The Forgotten Realms books I'd like to see.

[Green Knight]

I'd definitely like to see a Silver Marches type book which focuses on Cormyr.

And dagnabbit! I want rules for playing Chosen for the main 30 FR gods. I thought we were getting that in Faiths and Pantheons but we didn't. What a gip. I want to work my way up to a Chosen of Torm. And while we're at it, some more religious Prestige Classes like in Faiths and Pantheons, including worshippers of Tyr and Torm. A Prestige Class based on those who worship The Triad (Tyr, Ilmater, and Torm), would be especially cool.

 

[Psion]

Re: Re: Re: Re: The Forgotten Realms books I'd like to see.

Actually, it's the default Oriental Adventures setting, similiar to Oerth in the Player's Handbook.

Pet peeve: people who think they are informing me about the D&D game. Look, bub, I know the books and a I know the game. Rokugan in OA is NOT equivalent to Greyhawk in the PHB. I can use every last option in the core books in a Greyhawk game. I cannot use the entirety of the OA book in a rokugan game. OA is NOT just a Rokugan book; Rokugan is an example.

Even were it so, what he is saying would be similar to "You shouldn't use the PHB for FR because the PHB is about Greyhawk." Wrong. Neither one is a setting book.

 

[TBoarder]

Lords of Light: This has been widely discussed. I still think a book that describes all the major good and neutral organisations would be just as useful as LoD - after all, the player characters need allies too.

Sorry, this is the book I'd least like to see. The heroes were what made the 2nd edition Realms such a joke. A "lords of Light" book would simply serve to take the focus away from the PCs. After all, why should they go and fight the big bads when there are these awesome good organizations around to do the job for them?

I know, this is a very myopic way of looking at it. I was burned in 2nd edition when the FR Heroes' Lorebook ended up having more than double the use of the Villains' Lorebook. It had more total NPCs than the Villains' Lorebook and more than half of the characters in the VL were dead anyway. I don't want the 3e Realms to end up this way. Stick with books about the bad guys and I'll be happy.

As for what I want to see, I'd love to see a Shades book, detailing their return, the changes they've made to Anauroch, the epic-magic Netherese artifacts they're uncovering, and possibly rules for the return of epic-magic to the Realms, an arms race being waged between Mystra and Shar once Epic-Shadow-Magic rears its head in the Realms.

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Re: Re: The Forgotten Realms books I'd like to see.

Sorry, this is the book I'd least like to see. The heroes were what made the 2nd edition Realms such a joke. A "lords of Light" book would simply serve to take the focus away from the PCs. After all, why should they go and fight the big bads when there are these awesome good organizations around to do the job for them?

I know, this is a very myopic way of looking at it. I was burned in 2nd edition when the FR Heroes' Lorebook ended up having more than double the use of the Villains' Lorebook. It had more total NPCs than the Villains' Lorebook and more than half of the characters in the VL were dead anyway. I don't want the 3e Realms to end up this way. Stick with books about the bad guys and I'll be happy.

As for what I want to see, I'd love to see a Shades book, detailing their return, the changes they've made to Anauroch, the epic-magic Netherese artifacts they're uncovering, and possibly rules for the return of epic-magic to the Realms, an arms race being waged between Mystra and Shar once Epic-Shadow-Magic rears its head in the Realms.

The Lords of Light book is not really the problem in itself. The organisations already exist - even without such a book to detail them and most of the major good NPCs are already in the FRCS. What I'd like to see are the details of their organisation, allies, enemies, strategies, ready-to-run NPCs (useful for an evil campaign as well!). PrC, spells and magic items from these organisations are widely useful as well. I don't think it detracts from the main heroes to fight an adventure side-by-side with the forces of the Lords Alliance or have them all be Harper's climbing up the hierarchy of that organisation and helping it regain its strength after their recent turmoil. Lots of possibilities here - the problem only arises if you use such organisations as deux-ex-machina.


As for the Shades book - I would absolutely love to see that! The Shades are my favourite new villains (I was sold the minute I saw their artwork to be honest).

-Zarrock

 

[VorpalBunny]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Forgotten Realms books I'd like to see.

...Look, bub, I know the books and a I know the game. Rokugan in OA is NOT equivalent to Greyhawk in the PHB. I can use every last option in the core books in a Greyhawk game. I cannot use the entirety of the OA book in a rokugan game. OA is NOT just a Rokugan book; Rokugan is an example.

Even were it so, what he is saying would be similar to "You shouldn't use the PHB for FR because the PHB is about Greyhawk." Wrong. Neither one is a setting book.

Wow. Look "bub", you're right about the differences between OA and the PHB (feel better now?), which is why I never said they were equivalent - just similiar. Big difference.

It was not my intention to question your "knowledge of the books or game". I was just my understanding (I may be mistaken, it's been a while since I had a chance to look at my OA 3e book...) that Rokugan is the "official" and therefore the default setting for 3e Oriental Adventures. I apologize if you misunderstood the intent of my post.

 

[Desdichado]

Either way, why argue semantics? Rokugan is the featured campaign setting (as worded in OA). Is that really so different from official or default?

 

[Harlock]

[rant] Well, going back to the original post and asking what FR book I'd most like to see I have to say the book where all the iconic/lame/NPCs die horrid, slow, painful deaths. And I' like to see one that had a nice long rich history detailed but didn't vary from my game so much. If they update FR in another few years because of the novels (and I use that term loosely) and the history doesn't match what happened in my campaign I have a lot more work to do, and some of the update stuff may be entirely useless. I don't know what the solution is other than putting out a world and leaving it alone but I know, people LIKE that and leaving it alone is not profittable so... [/rant]

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

[rant] Well, going back to the original post and asking what FR book I'd most like to see I have to say the book where all the iconic/lame/NPCs die horrid, slow, painful deaths. And I' like to see one that had a nice long rich history detailed but didn't vary from my game so much. If they update FR in another few years because of the novels (and I use that term loosely) and the history doesn't match what happened in my campaign I have a lot more work to do, and some of the update stuff may be entirely useless. I don't know what the solution is other than putting out a world and leaving it alone but I know, people LIKE that and leaving it alone is not profittable so... [/rant]

The timeline will progress very slowly now compared to in the 2E times AFAIK - so it shouldn't be too much of a bother. You can - of course - always choose to ignore canon as well.
Personally, I use a so heavily modified version of the Realms that I have to make a lot of changes to the existing timeline anyway (I do try to integrate as many changes as possible - especially I generally like what they are doing to the ongoing history of the Realms).

-Zarrock

 

[Grundle]

I'd like to see some source books and modules based on (or with tie-ins to) the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale CRPGs. Man, I've wasted untold hours of my life playing those games!!!

That kind of stuff could easily be used to grow the D&D player base - new players = more $$$ for WotC = more source books for us!

 

[Ds Da Man]

Babes of Faerun- A guide to Toreilian lingerie.