So, who's looking forward to 4E Forgotten Realms?

[TomWhitbrook]

I know I am. I'm particularly pleased about there no longer being a "good" god with direct control over the use of magic.

Is anyone else looking forward to the release of the new realms? And why?

 

[drothgery]

Is anyone else looking forward to the release of the new realms? And why?

I'm not really looking forward to the new Realms nor all that sad to see the passing of the old Realms (I've always played in homebrews or Eberron). But the FR Player's guide looks like it will have some interesting stuff in it (swordmage class, genasi and drow as PC races), and I'm looking forward to that...

 

[Ruslanchik]

I'm more excited about Eberron. I think that the 4E rules will work with that setting better.

I can't really find a rational reason for it, but I feel like 3.5 fits FR quite well. If I continue to play there, it will most likely be with the 3.5 ruleset.

 

[hewligan]

No. Not me. I guess I hark back to the grey box really, and wish half of the novels + Maztica + Kara Tur + the repopulation of Myth Drannor + Avatar + Spell Plague all never happened. The Spell Plague and the timeline advance is not in and of itself a bad thing. The 3e Realms to me was a real cripple since it inherited so much poo poo from the Avatar trilogy and beyond, but since then, gosh - does the world really have to change every year or so. I cannot keep up.

Since I last actively played in the Realms, half the gods have died, the Shades returned, the elves appear to have returned, the Zhentarim got mashed, most of the old realms (Unther et. al.) got squished, the Dales got partially obliterated, some dragon-born people appeared, and ... well, I just can't keep up.

So, in that sense, moving the timeline forward would have worked well for me, but only if it was to eradicate most of the terrible changes they made. Instead it appears to be to add more changes. I may still buy it (and resell it quickly, like I did with the 3e Realms Campaign Setting), just for the value of the read, but I won't be GMing it.

 

[TheSleepyKing]

Funnily enough, I was highly enthused about the new Realms and the time jump initially -- it gave the designers a chance to clean house, reset the Realms and introduce new elements into a setting that was starting to become stagnant.

Having read the previews and heard the statements from WoTC that they would not be supporting the setting beyond the initial release and the occasional DDI article, my enthusiasm has waned considerably. In particular there seems to be a policy of trashing realms that people don't actually play in much (which includes most everything south of the Sea of Fallen Stars) -- which I think is a huge mistake. Even if I never set an adventure in Unther or Mulhorand or Halruaa, it was good to know they were there as exotic far off-locales from which you could draw interesting characters and plots. They lent character to the rather more bland Northern nations.

Simply put, the changes that I've so far heard of seem to make the Realms a much smaller place than it was before. Without the depth that attracted me to the Realms in the first place, I'm not sure I'll be making the switch. Of course, they could prove me wrong -- and I hope they do.

 

[Skywalker]

I am looking forward to it quite a bit. The way 4e writing style was friendly, open and focussed on the fun, added to the more accessible release structure for FR has made it (for the first time) a definite buy.

 

[Khairn]

Unfortunately no. The poor storyline, indescriminate and seemingly random changes, and the fluff that flies in the face of previous FR canon (that I really enjoyed) makes this the first edition of FR that I will be avoiding. The facelift they gave to FR makes Elminster look like Joan Rivers. Ugh.

Eberron for 4E looks to be a natural fit, and something that I am interested in seeing. Not least reason being that they aren't going to invalidate previous Eberron setting material like they did with FR.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Sadly I've no interest in FR any longer.

The world has drifted way too far away from its origins to be the same game.
Worlds need to evolve to keep the fun going, but too many cooks killed this world just like Krynn.

 

[Belorin]

Yes, though I am not particularly happy with the methods used to get there. I was fairly unhappy with the state the Realms were in with the added 'canon' of the novels. Don't get me wrong, I like the novels in and of themselves, I just don't think the storylines of a half dozen or so authors need to be interjected into the setting. Leave that to the supplements. That is just my opinion.
So needless to say, I look forward to leaving al that behind, now if they would just stop making novels canon in the future...


Bel

 

[Graf]

I confess to a surprising amount of excitement.

I started on graybox FR, I've enjoyed a lot of the baldur's gate games and it's nostalgic for me.

I have some hope that 4e will return to the original flavor of that boxed set.

Of course, if I had the choice between getting FR or having Eberron come out a week earlier...