D&D 5E How will the Forgotten Realms be handled?

[TwoSix]

My intent was not to complain, sorry if it came off that way. I want to liberate you guys from the hatred of novels that really don't have to affect you. But if you take it as complaining, that's alright. It wasn't my intent though! Good gaming!

No worries, I just like to make Faerun god puns! It's fine, Auril's well that ends well.

 

[Plissken]

My intent was not to complain, sorry if it came off that way. I want to liberate you guys from the hatred of novels that really don't have to affect you. But if you take it as complaining, that's alright. It wasn't my intent though! Good gaming!

I don't think he really cares. He just wanted to use that pun.

 

[Evenglare]

LoL alright.

 

[Hussar]

You guys act as though the novels are being forced on us. I can't say that I have ever met anyone who used all the canon of every novel and suppliment in the realms. Hell, I can't say that about ANY campaign setting. Change things the way you want to change them. Some of you seem to be under the notion of NOVELS BE DAMNED THIS IS HOW I LIKE THE REALMS! As if you are being pushed to some extreme when almost everyone does this automatically without the vile hatred. Don't like Drizzt? Don't use him. Eliminate him from your version of the realms. There is no realms police that are going to come and kidnap you from erasing a fictional character in a fictional world. The novels are simply a shared interpretation of the realms. It's quite ironic that some people complain about conflicting thing in the novel, which assumes that when the authors wrote those novels they were writing their characters in the realms THEY knew, and yet that's what you guys are doing as well when you change the realms. You are conflicting with the story and changing it the way you like because, screw it! It's what you want to do! And that's AWESOME! That's what the novelists do with this fictional world, and kudos to them! I never let canon get me down, and believe me when I run or play star wars campaigns there's a lot there, or any other published setting. Somethings I like, and somethings I don't, but to just HATE something, it seems like so much effort to put on what is essentially make belief.

But, you are missing the point. Every subsequent supplement has to take the novels into account. So, every time there is a RSE in the novels, those will be reflected in the subsequent supplements and people LIKE buying supplements. If, for example, one of the writers burns down Waterdeep and this gets actually printed, then every later supplement will have a destroyed Waterdeep.

That's the problem that people are having. Not that their current campaign has to incorporate some novel's canon but that their next campaign, or maybe a Living FR campaign, will have to incorporate it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

But, you are missing the point. Every subsequent supplement has to take the novels into account. So, every time there is a RSE in the novels, those will be reflected in the subsequent supplements and people LIKE buying supplements. If, for example, one of the writers burns down Waterdeep and this gets actually printed, then every later supplement will have a destroyed Waterdeep.

That's the problem that people are having. Not that their current campaign has to incorporate some novel's canon but that their next campaign, or maybe a Living FR campaign, will have to incorporate it.

That's not a trait/problem unique to novels. It applies to supplements, too. If the folks at WotC decide to burn down Waterdeep, they could do it in an adventure or other supplement and still have it apply moving forward.

As I said before, it's not the novel authors who decide to have RSEs. It's the D&D team, who then choose on or more authors to implement said change.

 

[Hussar]

That's not a trait/problem unique to novels. It applies to supplements, too. If the folks at WotC decide to burn down Waterdeep, they could do it in an adventure or other supplement and still have it apply moving forward.

As I said before, it's not the novel authors who decide to have RSEs. It's the D&D team, who then choose on or more authors to implement said change.

Oh, fair enough. That's certainly true. But, how many novels are there compared to supplements in a given year? You typically get maybe what, three FR supplements in a year. Maybe that many if you include Dragon Magazine articles. How many FR novels get banged out every single year? It's more an issue with quantity.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh, fair enough. That's certainly true. But, how many novels are there compared to supplements in a given year? You typically get maybe what, three FR supplements in a year. Maybe that many if you include Dragon Magazine articles. How many FR novels get banged out every single year? It's more an issue with quantity.

Again, though, it really isn't. Most novels don't make major changes to the Realms, and there's not a fixed proportion that must. As for the ones that do, that still remains up to the folks at WotC. Whether one particular year sees two FR novels, or twenty, or two-hundred, the fact remains that the Realms will change exactly as much as the in-house creative teams wants it to, no more or less.

The RSEs may reside mostly in the novels, but that's because it's where the company chooses to put them, not because the novels somehow cause them.

 

[Hussar]

Again, though, it really isn't. Most novels don't make major changes to the Realms, and there's not a fixed proportion that must. As for the ones that do, that still remains up to the folks at WotC. Whether one particular year sees two FR novels, or twenty, or two-hundred, the fact remains that the Realms will change exactly as much as the in-house creative teams wants it to, no more or less.

The RSEs may reside mostly in the novels, but that's because it's where the company chooses to put them, not because the novels somehow cause them.

I'd buy that. Although, if that's true, it does explain a lot of the negativity towards the novel lines.

 

[mach1.9pants]

If I can cast my mind back to the olden days, didn't Bhaal die (EDIT: After sucking the life out of every assassin in FR) because he was the patron of assassins and the 80s hysteria meant no assassins in 2E? Not sure what happened to the half orcs of the realms, maybe they were all assassins and bit the bullet then!

 

[Echohawk]

How many FR novels get banged out every single year?

Fewer than you might think, at least recently...

2012
The Masked Witches
Venom in Her Veins
Eye of the Chained God
The Rose of Sarifal
Sword of the Gods: Spinner of Lies (eBook)
Prince of Ravens (eBook)
The Gilded Rune
Skein of Shadows (eBook)
Charon's Claw
Elminster Enraged
Eye of Justice (eBook)
Spider and Stone (eBook)

2013
Prophet of the Dead
The Last Threshold
The Companions
The Godborn
The Adversary

2014
The Reaver
The Sentinel
The Herald