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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5789050" data-attributes="member: 20741">I never played in the Forgotten Realms -- and I never ran it, either.But somewhere along the way, I got involved in writing an official D&D computer  game for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights. As a consequence of that contract, I had to immerse myself in the hefty lore of the Forgotten Realms in order to create something "official" for it that worked completely with the FR canon.As it turned out, I ended up creating an "official dragon" for the Forgotten Realms that made its way into a 3.5 hardcover-- my one little contribution to the whole of it. (Which, on balance, was actually pretty damned cool.)  But more importantly than that, in doing my extensive background research on the FR for that NWN game, I came to appreciate the sheer diversity and usefulness of a Kitchen-Sink setting like the Realms from a commercial design and marketing perspective.For a whole host of reasons from a game design perspective, a Kitchen-Sink  setting makes the most "commercial sense" if one has to design a commercial game world. Paizo did exactly the same thing with Golarion. And I understand completely why Paizo chose Golarion to be the way it is and have designed it in that fashion. As a shared commercial world -- it fits their needs brilliantly. I get it.Altering the FR in the manner that 4E did was unwise and has not been successful for WotC. I was neither a fan of the FR, nor of 4E, but I GOT the reason why there were people who were attached to this setting and felt that it had been abused by the changes forced upon it. While that didn't kill any sacred cow that I had made a real emotional investment in -- I still understood that many gamers had. So I empathized with their injured feelings. I get it.For some people, I can see how Greyhawk is important to them. I played in it with 1st ed -- have run games set in it, too -- so I can see why that is important to some people and why they would like to see that restored as "the default setting". As between the FR and Greyhawk, I'm not terribly drawn to one or the other -- but I understand why many fans are. I empathize with their attachment to Greyhawk. I get it. As for DragonLance and Krynn, I loved it for a time and I became heavily  invested in it. (My Avatar is a one-of-a-kind hand-drawn sketch of Lord Soth by an artist at Marvel.) Still, I think that like  all things from our youth -- we can't revisit them in that fashion  again, no matter how much we wish we could. TSR went to the DraonLance well a  few times too many, and after WotC licensed it to Margaret Weiss and her  company in 2005, we had a chance to go there again for 3.5. Turns out, it  didn't set the gaming world on fire then -- and I don't see it happening in 5E  either.What I DO Believe InI personally believe that if any setting is going to come along and have a huge impact on the gaming world, it will be something LIKE DragonLance. And by "like it", I don't mean similar to Krynn in any real or connected sense of the term -- simply that it will be a setting created for the very purpose of being the location of an Adventure Path intended to be set within it. That Adventure Path should be cross-supported by decent novels which hits the right buttons in the marketplace at the time it is released.And yes, inevitably, then they'll probably have to genericize the setting  after that AP story is over; it will be become bland and watered down and wrecked. But up to that point? It's all good!That's how DragonLance did when it "saved" TSR from its financial woes in the initial post-Gygax era. If WotC wants that lightning to strike again, seems to me that they need to give it a chance of doing so.But in the meanwhile, there needs to be some sort of kitchen-sink setting that makes commercial sense. One of the biggest factors in it being able to MAKE commercial sense is if it is popular and engenders emotional attachment to the largest swath of players.And yes, that means the Forgotten Realms for 5E. So that makes sense to me. I get it.The shame of it is, I have seen no evidence == ZERO evidence == that WotC is interested in telling an "official epic story" of any kind using the Dungeons and Dragons rules.  WotC is instead interested in letting gamers make up their own stories with their rules. Not a bad philosophy to be sure, but it isn't a mutually exclusive approach from the DragonLance AP concept, either.  There is room and money for both.That said, the fact that WotC has never attempted to do this with any serious product initiative in the past nearly 15 years suggests to me that I should not hold my breath.</blockquote>

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