D&D 4E The Realms being the first 4e setting

[Kae'Yoss]

One of the things I like most about all those announcements is that the Realms will be the first campaign setting for 4e, with Eberron following the year after.

That, for me, meant mainly two things:

Eberron won't become the standard D&D setting. I suspected as much anyway, but this removes all doubt. Apparently the designers agree with me that Eberron, while probably a great setting, isn't fit to be the standard setting for D&D. Such a setting needs nice Vanilla flavour.


The Realms aren't written off in the heads of Wizards. Rich Baker and others assured us that they would not abandon the Realms, but with the recent dearth of supplements, I did get a bit uneasy. But FR being the first setting seems to indicate that they didn't write it off at all - quite the opposite!

 

[The Lost Muse]

They have probably been working on the new FRCS almost as long as 4th Edition, hence no supplements.

 

[amethal]

So what to people think they might have in mind for the Realms?

I've not had much exposure to playing in Faerun, but my 3.0 FRSC has so much great fluff I feel happy using it to run a game in any edition.

What are they going to do to make me want to rush out and buy the 4th edition version?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I have no problem with this -- I like FR. But I'm concerned about the departure of Greyhawk as the "default" setting. From the news page it seems like there really isn't a default setting.

 

[MadMaxim]

I like the Realms and all, but I'm kind of irritated that Greyhawk doesn't keep being the default setting for the game. For one thing the two settings don't share the same cosmology. I hope it all turns out well, though.

 

[Umbran]

I like the Realms and all, but I'm kind of irritated that Greyhawk doesn't keep being the default setting for the game.

Well, consider this - one of the reasons for Greyhawk not getting much attention has been that it was the default setting, and they they didn't want to... "structure our experience" too much...

Well, they won't have that excuse now, will they?

 

[s.j. bagley]

has it been confirmed that this is how it's being done?
i'd heard froma few people that the plan was to be consistent with the realms and eberron while doing one other setting per year.

 

[Torm]

I think Greyhawk kinda got the shaft with 3e - it was supposed to be the default setting, and yet, aside from deity info, there was NOTHING in the three core books that provided any actual setting to play in! There should at least have been a map, and some political background.

If true, I think it would be awesome for FR AND Eberron to be the first out of the gate, with them following every SIX MONTHS (listening WOTC? Probably not. ) with a new world - Greyhawk first. I, personally, want to see Spelljammer and Planescape, and not Greyhawk so much, but I think the Greyhawk fans deserve precedence. Spelljammer will be starting fresh, anyway, if at all, and while it will be nice to see an official 4e Planescape, fan-based efforts have done a heck of a job of making it playable under 3.x.

But I don't think FR will be CORE. I've got a feeling, based on comments from the designers that I've seen here and there, that the core setting will be something altogether surprising - EARTH. (albeit a medieval, magical Earth)

 

[smootrk]

I think FR is great, but I will not be very interested if they dumb-down all the good stuff of the realms or otherwise strip it to its essentials, in order to make it work nice with the new rule setup. The Realms with all its weird goofiness is what makes it cool.

 

[Kaodi]

I cannot remember where I saw it, but the comment about Thor and the Core got me interested. It would be really cool if they introduce multiple possible pantheons in the PHB, though I rather dread the idea of a single mix of deities from different pantheons.