Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 5789053" data-attributes="member: 18182">In Defense of the Realms, and DrizztFolks trashing the Realms has become tired, beyond tired.  It's the edition wars shifted over to the campaign settings, and it's just as ridiculous.  So, you prefer Greyhawk (or Dragonlance, or Eberron, or whatever) over the Realms.  That's nice, and if you're civil about expressing it, I wouldn't mind discussing settings on the forums with you.  But when folks whip out the childish hyperbole of "Drizzt Sucks!" (or El, or the Spellplague, or whatever), I just turn off and stop caring about your opinions.Morrus might have been a bit too flippant towards the Realms for my tastes in the OP, but my little reverse rant isn't aimed at him, but more towards some later posts that "agree" with the OP, and then take things predictably too far.I like the Realms, and I'm not a huge fan of the Greyhawk setting.  But I won't trash it, because, well, I'm kinda a polite guy (and there is a lot to like in GH, even if the overall setting doesn't do it for me).  What do I like about the Realms?  It certainly is a "generic" setting that is very "full" with detail and has some pretty amazingly high powered NPCs.  As a gaming setting, the Realms has always appealed to me as a "generic" (hate the term, but can't think of a better one) setting that embodies everything D&D, and then adds new stuff that is easily portable to other "generic" campaigns, homebrew or published.  It's D&D+ to me!  Plus, some of the stories told in the realms in video games, novels, and comics have been EXCELLENT and are a valued part of my library that I return to again and again.Finally, I'll part with a defense of Elminster and Drizzt.  First, El is most certainly insanely overpowered and, for a time, was overused in the rpg books and fiction.  But El fell prey to the "Klingon Effect" (IMO).  He was originally created as the Gandalf figure who was supposed to be in the background as a plot device to provide hooks for adventurers . . . but due to a combination of his popularity as a character and his author's enjoyment of writing him, he took center stage for a while in the 2nd Edition days.  But even then, it was easy-peasy to put El "back in his place" when running games, as most FR DMs did.  In 3E and 4E, despite the ongoing novel series about him, El was once again relegated to the background so the PCs were in the spotlight again.  Over a decade ago.Drizzt is even easier to defend (and also is a "victim" of the Klingon Effect).  He is a great character!  If you don't care for Salvatore's writing style, and/or the character himself, that's fine.  But Drizzt is popular for a reason, and it isn't because his skin is jet black and he's a kewl dark elf.  It's because he's well written.  He is the constant loner whom no one understands (except perhaps his small circle of hard-won friends), which resonates with a lot of folks.  And, in regards to the name thing, D&D settings in general are riddled with "stupid" names, so folks mocking the extra zzz's are being willfully ignorant as it's pretty easy to pick any D&D setting and come up with a good list of "stupid" names.Ultimately, folks mock the Drizzt character, and the Realms as a whole, because they are popular settings.  There is this sick element of American culture, or perhaps human nature, that loves to tear down what others enjoy.  It's not unique to gaming of course, but here we are on ENWorld.If you don't care for it, that's fine.  Express it, even.  But please, try and cut back on the insults and hyperbole, it just makes you look mean-spirited.</blockquote>

Verification