How Would You Have Handled the Forgotten Realms?

[I'm A Banana]

This assumes you are incharge of FR fluff writing and the company higherups said, "Write a FRCS book. We want to make it easy for new players to jump in and has to work with the PoL base assumption of 4E. Oh incorporate Tieflings and Dragonborn."

*cracks knuckles*

Time to make this baby POSTAPOCAYLPTIC for a while.

The gods die. The big NPC's die. The world is shaken. Magic breaks. The bad guys win. In a BIG WAY.

Your job, in 4e, should you choose to accept it, is to rebuild this thing, to seek out remnants of the past to give evidence for the future, to find Elminster's insane shell and rehabilitate it, to join Drizzit as he stops armies of Drow from swarming out of deep rents in the earth, to watch the Terrasque devour famlies in the Dales.

The heroes are dead. Long live your PC's. The NEW heroes.

 

[Orius]

Other, because I don't have an answer, because I don't really care. I pretty much just loot the Realms for crunch.

Still, advancing the timeline isn't bad, but 100 years seems a bit much.

 

[Orius]

A lot of people also said "Advance the timeline", and I guess it makes sense.

Look at some of the other D&D worlds. They already tried the Reset Button at least twice with DL (Dragons of Summer Flame and that SAGA stuff, then the new 3e stuff) and presumably once with Greyhawk (Greyhawk Wars and From the Ashes). And we all know how well those turned out. I think they've learned from the past; a big radical change to the Realms probably won't help it.

Same with a new continent. Was Taladas ever popular in DL? And how many people in the Realms want to keep playing in Faerun, and not somewhere else? FR is a big seller, and the stuff that sells it is either in or under Faerun. Al-Qadim was fairly popular, but that's got it's strong Arabian flavor, and it's not necessarily a "core" type of setting. Same with Kara-Tur and Maztica; neither are core settings, and are they really popular enough? And would a new continent be able to build enough of a fan base?

They already went into the past with Netheril and Cormanthor. They can judge by how well those did as to how well a past setting may do. Of course a great option for the past would be in the centuries after the fall of Netheril, lots of POL in a situation like that.

 

[ruleslawyer]

A lot of people also said "Advance the timeline", and I guess it makes sense.

Look at some of the other D&D worlds. They already tried the Reset Button at least twice with DL (Dragons of Summer Flame and that SAGA stuff, then the new 3e stuff) and presumably once with Greyhawk (Greyhawk Wars and From the Ashes). And we all know how well those turned out. I think they've learned from the past; a big radical change to the Realms probably won't help it.

Um, I don't think either of those is the "Reset button."

For me, a Reset button would be to run the Realms would be "Year Zero"; starting in 1356-58 DR, with the benefit of the campaign supplements that were published 1e-3e to flesh out the setting, but without the novel happenings and RSEs. (This is how I started my last two campaigns, BTW.)

They already went into the past with Netheril and Cormanthor. They can judge by how well those did as to how well a past setting may do. Of course a great option for the past would be in the centuries after the fall of Netheril, lots of POL in a situation like that.

The current picture of Faerun *is* Faerun "after the fall of Netheril." There have been no significant changes in the Realms in terms of how "point-of-light-ish" they are, except for those (the reunification of Tethyr, the fall of Hellgate Keep and the creation of the Silver Marches) that were launched in novels.

Really, the Realms are plenty point-of-light-ish as written: Aglarond and Rashemen are menaced by Thay, the North is a sea of orcs, monsters, unfriendly secret societies, and ancient cursed ruins dotted with a few specks of civilization, the Dales and Western Heartlands are a bunch of settlements and farmsteads with few real powers that are good (the strongest military might in both regions is the Zhentarim, in Teshwave and Darkhold respectively). The rulers of Cormyr, Elminster, the Seven (er, five really) Sisters, and the Harpers can provide aid and succor for the heroes, but then there are the Zhentarim, Red Wizards, Cult of the Dragon, and countless orc hordes, self-styled dragon rulers, evil undead sorcerer-kings of Netheril, conniving serpentfolk, and would-be tyrants like Lashan to oppose them.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I voted for advance the timeline, but I would like to go on record as saying that I really really really want them to do some of the other continents.

A re-tread of Al-Quadim would be particularly awesome.

Putting the other races in there wouldn't be too much of a problem natively, but it would also be an awesome opportunity to expand the setting.

 

[kunadam]

The naming of the choices are rather bad. I pressed advance the timeline, as thought this would be the standard: "stay as it is", there was an advance of timeline in 1st -> 2nd change, and also at 2nd -> 3rd change. Advance it with 15-30 years.
The "reset" is what we have seen they do with FR.

 

[Orius]

The current picture of Faerun *is* Faerun "after the fall of Netheril." There have been no significant changes in the Realms in terms of how "point-of-light-ish" they are, except for those (the reunification of Tethyr, the fall of Hellgate Keep and the creation of the Silver Marches) that were launched in novels.

What I mean by after the fall of Netheril is about a thousand years in Faerun's past, so 375 DR or so. We're talking around the time Elminster was born, give or take a few decades.

Anyway, I read part of the long thread about the new history of the Realms, and it generally sounds good. The whole part with

Spoiler

Tyr and Helm fighting over Tymora and Helm dying

sounds pretty silly, and doesn't really fit them, but hey I never liked Helm anyway.

Spoiler

Cyric murders Mystra, apparently with Shar's help

. Good, I never really liked that goody two shoes anyway.

Spoiler

And there's their shared background from the Avatar trilogy or whatever, this bit of deicide actually fits the setting better

. But to make it better, the other gods should

Spoiler

have executed Cyric and be done with it, instead of just imprisoning him. For one, it gets rid of most of the new gods from the Time of Troubles. Cyric's a new god just like the new Mystra, and they should have just made an example of him. Secondly, he's a mental incompetant and always screwing up.

If you need evil gods for the Realms, Bane, Shar, Bane, Talos, and especially Bane fit the bill. There's one major god there for each evil alignment (though maybe alignment's getting the axe, too.)

Spoiler

Cyric just seems to get in everyone's face and not in a good way

People don't seem to like the

Spoiler

Spellplague, but it gives them a chance to change the spellcasters from Vancian to the new system. It also gives an excuse to wipe out the Chosen, and some redundant magic gods. Heck, maybe they could make Elminster the new god of magic, he needs a reduction in power anyway.

 

[Dormammu]

I choose Reset and I would eliminate Drizzt and anything else that feels like it was written by a 14 year old (which would be a lot).

 

[Odysseus]

I think what they are trying to do is advance the timeline slightly, and doing a partial reset.

What I would of prefered is for a big advancement of the timeline. To put some distance between the current realms and the new points of light realms.

 

[Mirtek]

Other: Nothing

I would have done nothing. Just continue in 1376 DR with the status left by 1375 DR and the new ruleset instead the old ruleset