D&D 5E Lets talk about the Forgotten Realms

[Falling Icicle]

So, when it comes out what should it look like? What should have changed? What should still be the same? Should the spell plague have happened?

WotC really put themselves in a bind with the Spellplague. It radically changed the FR in so many ways that it's barely recognizable. Alot of people were really turned off by that. But there were also some people that liked the changes. If they leave the setting unchanged from 4e, they're not going to win anyone back. If, on the other hand, they pretend the spellplague never happened, they'll turn away the people that liked it.

One thing they could do is support both time periods and let people play in whichever era they prefer. I'm not sure how well that would work, but it's the only solution I can think of that can possibly please everyone.

What kind of dwarf, elf, and halfling sub-races should there be? What about backgrounds and themes? (i call them themes ). Should bladesigner be a class or a wizard tradition and why?

Why even have subraces at all? Can't different elves from different regions just be different culturally but the same mechanically? Humans from various cultures are radically different but are still the same race mechanically. Why can't the same be true of elves, dwarves, etc? I'm tired of having a dozen different elf subtypes and players choosing them not for roleplaying reasons, but because this particular type of elf gets a bonus to Int and this other one gets Cha, etc. Just say NO to subraces!

4e's forgotten realms introduced the Drow race and the Genasai races. Should the drow be a elven sub-race or a race of its own? How about the Genasai?? Should they get sub-races that work as the 4e manifestations? (fire, storm, water, earth, wind?) should these two races even be in the game?

I think Drow and Genasi should be distinct races. Unlike sun, moon, star, wild, wood, etc. elves, which are very similar to each other except for culture, the drow are radically different from other elves and should be a separate race. Genasi, likewise, are radically different from humans. The same goes for aasimar and tieflings.

What about the 4e swordmage? From the looks of it the play-test 2-3 sorcerer is going to be turned into the swordmage. Should they do anything with the swordmage in FR? (May be be to early to decide seeing has how we havn't seen the new swordmage)

There are alot of ways they could make the swordmage. It could be its own class, it could be a sorcerer origin or wizard tradition, or it could even be a specialty. I don't really have a preference either way.

 

[steeldragons]

Well, in my FR campaign, as of 24 years, Elminster died, and Drizzt is now working as rough trade (a rent-boy) in Calimport.

Can't XP you now (anyone care to help a Dragons out?). But thanks for the morning chuckle (a.k.a. almost spitting out my coffee).

Couldn'ta happened to a nicer drow.

--Steel Dragons

 

[edhel]

They've already talked about the future of the Realms, see:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAoq-vwWHHg"]The Sundering pt. 1[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5o9HxBLdO8"]The Sundering pt. 2[/ame]

 

[Grimmjow]

so a lot of people think that drow and genasai should be their own races. seeing as how 75% of races in the play-test have sub races, what sub-races could the drow use? genasai are kinda obvious (storm, fire, earth, water, wind) but what should these 5 "sub-races" do differently from eachother?

 

[GreyICE]

They need to take the realms and modernize them, if they're going to exist. The 3E implementation of the Realms is ridiculously antidiluvian in many respects - sexism in presentation is pretty much the norm, the drow are problematic, their expys of various earth cultures are usually incredibly stereotypical, and there's a number of painfully ridiculous things in there. And the number of god level Mary Sues...

Seriously, there's a reason they've been nuking the Realm regularly.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

so a lot of people think that drow and genasai should be their own races. seeing as how 75% of races in the play-test have sub races, what sub-races could the drow use?

None. Subraces are a bad idea and don't need to be replicated. Drow are practically a subrace anyway (in flavor terms).

genasai are kinda obvious (storm, fire, earth, water, wind) but what should these 5 "sub-races" do differently from eachother?

Sounds like it's not worth making them into a PC race.

 

[the Jester]

so a lot of people think that drow and genasai should be their own races. seeing as how 75% of races in the play-test have sub races, what sub-races could the drow use?

We DO NOT need more races or subraces. PLEASE LET'S NOT.

 

[Uzzy]

1. Do the Star Wars thing of different ages, and treat them as mostly separate entities. So you can release books for the Grey Box era, the 2nd/3rd Edition era (which are mostly similar) and the Spellplague era, as well as going even further back into history. It would be interesting to see books about the height of Netheril, or Myth Drannor.

2. Stop having a metaplot. Infact, this should be number one. Stop it. I don't want to see novels doing stupid things like blowing up countries or reforming ancient civilisations.

That's pretty much it really. Do that and I'll buy products for it, as long as I never have to look at anything set in the Spellplague era.

 

[JeffB]

It would be interesting to see books about the height of Netheril, or Myth Drannor.

TSR did that. Arcane Age. Sold very poorly and line was dropped before the WOTC buyout.

For me, my Realms campaign is so retro, there is no point in me buying another version even If I did switch to NEXT. I use the OGB as an outline, a couple 2E references for geographical info and maps (Volos Guides, the 2E box), and run a S&S style Threesy Peasy ( 3.0 lite) game with just the four classic core races and classes.

 

[Li Shenron]

2. Stop having a metaplot. Infact, this should be number one. Stop it. I don't want to see novels doing stupid things like blowing up countries or reforming ancient civilisations.

I think this will never happen, I guess that those novels must be really good (I've never read one myself) thus they are probably an asset for the publisher.

My two D&D favourite settings have been Forgotten Realms and Rokugan, both of them plagued by the metaplot problem

But my way of dealing with that has been to completely ignore the novels and stick to one edition, obviously the edition where I started reading about them (D&D 3.0). I guess that it isn't the best version of either, but that's my choice. Changing the world every time the rules change because of a new D&D edition always screamed "lame" in capital letters to me, especially when this involves heavy stuff like changing the races of the world or the pantheons... these are things that should happen once in a million years.

I guess I was really lucky not to like 4e (and neither AEG's own new edition of L5R) so that I didn't have to adapt to their advances to FR and Rokugan. I am a bit more worried now because I do overall like 5e, and I would probably want to switch to that, but I don't want to change the settings I am already familiar with.