Points of Light and the Forgotten Realms

[an_idol_mind]

Somebody needs to start a poll asking if people would prefer FR go through this reboot or stay the same. Don't think it would effect what WotC does, but the results would be interesting either way.

Sam

[edit] I'm too tired and lazy to do it.

I think a better test would be to wait until there is 1) confirmation of some sort that this change is taking place, and 2) a few glimpses into what exactly the "new" Realms are.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

People seem to forget just how HUGE the setting is.

Sure, t is a huge setting, but WoC probably would have conducted a market survey where in the Realms DM let most of their adventures and campaigns play.

Kara Tur, Sembia and other foreign and not explored regions may not hold the same appeal for most groups as the the Swordcoast or the North for example.

And again, we have to see that the mechanical change from 3rd to 4th will be big. If, for example, suddenly the Gnomes are all gone as player race and Tieflings arrive en masse as PCs, there has to be a logical explanation. Or that Bards are gone (if they are gone, and we don't know that yet) and Warlords pop up all over the place.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I just wanted to go on record as saying that I have played in FR games in the past, but the number 1 reason I continue to avoid the setting is that the number of big named NPC's that could be doing the PC's job in a much better manner is way to high. I always feel like I am going to stumble across some plot involving them and it just makes me wonder what is the point. This jump forward in timeline may be enough for me to give FR another look.

 

[Samuel Leming]

I think a better test would be to wait until there is 1) confirmation of some sort that this change is taking place, and 2) a few glimpses into what exactly the "new" Realms are.

But all the knee-jerking and wild-ass speculating is fun!

Sam

 

[an_idol_mind]

And again, we have to see that the mechanical change from 3rd to 4th will be big. If, for example, suddenly the Gnomes are all gone as player race and Tieflings arrive en masse as PCs, there has to be a logical explanation. Or that Bards are gone (if they are gone, and we don't know that yet) and Warlords pop up all over the place.

In the change from 1st to 2nd edition, half-orcs suddenly vanished, all the assassins and monks disappeared, and bards suddenly became wusses. The world didn't get blown up in order to introduce these changes, though.

 

[an_idol_mind]

But all the knee-jerking and wild-ass speculating is fun!

Heh. Makes me look forward to seeing what's going to happen to Eberron in 2009...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

In the change from 1st to 2nd edition, half-orcs suddenly vanished, all the assassins and monks disappeared, and bards suddenly became wusses. The world didn't get blown up in order to introduce these changes, though.

The changes from 1st to 2nd edition were miniscule. You listed pretty much all of them right there!

From 2E to 3E would be a better argument to make.

You still haven't told us who these "beloved" NPCs are and who they are "beloved" too? I'm assuming you don't mean NPCs based on the Toni Morrison book... That'd be pretty wierd...

Whizbang - Yeah, he's hardly alone being a best-selling yet awful author, either, doesn't make the CCC anything but disgustingly tasteless and borderline racist.

How about we have a faux-holocaust, where the SS are the Taun Tekarn, Dwarven nazis, and the goblins represent the Jews? Would that go down well?

 

[an_idol_mind]

The changes from 1st to 2nd edition were miniscule. You listed pretty much all of them right there!

From 2E to 3E would be a better argument to make.

Okay, from 2nd edition to 3rd edition. The world still didn't get blown up. The timeline only advanced 4 years between boxed sets.

You still haven't told us who these "beloved" NPCs are and who they are "beloved" too? I'm assuming you don't mean NPCs based on the Toni Morrison book... That'd be pretty wierd...

Check out the big NPCs featured in any of the novels. Considering how well they sell, I doubt they're loathed by the Realms fans.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Several years ago, in the waning months of TSR, someone posted a nifty graphic showing the Faerun continent on one side of the planet and the Flanaess (sp?) continent on the other. At the time it was written off as a joke.

I thought the pseudo-Native American cultures were badly handled in the Mazteca supplements, but the staff of WotC would have to be smoking rubber cigars if they thought dropping Grayhawk on it would improve things.

The “two worlds” thing probably means something else.

That said, I think comparing the changes Drizzt was talking about to the Chaos War is apt. How well did that work out for the Dragon Lance setting?

A problem with the RSE is most are out of the hands of the PCs. The Avatar series were novels, but they were also adventure modules. So the PCs got to run amok and be the ones at the wheel. When the RSE are only in the novels, then those changes are out of the PCs hands. The new shadow-weave trilogy (Cormyr, Shadowdale and Anaroch) is a welcome change.

I still say (Forgotten Realms)x(Rifts)/(World of Darkness)=(New Forgotten Realms) = Bad Idea.

 

[Uzzy]

Check out the big NPCs featured in any of the novels. Considering how well they sell, I doubt they're loathed by the Realms fans.

They are very good in Novels. Ingame, however, they should be little more then flavour text. Check out 'Concerns of the Mighty' in the FRCS for a very good reason as to why these big NPC's don't solve all the problems in the world. Besides, I much prefer reading about the weaker NPC's. The Knights of Myth Drannor series, for instance.