New Default Setting: Forgotten Realms?

[shadow]

When 3e came out it was stated that the "default" setting was going to Greyhawk. The PHB listed Greyhawk gods as the "default" deities, and mentions of Greyhawk were littered throughout the text. I'm wondering if 3.5e will change the default setting to Forgotten Realms. My reasons for this are:

1. After the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer was released, we have seen no new Greyhawk products, while there has been a whole hoard of Forgotten Realms products.

2. It has been confirmed that the DMG will contain the Red Wizard prestige class, a prestige class from the Forgotten Realms. If Greyhawk is still the default setting, why hasn't a Greyhawk specific prestige class used as an example of a setting specific prestige class?

3. Besides a few diehard fans, Greyhawk isn't well known or liked. On the other hand Forgotten Realms is very popular, they have a huge novel line as well as all the hundreds of game products.

Will the Greyhawk gods in the PHB be replaced by Forgotten Realms gods? Will Alhandra be a paladin of Tyr instead of Heironyus? We'll have to wait until July to find out.

 

[Thels]

I don't think that would be good. The core books are full enough as it is not to mention any worldly details. If you would go and play FR without any background info, you're not playing FR. Buying FR books shouldn't be a requirement to play, so it wouldn't work.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think that the original post is grossly overstatted.

There has not been a 'horde' of Forgotten Realms products. Probably less than ten in two years.

Greyhawk has seen default support in almost every core book released ala Sword & Fist downwards.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Greyhawk is STILL the default setting. True, there are some PrCs drawn from the Realms, but there are so many there that its one of the best places to GET them. From what's been said, since this has come up before, Greyhawk isn't going anywhere. It isn't supported like FR for a reason. The designers are leaving Greyhawk MUCH more open and free than FR is.

 

[JeffB]

*mild rant*
For the most part any GH "Flavor" things in 3E have been simply lip service.

Other than the excellent LGG, I haven't seen anything GH, regardless of whether WOTC calls everything "GH by default" or not.


They cannot even put a "real" GH PRClass into a book. Ranger of the Gnarley Forest? Hardby Marines? Nope. Instead they make "kewl new stuff" with token GH names...Temple Raider of Olidimarra & Fist of Hextor...BLECH...*end mild rant*

On the other hand while not up to the number of FR products previously, 3E has still seen far more FR products, all full color, many in hardback, etc. And most of those products hav been VERY good.

But I don't suspect we shall see any more intrusion of FR in the "core" system. In fact I think we will see less GH lip service, AND less FR products. WOTC will try and didtance themselves from that kind of stuff, all the time trying to make the system more generic to appeal to more gamers & to the D20 companies whose products helps drive sales of the core books.

 

[The_Gneech]

If Greyhawk is actually "the default setting," then where is the Sunless Citadel? Nightfang Spire? The official answer, I know, is "We didn't want to restrict the DM from using it wherever their campaign is." It's so modular it doesn't even actually plug in! ;P

However, having said that, I'm actually glad they have such a "hands off" approach. One of the things I don't like about the World of Darkness games and other setting-driven material is that after a while, there's just no way to keep track of it all.

Other people see that as "richness of detail," so YMMV. I find it to be "noise." FR is the same way. I picked up City of the Spider Queen looking for basically a remake of Against the Drow, only to find that it was something else entirely, and the stuff that happens in it, as far as I read, seem like pretty big changes to the established world.

Besides, 'way back in the early days, we didn't have none of these new fangled "published settings" anyhoo. We had to piece together what we could about the world from names dropped into flavor text!

-The Gneech ("Who is this Zuggtmoy I keep hearing about?")

 

[Zappo]

Other people see that as "richness of detail," so YMMV. I find it to be "noise."

I like for the rules to be kept distinct from the setting. The light approach of D&D works well for me. Naturally, you can't have a perfect separation - because some rules are part of the setting - but D&D gets a right mix.

 

[Valiantheart]

I dont think there should be any "default" setting. They should just make the books generic and give examples from several supported worlds in their PrCs, and Gods.

 

[teitan]

I have to agree with the lip service comments about Greyhawk, and it does bite the big one, but with the way the core line is being done it is the best way to go about the task as defined in the books.

Greyhawk has never really been a heavily supported setting from TSR or WOTC and many of the products since Carl Sargent have been lackluster for the most part, aside from a few gems, and riddled with problems like the deities in the relaunch products in 1998.

When TSR began publishing the Realms products for 1E it really stood out because of the quality of the paper, the stories were important in each module and the novels added to the setting in a way that began with Dragonlance. It really caught on with the fans and FR became the default setting of 2E. EVERYTHING tied into the Realms and even the good Greyhawk stuff became part of the Realms, like the Drow etc. I think the 1E FR stuff is a real benchmark in how a campaign setting should be done... the old FR series of sourcebooks were AWESOME. Things just got nuts and FR lost it's mystique.

Well, anyway, back on topic... FR really is the default setting of DnD anyway, so I don't see what the horror is if it did become default. WHy does there even have to be a default setting? It all started with 2E and FR becoming the core setting for TSR so why not in 3E.

There are not a lot of 3E FR books out there... thankfully, but I would like to see more books of a smaller size and price. More things like the old FR series would be great, saddle stitching with a pull out map on a faux parchment paper, the runic borders across the tops of the pages. God those were gorgeous books... just too many boxed sets in 2E.

Jason

 

[Olive]

Will the Greyhawk gods in the PHB be replaced by Forgotten Realms gods? Will Alhandra be a paladin of Tyr instead of Heironyus? We'll have to wait until July to find out.

We;ve already had this thread and the answer was going to be no then and it's still no now. There is simply no way.

The popularity of the relams is exactly why it won't happen... Greyhawk allows them to be generic, FR wouldn't. It would involve changing the core rules sub races for demihumans, changing the neames of some artifacts etc. It doesn't amke sense.

Apart from anything else, the Red Wizard is in there as a setting specific example... they're using greyhawk trappings for everything else. If they were changing it, then you'd see a suped up Knight Protector as the example.