Rich Baker on the Spellplague and other stuff.

[hargert]

My main problem is that the Gods in the realms suck. First they can’t stay alive and viable for any period of time. Hell elves outlive some of them, that and what of all the souls that followed these gods died and went to join them. Well sorry you chose the wrong one and your god was too dumb to not get killed so sorry. Why would anyone follow these tools? Plots of gods should take 1000s of years and a god falling should be a matter of legend and myth, not something that a mortal sees 3-10 times in a lifetime. It makes the gods and the setting seem petty.

 

[IconoclastX]

Heh. Thats supposed to convince someone they aren't inept? Repeatedly saying 'I don't know how this works' isn't exactly inspiring. Nor is saying that blowing up the world wouldn't be useful, so if we're contradicting old fluff, screw it.

Translation: We didn't worry about the little details that people will see as flaws and will eventually blow up in our faces. Its all fine, just buy the book.

That's about the impression I got while I was reading that, too.

"We don't know why we made the changes.... we need reasons? Sheesh, you people sure are inconvenient."

As usual, they're designing backwards when it comes to a very fluff-rich world. Rules are created, "cool" events occur, and now we need to figure out why or how.

Interesting that Rich used the word "inept" without prompting.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Man am I glad I'm not a Realms fan. This is just wacked!

 

[IconoclastX]

There's one thing about it, after seeing all this FR stuff of late, I've come to a conclusion. I never really got into the Realms all that much, and now I know why. It's not the huge amount of material. It's not the novels. It's the rabid FR fans that make Trekkies look like models of sanity.

It's bloody magic. "Rationale" ??? You need a rationale for the effects of the death of a god and how it affects those whom the goddess directly touches? And you expect everything to work as easily explainable phenomenon?

"Easily explainable phenomenon" with the precondition of internal consistency, yes. Obviously none of this is real, but this entire hobby is about the suspension of disbelief. If one of the designers at the table asked "So what should goblins look like?" and another constantly yelled "Goblins aren't real! This is dumb!" how long do you think he'd last? The point is that there is a basic level of suspension of disbelief going in, and from that everything else should make sense.

This is the world-design stage. People involved in that are "gods" in that they SHOULD know exactly why and how everything works. They shouldn't be the ones out in the cold crying to the heavens "Why?!?!". Sure the average person on Faerun will have no clue what goes on with the deities in the setting, but when you're desiging at this level it should be with story-reasoned purpose, not having something like the Spellplague exist, and now we have to figure how how to ram that into the Realms.

Oh, and the rabid FR fans are the ones who have kept the setting alive and popular for 20 years. We're being traded in for fly-by-nighters who have nothing invested and will likely move on to the next shiny thing after a couple of months.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

That was a really shoddy explanation for a world-shaking event. Thankfully, I dropped Forgotten Realms right after the Time of Troubles stuff.

You can "bottle up" spellplague like a virus? UGGG

 

[kennew142]

Oh, and the rabid FR fans are the ones who have kept the setting alive and popular for 20 years. We're being traded in for fly-by-nighters who have nothing invested and will likely move on to the next shiny thing after a couple of months.

Yeah. Yeah. We've heard it all before. Those of us who have been FR fans from the very first Dragon articles, but happen to like what is happening in the Realms can't possibly be real FR fans - because we disagree with certain other fans.

 

[Wormwood]

Yeah. Yeah. We've heard it all before. Those of us who have been FR fans from the very first Dragon articles, but happen to like what is happening in the Realms can't possibly be real FR fans - because we disagree with certain other fans.

The tension between the casual fan and the self-appointed 'keepers of the faith' is evident in all fandom, everywhere.

It is the nature of fandom itself.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Oh, and the rabid FR fans are the ones who have kept the setting alive and popular for 20 years. We're being traded in for fly-by-nighters who have nothing invested and will likely move on to the next shiny thing after a couple of months.

No, you're not.

This is the classic "Fan's delusion". Serious fans worthy of the term (i.e. fanatics) always believe that it's due to a core a "hardcore fans" that a setting/film/P&P RPG/MMORPG/band/whatever is keeping it "alive and popular". In a word, it's nonsense, unless you're talking about something super-undergound. The casual "fans", the people who buy the books but don't know the setting backwards, the people who drift in and out of the FR represents that VAST MAJORITY of the sales, not the Candlekeep-reading FR psychos who can tell you what Elminster had for breakfast last tuesday.

Most hilariously I saw this claim recently from hardcore raiding WoW players, that they were keeping the game "alive and popular". Yeah, right, 9.5 million players and it's the less than 5% who are keeing it "alive and popular". I imagine the percentage figure is similar here. You buying every FR product available is less important and the ten or so people who buy a handful of products every year.

PS - IconoclastX, what a name, any relation to Demonius X? Hehehehehe.

 

[PeterWeller]

Oh, and the rabid FR fans are the ones who have kept the setting alive and popular for 20 years. We're being traded in for fly-by-nighters who have nothing invested and will likely move on to the next shiny thing after a couple of months.

Get over yourself, dogg. Greenwood, Salvatore, Cunningham, etc. are the ones who have kept the setting alive and popular for 20 years. You're just another consumer of their products, and whether your rabidly loyal or not, you're no better or more deserving than any other consumer willing to pony up for the books.

 

[Sitara]

You know...since they are playing off the popularity and market penetration of Baldurs Gate video games, they should bring back bhaal. And include the bhaalspawn as a major player in the game.

Oh and tie the plague in neverwinter nights to the spell-plague somehow...

Lol. Seriously, I bet a 'Vial of Spellplague" will be a VERY popular item on every FR adventurers belt. I hope they are cheap enough to be bought at char gen.