Realmstalk (if you love it or hate it come on in)

[Wormwood]

The Realms save me a considerable amount of time.

I haven't seen a dorm room in over 10 years, I have a job, a wife, and a peptic ulcer. I simply don't have the time it required to properly acquaint myself with another setting---much less to author a homebrew.

Since my players also have a lot of Realms experience, more time is saved by not having to explain the world to them. They know the gods, the geography, the political landscape, etc. Very handy.

 

[Alzrius]

My first experience with anything Realmsian was when, being bored one day, I bought R. A. Salvatore's Homeland and thereafter kept reading Drizzt books. Eventually, I branched out to other Forgotten Realms books. Considering they were probably the widest series of novels (aside maybe from Dragonlance) I never ran out of material.

I staunchly drew the line at buying the material though. I didn't run a Realms campaign, ergo, I felt no need to buy Realms stuff. Slowly but surely however, it sucked me in. I'm a sucker for intricate details and evolving happenings with those details, and the Realms has that in spades. I eventually found myself buying the scant odd Realms product every now and then (most notably being the "big three" that was Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons, and Demihuman Deities).

With 3E, I felt like I had a new start with the Realms. It was a new edition, a time of new beginnings. I picked up Monsters of Faerun, Into the Dragon's Lair, and Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor and liked how they turned out. So, mind made up, I picked up the new Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and didn't look back. I haven't regretted it since.

That said, I do sort of regret that the Realms are now my only place to go for intricate campaign detail. Other worlds used to have that, but WotC's new policy of "do it your way" led to them having a much more laissez-faire style towards their campaign worlds.

I also liked the fact that Abeir-Toril was host to such a diverse world. It wasn't just Faerun, but also Zakhara, Kara-Tur, and Maztica. I liked the idea of them (and I liked what I saw of their actual production also), since they truly fleshed out the idea that this was an entire world, with whole regions that were so different from each other and didn't have to always have something to do with each other. That was truly great, and I miss it a lot in 3E.

 

[jester47]

In another reply i came up with this:

There is always room at the top. And that is what the story is about. How the heroes become as powerful or more powerful than the powerful... eventually.

I think this is a good thing to remember. The power NPCs are really not there to be movers and shakers but to show the PCs where they are on the scale. To act as barometers so to speak. The bad ones are supposed to be villans and the good ones are supposed to be measureing sticks. And this just gave me a great idea for a campaign.

he he he...

Aaron.

 

[Desdichado]

The Realms save me a considerable amount of time.

I haven't seen a dorm room in over 10 years, I have a job, a wife, and a peptic ulcer. I simply don't have the time it required to properly acquaint myself with another setting---much less to author a homebrew.

Hogwash! See my post here: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=637521#post637521

 

[Wormwood]

Hogwash! See my post here: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=637521#post637521

You raise some interesting points, but I have a comment on this:

I mean, really -- if you're running FR, you have to at least read that humongous book, probably also Magic of Faerun, Monsters of Faerun, maybe Lords of Darkness, and some regional book like the Silver Marches, or whatever other region you set your game in, and whatever adventure modules you run. That's hours and hours of research before you can play anything.

Keep in mind that the 'hours and hours' of Realms research has already been done and then some, by myself and my entire group. We've done 'years and years' of reading and playing which results in a broad familiarity with the setting. The 3e stuff is either extrapolation or new Crunchy Bits (which are ported ad hoc)---either way it's not too time consuming. I just parley the time I save not building a world into detailing adventures.

Still, I'll concede that the DungeonCraft Method is the way I would go if I wanted to attempt a homebrew.

[edit: clarifying my point. kinda

 

[jester47]

I just made another point here.

Wow this has been a great discussion. Hope we can have it again sometime.

Later all,

Aaron.

 

[jester47]

Oh, I have been reading this.

It shows how much TSR messed with the realms going from Ed to us.

I love hearing about his home campaign, much darker and more like the 3e I love! Now the bad guys can be succesful!

AND THAT was the thing that annoyed me about the realms the most. The bad guys did not seem all that dangerous. Now they are... and things are a lot cooler in my opinion.

Aaron.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Background: I've read maybe twelve to fifteen FR novels, including lots of Drizz't. I've done a little playing in the Realms (2e) and just generally kept my ear to the ground.

Dislike:

The rhetoric: like most settings, FR has its fanatical supporters. That's fine. However, I really object to being told that FR is "one of the most original fantasy worlds ever conceived". This puppy is quintessential vanilla! And there's nothing wrong with that, it's part of the setting's strength, it makes the Realms easily accessible. Just don't waste my time telling me it's something it's not - it's annoying.

 

[rounser]

The atmosphere that Greenwood originally set for the Realms is possibly my favourite aspect of it.

According to me, it's about:

• Perfect sunsets to the sound of harp strings around a campfire.
• Adventuring fools with their fatalistic camaraderie and quips in the face of danger.
• Stumbling across eldritch secrets and magic long buried and forgotten, and from lands far away or kingdoms long lost.
• The plots of villainous organisations of mages, and desperate attempts to stop them.
• Magical twists on geography, technology or culture, such as the Grinding Gulf, Halruua's flying ships or the Grandfather Tree.
• Mentors and allies who hint at darker knowledge beyond the ken of most mortals, the threat of which they only just hold back.

The style is pretty obvious when you look at Ed's old modules (e.g. Irongard, Elminster's Back Door, the School of Magic, the Haunted Halls, Myth Drannor, Undermountain) adventuring companies (mostly the Knights of Myth Drannor, but the descriptions of the cheerful-yet-foolhardy other companies in the grey box as well) favourite stomping grounds (Waterdeep, Shadowdale, Eveningstar) and heavy handed use of catspaws (Elminster, the Harpers etc.). Many Realms authors seem pretty oblivious to this style, though, or seem unable or unwilling to capture it, leading to a bit of a hodge-podge.

For an exercise in contrast, look to the "reclaiming" of Moonshae in the product Halls of the High King, written by Greenwood. It includes sections on fireside customs, the resident top dog mage Flamsterd gets repainted into a Elminsteresque/Gandalfian mentor role, and suddenly the place is crawling with Harpers and Banites, where there wasn't a hint of them before (although arguably Moonshae was a very early product tacked onto Faerun and didn't have them in there for that reason).

So yeah....it is somewhat about magic and munchkins, but they're needed to maintain a particular atmosphere, you know?

 

[Kestrel]

I agree and like those aspects from Greenwood's contributions, but sometimes I really wish he would lay off the hippy love-fests the Seven Sisters are jumping in. I love porn as much as the next guy, but I try to seperate it from my gaming, since all the players at my table are guys.

Dark Psion: Im interested in the changes you made, considering that I want to bring psionics in FR for my campaign, can you elaborate? (email is cool)