard. But they are places that are only occasionally heard of, but not seen.

So just to double check: Calimshan/Calimport would be out in this version? (I think it was described in Empire of the Sands, wasn't it?)