New Default Setting: Forgotten Realms?

[wujenta]

I think that GH will still be the default campaign world. I'm now playing 3 campaign, one epic in the FR&Planescape setting, one middle in a world of my own, and one low level in FR. I would like the core books contain as less information about any campaig world as posible. I know that something must be in (like some gods), but I would like see it that way, as was Rolemaster. I played Rolemaster for years in the world of Conan and was one of the best campaign ever...

 

[Kae'Yoss]

They won't use FR as default setting. Ever. They want a default setting where the world-specific info is minimal, so you can build your world how you like. If you want a ready-to-use world, you go get a campaign setting.

But they could blast GreyHawk for all I care (they have blasted many other campaign settings), and make all info totally general. But I think it's just convenient to have a token world where you can draw some stuff from (like some general gods).

 

[Vocenoctum]

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

The modules are one thing, but the D&D novels (the "generic series") are all set in the same "phantom world" as the modules. They're making a third world that happens to share some stuff with GH, but they're not using GH.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

I guess there is a difference between saying something is the official gameworld and something else actually being the official gameworld...

I mean, where are the books? GHCS, Magic of Greyhawk, Races of Greyhawk, or similar books simply aren't around.

While we might be "told" GH is the official setting, the published literature would indicate otherwise. In addition, PrCs added from 3.5 come from, you guessed it, FR.

As far as I'm concerned, I'd treat FR as the "official" setting. GH is just some kind of "generic example setting", since it only gets used in the core books, and there is a bunch of published FR stuff.

 

[Nephet]

The Red Wizard PrC in the 3e+ DMG is presented as an example of a setting-specific prestige class - not an indication of a realms takeover.

 

[Artimoff]

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.

I'm not a "Diehard" fan of greyhawk but I know about it and like it. It was the setting of D&D for the first 14 years of D&D's existence and was only dropped to kick Gary Gygax out of TSR. Don't get me wrong, I love the realms but I love greyhawk as well. ( and ravenloft, and dark sun, and planescape and scarred lands and the iron kingdoms, and... )

 

[Cloudgatherer]

The Red Wizard PrC in the 3e+ DMG is presented as an example of a setting-specific prestige class - not an indication of a realms takeover.

Red Wizard and Archmage, FR PrCs are being put into the DMG. Where are the examples of the Greyhawk specific PrCs? Maybe they are there and I do not recognize them by PrC name.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I think WOTC could do a lot worse (and IMO, already has done worse) than make FR the default setting. We RPGers are heavily conditioned into thinking of FR as a pencil & paper RPG setting first and foremost, but this thing's got oodles of crossover appeal. I know a lot of people who've played and loved the Baldur's Gate games for years without even realizing they could play this offline. I think it would be a good marketing strategy for WOTC; a lot of people pick up D&D so they can play the Realms, just like the books they've read and the PC games they've beaten.

Frankly, after seeing what Kenzer did with Kalamar, which seems to out-Greyhawk Greyhawk, maybe WOTC should just sell them the Greyhawk rights and let them apply the level of detail and affection for the setting Greyhawk deserves. Greyhawkers can stop complaining about GH "not being done right" and Realmsheads can get their fix in every book.

 

[Angcuru]

I think WOTC could do a lot worse (and IMO, already has done worse) than make FR the default setting. We RPGers are heavily conditioned into thinking of FR as a pencil & paper RPG setting first and foremost, but this thing's got oodles of crossover appeal. I know a lot of people who've played and loved the Baldur's Gate games for years without even realizing they could play this offline. I think it would be a good marketing strategy for WOTC; a lot of people pick up D&D so they can play the Realms, just like the books they've read and the PC games they've beaten.

Frankly, after seeing what Kenzer did with Kalamar, which seems to out-Greyhawk Greyhawk, maybe WOTC should just sell them the Greyhawk rights and let them apply the level of detail and affection for the setting Greyhawk deserves. Greyhawkers can stop complaining about GH "not being done right" and Realmsheads can get their fix in every book.

You know, you're absolutely right. There are quite a few Well-known D&D games out there that take place in the Forgotten Realms. Baldur's Gate Series, of course, as well as Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights (which is in my opinion not nearly as good as BG). If the Forgotten Realms were the core setting for the core rule books, you'd see a lot more people buying them, and then branching out into buying splatbooks, supplements, etc.

Seriously, I used to hang out a lot at the local WotC store(they used to have tables open for gaming in the back, but not anymore ) and I can't count how many times someone has walked up to the clerk with the PHB and asked: "So, this is the thing Baldur's Gate is based off of?" and not purchase the book because it has nothing to do with the FR.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Red Wizard and Archmage, FR PrCs are being put into the DMG. Where are the examples of the Greyhawk specific PrCs? Maybe they are there and I do not recognize them by PrC name.

The Archmage is hardly a campaign-specific PrC. It's something that fits into every single world without much thought (OK, not every single world, but the usual D&D-like fantasy world.)

Archmage, Hierophant, Divine Champion, Divine Disciple, Arcane Devotee, Divine Seeker and Guild Thief are PrCs that are to be found in the FRCS, but noone would object if they appeared in the DMG in the first place, before they were introduced in the FRCS. If they were introduced in KoK in the Splatbooks, noone would have thought of calling them FR-specefic.
Shadow Adept, Red Wizard, War Wizard of Cormyr, Purple Dragon Knight, and others, on the other hand, are clearly FR-Stuff. If you saw one of those in KoK or the splatbooks, you would wonder what they did here.

I agree with Nephet: The Red Wizard is the only FR-Campaign-Specific PrC they add to the DMGr. And why should they add one for every campaign? Especially since standard D&D is supposed to be generic...