The New Forgotten Realms - (About) A Year Later

[amethal]

I really think they should have done with the Realms what they're doing with Dark Sun - reboot it with the initial boxed set used as the base. They could have cleanly accomplished most of their design goals, and cleared the setting of its accumulated detritus instead of adding to it.

Now there's an idea.

The grey box gets a lot of praise around here. I don't want to offend anyone by bringing up the 'N word', but would folks actually be happy if an incredibly vast swathe of canon was wiped out and we went back to the beginning? (Allbeit with dragonborn, with boobies.)

Speaking for myself, I like that the Realms is a progression. Time moves on, and things change.

The downside is that sometimes I don't like specific changes, and unfortunately 4th edition managed to nuke my favourite areas. However, I assume that whilst they were my favourite areas, they weren't particularly popular with other people, and I don't take it personally.

 

[amethal]

I guess DMing is like driving stick shift. If you know how to drive stick you can drive just about any car anywhere in the world.

Almost everybody who can drive can drive stick shift. Its just that the rest tend to live in the same part of the world.

 

[Invisible Stalker]

My gaming group split over this as well.

Only 2 of us were ever willing to DM. Those 2 of us do not like 4e let alone 4e FR. SO the other 4 get mad at us for not DMing the game they want to play, and then blame us for the groups disintegration. I ran 4e for them for 5 months, that was more than enough for me.

Now of course the 2 of us who were DM's have moved on to pathfinder and Golarion (though I might just run the FR 3rd edition), and the others complain they only get to play 4e in eberron and genric and not in 4eFR, which is what they want.

So the two people that put work into the game and really knew FR lore left it when it got stunted. the other 4 that just liked playing in it and didn't care all that much because they like the game I had set up, want to continue on with 4e realms.

It seems to be a trend. Those that REALLY knew the setting, that I know of, moved on to better things. Those that really didn't know or didn't care still like 4eFR.

I guess DMing is like driving stick shift. If you know how to drive stick you can drive just about any car anywhere in the world.

For RPG's if you are not a DM you are stuck playing what people want to DM.

Fortunately, the split is only in regards to Forgotten Realms, all six of us prefer 4E over 3E. I know of DMs that had to trade players so everybody got to play the edition they wanted to.

Thursday night I went into a FLGS and they had two groups scheduled for the night. The regular 4E group and the character building session for Pathfinder. The owner explained that next week they'd be on different Thursdays. He didn't want it go all "rapper feud" on him.

 

[Mournblade94]

Almost everybody who can drive can drive stick shift. Its just that the rest tend to live in the same part of the world.

SO very very true.

 

[JohnRTroy]

You can "reboot" Dark Sun since there hasn't been a huge fiction line and the product has been dead since WoTC took over.

FR wouldn't really stand a reboot well because of the vast fiction line. Even if you decided to wall it off, so to speak, there needs to be some product unity--if the novels do one thing and the game supplements another thing it wouldn't gel well. I think a reboot would have pissed more people off than a timeline advancement.

I'm not a fan of all the changes, but I accept them--this is a few hundred years later, and many novels are now either bridging the gap or dealing with the aftermath. I mean, since Realms magic is so tied to D&D rules, you change the way the game works, somethings gotta give!

I do think the one mistake WoTC is making is keeping the line "lean". I think there's a big enough market for the supplements and people love all the Ed Greenwood inspired lore. We need more of that, not less.

 

[Invisible Stalker]

Almost everybody who can drive can drive stick shift. Its just that the rest tend to live in the same part of the world.

I can barely handle an automatic.

I need a chauffeur.

 

[amethal]

The owner explained that next week they'd be on different Thursdays.

You have more than one Thursday a week? I suppose it must make it even sweeter when you eventually get to Friday.

 

[Invisible Stalker]

You have more than one Thursday a week? I suppose it must make it even sweeter when you eventually get to Friday.

Both are bi weekly, hence different alternating Thursdays going forward.

 

[jdrakeh]

So, because I've posted here that I really don't like 4th edition Forgotten Realms and believe that at least a a "significant minority" (your words) of Realms fans didn't like it that I'm going to go on a bunch of Ignore lists? Somehow I doubt there are only four of us on ENWorld that don't like what was done to the setting and believe we aren't alone and can be outspoken about it at times.

Well, first off, I was not the poster who said something about a "significant minority." Second off, yes, if you repeatedly and endlessly whine about how WotC kicked your puppy, you're going on my Ignore List. Frankly, that kind of thing is worthless and I gain nothing by reading it.

FWIW, I don't play 4e, nor do I care much for it — but seeing the same four or five people post the same vitriol-laden screed about how WotC ruined their lives time and time again is really tiresome. I don't think you're one of those people, but you would know better than I do.

 

[AllisterH]

You can "reboot" Dark Sun since there hasn't been a huge fiction line and the product has been dead since WoTC took over.

.

The last *new* printed product that was released for Darksun was in September 1996 and was Psionic Artifacts of Athas.

That's a 13 year gap between product lines IMO. Way easier to do a reboot of such a setting as you allude to.

The novel line consists of only "Tribe of One" - a trilogy, "Prism Pentad" - a pentalogy, Chronicles of Athas - a 4 book series and the Hardcover, "Rise and Fall of a Dragon King". Total fiction line - (coincidentally) 13 books.