The Realms WILL Be Updated!

WotC's Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls both mentioned the possibility of Forgotten Realms updates on Twitter today. A chap called Montgomery Headstrom tweeted at both of them - to Perkins he said "I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?" and the Mearls he said "if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?" Both replied to his his comments, confirming that they do, in fact, intend to update the Realms. Thanks to Adrian for the scoop.

Montgomery: if WOTC isn't interested in updating the realms would corporate allow kickstarter drive to let Ed Greenwood do it?
Mike Mearls: who sez we aren't interested in updating it?

Montgomery: I don't understand why you guys did the Sundering if you weren't going to update the Realms. Can you clarify that for me?
Chris Perkins: The Sundering allowed us to bring back things that the setting had lost over the years. We ARE updating the Realms.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Valid questions but I'd like to answer with 3 points of my own.

1) How many people in this thread do not own any Campaign Guide from any edition of the Forgotten Realms, and need one because they're completely new to D&D? I'm guessing not many. Not on EN World at least.

2) For the people who are completely new. $18 will get you the 4th edition campaign guide on Amazon. $16 will get you the 3rd edition campaign guide on Drive Thru RPG. For a grand total of $34, you'll have far more material from two excellent campaign guides than you'd get in a single new guide (which would probably cost you more than $34)

3) Campaign Guides are for DMs. If a DM can't crack open two books, I wouldn't want to play in their campaign anyway. If there's any 'one book' DMs out there, please consider doing a bit more groundwork. Your campaign will be better for it. It's fine to go back to 2E and 3E sources for inspiration and ideas. Campaign Guides are more about fluff than crunch, anyway. You have all the crunch you need. And the fluff is available if you want it.

I own both the Third Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and the Fourth Edition Campaign Guide. I even own the Neverwinter book. But it's simply isn't good enough. The 4E book invalidated a lot of the 3E book by moving the timeline forward by a century, and it failed to fill in the details. The Neverwinter book deals with a lot of events that may well have been wiped out by the Sundering.

I can open multiple books and piece a lot together, but then I'm stuck. Sure, I make a decision and move on, but it's still extra work, and not what I want to spend my time on. Plus, one of my players reads all the novels, so I prefer to keep the realms as close to canon as possible.

 

[HonorBoundSamurai632]

They're doing it right now. There are no secrets. They're updating the Forgotten Realms through hardback adventure paths and organized play events, and when they move on to the next setting, they'll do the same there.

Maybe you could ask a specific question and I will try to answer it? I honestly do not understand why everyone doesn't see what I see, so it is hard for me to explain something that is for me self-evident.

Unfortunately, I do see it the way you do. I signed in to say the same thing. You beat me to it.
And plus .... I don't like having to by the adventures to get the setting updates. It is what it is. As I said in another post. I like being a player in 5th Edition, but for my style of DM-ing .... I won't be DM-ing in 5th Edition

 

[DMZ2112]

Unfortunately, I do see it the way you do. I signed in to say the same thing. You beat me to it.
And plus .... I don't like having to by the adventures to get the setting updates. It is what it is. As I said in another post. I like being a player in 5th Edition, but for my style of DM-ing .... I won't be DM-ing in 5th Edition

I am a comparatively recent convert to the Forgotten Realms, and I don't ever intend to run an in-depth campaign there, but when there is a Spelljammer adventure path coming out twice a year for three years and I feel obligated to buy them all to get the setting material I will feel your pain.

I just hope that by that time they've ironed out the kinks and they're really producing Spelljammer adventure paths and not Generic Fantasy Setting adventure paths with Spelljammer place names tacked on. Or worse, adventure paths that clearly belong in another setting (*cough*Tyranny of Dragonlance*cough*Princes of the Apocal-Oerth*cough*).

 

[Patrick McGill]

Yeah, I don't think they meant that as some kind of reveal. I think they simply meant that right now they are updating the realms, using the Sundering novels and the new APs they are releasing.

I've got a feeling this is going to drum up some excitement for something that isn't happening in the way that people are perceiving it.

It is also makes me feel a great amount of empathy for Mearls and Co, when every off hand tweet can be taken multiple ways.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Did WotC ever do anything with their advertising for their APs in terms of saying, "the fallout from the Sundering continues in our next adventures" or the like?

