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

[The Grumpy Celt]

I think 4E Realms will be a good thing. The 3E Realms book (FRCS) was a major kick up from all the previous books and is still one of the most useful supplement WotC produced during 3E. This will probably continue as FR is the flagship setting for WotC.

 

[Hammerhead]

I don't think Greyhawk WAS the default or implied setting of 3E. Other than the gods, there was never any real mention of Greyhawk names or the like.

The Realms strikes me as a much better vanilla setting, especially given its connection to the computer games (Demon Stone, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, etc.) that makes it more familiar to newbies.

I hope we see new, cool settings for 4e, not a rehash of older, failed settings (although I do like Planescape, I can see how it wouldn't appeal to nearly enough people to justify making a CS).

 

[Atlatl Jones]

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?

I'm curious about that myself. Obviously it'll have all sorts of 4e game mechanics - races, class options / prestige classes, regional feats, magic items, monsters, spells, stats for major NPCs. Maybe rules for mythals, portals, null and wild magic zones, and other realms-specific phenomena.

I'm curious how it's going to present the setting details. The 3.0 book was excellent for that, and I don't really know what they could add or change to make it better.

 

[Thurbane]

I think Greyhawk is much, much better as the "baseline" setting for D&D myself...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

It's hard to see how the new Realms core book will top the last one - that one contained so much information and was so well-done that it will require herculean effort to improve on it.


Still, I am willing to be surprised...

 

[Uzzy]

Over on Candlekeep, the author of Grand History of the Realms, Brian R James, is reporting this.

Hours since the "Secrets of the Forgotten Realms" seminar and no spoilers yet eh? Ok I'll go first. The 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting will be set in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR (or about 10 years after the conclusion of most 3.5 Realms supplements).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Jumping the setting forward 10 years is smart and it even makes the 4E FRCS useful to 3E DMs, since they can use the next 10 years of history as metagame events in their current campaigns.

Not to mention, new 4E characters can be the younger siblings of the 3E characters, if the groups want to retire the old characters and start anew.

 

[Glyfair]

I don't think Greyhawk WAS the default or implied setting of 3E.

Yes & no. I think a better statement would have been "when we need setting info in core, the default setting will be Greyhawk."

You never need geographic details for examples. However, Runequest 3 demonstrated that having a generic god set (sun god, healing god, grain goddess, etc.) was a bad idea. When you needed an example organization, Greyhawk was good to pull from.

As for why the Forgotten Realms is being done before Eberron, I think it really comes down to one issue. Eberron's core book came out 4 years before the 4E release. Forgotten Realms, on the other hand, will have been out 7 years. Much better to do FR first, and a good reason to hold off an an Eberron setting close to FR.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

As for why the Forgotten Realms is being done before Eberron, I think it really comes down to one issue. Eberron's core book came out 4 years before the 4E release. Forgotten Realms, on the other hand, will have been out 7 years. Much better to do FR first, and a good reason to hold off an an Eberron setting close to FR.

I would really love to have a 4E Eberron core book with the same level of detail as the 3E Realms book...

 

[Glyfair]

I would really love to have a 4E Eberron core book with the same level of detail as the 3E Realms book...

I would like to have the same amount of material, without the level of detail. Eberron has a different style of dealing with detail (encouraging different possibilities) that Forgotten Realms doesn't have.

That doesn't mean I don't want a bit more detail in certain areas (such as the non-Five Nations) of Khoravire. I just don't want the FR level.