It seems odd they would spend energy on the Sundering and then not create a transition statement or a bridge to the net big thing.

I see that they want to drive their core rulebook buying customers to purchase the APs, but I don't see how linking the Sundering to the APs would interfere with it.

 

[Kramodlog]

Did WotC ever do anything with their advertising for their APs in terms of saying, "the fallout from the Sundering continues in our next adventures" or the like?

It seems odd they would spend energy on the Sundering and then not create a transition statement or a bridge to the net big thing.

I see that they want to drive their core rulebook buying customers to purchase the APs, but I don't see how linking the Sundering to the APs would interfere with it.

The Sundering is too FR specific. Once you clean out all the spin/PR and look at the actual products, the APs are generic adventures set in a setting called the Forgottem Realms. By design the APs can happen in any campaign world. The setting info in there is minimalist because events like the Sundering prevents genericness. APs are not the way they will update the FR.

These tweets can be filled in the same drawer as comments about the OGL and PDFs. Fun to analyze and speculate on, but they do not mean much. You know, cause nothing exist unless it is officially announced.

 

[pemerton]

Zaran raises an excellent point. One I think that argues for some sort of all-in-ne summary product. Maybe not a setting hardback since they seem adverse to that for some reason. Maybe not a box set.
What that leaves for them to try I'm not sure aside from online article updates.

It would be great, for those who want one, to be able to buy an all-in-one summary product.

I would like to be able to buy an all-in-one summary product, with errata and updates, for 4e, setting out the final state of each race and class, including powers, feats, etc.

But I won't get it, because from WotC's point of view it is not economically feasible.

I suspect they see setting books the same way. Perhaps FR, as the most popular setting, will be an exception, but I don't see any indications to date that it will be.

Why is there an assumption that people have forgotten realms product from the past four editions?

Because they are easy to buy on DriveThruRPG/D&D classics.

Which is something WotC will be factoring in - is it worth the cost of writing a new setting book when you have all this existing material sitting around that can be offered for sale with no greater upfront costs than scanning and hosting?

 

[Xavian Starsider]

Why is there an assumption that people have forgotten realms product from the past four editions? And why have people hunt down old product for current games?

I'm not assuming everyone has it. As I've pointed out, the 4e guide is $18 on Amazon and the 3e guide is $16 on drive thru PDF. these are easily available and the 4th edition guide is only SIX YEARS OLD! You might still find it at your local bookstore! My point is the information you want can be yours. Today. For a fraction of the price of the book you're asking for.

And why have people hunt down old product for current games? Because it works. When the whole change is to make it more like classic AD&D forgotten realms, why do we need a new book? Nobody is answering this question. Just skirting around it. No one can explain why a new book is necessary. Fun? sure. Helpful? absolutely. Something we can't run the Realms without? I don't think so.

Personally, I would rather see them work at bringing back Dragon and Dungeon magazines than a campaign guide. And hey, they can do articles about the Realms in the magazines. I'm down with that. But seriously, why do you think you need a 300 page campaign guide to tell you what I can tell you in a haiku?

The dead gods are back
Spellplague no longer plagues us
Ao hit rewind

 

[RotGrub]

I wouldn't feel comfortable running a FR module without a campaign source book or a reference package. I certainly won't by an AP for a non-existent campaign setting.

 

[RotGrub]

Why is there an assumption that people have forgotten realms product from the past four editions? And why have people hunt down old product for current games? The realms info that is coming out is splattered among multiple books. It's not user friendly and not very welcoming or inviting. I'm not going to guess at motives as to why they(D&D) are doing what they are doing, but I would like a campaign setting in some form. Not spread out through 30 adventures which I may not even like to run.

I agree, I should not have to read a bunch of forum posts and tweet Ed Greenwood to discover that the realms have returned to their AD&D incarnation. I want to know what gods are alive and which ones are dead. I want a new map of the entire realms that inspires us to dream (not some small area I won't ever play in). You know... the basic things one would expect in campaign setting, the very same stuff the 5e DMG tells us we should have in our campaign settings. You'd think they'd take their own advice.

If this continues fans of the realms will feel more insulted than surprised. Many FR fans I know are waiting for them to fix the realms. The authors of the sundering books gathered to fix things, but where are the fruits of their labor?